All Caught Up

*** WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY POST ***

With the boys having a little holiday at Tony's parents, I have made the most of my free time to get caught up on the Sketch-a-Day challenge over at SFS. I am so pleased to say that I am officially up-to-date. Considering that I must be one of the slowest scrappers out there (as Lauren and Donna can attest to lol), this is something of a minor miracle, especially when a few of my child-free days were spent in bed trying to get rid of migraines. Ok so if you are game, grab a cup of coffee because there are quite a few photos to follow.
Layout 1: Today's Sketch Another wedding layout. I am thinking that once this challenge is over, I am going to go through the sketches and do some more wedding layouts.

Layout 2: Sept 26 Some random photos of Mitchell from our holiday back in June/July.Layout 3: Sept 25 Another layout using photos from my photoshoot with Sarah Bacon over at the cattle yards. Criteria on this layout were to use black cardstock and negative alphas - I traced around alphas and then lifted them off. The strip of material is off an old pair of Lachie's farm shorts. If you look real close, you can see some grease stains that never came out in the wash.Layout 4: Sept 24 More photos from our family photoshoot back in May. Have scrapped these photos before but will probably scrap them again lol.Layout 5: Sept 23 Photos from Mitchell's 'Circus' Performance at school at the end of Term 2. The criteria for this sketch was to use time in the title. Tony and I were just commenting tonight about how much Mitchell's confidence has improved over the past few months. Making the decision to have him participate in Social Skills lessons after his ONS Autism diagnosis was one of the best things we ever did - he has come out of his shell so much and the SEP staff comment on how much he has changed and how he has developed a lot of leadership qualities. He has had a few big challenges this year but is coping with them really well so far.Layout 6: Sept 22 Photos of Lachlan and Tony from our holiday. Took me a while to 'get into' this sketch and it has ended up being quite a busy page for me but I think I like it lol. I used a few bits from A Lil' Somethin' as templates for the banner and kite on this layout.Layout 7: Sept 21 More soccer photos of Lachie and a bit of a fluff up (well a lot of a fluff up) with mist on the Jenni Bowlin playing card lol.Layout 8: Sept 14 Photo taken on Lachie's birthday when he took cupcakes to share with his class mates. I didn't fulfill all the criteria with this layout as we were supposed to use two photos. But I did fulfill the 'no pink' and a handmade embellishment (A Lil' Somethin' bottle top thanks to Donna). Two out of three ain't bad lol.

So if you have sat through all of that, you need a medal lol. And isn't it just my luck - when I finally do manage to get caught up, I have to head off for a few days. I am going to pick up the boys tomorrow and most likely spend a night with my parents before coming home again. Let's hope I get home nice and early Thursday to scrap some more lol.

Thanks for stopping by and even more thanks to those of you who stayed knowing that this was a huge post. Your visits and comments give me more than just a little boost.

Take care

S xoxoxoxoxox

Almost there

I am almost caught up with the daily challenges over at SFS. Apart from doing the daily sketch for the rest of the month, the only sketch left to catch up on is Sept 14. So that must mean I have a few shares for you so be warned, this is a photo heavy post lol

Layout 1: Sept 20 Sketch

Layout 2: Sept 19 Sketch (This is one of the very few photos that I have scrapped of our wedding which was 12 1/2 yrs ago. For some reason, I have really struggled with how to actually scrap them)

Layout 3: Sept 18 Sketch (This sketch is also the 2nd Stuck?! Sketch for the month)

Layout 4: Sept 13 Sketch (shock horror, yet another wedding photo. Definitely feeling inspired by Lauren Bell in this layout - minus the awesomeness lol)Layout 5: Sept 12 Sketch
You will be pleased to know that I am finished with the catch up for now. I am about to take the boys into meet with their grandparents for a few days. Bags are almost packed and I am supposed to meet them in a little over an hour so I had bettter get a move on. Bring on a few days of peace and quiet - although I am sure I will find plenty of jobs to do around the house, not to mention more scrapping.
Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxoxo

Back to the Future

After spending close to 4 1/2 hours on the mower this morning, I decided to reward myself with a bit of time at the scrap table so I could continue my quest to catch up on the layouts for the SFS Sketch-a-day Comp. I stuck to the plan - during the current layout and then going back to do the ones missed out - I mentioned in the last post so it feels like I am going back to the future when I look at these layouts.

Layout 1: Today's Sketch:

Layout 2 from Yesterday:
Layout 3 from Sept 10:
Layout 4 from Sept 11:

Please excuse the poor quality of the last two photos. I need to learn how to take decent night time photos of layouts lol.
Tomorrow sees a major catch-up on housework, a bit of a spring clean and hopefully catching up of the SFS sketches. Only 3 more and I will be up-to-date!!! I have never stuck with something quite like this before. I would love to be caught up by tomorrow night. Wish me luck lol.
Hope you are enjoying your weekend and the start of holidays for my Queensland visitors.
Take care,
S xoxoxoxo

Jumping forward a few days

It dawned on me today that in my quest to catch up with the Sketch-a-day Comp over at SFS, I am not making many gains. This prompted me to rethink my catch-up strategy. Rather than trying to catch up, I have decided to scrap the Sketch of the Day first and then if I have any more scrapping time, catch up on the previous sketches. Which leads me to today's sketch. The criteria for this sketch was to use paint on the background and string. Pretty easy criteria considering one of the layouts I did last night had both of these items on it lol.

I stepped waaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone with this one and used a busy patterned paper as my background. Not sure if the colours work, but it is done now and can get put in the album once the glue dries.

