Easter hats!

Easter has hopped around very quickly this year, and soon the Easter Bunny will be hopping into our house and hopefully leaving a few chocolate goodies :)

But before then, we have the Easter hat parade at school.

Here are the two hats I have made for the girls.

Kayla's hat looks much prettier in real life, but here are a few pics of it.

I wanted to cut a bit of the tulle off it, but Kayla liked it like that.  Little poppet.

Here is Emily looking ever so sweet in her Easter hat.

The girls love their little hats, and they will probably wear them out over the next few days.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

I will be back soon, hopefully with some more creating.

Take care

Our little athlete

Just had to pop on today with a quick share.

Kayla particpated in her first athletics carnival today.  I am so glad that I found the time to go and watch her, she had an absolute blast.

Because she is only in Year 1 it was more just fun activities, and letting the kiddies have a go at a few events.

Here are a few happy snaps from the day.

 I was so thrilled for her when she won the 70m race, and her little beaming face made the whole day worth it. It just goes to show that even though she has had trouble with her legs and feet, that nothing is going to hold this girl back. Oh and can I say, boy can this girl jump.  Considering she has never stepped foot near a long jump pit, check out the air that she got!

I had a few other things that needed to be done today, but I was really glad that I was there to spend this time with her.  At the end end of the day, she told me how much she loved having me there.  

So special.

A bit of this and that!

Gosh how this week has flown by.

My baby started Pre-school on Monday and she absolutely loved it!! We normally stay to do puzzles at school for ten minutes in the morning before we leave them. But Miss Emily was pushing me out the door very quickly. Her teacher tells me it shows confidence, but I was a little sad that she was so happy to let me go lol.

The house was so quiet without my little buddy with me. However it was nice to be able to clean the house, and not have it look like a tornado hit it within five minutes of finishing lol.

I have been so busy this past week that I haven't had a great deal of time at home in the quiet though. There was something to do each day of the week.

I made this card using a Meredith Dillmans Steampunk Doll fairy from Sweet Pea Stamps.

The image can be found on Sheet #2, Plate #87, which can be found at Lime Tart.

Speaking of Lime Tart, I was at ACTSA yesterday and I had a great time meeting a lot of wonderful ladies. I had so much fun demonstrating how to make some paper flowers and having a chat. I also received my kit for March and can I tell you, this is one beautiful kit. So make sure you keep an eye out for that one next month.

Well I had better get going. So many things to get done today.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Take care

Flowery fun-Sweet Pea Stamps and Floriade

Hi everyone.

I am sitting here on this Monday enjoying a beautiful public holiday. Today I thought I would share with you a card I made last night for the first challenge over at In a Sweet Pea Dream.

This is my third Copic Creation....I think I am getting better (or atleast I hope so lol). Either way I am thoroughly enjoying the process.

Copics used: 0, E000, E00, E11, E31, E35, E37, E47, R20, B02, B95, B97, YG00, YG03, RV13, RV21, V000, V12, V15, V17.

Sweet Pea stamps have quickly become my favourite stamps since I started using Copic markers. I love this ching-chou kuiks stamp-Moonlight Siren and I can see myself using it alot.

Lime Tart has a gorgeous range of Sweet Pea stamps as well as many other beautiful stamps. The supplies used on this card were from the yummy September Half Tart from Lime Tart as well.

Speaking of Lime Tart my first kit arrived this past week and all I can say is yummmmm. Wait until you see the goodies for October :)

Yesterday we took the girls to Floriade here in Canberra. We had a lovely time looking at all the flowers and stalls. The girls were very excited that they got to pat a baby alligator.

Here are a few happy snaps.

Our beautiful Kayla. We are growing her fringe out at the moment and clips have trouble holding it in. I will have to make sure next time her hair is out of her face though (oops).

Our very cheeky Miss Em.

The girls also wanted to go on the cup and saucer ride.

Here they are with Daddy.

I thought Kayla would be the one who would be scared on the ride...but as this next photo shows this wasn't the case at all.

Poor little Em, she couldn't get off fast enough.

Well that is about it from me today.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Have a great day.

The story so far..

I think I may have mentioned previously that we have struggled with Kayla's toe-walking since she started walking. She has never really walked with a proper heel toe gait and has always walked on her tip-toes.

We thought that she would eventually grow out of it, but this has never happened. So we took her to a physiotherapist earlier this year and she was diagnosed with idiopathic toe-walking. Which simply means that there appears to be no reason for her toe-walking.

This has led to a few problems in her legs. She has low muscle tone and her tendons are short and tight. So we have been doing a lot of stretching, but this hasn't given great results.

