Digi Makeover

I'm currently finishing up Ammon's first year scrapbook. (Yes, I know he turned 1 back in April...good things take time you know). As I've been going through the layouts tweaking things and saving them in the right format, this one kept bugging me.

I used a quick page that came with the kit, and the more I looked at it, the less I liked it, so I decided to redo it. Still use the same kit, but update it a little. I'm much happier with this version. What do you think?

I have a ton of new pages to upload in the next few days, but I have to wait until the kits are in the store.

My girls have been at Mum's for the past few days, and I've been able to sit down and scrap to my hearts content. I forced myself to get out of the house yesterday, do some exercise then wander around the mall for a bit, but the whole time I was itching to get back to the computer and scrap some more pages. The Digi Chick has so many amazing kits coming out this week I'm like a kid in a candy store. Mmmmmm......candy................ ok, sorry, where was I.....? I'll be back with all my layouts in a day or two.

Yes we're still alive

We had a most wonderful time in Australia. The girls were great during the flights, and I made sure to take lots of little activities they could do. The whole family stayed in a Lodge in the Blue Mountains. It was really a very nice place, and great to have Petria & family, and also Regan, Danielle and the twins stay with us too. All up, we had 10 kids under 7 there. The Lodge had a great big lounge and a dining room which seated 12-14 (plus tons more seating out on the deck). There was a separate TV room for the kids, and out in the attached garage, a huge netted trampoline and air hockey table. Outside there was a spa pool, a fantastic playground for the kids, a man made pond that you could fish for yabbies in, and kayaks to use. There were also some animals (chickens, rabbits, a dog and a pony) that the kids could pet and feed. They were in heaven I tell you.

The weather was beautiful. Almost too hot in the direct sun. We arrived on Thursday morning, and met Regan and Danielle at their apartment for lunch, then headed out to the lodge. It was so great to finally see Rose and Jean in person. We got to the lodge in time for dinner (after shopping for groceries). Friday we got to meet Danielle and Shannon's families, who were really lovely. Dad and Nathan then gave blessings to Rose, Jean, and Grace. Saturday was the big wedding. Shannon looked absolutely breathtaking in her wedding dress. Andre and Regan (as the best man) were very handsome, and the flower girls Emmy and Leah just looked adorable. Brooke was dressed exactly the same as the flower girls, but she chose to sit on the side with us. The ceremony was very beautiful, and the reception afterwards was awesome. Both Regan and Andre's speeches were hilarious and yet very touching at the same time. It was so wonderful to hear Regan speak so lovingly of Andre. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Andre and Shannon made the most gorgeous couple, and we were over the moon to see them so happy.

We flew home on Sunday afternoon, getting in to auckland at about 8pm. The girls were super happy to see Daddy at the airport, with a helium balloon for them each, no less. Elisa had really been missing him, and had actually been asking to go home to him within 3 minutes of landing in Australia on Thursday!

The girls both caught cold viruses as soon as we got home (actually Brooke had been coughing in Aussie), but they eventually cleared, and are well again now. Brooke had a kite day at school on Friday, which Elisa and I went to. I'll scrap a page about it eventually. She then attended her first school disco that night, chaperoned by Daddy. He called me from the school hall, and the music was so loud I couldn't even hear what he was saying and vice versa. I did catch the word "madness" though. Hahaha. Brooke had a great time, but was VERY tired by the time she got home at 7.45pm.

We went swimming with the girls on Saturday morning - something we haven't done for several months. Both Elisa and Brooke are like fish in the water - more under it than above it. I can't believe how long Elisa can hold her breath. Neither of them wanted to get out.

School holidays start this Saturday. The girls will be going down to Mum and Dad's from Sunday night to Thursday. Mum is dropping off Dad and Aunty Stancy to the airport on Sunday night (they're going to Canada for a couple of weeks). She will pick up the girls on her way back. They are really looking forward to staying at Nanny's, though I don't think they realise Papa won't be there. Elisa is a real Papa's girl you see. Hopefully they'll be able to have a little afternoon tea party as an early Birthday for Brooke, with Emmy and Leah. Every couple of days Brooke asks when we are going down to the South Island too. She is dead keen to go down, but with a full school holidays this term, she'll have to wait till after next term now.

Here are the layouts I've done so far.

On the count down

My girls are so excited to be hopping on the plane on Thursday. We're heading to Australia for my brother Andre's wedding to the lovely Shannon. While we're there we will get to see Regan (my other brother) and Danielle's new twin girls, and my cousin Petria is coming from Turkey with her family and new daughter, so it'll be a big reunion which our whole family is looking forward to. I haven't even started packing yet. We'll only be away for 4 days, but with 2 kids you just know you have to pack everything. Hubby has to work and can't come to the wedding. I always knew it would be highly unlikely he'd make it, but I was still pretty gutted when he gave the final decision. That's to be expected with his work though.

I have some exciting news on the scrapbooking front. I got approached a couple of days ago by Darcy Baldwin of Sweet Shoppe Designs, to be on her CT. She creates mainly handwritten fonts, and since I'm already a journaller, I can just incorporate her fonts on the layouts I already do for The Digi Chick (TDC) and for Chrissy at Elemental Scraps. I am super excited about this new CT position. Darcy is like a guru when it comes to fonts and journalling, and I am in honoured company indeed being on her CT. Most of the girls already on her team are like celebrities to me, so I'm a little star struck and just a tad intimidated with it all.

I made the tough decision to stand down from two of my other CT positions so I can give 100% to Darcy, TDC and Chrissy. I will miss creating for Sya's Blueprints and Iara Baers Garten, but 3 CT's at a time is all I can handle. Actually TDC is pretty much full time by itself, but since Darcy does fonts, Chrissy does templates, and TDC do kits, it all works together OK.


Oh, some more news. I've been published! My layout of Logan at the beach got published in the Artisan Notebook, a digital online scrapbook magazine. I get a free copy of it in return for having my layout published. I have another layout of Ammon playing the piano also awaiting publication with the Artisan.
I even get to have an "I've been published" blinkie:




Here are the pages I've been working on this week. The first is my latest 365 page which I am stoked about. I know, every recent page is my favourite, but I really like this one. And what do you think about the oversized matchboxes I did for the girls? I'm going to fill them with little treats and give it to the girls half way through the plane ride. I also have a stash of toys from the $2 shop that they can play with during the flight. Anything to keep them quiet and happy. The longest flight they've done before is Auckland to Christchurch (70 minutes), so 3 hours to Sydney will be a new experience for them. Thank goodness they're generally pretty good flyers.

More pages and 365

Everyone seems to be happy and healthy at the moment (fingers crossed). I've been busy creating pages for The Digi Chick creative team. I love it there - it's my new home. Here are this week's pages. This first layout got Gallery Standouts at DST today too: