Time flies, and I married a chef.

Yes it's such a cliché but it is true. Tomorrow is December and what have I been doing since my last post?

Ordering January kits - very nice!
Making Christmas cards.
Beading.
Cooking.
Organising a birthday party (my baby is turning 5!).
Christmas shopping and creating.
Stamping.
Cleaning - yuk!

Oh and a big funny story - I married a cook/chef/food preparation person. Big bonus! He is no longer a professional chef but he still does all the cooking at home. I am the dessert maker - hence Lime Tart. One day Billy came home from school, probably last year, and said "mum, do you know that other mums can cook?" ROFL!! That was followed up a few months later when we bought a new vacuum cleaner and Peggy wanted the box and said "oh look it's a girl doing the vacuum cleaning!" Anyway I digress....

When you marry a chef, do not let them change the washers in the bathroom vanity! It's an expensive exercise in keeping the children out of earshot and then trying to find a nice plumber who can come in at short notice to replace the washers and the pipe that somehow got bent all out of wack at the same time!

I guess in hindsight that I do have the better end of the stick but it would be nice if he had a few more woodworking skills, lol, they would combine nicely with my new love of altering :)

I'm off to cook cupcakes!

Quick catch-up

I haven't been spending much time at the computer as I hurt my back last week carrying a box of cutters, cutting mats and cardstock, lol.

So just quickly....

Here's a pic of the fantastic Carnivale ATC swap that I hosted.



I'll host another one in the new year :) Think postage stamps, real ones.

Billy & Mary both won Artist of the Month awards at school on Friday - how proud am I?!

I did another beading class on Saturday, this one was leather knotting and I love it! Guess what all the women in my family are getting this Christmas, lol.

I met Lee for coffee yesterday at the new Borders Bookstore in Canberra. How cool is that store?! I'm so glad it's not where I normally shop or I would be broke! It was nice to catch up with Lee too :)

The designers now have their December kits. I love these kits! The big one is Christmas, of course, but not too Christmasy. The paper is not holly or santas or stuff like that, you could use it for non-Christmas layouts. I really do love this kit :)

I finished my November newsletter project for Buzz & Bloom today, what a relief! I'm really happy with it now, after just a minor tanty yesterday when I didn't think it worked, lol. The newsletter comes out on the 27th, I think.

I'm off to ACTSA this weekend and we are doing a secret santa swap, so I must head off and finish that, then to start on my Christmas cards. I think I will be using my new Cats Pajamas stamps for them :). They are having a 25% off sale at the moment and I highly recommend their customer service!

Pizza, pizza, la-di-da-di-da

One of Billy's fourth term homework projects was to "draw or model your favourite food on a paper plate".

He decided upon pizza and this is what we came up with. Materials: cardboard, cardstock, pencils, paint, texture paste. I think he did a great job!

Beading

This could get very, very addictive! I have a few plans for more projects and I've booked in for yet another class next weekend. But here is what I've made so far.

This is one necklace for me:



This is a necklace for a gift for Christmas:



And these are the beaded tassles that we made:
1. is mine
2. Billy (age 7)
3. Mary (age 6)
4. Peggy (turning 5 next month)
The only thing I helped the kids with was the rethreading, they chose all colours and created the patterns by themselves. I'm a very proud mum!

Lime Tart October competition

Sorry, this should have gone in today's newsletter, but I forgot!

Judging is underway but boy it is hard! We will have news soon.

Carnivale ATC swap

Will be in tomorrow's post on it's way back to everyone! Gorgeous ATCs, thank you! I will post a pic later when everyone has them back. Make sure you sniff Monique's ATC, lol, she has used a beeswax collage and it smells delicious!

Lots of bits and pieces....

Where to start?

I went bead shopping this morning! I did a small class on making beaded tassles yesterday and it was so much fun that I want to make more. I've booked in to make a necklace next week, so I bought more beads for that too.

Last night I made a present for our neighbours who are getting married on Saturday. I got out the LOVE letters that I started to make at Kiwiscraps and recovered them. One of their bedroom walls is blue and they have a chocolate colour down the hallway so I think that these should match nicely.



I've used MM paperbag paint, We R Memory Keepers paper, Eclectic Images stamp, Adirondack ink, Bazzill flowers, SU! ink, and teeny tiny beads for the centres of the flowers.

Here's a pic of my stash from Paperific. Some things are purchases, some are trade samples, some from my StampHappy dinner goodie bag and down the left you can see some of the ATCs that I got in trades.



The Carnivale swap that I am hosting is just about done. I am waiting on one more set and they will be swapped out and posted next week.

Today is the day for submissions to be in for the Towards 2020 proposed school closures. Ours went in last week so now we sit back and wait for the government to decide :(

Okay must go and wash clothes, clean kitchen, vaccuum.....