Taking The Time!

I am so guilty of this - not taking the time to do the things I love.  Always making excuses that I don't have time or I am too busy with other things.  I know I am not alone in this but I finally decided I should take action and what better way than to do a layout on taking time to create.  This page was really based firstly around the tag from My Minds Eye and then a challenge from Embellish to use dots and stripes together.  Whilst I did not use the colours I did incorporate both stripes and dots - I think they go together well!  This is a very simple page (albeit with using goods from 5 different manufacturers) with a bit of journalling to help me remember to make the time to do what I love!  Apologies again for the horrible photo quality here!

Now since this page was completed and I told my hubby that he is to expect some mess every now and then (he is the clean freak) - we are moving and what was his first plan to start...packing and not just any packing but all the items in our spare room which includes all of my crafting goodness!  Whilst this has annoyed me somewhat because we don't have the removalists coming until 13th November but we have Eli's 1st birthday and it takes 4 weeks to get to where we are moving to!  Never fear though because the camera you see is going as carry on so I will have to entertain you with my last weeks capturing what I can of this area.  I may also have decided to have a go at digital scrapbooking - we will see how that goes too!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hugs to all
Rach

Always need Purple!

Good Evening to all - it has been another beautiful day here in North West WA.  We started the day on a sad note as we farewelled our neighbours who are also moving but this time pretty much straight across to the other side of the country - in comparison to us that are going in more of an adjacent angle south.  Eli and I wandered around town and I struggled not to buy anything since it will only be adding to our packing but there are some great books that have just come out (or about too) and of course all of the Christmas goodies are out on the shelves!  Very hard to resist - but I will mention one that I am counting down too - Kate Morton The Secret Keeper released in Australia 1st November!

On to the card though that I created.  The person it is for loves purple and butterfly's so I chose to combine them.  Naturally it looks much better in the sunlight where all the colours come out more but this shall have to do for now.

Simple yes but that is what I was trying to go for - you will see in my others that are coming up - it is a trend I have been trying to stick with and not be afraid of!

Enjoy your weekend everyone - I will be back with some more creations shortly and will also be enjoying Bathurst 1000 50th Anniversary - strangely enough I enjoy watching V8 supercar racing - most would probably find that a bit odd and a shock but it is true!

Hugs to all
Rach

Red Rock to the Murray!

Good Evening - well after a great weekend of Football Grand Finals - Go the Sydney Swans - it is back to normal in this household albeit with lots of leftovers!  I decided that the best way to demonstrate the differences between where we are now and the area that we will be moving to is by showing some photos.  Great idea indeed and here it is:

Now whilst I wont be living where the photo was taken it is close by at a lagoon on the Murray River.  We are moving to Albury which is in New South Wales, Australia and located on the Murray River which is a special place close to my husbands heart.  The area is simply magical - for me anyway with so much to see and do.  I will of course be sharing more of this with you along with what the business is that we will be starting over there - all in good time!  It does mean though that our time in the North West is coming to an end and I am quite upset about it as I do love it here but that said it is time for a change and I welcome my new home with open arms (and camera on).  Speaking of I am going to have to wear out the camera before we leave as there is just something about this area especially the colours in the hills.

As a bit of a side note - the Pilbara photo is another shot from the top of Tabletop Mountain which you can see more of here.

Needless to say we are all very excited and the countdown is on!

Hugs to all
Rach

TableTop - A layout

I have had these photos sitting around for ages and have not done anything with them - actually I have lots and lots but we don't need to go there...haha!  We love to explore this great backyard we have in The Pilbara and after a bit of a drive we came to our destination - TableTop Mountain (sounds better than Hill) and the next course of action was to actually find the way to get to the top of it.  When we eventually reached the top it was worth every bit of stress I had on the way up in the car!  The view was spectacular and it just got better and better as the sun was coming down.  As most people know that is my favourite time of the day here - if I could I would sit and watch the sun set everyday!

