Ros Davidson, Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator, Melbourne, Australia

"Art with heart" valentine's theme blog hop

Welcome to yet another blog hop. Today’s blog hop is involving participants from the "Art with Heart" team which is managed by Claire Daly. Only a small number of us are participating in todays blog hop but there is actually over 80 demonstrators  in the “Art with Heart” team  and we are spread all over Australia. If you wish to join the “Art with Heart” team, e-mail me for more details. We have a fantastic team forum, a business building club not to mention lots of friendly and supportive fellow demonstrators.

The "Art with Heart" team are running blog hops each and every month. (They are to be held on the last day of the month.) Keep this in mind to come back and visit if you are not a regular visitor.

You may have just come from Judy May’s blog but if not, there is a link at the end of my post (and each post of those involved) and you will be able to make a complete journey to all of those demonstrators participating. If you leave a comment on all of the blogs, e-mail Nikki at [email protected] and you will be in the draw to win some lovely blog candy.

Note:There is a deadline of 72 hours to enter for the blog candy, (finishing at 6am AEDST, Wednesday February 3rd, 2010) and only non SU demos are eligible to win. Please don’t feel discouraged to comment if you are a fellow demo or if the blog candy contest has closed as I love comments from all my visitors.

For our very first blog hop, we are celebrating “Valentine’s day”.

Just some background information first. I love it when my husband brings me flowers, (only he knows better than to buy me a “bunch” of flowers.) I prefer just “one” flower (as to me it says the same thing.) This is where my bunch of “love” flowers come in. I am saving for a swimming pool for our family and any extra money is being put away. If hubby wishes to buy me a flower he no longer has to spend the money and can give me a lovely bunch of flowers to show his is thinking of me. Not only will they not cost anything, but they will always look lovely and fresh... All he has to do is write me a little note and peg it onto the jar...

Materials list
Stamps: Circles circus, from the kitchen of, a happy heart
Cardstock: real red, riding hood red, rose red, regal rose, pink passion, pink pirouette, pretty in pink, whisper white
Inks:  real red, riding hood red, rose red, regal rose, pink passion, pretty in pink, sahara sand
Punches:  Heart to heart, full heart, 1 ¾’ circle (summer mini catalogue), 1 3/8” circle, 1” circle, 1/2" circle
Accessories: Playground & sherbet designer buttons (summer  mini catalogue), chunky sprinkles, batch of blooms chipboard, essentials chipboard, lots of letters chipboard, sweet treats cups (summer mini catalogue), build a brads, linen thread
Other: DMC cotton, empty glass jar, pebbles, twigs

Take your time to enjoy all of the lovely creations that everyone has created for your viewing pleasure. I hope it is an inspirational journey for you. 

Click here to stop by the next blog on the tour, the lovely Gayatri Murali from Kalgoorlie, WA.

I am including a list of all the lovely other 10 demonstrators participating in the blog hop so if you run into any trouble viewing pages, you can still move onto the next person.

For those who have never viewed a blog hop before, there is no beginning or end, it is a full circle so you can begin anywhere!
Gayatri Murali http://scrapawayg3.blogspot.com/
Erica Boxall http://www.ericaboxall.com
Nikki Sadler http://www.inkyart.com.au
Sue Madex http://www.madexcreations.com/
Kristine Thompson http://inkspotcreations.typepad.com
Kimmy Meiklejohn http://www.paperenchantment.com.au
Kathryn Mangelsdorf http://klm55.blogspot.com/
Kathryn Lowe http://www.katlodesigns.com/
Di Dunk http://www.stampartbydi.typepad.com/
Judy May http://judymay.typepad.com

Bedtime

My kids are seriously testing the bedtime routine out of late. We had them in a great routine, then daylight savings started making it harder to get them into bed while still light and now the school holidays. I have tried keeping them to a decent routine but they just won't settle at night. It hasn't been uncommon for them to still be awake at 10pm at night... Not too bad if it is only one child, but four! That is seriously testing the waters...

