Last ATC for 2009

Hi All
Welcome to my last post for 2009.   I decided last night that I wanted to enter a WTA (winner takes all) lottery and of course I have nothing available to enter.   I have had very little mojo for ATC's of late and only started this one about 5 hours ago.  Naturally I had to wait for the paint to dry, so a few games of Uno with the girls passed the time.  It is nice that the mojo was found just in the nick of time.

Oh what to do. Kept looking at images and nothing jumped out at me and said do me. I ended up going through some images I have printed for a Gypsy swap in January. Now I have to find another image but that is cool.

So here is my entry to the PaperArts yahoo group WTA lottery. Perhaps in 2010 my luck will change, and my numbers come up.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

Till Next Time
XoX

Almost another year gone

Wow, hasn't 2009 just flown by?  This time last year I was starting to sort out books for my youngest daughter for her first year at school.  In less than four weeks she will start year one.  

This year has certainly had its moments, its highs and its low's that is for sure.  The one consistent thing I have had is what I have acheived this year on a creative level and on a personal level.   There are parts of me that I don't like (the Wobbly BITS!!!) and 2010 is the year to lose them as I will be hitting 40 in 2011.  Creatively, I have branched out and participated in three art journals, with many talented artists in the USA, Canada and England.   I am trying new things but scared to at the same time.  

I love my scrapbooking and wish to do more of it in 2010.  I want to do some mixed media classes but will have to wait to win lotto, then here I come to the USA!!!!  We can all dream right.

Hope you all have had a wonderful 2009 and lets hope 2010 is everything you wish it would be.

Love and Hugs
Sarah

Another Blog Giveaway

We all like a raffle or a lottery and the chance to win awesome blog candy.  This is just a small selection of what you can win. 

CANDY LINK  There is heaps and heaps of craft items that this wonderful person is giving away.   Be sure to read the post and follow the rules.   Must be quick as this ends on Christmas day.

You have go to be in to win.

Love and hugs to all

Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you who have taken the time to look at my blog, leave comments both publically here or privately.  They have all been greatly appreciated.  

I have learnt so much this year and hope to learn more in 2010.

I take this opportunity to reflect on the past year and the friendships I have made and those that have gotten stronger.   To those people, thank you, you have been wonderful people and value your friendship.

This has been a year where we sadly lost a mother, a mother-in-law, grandma in January.   My husband lost his mother to cancer at the beginning of the year aged 57.  The girls still talk about Grandma which is wonderful as she had a lot to do with them even though we lived in separate countries.

Please don't take your loved ones for granted, treasure them, you just don't know when they won't be here.  For my friends who do have a sick family member, my heart goes out to you, as Christmas is all about family and being together.  Treasure the moments as the memories will last forever.   

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND A HAPPY 2010.

Love and hugs to you all
Sarah
XoX

Through the Eyes of an Artist Journal - part one

Earlier this year I began a somewhat challenging experince (for me at least) and accepted an invitation to participate in a mixed media art journal.   Well I had only ventured into this Art Form about 12 months prior by doing ATC's.  So to get this invitation from Elena was very humbling indeed.  I was one of 14 very talented artists at the beginning.  Sadly one had to withdraw for personal reasons.  Hopefully, one day she can be back with us creating up a storm.

Following are the layouts from all contributing artists to my journal.  I received this on Thursday 17 December and made most of assembled by Friday night so I could take it to a friends house and show it off.  Am I proud to be a participant in this journal.  I sure am.   I have learnt so much and still have much more to learn.  Thankfully I am in two other groups all with different themes and challenges too.  One day I will try Altered Books, but not right at this moment.

Pages by Alison Brandist, England

Pages by Eileen Bellomo, New York, USA

Pages by Elena Vigil-Farinas, Florida, USA

Pages by Gina Goodling, Oregon, USA

Just so that these don't get too long, I will upload the pages in separate posts. 