My apologies about the photos but we have had the worst wind here so it is hard to get some good photos with the natural light and we have horrible light indoors.  You will see what I mean in the next few posts also as I did them all at once!

I hope that you enjoyed this layout and sharing in our little trip to Tabletop Mountain!

Hugs to All
Rach

An Update of Sorts

Good day to you all!  Well I think firstly I should re-introduce Elijah - he is almost 10months old in this photo.  Hard to believe at times but yes he is mine - I am a mum!  He is now 11 months but sadly I have no current photos on this computer but never fear when they are I will update again!  This was taken on a recent trip just up the road to a place called Point Samson.  l love it up there and the day was simple - relax on the grass eating fish and chips and paddle our feet in the water should the tides be right!  Bliss!

Yes I have been crafting but do you think I have taken photos to put them up on this great ol blog of mine....of course not - I will make sure I do it tomorrow but spread them out!  

Well I should be geared up to tell you about our latest move - which was to be back down to Perth.  Now that Elijah is here it is really hard (read costly) for family f to visit and for us to visit them too.  There are many other reasons but that is a big one.  Well we did all our planning and although we were getting a little discouraged by the whole ordeal especially finding a place to live - one day out of the blue I just mentioned heading back East instead if the same opportunity presented itself and that was that - 24hrs later we had made the decision to move back to that side of the country!  Where to though you might ask? Well it is somewhere we had been talking about moving too for a while!  All will be revealed shortly!  I can say though I will definitely be getting seasons again so it will be goodbye to my endless summer but hello to a whole new wardrobe!  haha! 

Will be back tomorrow with some of my latest creations!

Hugs to All

Rach

Brighten up your day

The colour of the main area of our house is such a dull colour and it is not helped by the large areas that are undercover around the house which means lack of natural light.  Actually the whole house when we moved in a year ago was a multitude of different colours and some half finished or my personal favourite - using exterior paint inside on cupboard doors and walls!  Not pretty and slowly but surely we have been making it more to our liking.  I have decided recently that flowers would really help on our table - they can provide that splash of colour and also beauty to gaze upon.  Yes for those that know me it is totally against what I normally say about flowers but I can now make an exception.  I do not buy anything 'flash' so to speak and it is less than $10 per week. 

For those of you that may be asking why not paint the walls...well you will be happy to know that we are but just waiting for a friend of our to get back to help get it done quickly.  Will I still buy the flowers...how can one say no to the ones above!  haha!  Yes I think I have been converted! 

Maybe I will do a before and after post for the parts of the house that have been changed over the last year?  Hmmm will go and have a look into that!

Hope you are having a great weekend everyone!
Rach

Loving templates and my little man

Good Evening All - Whilst I have had every intention of keeping up with the blogging it appears life decided to come in and remind me that it remains in charge!  It is not as if I have not had anything to post but then something like the usb cord to connect the camera to the computer goes walkabout! Or when you go to take some photos the camera is out in the car with your husband or when you do have said camera the batteries go flat and the last person to change them over didn't charge them! haha!

So onto the layout - I decided a great way to put together all my favourite photos of Eli was to do a collage of them and do one for every couple of months.  To do this I have used Kerri Bradford's storyboards. I discovered these great timesavers through Laura Vegas and fell in love.  Also here is a link to Kerri's blog. The storyboards are so easy to use and you do not have to put photos in each section either if you don't want to - instead block it out or write something in there. This is Eli 2 to 4 months which actually covered quite a lot including his first plane flight (and his second and third for that matter) when I had a work conference on that was close enough (read 5 hours drive) to extend the stay and go on to visit his Great Grandparents.  The green patterned paper and border sticker is from the Bo Bunny On The Go collection - couldn't go past it.  The journalling looks really dark in the photo but it isn't in person - sorry about that.  I did cut the photo into 3 so that it broke it down a little and show off a bit more of the paper.

For most of us Aussies winter is upon us and the snow is falling in the Alpine regions - wishing I was over there especially in Rutherglen, Victoria because it is Winery Walkabout weekend!  Always a fun time visiting all the wineries and markets.  It holds a special place in my heart too because that is where my husband proposed 5 years ago.  So if you are in the area and have never been - it is a great day out! 