As I write this, only Drew is in his own bed. Josh got set to time out (after pushing the fly wire out of his window and going outside) and is sleeping in the hallway (where time out is). We warned the kids if they got out of bed once again their doors would be locked. They all got our of bed, so we locked the doors, and Josh climbs out the window (isn't he a little too young for that?) As punishment, both of the boys had their pocket money taken away as I said I had to buy a new window (unsure if the fly wire needs replacing yet). Josh decided not to move back to his bed once his time out was up as I took his money away.

Bella kept on climbing into Nikki's bed (the top bunk of L shaped bunk beds) so I moved Nikki onto the couch in the rumpus room and said to Bella, "If you like Nikki's bed so much, sleep there!" She still mucked around a little but finally went to sleep.

Does anyone have any advice how to fix their settling down routine? We do dinner, bath and story time before bed usually. I desperately need them to settle early ASAP as school and kinder begin Monday/Tuesday and they are so tired. Not to mention Nat is away at the Gold Coast in two weeks for a week so I will be all alone with them!!! Ahhh HELP ME!!!

Painting and Lily Allen

Thursday 28th January
Spent the day sanding, taping and painting our lounge room. Our little "Picasso's" have made one to many marks on the wall and it has finally gotten to me. (The whole house needs painting honestly. We moved in when it was brand new over 7 years ago and aside from 2 feature walls in the lounge, no painting has been done.)

No creating done of late (sad, I know) but little time. Kids are a handful this week. School starts on Monday (and kinder) with Nikki attending school on Tuesday. Only counting down the days a tiny bit!!!

Saw Lily Allen at Festival Hall this evening... Hubby's choice, I was happy to have another "date night" and a kid free meal! :D

Gotta love the self portraits...

Lily Allen changed outfits three times but what cracked me up with the shoes she opened with. She was wearing sneakers (bright white ones) which looked very comfy (and she could dance in them) and later changed into black stilettos.... I don't get it? 

Australia Day

I explained to the kids today that "Australia Day" was a bit like a birthday party for Australia... It made sense to them (sort of). I am probably going to be asked sooner or later where is Australia's cake?

We spent the day (afternoon mainly) having a bbq with family. Hubby worked until 6am this morning so I did my best to keep the kids quiet while he slept. I printed some Australia day colouring sheets for the kids. They certainly helped in keeping the kids entertained. I plan on doing a layout from today soon.I think it is going to have to be a double! Yikes!!!!

The kids all were sporting tattoos, Bella and Nikki's on their cheeks, Josh's on his forehead and Drew's on his forearm. Even Nat got into the spirt and had one on his neck...

 

 

 

   

I had good intentions to post earlier, but have been exhausted. Our guests didn't leave until 11pm-ish and I tired. after my mammoth clean from the morning; [the rumpus room (aka kids lounge) looked like a bomb had hit it along with each of their bedrooms....]

Haircut

I finally got a haircut the other day (Wednesday). Actually, everyone but Bella got haircuts (she had damm head lice!!!) This photo is proof for my 29 things to do before 30 mini album... Side swept fringe.

I have had it cut like this before only never took a photo and when I do my hair I am never as happy as when the hairdresser does it. Sporting a major curl right now with the humidity and seeing as I wet my hair this morning and let it dry au natural. (Not necessarily a good look I can tell you, I really should have tamed it with some mousse or something.)

Dinosaur quote

Today's quote comes from Drewie. He was talking about dinosaurs and called a

"Pteradactyl"

a

"Terredoctor".

I was a little amused to say the least. I had to ask my newphew (who is the encylopedia of dinosaur knowledge and spelling) how to spell Pteradactyl and learnt something in the process... it is spelt with a silent "P"... They do say you learn something new everyday.

ESAD Sale-a-bration blog hop

It's time for another blog hop again! Welcome back to my regular readers and hello to new ones. Before I let you know what ESAD stands for and see my projects, I just want you let you know a little bit about sale-a-bration.

