Just another quick post with they layout I have just done while Grace had her afternoon nap. I used the fortnightly sketch over at Sketchbook.

and a way of getting around Grace waking from her nap before I finish my layout… she is happily playing with bits and pieces from my scrappy supplies… but NOT my scissors! lol

Well better tidy up my mess, but I am happy to say that thanks to your support my creativeness is back!

It’s 6am and I’ve been lying in bed for the past hour or so with my mind whizzing with lot’s of different thoughts. Everything from my loss of creative mojo, how I will handle looking after my sister’s daughter two mornings a week when she goes back to work, why Grace won’t sleep through the night and what we should do about it, which swimming lessons should I enrol her for, what food shall I make for my sister’s BBQ on Saturday. You know, just the usual thoughts at 6am! lol

So where better to have a rant than here on my blog. So tune out now if you’re not keen to hear a load of Jibber jabber! hehe

Firstly I had a thought about my creativeness. I really does annoy me that I can’t seem to get it sorted! Anyhow I think the problem lies in the fact that I keep trying to come up with the greatest layouts  with the coolest of products. Looking at everyone’s 1st layouts I realise that none of us got into scrapbooking to simply showcase the many lovely products out there. We got into this addictive past time because we wanted to tell the story of ourselves and families. I need to get back to just telling the story of our life for Grace. Plainly and simply I need to capture the moments of Grace’s life and not care about what pretty paper or flower I use… Sounds simple I know but I only just remembered it! lol It’s so easy to get caught by the great new ideas and product that keeps coming out.  So that’s my plan from here on in, just capture the moments and record my beautiful daughter in action.

The other thing that has been really on my mind is the fact that Grace won’t sleep though the night. She was doing well there for awhile, (7 hour stretch’s are a good night for her) but now she is back to waking twice a night and I’m getting tired of it. She doesn’t take long to feed and get back to sleep but I know she should be able to sleep through by now. She never has , EVER! I have read several books and they all say let them cry it out with varied degrees of invention. When I have tried letting her cry, she is still crying it out 1 hour later, so I give up. Maybe I just need to persevere. The thing that puzzles me is, that during the day she sleeps fine with no hassle. I just put her in bed and she sleeps without any fuss. She also goes down easily at bed time too, it’s just the middle of the night where we hit speed bumps! I was wondering what you did with your children, were you lucky enough to get good night sleepers? or were you in my boat. Would love to hear any ideas.

Onto another topic completely, here are some photos I took of Nessa and Maddi in the weekend. I had a play with Picasa and came up with these. What a cutie-pie!

Anyhoo thanks for listening to ramblings, I do appreciate me loyal readers. I should probably go and make some breakfast, I’m sure Craig would appreciate a coffee in bed. It’s a rarity that I be up before him! Now I just have to figure out the darn coffee machine!?!

So I hope everyone is having a good week… I decided to update my blog as I have a spare moment. I don’t really have much to say or write about but that doesn’t matter hehe

So what’s been happening in Rochelle’s world you may ask? Well today I helped my sister and family move into their new home (it’s just round the corner!). It’s a nice old villa and gives them heaps more space with little Maddi growing so fast everyday. I helped by looking after Maddi for them, while they got on with the heavy lifting. Looking after two babies at once is hard work, made even harder when you are in a house that has been packed up! lol I saw on the news tonight some poor lady in the USA has just had 8 babies and wants to breast feed them all! Bloody heck!! I don’t know how they will cope with that. It’s more like a litter than a family ;p

Last week here in Christchurch we had several hot days so we headed to Craig’s parent’s place for early evening swims. We weren’t sure how Grace would go with it, she loves the paddling pool but it’s cooler in the big pool. She loved it though and it was so much fun having a swim with her. Of course the camera was out so here are a few photos.

I’ve been having trouble finding the motivation to scrapbook any of the millions of photos I have of Grace. I really must get back into it, what inspires you when you have a creative blank??