Have a great weekend everyone - whatever it may be that you have planned!

Stairway to the Moon

A little over a week ago now my curiosity and a helpful vote of confidence from Tina also known as the very talented Travelingmama I decided to start a Pinterest account.  To get a bit of background I do not have and never have had a facebook account, I'm not on Twitter (that had to change to start Pinterest though) and not really visible online at all except for my blog that has not been shown any love over the past 18 months.  So in the space of a week I decided to jump back in to craft, start up my blog again and sign up for Pinterest and subsequently Twitter as well!  Crazy stuff!
So for any of you interested you can see my Pinterest boards here!
I thought that I would create a board based on Home so everyone can see a bit about this wonderful part of the world I live in called The Pilbara in Western Australia.  But trying to find any photos of it was a bit of a nightmare in itself so I will have to put some up myself!
Those lucky enough to be here April to October and on a night of the full moon, they can witness this magical event. 

Photo Credit

The tides are out which means children and adults alike are walking the cove.  As the sun sets the colours come out in the rocks and trees - my favourite part of the day!  But the show is about to start and back to the beach we go and settle in to see the moon rise over the land and its brightness reflecting on the flats to create a staircase to the moon. 

Photo Credit

Like our sunsets it is over too soon!

My mother in law is visiting in July and luckily enough she will be here when it is on.  We can not wait to share it again with her.

Until next time....

Direction of Dreams

Lately our little family has been contemplating what our plans are - what direction we are going to move towards.  Are we happy where we are and with what we are doing?  For me as I eluded to earlier I am going to dedicate time to myself to do what I love - be that scrapbooking, card making or photography to name a few and I want to share it here on my blog!

For both of us about 6.5 months ago our lives changed forever in the best way possible. It began before then but it was very very real by that point!  Elijah was born healthy at the end of October last year.  This beautiful little man melts everyones hearts and continues to everyday.  Naturally with 2 snap happy parents we would have 1000's of photos wouldn't we?  The answer to that is we do now but that first few weeks not really we were far too busy staring in wonder and smiling at our little man.  Here is one for you - this was when he was 2 weeks old.

Apart from adding to my ever growing list of pages I want to create and of course looking at a whole new range of crafty items suitable for boys this little man makes you reconsider your dreams because now you find yourself focusing on what dreams you also want for him!

This beautiful card above would have to be one of my favourites I have made, yes it took some time with punching and sticking each heart down one at a time but I think it was very much worth it in the end!  The words of course I love and one of the reasons I purchased the stamp set (StampinUp) in the first place many years ago.  The patterned paper is new - I know shock horror...it is Memory Box Brioche.  The inside of the card also has a strip of it.

  So a card and a bit of catch up news from here - hope you are all enjoying and having a great weekend!

Rach

Slowly but surely

Yes I promised I would post the cards I made and here is the first one.

In sticking with the journey theme from my last post this card fits nicely I think.  Apart from the celebrate life being horribly out of line (I did also say I would post them even if I wasn't happy...haha).    This is a relatively simple card but I love it all the same!  What about you?

I tried to get a photo so you could see the stamp coming through the vellum from the inside and it worked well.  The sticker is on the front of the card.  Oh the great mess I made but I had fun re-finding all my goodies!  I think I have said before that I am not the clean one in our house - my husband is which means it's best to craft when he is not around!  I did however take a photo of my mess and send it to him when he was away....I can imagine the heart rate increasing when he opened it and saw this....

I don't have a dedicated area in this house yet...working on that - until then the dining table it is!

Will be back with another card soon!  Hope you are having a great weekend!