Sale-a-bration (SAB) is an awesome special Stampin' Up! have each year. For every order of $100 you get to choose a free stamp set from a choice of 4 (Good Neighbours, Whimsical Words, Vintage Labels or Happy Moments) and there is no limits! If you have a workshop and the workshop goes over $600 you also get to choose a SAB stamp set plus all the other bonuses you always get from a workshop. Stampin' Up! also give new recruits that join during SAB a free stamp set of their choice to the value of $79.95. How good is that?

Note: The $100 and $600 amounts are prior to postage and handling which is $5.95 or 5% of the total order (whichever is the greater of the two)

To view the sale-a-bration catalogue, visit here... http://www3.stampinup.com/au/documents/SAB_10_AU-NZ.pdf

What is ESAD? ESAD stands for Extra Special Australian (and New Zealand) Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up!  We love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends and wonderful blog visitors but we share our love for what we do with each other as Demonstrators.

If you wish to join ESAD visit here: http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESAD-SU/

I just want to let you know, if you do make it around to all theblogs in today’s Blog Hop and comment on each one, you are in the running for some Extra Special Blog Candy.  Demonstrators from all over have donated blog candy for this blog hop and if you are the lucky winner you’ll be getting all sorts of parcels. If you comment on all the blogs, drop Leonie an e-mail at [email protected] letting her know that you commented on all the blogs to go into the draw for the ‘extra special’ blog candy.

You've just come from Rebecca Scurr's blog. 

I've made a pocket card (inspired by Dawn Griffith) perfect to give to a new neighbour. On my card, I have slipped in some local take-away food menus but you could fill in with anything you like.

 

Materials list:
Stamps: Good neighbours (sale-a-bration), loads of love, loads of love accessories, neighbourhood jumbo stampin' around wheel
Ink: Chocolate chip, old olive, rose red, basic black, going grey, bashful blue
Cardstock: Old olive, rose red, whisper white, mellow moss
Accessories: Scallop edge punch, 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, 5/8" neutrals assortment jumbo brads, stampin' write markers, tall tails designer series paper, top note die, crystal effects

Click here to visit Sarah Stevens' blog to see the next creation.

Dress up's???

Today, Bella came into our lounge to find me reading the newspaper and she announces "Bella is now Drew..."

Bella was indeed wearing Drew's clothes. 

Nikki and Drew come around the corner giggling and Josh announces "Drew is Nikki and Nikki is Bella..." Of course they wear dressed in Nikki's and Bella's clothes.

A strange look for a boy to be wearing a skirt and knitted top and for a 5 year old girl squeezing into her sister's size 2 and 3 clothes...

The 3 "dress up-ers" weren't fond of letting me take a photo (although Josh was) and Drew quickly disrobed begging Bella for his clothes back.

Can I go to Spencer's house???

A friend of Josh's lives just down the road and he is often asking if he can go to Spencer's house. As Spencer has a younger brother Drew's age, Nikki and Drew often tag along.

Today, Josh asked if he could go to Spencer's house and before anyone else mentioned a word, Bella pipes up with "Can I go to Spencer's house too?"

Height chart

I grew up with a height chart on the toy cupboard door at home. (Nat grew up with marks on the back of the kitchen door). Obviously, all good ideas must be reproduced so we also have a height chart on my storage cupboard... I usually take the kids measurements (height and weight) every 3 months and took Drew's measurements yesterday (as he wasn't home when I did the other kids).

Our height chart

My mum has asked me a few times before, have I ever "compared" the kids height at the same age. I have, but only an age here or there. As I wanted to get the figures onto the computer in case something happens to my height chart, I entered them into excel and did a comparison.

The boys

The girls

Josh plateaus, he usually grows for 3 months and then not the next 3 months. Nikki and Drew have steady growth every 3 months and Bella had steady growth up until she was 1.5 years, grew heaps at 1 3/4 years (6cm), another huge growth spurt at 2 1/4 years and has almost no growth since then.

Okay so, I am showing my geekish-ness, but it is interesting all the same. For one thing, I expect Bella to have a decent growth spurt very soon which could explain why she keeps on asking for more food.

I'll be back tomorrow with something crafty (the first of the blog hops).