So the next step was to start serial casting. Which we started today. This will only happen for two weeks, and hopefully we will get some improved measurements through her legs.

Kayla was very relaxed about the whole thing, and lay very still as the casts went on. It only took about an hour for both legs to be done. She is very excited about her pretty purple legs and can't wait to go back to school tomorrow and get everyone to sign them.

We go back on Thursday and get these casts taken off and the second set put on. This second set will stretch the muscles and tendons further, to hopefully achieve measurements that are closer to normal.

I am so proud of my little girl. For a child that is normally a little more anxious about things, she has certainly taken this in her stride.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Take care.

My little Cat in the Hat!

For those parents with children at school you would probably know this week was Book Week here in Australia. And with Book Week comes the very exciting Book Week Parade. And today is Kayla's very first Book Week Parade. I was so glad when she wanted the Cat in the Hat as her costume. I thought to myself "I might actually be able to pull that off". All that was needed was a white skivvy, black pants and jacket, white gloves, black fabric and toy-fill for the tail and a some red and white felt.

So with red and white felt in hand, I made a Cat in the Hat hat and bow tie. I used some black fabric and toy fill for her little tail. A smudge proof (oh I hope I have some makeup remover) eyeliner for her little nose and whiskers. I tacked all the pieces onto her clothes and that was it. Okay maybe there were a few choice words said here an there, but overall I think it turned out pretty good.

Doesn't she make the cutest little Cat in the Hat ever. Although when I was plaiting her hair this morning she told me that perhaps she should be Cat in the Plait instead. Such humor lol.

The parade isn't until this afternoon, so I am hoping that the costume (especially the hat) isn't destroyed by then. Although Kayla has promised me she will take very good care of it because she loves it.

I hope you are all well.

Take care

Quick Update!

Hi everyone.

Sorry I haven't posted for a little while. I didn't disappear off the face of the planet, but I was knocked down with the most horrible stomach bug not once..but twice. I want to lose some weight...but that was a very unpleasant way to do it. I a

m starting to feel better again though...yay!!! The rest of the family have been bitten by it as well, so hopefully that is all the nasty bugs gone.

We celebrated a birthday a couple of weekends ago. Our gorgeous Miss Emily turned a big 4. Can you believe it? Wow has time flown.

We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives, she brings a sparkle to every day.

That is really about it at the moment. No crafty shares just yet, but soon I promise.

I hope you are all well and healthy.

Until next time

Take care

A little bit of Magic

Long time no post. Or at least that is the way it feels lol. I have been busy with the kidlets and a few other bits and pieces. On the weekend Kayla went to a friends birthday party. It was a dress-up party with the theme of Harry Potter or magic. So as a last minute decision I decided I would make her a wizards hat. It had to be pink of course. It was pretty rushed, but Kayla loved it. Then again it is not that hard to please a 5 1/2 year old (thank goodness). I found it really funny that I can create lots of lovely things for scrapbooking and love it, but when it came to making a cardboard hat I really struggled lol.

Anyway here is my little wizard all dressed up

And a bit more of a close up of that hat...

What else have I been up to? I decided on Monday morning that I would make a few little items for the Mother's Day stall at school this week. It is such a cute little idea. Parents donate little items, and the children take their money and buy little goodies for their Mums. So I decided to make a few simple little notebooks and lolly bags. They are all made using the Kaisercraft 6x6 paper pads.

It is amazing what you can achieve in a couple of hours. They are very simple but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on them.

I hope you have had a fabulous week so far.

Sew Handy

Oooops! I was going back through my blog last night when I realized that I hadn't yet shared my Kaisercraft Storage Drawers with you. I think I must have posted them everywhere else, but then forgot to post them here on my own blog. I remember telling myself to post them...but I guess I never did (oops). So to resolve this slight error in memory here are my Kaisercraft Storage Drawers using the Made With Love collection.

I decided to turn my drawers into a little sewing box to hold my bobbins, tape, pins, needles, embroidery thread and other little bit and bobs. It has turned out to be one of my most used storage solutions.

So now that I have shared that little creation, what are your plans for Easter? We are having a very quiet long weekend. Sunday we will wake up and do a little Easter Egg hunt around the house, and then we are heading down to Lanyon Homestead for another Easter Egg hunt. I am sure the kids will absolutely love that (it is going to be a surprise). This morning the girls and I decorated a few little eggs. Here is the end result.

Aren't they just they cutest little eggs ever. I found these little shrink wraps at a homewares store, and basically you put the wrapper around the egg, pop it into boiling water for three seconds and voila you have decorated eggs. So very cute, and the girls love them to bits. Tomorrow we are going to get a bit more adventurous and paint some eggs, I may even have to pull out the Kindyglitz for them :)

I hope you are all enjoying your Friday and if I don't pop on again before Easter, I wish you and your families a blessed Easter filled with lots of love (and of course a little bit of chocolate).