Rach

A New Journey Begins

It has been quite some time since my last post on here...it was just before I left to go and get married in fact and since it has been 6 months since I celebrated my first wedding anniversary it has been a REALLY long time....haha!  I would love to say that I have just been so busy crafting that I have just not had the time to post but that is not the case.  It was 18 months without touching or looking at my craft supplies and it was not for lack of wanting to or not having any inspiration to create but a lack of time and space that led to the hiatus!  I did not however give up on reading other blogs and following on with what was happening! So yes I do know what Pinterest is and washi tape and chevron stripes! haha!

A few short points - no we haven't moved (town anyway - house is a whole other story), yes I still have my business, yes I did get married, yes a lot has happened that we need to catch up on!  The photo for the post is one I love but I can not take credit for it - my husband took it!

So why am I returning I hear you say?  Well a few weeks ago my hubby went away for the weekend and I vowed that I would drag everything out and go through it and create something...anything really!  Oh yes it was daunting, so daunting in fact I almost just packed it all back up again.  What would I create?  What if it was horrible? What if I am out of touch with it all?  All this doubt but I didn't pack it away - I made myself 3 cards and a scrapbook page (the page was to finish documenting a trip from 2008 - hmmm).  Never fear I will be putting these up in the coming days for all to see!

Now whilst I have not stamped or scrapped or made a card I didn't stop my other love - photography!  So as you can imagine I therefore have a lot to keep me busy!  After the weekend of slightly interrupted creating (more on that to come) I decided that it was about time I got back into what I love and MAKE the time to do it - not just dream about it!  So here I am - back and ready to post away!

This time around I will share my creations but also about other things I love - what a great combination I say!!

Until next time when we kind of start all over again!

Rach

 

A Combined Challenge

Hello all
I was meant to have pictures of my wedding invite up for you all to see but they are on the camera but I have lost the cable to connect to the computer.  Grrr... I even took the photos of the card here on the same camera but luckily for me I still have the card so I took another shot with my little camera. 
It has been a crazy time in our household - organising a wedding from the opposite side of the country, starting my own business, attending courses have been amoung the range of things we have been up to! 

But on with this card for two different challenges this week.  Firstly we have Makeesha's Inkspiration Challenge which provides the sketch and the Embellish Challenge which provides the colour and an added extra of felt!  Now the issue I had was that I thought I had no felt but then I found some in my stash and it was totally the wrong colour.  So I still proceeded and just used a little bit and attacked it with my SU choc chip marker to ink it.  Hint - its the little dot on the ribbon!  The colours I thought were interesting and I normally do not do the pink and brown thing but I thought this time I would give it a go!

Here is the sketch:

Here are the colours:

Here is my card:

Sorry about the photo quality and then for some reason when I uploaded it - it decided to come up the wrong way - the joy of technology.  I promise though when I either find the cord or I just go and purchase a new one I will definitely get the invite photos up!

Don't forget to go to the respective sites to view the other wonderful entries! 

Heaps of Hugs

I Love Stationary!

Most people that know me - know that I can get a little obsessed with stationary! No boring coloured manillar folders or binders for me! So now tht I am starting this business venture I can actually get the stationary that suits me - not someone else!

So I have been looking online because there isn't much up here although there is one shop but it is all so expensive but then again so is a lot of what i have found too but not to matter!


Have a look at these beauties!
Most have matching items too which just adds to my excitement! The website I found these on is here. The brand is Cavallini. Ahhhhh back to some dreaming...haha!


Hugs to all

Embellish Colour Challenge with Ric Rac

Hi everyone!
Today I finally got around to the Embellish Colour Challenge and the main reason for that was because I didn't seem to have anything that resembled ric rac at all not to mention in the colours! But then in this sticker booklet that I forgot I even had I found something that resembled it! YAY! So here is the photo that shows the colours - I just love the photos and if you do too head over to Travelingmama's Etsy shop where you can purchase them in a postcard set!

And here is my creation - the original one I had to use glue on for the ribbon but I just found another roll of tape so I just put another layer of ribbon over the top so the horrible wet marks went away! YAY!

It feels great having some time out for getting creative again but then I think about all the pages I want to do and I feel myself getting a little overwhelmed! Haha!