Term 3 of school ends tomorrow so I am hoping that I can get up to date with all of the previous sketches in the next few days.
Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxoxo

Slowly catching up

A real quick update from me with more of layouts from SFS Sketch-a-day comp. Here is my layout for Sept 8. The criteria was to use green on the layout and I think I managed that lol: And here is my take on the sketch for Sept 9. Criteria for this layout was to use tags:

That is it for now. The aim is to be caught up with the sketches by the end of the weekend now that I have finished all my marking for the term. Yay.

How are you going with your sketches???

S xoxoxo

Falling behind

It is that time of term again when the madness well and truly sets in - well it is always there but it is just the intensity that varies lol. The last week of Term 3 is always hell week - you know those kind of weeks where everything hits you and once it and all needed to be done yesterday??? If you are nodding, I feel your pain. However, thanks to a lot of late nights at the end of last week and Sunday glued to my desk, I am pretty much up-to-date with everything I need to have done. Don't get me wrong, there are still lots of loose ends but they can only be dealt with at the time - which, knowing my luck will be 3pm Friday lol.

As a reward for no sleep and all that work, I played with paper last night. I was beginning to think that I would be sick of paper after all that marking but when it has pretty colours and patterns, it is not hard to feel the urge to play. I have managed to do two more layouts from the sketch-a-day comp over at Scrapbooking from Scratch.

Here is my layout for Sept 6:

Photo credit: Sarah Bacon

And of course, a closeup:
Next is my layout for Sept 7:
And some closeups:With any luck I will be able to hand over my Year 12 panel submission very soon which mean one more job crossed off the to-do list. I am determined to get up-to-date with the SFS sketches - even if it kills all my mojo lol.
Thanks for stopping by,

S xoxoxoxo

More layouts from SFS September Comp

After a hectic day at work that was made longer with a staff meeting and then a meeting with the Admin team, I decided to reward myself with a bit of paper play. Mind you, it had to wait until dinner was cooked, homework completed, washing up done and the boys bathed and in bed. Once all that was done, I sat at the desk with mindless reality TV shows playing in the background and two more sketches from the SFS Sketchaday Comp for the month of September. Here is my take for Sept 4:

This is one of the photos I took last Sunday over at the old cattle yards. Lachie is such a poser as I am sure you can tell by this photo. And for a close up:

The next layout is based on the sketch for Sept 5th and uses more photos from the weekend. A friend came out to have a play with her mum's camera and asked the boys to tell each other stories that would make them laugh. Boys being boys decided it would be more fun to sing dirty ditties to each other. Nothing like capturing the joy of the moment, regardless of how technically incorrect the photos are.

And of course, what would a post be without a closeup lol:

Journalling reads: Sarah Bacon and I learnt that asking you to make each other laugh while taking photos may not have been the best idea. Let's just say we heard a lot of singing about a Chinaman, a cow and a failed attempt at milking. Need I say more?!
Hopefully I will get another chance to play again tomorrow night. Are you playing along? If so, link me your blog so I can check out your fabulous work.
Thanks for stopping by.
Sarah

Sleep, Stories and more

Almost every night I check on the boys before I head to bed for the night. Our boys have always shared a bedroom and, despite my calls for separate rooms on those nights where they have their silly heads on, it looks like it will stay that way for a long time to come. Part of me loves that they are so close and are such a comfort for each other but another part of me hates trying to deal with over-tired and cranky boys the morning after the night before. I am sure you all know what I am talking about ;) Anyway, back to the point of all this. Quite often during my nightly checks I will find that one of the boys has moved into the other's bed, all curled up and sound asleep - it pulls at my heartstrings every time. I thought it was about time I recorded this. I have used the sketch from Day 2 of the September challenge over a SFS and also used Lauren Bell's take on the sketch as my inspiration. Not a lot of me in this LO, just a heck of a lot of Lauren lol. Thanks Lauren :-)

Layout Number 2 is based on September 1st's Stuck?! Sketch which also happened to be the Sept 3 challenge at SFS. Did a little rotating of the sketch. I think it works:

Also this weekend, I was lucky enough to have a friend come out and spend some time taking photos of the boys. I took my camera along for the ride. Here are some of my favourites - all unedited - editing will have to wait until the holidays when I have time to work out how to use my new PSE9 program. Mitchell: age 8 3/4Lachlan: age 6 yrs

The boys reciting a little ditty that Dad taught them this morning involving a china man milking a cow the wrong way and getting something on his face. Please tell me I am not the only mother whose children think dirty ditties are the funniest thing going.

Back to work tomorrow. Have had a great weekend with Tony and the boys. Soccer yesterday and celebrating Father's Day today. I don't know who got a bigger kick out of it - Tony or the boys.

Enjoy your week everyone.

TFSB

Sarah xoxo

To the Moon and Back

I have had October Afternoon's Rocket Age papers and stickers sitting in my stash for a little while now and each time I have pulled it out I have had quite a few 'what on earth was I thinking?!' moments. I love the colours on a lot of the papers but always seemed to get caught on the whole out-of-space thing.
After seeing a FB message about a new challenge over at Scrapbooking From Scratch, I decided to bite the bullet and use some of the collection. SFS are holding a Sketchaday challenge for the month of September. Today sketch is this:

So armed with my Rocket Age stuff, this is what I came up with:

Gotta love me some October Afternoon. Can't wait to get my hands on their latest CHA releases - very jealous of those of you who already have it (yes Lauren, that means you lol) but I know I will get it eventually.
Last day of the working week tomorrow and then only 10 more school days until Sept-Oct holidays - totally can't wait. Thanks for stopping by.

Sxoxoxo