I’m getting a little inspired about all the great new papers are products that I’ve been seeing everywhere from the winter CHA…mmmm… makes winter seem more appealing! Being stuck inside with loads of scrapping to do Bliss!

Well I should got clear up my scrap space so I can get started on something, maybe some cards?!?

Take care!

I created this little mini album for Craig’s Mum’s Birthday with photos of Grace. The colours haven’t shown up so well unfortunately but the pink paint I used has a shimmer to it.  I have also added a photo of the card I gave her to match the gift.

It’s Christmas eve and I’m sitting here watching the end of a favourite Christmas movie "Home Alone", the to-do list has been all crossed off, the festive food is in the fridge, the pressies are wrapped under the tree and I have a nice box of chocolates beside me. What better time to wish each and every one of my loyal blog readers a fantastic and merry Christmas tomorrow. May your day be filled with family, friends, good food, fun and laughter. May you look inside your heart and find something really nice that you can do for a friend or family member tomorrow just to say "I care".

Christmas starts in our family with a midnight Christmas eve carols service at the beautiful stone church at the end of my family’s street. We don’t go to church in our family normally but this service is special. Every year I sit there in the peaceful candlelit church and think how blessed I am to be me. I find it to be the perfect start to Christmas day. It reminds us of the reason for the season and is the perfect time to reflect and centre yourself on what’s important.

Tomorrow we shall start the day with breakfast in bed, lot’s of cuddles with Grace and some pressies for her. Throughout the day we will share the festivities with family and friends and just have a relaxing day. Hopefully the weather will be better than forecast as we decided on a simple BBQ lunch with everyone bringing something. Thank you to everyone who suggested ideas for us, we have taken bits and pieces from the ideas.

Before I buzz off I must share this great little story a friend of mine shared with me. Perfect for us scrapbookers!

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Twas the night before Christmas, I’m glued to the tree. I’m wondering what Santa brought just for me.Could it be cardstock or chipboard or lace? Or a Cricut, I said with a smile on my face.

And that’s when I heard him,"Hi Santa," I said

"You know…good little girls should be in their beds"

"I know I should Santa, and now I’ve got caught. But I was just so excited to see what you brought"

"Well let’s take a look in this room where you work." He shook his head quickly, right and left with a jerk. I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear.

"You’ve got enough crap, I’ll see you next year!"

Well a little birdie told me that I haven’t been updating my blog enough so here I am with another update 

Firstly I must start with a big "LOVE YOU" to my fantastic husband whom makes my life much easier everyday! I love the support he gives me and how he helps out with Grace. Today is our 2nd Wedding anniversary but we have been together almost nine years!

So to celebrate we left Grace with her Grandparents for the day on Saturday and headed to Hanmer Springs to spend some time together. It was lovely to have some time alone without thinking about nappy’s, feeds and naps etc. We were glad to get back to her by evening though

We stopped for a bagel and coffee on the way, popped into the library where I found some mags for the trip. We arrived Hanmer around lunch time so grabbed a bite and hit the pools. We spent several hours just relaxing and soaking in the atmosphere. A must visit if you are ever in the area! Every time I go they have added something new to the complex. We had a wander around Hanmer, had some dinner then drove home to collect Grace. It is something I think we will be trying to fit in a bit more regularly. The good news too was that Grace was good for Nana and Granddad and they enjoyed having her.

I just crashed yesterday as we have been having a few bad nights sleeps with Grace. She is still waking more times than I would like. I ended up with a headache and feeling ick yesterday so just blobbed all day long. It was just what I needed as today I feel much better.

In other news I got some time out on Thursday to create  with some friends and this is what I came up with in the 3 hours.

Craig’s wedding anniversary card

A cute layout of grace

and this card for Craig’s Nana.

Well I better sign off, I can hear Grace waking. We are visiting an Aged Concern Outing group that I was involved with before I had her and the elderly ladies are all keen to meet her. Enjoy your afternoon!