This card is going to some dear friends of mine that have been taking care of our beloved Kimani (our aussie bulldog) whilst we have been off galavanting around the country this year. They have been great and they are very much appreciated! I bet that they are happy that next time we go away they are too - it will be for the wedding!

Ingredient List:
Cardstock: Bazzil Kraft, SU Taken with Teal, SU Choc Chip; Ink: SU Choc Chip, SU Only Orange; Stamps: Seaside, Boho Backgrounds; Ribbon: SU Tangerine Tango; Basic Grey Button.

Hugs to all

Makeesha's Inkspiration Colour Challenge #32

Hi all - I hope that you are enjoying your week so far. Today I have participated in Makeesha's Colour Challenge #32 which you can find out about here. It feels great to be getting back into the groove of making cards and scrapbook pages!

Firstly here is the colour combo!

And here is my card - simple but I like it! Sorry about the picture quality though!

I hope that you all have a look at the other wonderful submissions so far this week!

Hugs to all!

What have I been up to...Part 3

Hello once again! I left off last time after announcing that I had been made redundant (did I mention how much I dispise of that word) and so much has happened since then so I will get started!

Every two years Damo's family have a camping trip on the Murray River but this time around we organised to go a little upmarket and treat ourselves to some luxury...we hired out a HUGE houseboat which is the one in the photo above. I had been waiting for 1.5 years for this and it was well worth it! 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 10 person hot tub, deck chairs for all, kitchen upstairs and downstairs! Magnificent! The weather was spectacular too - sun out no rain for the 7 days! Apart from this wonderful holiday there were other things that needed to be accomplished whilst we were over East.....organising Our Wedding! In a week we managed to find his ring, my dress (ordered), my bridesmaid's dresses, our venue, our photographer, hair and makeup...Keep thinking I have missed something but either way thats alot don't you think?!

Before heading home we had a few nights in the beautiful Melbourne so shopping and lots of eating and drinking followed!! Then it was home and back to reality....what about a job!

Whilst this had been going on I had already been contacted by several people in the industry to see if I was looking to do work for them etc but as tempting as that was the offers were not taking a step forward but back and I wanted forward! One call stood out from all of them but it was both a scary and exciting proposition....it was to start my own business! It was as if it all happened for a reason but I knew not to rush I had to weigh everything up and after lots of meetings, stressing, doing the numbers etc I have decided to do it! Damo has been wonderful throughout the process and continues to support my crazy ways!

So that is why I was away for the past two weeks it was induction to the dealer group I am going through for my license and right now I am in my office (working from home) and my business is Think Future Financial Management! See happy endings are always the best - but you can also see why I havent really been around very much in blogland or been able to do anything creative! I hope to make more time now!

I will be back tonight or tomorrow morning with my post for Makeesha's Inkspiration Challenge!

Hugs to all!

What have I been up to...Part 2

Whilst I was in New Zealand I took time out to relax (even though we had that BUSY schedule) to think about what I do and where I want to be with my career etc because living up here there is money to be made in other industries even in Administration if I wanted too but I really didn't want to go back to that after putting so much time and effort into studying for Financial Planning. I had even considered starting my own business up here and cutting ties with the firm I work for over East. Then it moved on to other elements like getting married and children.

Well, I didn't have to think too much more about the work part because when I got home I was informed on my first day back at work that my position was being made redundant - I finished at the end of that week! Yes this is the company that had just paid for me to go to NZ but this was an unexpected matter and I was not the only one that lost their job. In a way now that I look back on that it was the best thing to happen because it made me have to make a decision not dwell on the pros and cons of every situation which is what I can get caught up in. To provide some further insight where I live there are not many work opportunities for what I am trained in and what I am very passionate about so it really was my first wake up call for me living up here and what that was going to mean for me. Jobs are not hard to find here which I have to be very thankful for but there was still that feeling in my stomach that I was going to have to give up something that I had worked so hard towards.

I do have a photo for up on here but I have no access to my main drive as it is backing up and I wanted to make sure I got Part 2 up before I have to head to Sydney for a week and then Perth. I will be back with the rest of the story on my return and hopefully this time with some more photos and layouts!

