Another great blog candy giveaway

Here are 2 prizes to be won, go check out this blog! You will enjoy the blog as well as get a chance to win!

Loads of Candy

When checking out peoples entries in the various challenges you often stumble on some great blogs. Today I found a great blog, but also a mountain of candy. So please, check out my sidebar or have a look at the blog yourself with the link on this post. Enjoy both, the blog and the chance to win!!

Pay it Forward

Have you heard of this contagious little project called Pay it Forward...

it's something so very simple yet overflowing with inspiration, generosity, and delight.

I discovered it accidentally having found Abby's blog

So how's it work you ask?

Well it's really quite simple...

The first five people to comment on this post will receive a handmade gift from me.

Though, they won't be extravagant in value they will certainly be rich with love:)

In return you must also write a post about the Pay it Forward project...

 and send a handmade gift to the first five visitors who comment on your post.

Isn't this the most perfect way to connect with our kindred spirits!

Now remember to take your time...they don't all have to be sent today or tomorrow....

and it's not the size of the gift, but the spirit of "Pay it Forward".

Thank you Renee

I woke up this morning, turned on the computer and checked my emails. Amongst them was a comment from Renee Matarese, who was so lovely in passing on an award she received to 8 fellow bloggers & kindly decided to pass one onto me. Thanks Heaps Renee......nice to have what you do enjoyed by others. I too shall give it some thought and pass it on!! So keep watching for updates.

Congratulations on Baby 2....

Today I made the card for our son, Caleb & Lani, his partner. I was able to borrow a set of stamps from Ann Craig, our wonderfully generous Stampin' Up demonstrator & friend. I hope you like them. The pink one I have also done to enter into the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge No 96.

I also made this card to fit the technique challenge at Jac-inks the technique chosen this challenge was masking. So I stamped the bunny first, masked it & stamped the rattle, then masked the rattle and stamped the bottle. I also love the softness of chalking for colour. Fancy & Feminine I think don't you?
Also entered at Stamping Vacation Challenge

Congratulations on Baby...

I finally got a chance to make a card I have been trying to get to since our little granddaughter was born, but you can imagine it has been a bit difficult. Friday night I got the first card started for Lexi's other set of grandparents. Entered this card in My Partner in Crafting Crime challenge 
Also Stampin' Sister's in Christ challenge.

Clean & Simple Challenges

The challenge this week for THE PAPER PLAYERS is clean & simple. So here is my card I sort threw together in between hospital visit!!

Our Granddaughter

Our first grandchild arrived today a little girl, Alexia Laine, 3.31pm, 51cm long, 34.5cm head, 3.720kg (8lb 3.5oz), lots of dark hair, blue eyes. She looks just like her mother, & nothing like our son...LOL!!! We are so grateful to God for her safe arrival as the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, and had a large knot in it. If they had not decided to induce Lani, we may have lost our precious granddaughter. 

Prima & Hand Made Blog Candy

Here is some wonderful blog candy been given away on a new blog I have found, so check it out. Crafting Life's Pieces....great name!! Hope you enjoy the site as much as I do.

Blissfull Butterflies

The Challenge this fortnight with Jac-inks was masking. I hadn't done any for a while, so thought once again to use butterflies from the Bliss Stampin' Up set. Love this set and hope you do to. I used 3 shades of pink ink, pale, bright & rose, with neutrals of black & white. It also fit the criteria for Hand Stamped Sentiments Inspired by Nature challenge.

Another challenge this card fits is The Anything Goes Blog!

You're in my thoughts

Where your treasure is that's where your heart is also....

The challenge this week at Stampin' Sister's In Christ, was not just a card challenge, but it also really challenged where I am at spiritually. Sadly, I found me lacking. It has been such a crazy start to the year, that I have hardly had time to stop, be in the moment, treasure those things that are important to me, and spend time with God. So my challenge this week is to keep the computer off in the mornings & get back to some Bible Study and prayer time, because my treasure of late is too many things that are not important. How about you? Where is your treasure? Where is your heart?

In making my card for this challenge, I remembered that one of the things I have loved about my faith is the peace that it brings & I wanted to reflect that in my card. I hope that you too, will be reminded of this when you look at my card. May His peace fill you this week.

Children are so easy to make cards for....

I decided to do a male child's card and went through my scraps and found the robot paper which was the deciding factor in what came of that idea and the colours I thought were perfect. Hope you like it.