Proud Mummy

I sit here today a very proud Mummy. Kayla received an award at her school assembly this morning which I was thrilled to see. She received it for being confident, having a positive attitude, getting along with others and being persistent. She got a cute little certificate and a voucher for the canteen. She was very excited! Also on the weekend was the Charny Carny a school fundraiser. There was a competition for the children to make a pig and Kayla wanted to give it a go. Here is her gorgeous little creation called Rose the pig.

Kayla made most of it herself I just guided her when it came to covering the pig in newspaper before she painted it. I thought she was just going to make a simple pig, but when it came to painting she decided it also needed mud on her feet. So she painted mud. Then Kayla decided the pig couldn't be a nudey rudey and she wanted a skirt for it. So she used a muffin case as the skirt. Then Rose needed a bow which Kayla glued into place. She even curled the little piggy tail before adding it. I was so proud of her end result. She took her time (something she is learning at school) and the piggy turned out fabulous...don't you think.

I have also done a little bit of creating lately, although nowhere near as gorgeous as Kayla's creations. First is a little door hanging I have made for Emily's bedroom using the very cute Kaisercraft mini-stamps. I love these new stamps they are so versatile, great for layouts and cards alike.

And here is a layout I made on the weekend using Webster's pages. This is one of my favourite photos from last Christmas.

Well that is all from me today( I really just wanted to jump on and share Kayla's exciting achievement). I hope you are all well and thanks for stopping by.

Take care

Tooth Fairy!!

Another momentous occasion happened yesterday in the Ludlow household. Kayla got her first wobbly tooth. When I told her her tooth was going to fall out soon, she burst into tears. Poor little poppet. But when she was told the tooth fairy would come she got a little more excited. We go through periods of excitement and sheer terror, but I am sure when it finally comes out she will be very excited. I decided I wanted to make a little pouch for her to put her tooth in, so I Googled the internet for patterns. Then I came across this darling little tooth fairy from this very talented lady and I couldn't resist making it for my big girl. It was so cute and I loved the way the little mouth acts as a pocket to hold all Kayla's special little teeth. So this morning was spent sewing and stuffing this little sweetie, all under the very watchful eye of Kayla. Although she was full of encouragement with comments like "that is coming along great Mum"and "You are doing so well Mummy", lucky she is easy to please lol.

There is some tulle under the flower on her head, but this doesn't show up very well in the photo. She now hangs on Kayla's door in anticipation for the moment when that pearly white finally falls out.

Today I thought I would also show you the two layouts that I made using Kaisercraft's two January releases Made With Love and Shaken Not Stirred. I didn't know how I would go with these ranges because they didn't really fit my style, but I have to tell you they were an absolute pleasure to work with. I love them both!!
Made With Love
Shaken Not Stirred

So that is our news for Sunday!! I still have to get Kayla's school uniforms ready for the week, so I best not delay any longer.

I hope you have had a fabulous weekend
Chat soon

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Hi everyone!

Let me start off by wishing you all a very Happy New Year. I hope this following year brings you many moments of joy, laughter, love and happiness. May any challenges that come your way be small, and may you walk out the other side with a smile on your face.

New Year Resolutions....have you made any? I normally make some but never keep any lol. However this year my one goal is to finish 2010 lighter than I am now. It doesn't have to be significantly lighter but any loss would be fantastic. I have also chosen one little word to focus on this year. This idea was started by Ali Edwards back in 2007 and you can find more about it on her blog.

The word I have chosen for this year is: LEARN

This word encompasses so many things for me. I want to learn new techniques in scrapbooking, and learn new crafts ( I love the look of softies), I want to learn to be more patient and find time for myself. I want to discover new foods and learn to cook some yummy new dishes. I want to learn, learn, learn. Essentially at the end of the year I want to turn around and be able to say "look at all the wonderful things I have learnt this year". Hmmm maybe I could start a journal to record all of these little findings :)

Speaking of recording I have decided to do Project 365, where you take a photo everyday as a memento of 2010. I will share my daily photo on this blog for the world to see if you are interested. I have also made this album where I am going to put the photo's and a quick note about the day.


I am going to print the photo's out at ATC size so that I can put them in 9 pocket ATC sleeves. I will show you what I mean after the first week is completed.

So without further ado here is my first photo of the New Year. I thought it only fitting to start with a piccie of my crazy little family. God love em'.




So that is about it from me for this first day of 2010. I can't wait to see what the New Year has installed for me. I am ready!

Wishing you all the best for the coming year.