Well I’m a bit bored so thought I might as well catch up on a blog entry. We had a nice long weekend here in Canterbury. A hectic week in the Christchurch social calendar. I did miss seeing all of the lovely outfits and hats at Cup day but wasn’t to worried that I didn’t get to go.

Friday was my Nana’s birthday and we spent the afternoon at her place. Even though she has Alzheimer’s it was nice that she was able to partake in the celebrations. She always loves seeing her great granddaughters too.

Here are some yummy Lemon & Passionfruit cream cheese cupcakes I made in place of a birthday cake, they were simply delish.

The cuzzies in there little dresses. Vicki she now fits the dress and it look so cute!

Then on Saturday it was so hot, 31C at 6pm so the weather man said! We pottered about home, cleaned the garage out and just tried to keep cool. I let Grace explore the garden under a bush in the shade.

Her first time on the lawn.

I also got a bit carried away with the camera and took heaps of pictures of Grace playing. Great to scrapbook one day! hehe

How’s everyone going with the Jessica Sprague course? I must admit I haven’t got very far at all. I can’t believe how much printing needs to be done and my printer doesn’t seem to give the best quality.

Well here we are again, yet another Wednesday rolls on by! It’s certainly getting to that busy time of the year, I’ve noticed that most of the shops either have their Christmas decorations up or are putting them up. I had the realisation yesterday that Christmas is only 6 weeks away! Yikes! I’ve found that having a baby means you seem to focus more on week to week rather than looking to far ahead, so I confess Christmas has crept up on me this year at an alarming rate. I still feel like I’m back in September!

1. Firstly I want to Woo Hoot about the lovely weekend away we had with my sister and her family. As said in a previous post it was most relaxing, I managed to have a first bubble bath since Grace was born! Bliss!!

2. The FANTASTIC weather we have been having this week, I have been enjoying sitting in the sun reading whilst Grace naps.

3. My newly sown vege garden is starting to really take off. I so enjoy spending some time in the fresh air watering and weeding in the warm evenings. I can’t wait for the harvest.

4. Starting Jessica Sprague’s "Stories in Hand"  course, I have been ready up on the info sent out and it looks so much fun! Nice change to be follow someone else’s ideas in a class. It’s been years since I have taken one. I hope everyone who is doing the class will post pics of there projects as we go.

Well I thought it was about time that I post again, I keep meaning to but every time I get distracted by something. Surely at 11.30pm on Friday night I should be able to get this post done! hehe Craig is watching "Flight of the Concords" while I post. I’m still undecided on whether I like this program but Craig thinks it’s funny.

Firstly a creative catch up. Here is a layout I did last week of Grace and her cousin Madeline. I was really stuck to start with but I like how it turned out. I have a few other layouts in the pipeline, so hope to get some time to sit and create this weekend.

If you have some spare time, check out this very cool online magazine put together by Scrapbook Outlet. I was impressed by it, it has lots of work by NZ scrap artists in it.   http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/e-zine/Default.html

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Grace is doing well and I’m settling into being her Mum. She is becoming so animated and funny with each day. Here is a collage I made using Picasa 3 (gotta love it) or the many faces of Grace! hehe

We have been spending more time with my sister and her baby girl Madeline. We spent the day together yesterday and headed out to the Culverden Country Fete. It was an 1 1/2 hours drive there and we had high expectations of the fete after seeing the website but we were left a bit disappointed. Everything was so highly priced, it was certainly catering for the "Ladies that Lunch" crowd.To much effort with bubs so don’t think we will head out next year.

Here are some pictures of them together. They were born 6 weeks apart to the day but Grace has caught Maddy up in size.

I hope everyone has a good weekend planned? We are hoping to have a lazy weekend and get a few odd jobs done. Cleaning the cars and garage are high on the list, the fun never ends! hehe

Take care and enjoy your weekend!

  Just thought I would post and keep up to date with the progress of Grace’s 12 month album. I can totally recommend doing a simple album like this. Using this simple formula it makes getting each months pages done really easy.