Heaps of Hugs

What have I been up to....Part 1

Hello again everyone!

Late last year I was offered by my employer to attend the Annual Conference this year in Feb with them and when I heard where it was being held I automatically went YES (and so did Damo)! Why you ask...because it was going to be held in Auckland, New Zealand. 1 - I have always wanted to go to NZ, 2 - Tracey my best friend had just moved there with her husband and young daughter Emily (my neice who turned 1 in Feb and I hadn't met her yet), 3 - Damo could come and this would be his first trip outside of Australia. So it was decided we were going to NZ - the only problem was we only had 6 days after the conference to see the South Island. I could have spent 6 months there!

We were wined and dined whilst in Auckland which was lovely and good to be able to get dressed up and meet all the people I speak to generally only by phone. Damo went and did a few of the "couples" itinerary. They are mostly women so he was in his element being all charming as he is! Either way it was lots of late nights and early mornings (ie lack of sleep) but fun!

I got to meet Emily and catch up with Tracey which was great - I miss her so much.

After the conference we flew to Christchurch and hired a little van to drive around in. We visited Akaroa first which was beautiful and had these very cute little cottages, then onto Lake Tekapo, went to the Visitors Centre for Mount Cook, on to Te Anau before visiting Milford Sound, back to Queenstown (sensational) and then to Fox Glacier where we took a helicopter flight up to the top of the glacier and we got to get out on to the ice...OMG that was the most spectacular experience of my life and I recommend to anyone that has the opportunity - yes it is expensive but worth every cent! After there we went on to a small little place called Jackson. We stayed at this wonderful motorhome park and there is a local tavern where we ate and drank with the locals (Aust V NZ in the cricket was also playing so that added to the entertainment!) We were offered by a local dairy farmer to go to his place the next morning to help milk the cows and see how it is all done. It was great even with the early start! After that we went back to Christchurch before heading back home via a night in Perth because we couldnt get home all in one day.

We met lots of great people on our little adventure but it was all over way to fast and we both want to go back as soon as we can!

Here is a scrapbook page of our trip to Milford Sound!

The Journalling reads "Words can not describe this magical place...you hear about it but nothing prepares for its beauty, peacefullness and vastness. The colours, the sounds, the water, the eeriness even draws you in. We almost missed our chance but we made it - the drive alone to get to this place was worth every minute. Another inspiring moment and place in NZ. THs trip was Damo's first outside of Australia and not I believe he has THE BUG"

So I hope that you have enjoyed part 1 - I will show more of this wonderful trip in scrapbook pages to come but this is just a brief run down - part 2 of what I have been up to will come up tomorrow hopefully!

Heaps of Hugs

Hi and a sketch challenge

Hi to everyone - I made this card 2 days ago and only just got to put it up (and only because of the wonderful thing of time difference from Australia to Canada!) It is the first card I have made since February and I must say I had hit some what of a creative block but I also just have not had ANY time to do anything creative! Part 1 of that will be online today. But first to this card - it is for Makeesha's Inkspiration Sketch Challenge. This is hosted by Cindy this week! Here is the sketch:

Cindy also added the additional challenge to use something we have been hording...my oh my I have stacks to choose from then....haha! Here is my creation:

Great to have something so bright and cheery for everyone that is not enjoying winter so much! Where I live Winter is our summer where we can actually get out and do things because our days now range from 25 to 28 C as a top. Ahhh the Pilbara is a wonderful place!

Be back again later today!

Hugs

Never Fear I Am Still Here!

It has been so long since I have posted and to make this even worse I have not been busy with cards or layouts in this long hiatus from Blog World! BUT lots of other exciting things have been happening and I will have these coming up for you in the next week or so - so please stay tuned! I have to say though - it has been hard catching up on other blogs reading pages and pages of posts but it has also been fun! Lots of ideas for projects to complete and post for you!

I will post again soon!
Heaps of Hugs
Rach