Our new fur-babies

Billy, aged 4 mths.  This is Claire's kitten.

George aged 2 mths.  This is Katie's kitten.














It is a nice feeling to have kittens here again.  It has been almost 2 1/2 years since our last cat who got frightened by the alarm one day not long after we moved in here.

The girls have loved the kittens today.  Like all kids (I guess) when there is something new around.  They are always trying to pick them up.   One good point with Billy being that little bit older he is more placid and doesn't mind the cuddles.  Which is good as there are plenty to be had.  George on the other hand is the playful one.   Although these two are not related, we got them from the Animal Shelter and they were in the same pen together.

I will leave you with a pic of the scratching post or more like activity gym for them.  

We did get the cats a scratching post that we got online, a huge saving of at least $300.  We (note Hubby) put this together on Saturday.  The girls though there soft toy animals would love to use it first.   This measures over 2 metres (6ft) tall.  It is huge.

Now we are 6!

This morning we left home as a family of four.  Now we are a family of six.   We were planning on just visiting the local Animal Welfare League and to just look at kittens for the girls which we were planning on getting next weekend.  Well that all just flew out the window.   We came home with two boy cats, Billy which is Claire's cat and Katie has called hers Bubbles, but we are trying to get her to decide on another name.  I like Max. So we will see.

I will post some photos in a few days once they are all settled into madness and mayhem.

Till Next Time.
XoX

Two more layouts

Last night I was able to get some scrapping done, it felt great to get three layouts almost completed.   Two are done, one has to have one more detail added to it.

The evening started with a trip to Scrapbooks Etc, at Underwood.   Boy I love this place, the paper selection is just fabulous.  One shop that is well worth the trip too, you will not be disappointed.

One thing that I actually managed to do was plan my layouts before I went out.  Bought a couple of papers and some completed pages.

 A stunning photo of my eldest Daughter Katie.  This photo was taken by a friend of ours at our place.  Did I doodle the letters - no way.  A clear stamp set.  I have used this one a lot now.  The size is just right and did fill in the space that I had. 















Another lovely layout featuring my youngest daughter Claire.   Whenever the camera is out she is more than willing to pose.  Again this photo was taken by a friend of ours who took the photo of her sister in the other layout.   It wasn't until I was blogging that there are two layouts of Claire that have the title of beautiful.    Maybe I am just biased,  But this girl does love the camera.










Hopefully I can get the third layout finished.  This could be the first time I have scrapped the Santa photo within days of it being done.  I do have another one of the girls talking to Santa while I was deciding which one I wanted to have printed.  


Till Next Time
XoX

A long break between posts

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last blogged.  So much happening and with it being school holidays the girls want to be with me, but it does every now and then interrupt the creative flow.

One of the art projects I have had to do is my pages for the journal group Through the Eyes of An Artist.  As we are nearing the end of this journal those people who reside outside of the USA had to do pages without actually having the journal with them.  I found this hard as I like to look and touch these wonderful pages.

This is page one of the journal for Valerie Brincheck in Michigan, USA.
Although an easy page, one where I wanted to show the background.   I do love the colours of Autumn (fall) they can give one so much pleasure.

This is page two for Valerie's journal.   The tree was one I picked up in Sydney when I was there a few months ago.  I used my Twinkling H2O's for the tree.   This is one of the pages that I love. 

Page one for Lillian Mederak's Journal.  This was origianlly done for someone else but the size was wrong so Lillian got lucky and get her pages early.  For this group I have to post to Lillian in Canada so it felt right to get them done and hopefully Lillian will have her completed journal soon.

Page two of Lillian's journal.  Trying to encourage the birds to walk the line as we see them so frequently just sitting on the power lines.
















With these two journals on there way to Elena in the USA I hope to have completed the last two which I have here. 

I received my completed journal in the post on Thursday, and the pages by these wonderful and talented artists is just phenominal, so much to learn and just drool over.  I will post more about this at a later time.

Till next time
XoX