This second card is for a little girl....who can resist cupcakes.....I sure find it hard to!!

Baby Shower

Last week we held my daughter-in-love's baby shower. With just over two weeks to go it was cutting it fine, and had to be held on a week night as there are just no weekends free between now & when the baby is due. It was held at our daughter's place and started with dinner so that it wouldn't be too late a night. Everyone contributed to the meal and there was tons to eat!! Once everyone arrived we started in on the games, the first being a sheet of baby photos of celebrities that they had to guess who was who...I had got 6 out of 9 on line the night before, but everyone seemed to struggle and there was lots of helping each other out on that one.

 However, they were all a bit more ruthless with the pin game....everyone was given a safety pin and every time you heard someone say "birth" "labour" or "baby" you could ask for their pin. The one with the most pins at the end of the night won.....I lost mine in the first 5 minutes as I explained a game...LOL!!!

Finally we had a baby food taste test. There were 4 different kinds and you had to write down what you thought they were.....and disgusting didn't count!!

It was time to open presents and as you can see from the photos below, Lani really enjoyed herself, and she was very thankful for all the wonderful goodies and money the received. I think we all had a great time but especially the mother to be.

The lovely mum to be.....Lani x x

The dinner table.....so much food, yum, yum!!!

Mmmmm, yummy chocolate fountain....some people just can't move away!!!!

So many presents.....

And it should look something like this on the baby....oops not allowed to say that....LOL!!

I love this.......one of the many toys Lani I mean the baby will enjoy!!!

Baby Baby

Sometime ago, my mother went through all her photos and pulled out any that had me in it, (she did the same for my brother's) and copied them all, stuck them into an album and gave each of us an the album. Last week I decided to take the album to scrapbooking class at Ann's. I used her layout to create a page with some of my baby photos. Out of the left overs I did a 2nd page & was very pleased with the results of both pages. Here they are not quite complete, but how they were when I left Ann's that night.

It's a Puzzle

One of the other guys from the British Motor Club lent us a jigsaw puzzle featuring a Morris Minot!! However, the puzzle was not the picture on the front of the box, but a view of the Morris from the opposite direction. There was 2 clues, showing the characters on the front of the puzzle would actually be placed on the other side of the puzzle to what they were placed in the picture. So here are some photos of Shaun trying to do this puzzle. He spent a lot of time on it, with some help from whoever was in our home at the time. I had almost finished it yesterday, but the last 2 pieces just didn't fit....so he fixed when he got home.

There was just one piece we can't find. So don't know if it was already missing or if we have lost it....hope it's not the latter!!! =(

Sydney March 2011

Last week we headed off to Sydney to spend time with our friend Anne who is in Sydney with her 2 year old foster daughter, Shana, who is having treatment for Leukaemia at Randwick Children's Hospital. When they are not actually in the hospital they are at the nearby Ronald McDonald House. When Anne was told by the doctor to get straight up there with Shana they forgot to mention that she is up there for at least the next 3 months!! So leaving their 1 yr old and her husband they headed up packing for just a week or so. Needless to say, being on her own is difficult especially so far from anyone she knows. So Shaun & I decided we would go up to spend time with her. We spent most of the day with them on Thursday as well as Saturday evening for a couple of hours, and Sunday morning for about an hour before heading back to Canberra.

We stay up at Wahroonga with our dear friend Pam, who I have known since high school and who was our Matron of Honour at our wedding. Every Saturday, Pam heads down to Redfern where she loves and befriends, and feeds the mostly aboriginal community there. Many are addicts &/or alcoholics, with amazing stories to tell of just surviving. She is really the hands and feet of Jesus each week. We try and get up to support her too, as often as we can, especially helping with the cooking. It is a real joy to get to know the people of this community and we look forward to it each time we come.

On the Friday we decided to do something for ourselves. I was very fortunate to be able to travel to China with my mum about 7 years ago, and got to see the all the Terracotta warriors so far excavated. Sadly, Shaun was unable to travel with us, so when we heard they were coming to Sydney it was a great opportunity for him to see some of them too. We got in when it opened and really enjoyed the display (although it was only small....one of each type of warrior, plus some other artifacts from the time.) 

My husband Shaun has a new friend....not the real thing, but a fake one in the Exhibition store.

These are miniatures, but very detailed. I remember seeing these in China. There are only two sets and they were both here on display. One out at the entrance, the other in the exhibition itself.