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

Catch up

Finally getting the time update the goings on around my place over the last week and a half. Last Thursday week, had 48 hours with no kids and saw two concerts (Newton Faulkner and Lady Gaga). Opening act for Newton Faulkner was Georgia Fair. We had no idea who they were until they played their final song.... the acoustic song played when the Big M ads are played, called ‘picture frames’! Took the usual self portrait shots! If you look carefully in the space between our heads in the Newton Faulkner photo you can see the couple behind us squeezing in for a pic too! *giggles* They were funny people...

Newton Faulkner (April 8th)

Lady Gaga (April 9th)

Had birthday lunch for Aunty Didi, Bella and Shaunie on Saturday April 10th with the Oakes/Hawkins families. Kids had a ball playing as usual. After arriving back at Didi's house for cake etc. I made my kick ass vanilla slice (even if I have to toot my own horn... LOL) which was woofed up oh so quickly and Nat, Warren and some of the kids played a game of monopoly. What is with the electronic bank I ask? Sort of takes all the fun out of it, and $2 million for passing go? Whoa! Not sure who had more fun playing monopoly, Nat, Warren or Josh? :D

Drew wrote on Bella’s present from Oma (my grandmother) and I was surprised at how good his writing was.

Bella wearing her Cinderella dress up outfit from Uncle Warren, Aunt Mandz and Chloe.

 

Dinner with the Davidson clan for Boo's birthday. She got shy and hid her face with her hands when we were singing happy birthday.

Term 2 of school started. Woo hoo, have a love/hate relationship with school holidays! Bella enjoyed having the older kids home to play with but certainly didn’t complain when they were back at school either.

 

Josh's first day at Auskick

 

April stamp club. Photos come of this months creations.

Boo's actual birthday (April 18th). Opening present from Aunty Didi and Shaunie. As always, she got spoiled. Between a Cinderella dress, toy shoes, butterfly wings, princess crowns, personalised Mickey Mouse hat/ears and a doctors bag she has the dress ups almost all covered. She got a pile of clothes, a scooter, puzzles and other things I can't even remember right now.

Have been getting lazy doing my hair and allowing the 'natural' curl to escape somewhat more...

Applied for Kim Archer's @home support team call, made it through to the top 15 but unsuccessful gaining a position. Part of my entry is to be featured in an upcoming Mother's Day class. Congratulations to Sheree Forcier and Lisa Pate for being the two new support team members.

Last but not least, saw Kelly Clarkson last night... and then that is the end of the concerts for a while (no more booked) ... Photos on the point and shoot but too lazy to upload. Did the usual self portrait but not one squeezing in the background like at Newton Faulker. Still cracks me up when I see that pic.

SAM creative challenge #8 with MMM

Edited to add:

To purchase pdf visit http://rosdavidson.typepad.com/ros_davidson_live_life_an/2010/04/marchs-mmm-pdf.html

Time for another SAM creative challenge. This time the criteria is to scrapbook 5 things you like about yourself. The prize this fortnight is being donated by Tanja Westwood and is 2 jumbo stampin' around wheels of your choice.

Journaling is hidden behind the photo, but is also written in light text on the baja breeze cardstock. Journaling reads:

"5 things I like about me...

fingernails (they grow long but of course when they are all looking lovely, many break)

legs (they are the same length as my mother's and she is 5'6" and I am 5'3" and a bit

hair (it grows fast)

teeth (they are nice and straight after 3 1/2 years of orthodontic work in my teens)

(ability to) sleep (I'm able to sleep almost anywhere and at anytime of the day)"

Materials list:
Stamps: Simple serif alphabet and numbers
Inkpads: Going grey, not quite navy
Cardstock: Whisper white, basic grey, kiwi kiss
Accessories: Urban garden designer series paper, linen thread, baja breeze button (retired), medium jewelry tag (autumn/winter mini catalogue), lots of tags die (autumn/winter mini catalogue), little leaves die (autumn/winter mini catalogue)

Moving onto the 12th MMM card (yikes) and the 3rd wreath design.

Just throwing in a close up as I had so much fun making this card!

Hoping to post a huge catch up post of the last week and a half. There has been a pile of celebrations, concerts and a birthday all mixed in.

Delayed MMM #11, colour renovation and more

Edited to add:

To purchase pdf visit http://rosdavidson.typepad.com/ros_davidson_live_life_an/2010/04/marchs-mmm-pdf.html

Apologises again for the delayed MMM. It has been some busy few days in my house over the last half week and add in some computer problems and here we are.

If you haven't heart, Stampin' Up! are retiring some colours from the colour families/palette ending August 31st 2010. The best bit, is they are bringing back some old fav's along with some new ones too!

With no further ado, the retiring colours are:

 

 The new "families" begining September 1st. Subtles, brights, regals and neutrals. As part of the new colour renovation, in colours have made a slight change also. Each year, FIVE new in colours will be introduced and they will remain for two years. This means the in colours being introduced September 1st, 2010 will not "retire" until the 2012 - 2013 colours are introduced and begining with the 2011-2012 catalogue we will have 10 in colours )the previous years five plus the new five)

I am super excited as kraft is being renamed as crumb cake (not the exciting part!) but there will be markers, crayons and inkpads in many more colours (kraft being one of them). Don't worry for those that have the exsisting markers/crayons etc. there will be an "update" package allowing you to purchase the new colours (and inserts for the markers case/crayons etc.) meaning you won't have to buy all new things.

Just one thing I'd like to point out. Some colours have changed "families". This is because the intenstity of colours in the families are different (for example the brights are not as bright as bold brights were).

Orginally, I had planned on included the past half weeks update with this post but, I'll leave that for the next post as I think this is chock load full of updates already.

Flashback friday

I was reading Dannii Best's blog (of Kipindi Photography) where she had a flashback Friday post. With not having shared any photos of Easter I thought I'd begin with a last week post, last year etc. In looking over photos taken in April over various years, I discovered a few ones. One of them being, Bella wearing a Winnie the Pooh suit at 12 months of age when Drew begun wearing it at 6 months of age (obviously it was big on her) but it reminded me of her tiny Bella was until she hit the begining of her major growth spurt at 1.75years.

Drew in the suit mentioned, 6 months old sitting up at Nanna's house playing with a childhood toy of mine.

 

Last week

Good Friday at Uncle Warren's house. Drew, Josh, Nikki and Chloe wearing hat and gloves (easter presents from Aunty Didi and Shaunie).

 

Ride on lawn mower rides with Uncle Warren (Josh). Who cares if Uncle Warren can't see while "driving" as an excited Josh is too busy waving.

 

Two year old temper tantrum, niece Chloe upset it was someone else's turn on the ride on (not to mention the poor little chicken was exhausted and overtired).

 

Last year, 2009

Honeymoon in Port Douglas and Palm Cove

Two boys asleep in my bed (Drew on the left, Josh on the right). Not fighting for 5 seconds and nice and peaceful. Also a place Drew would sleep all the time if allowed as his bed is not comfortable, too hot or any other excuse you can think of.

Nikki and the all important chocolate for breakfast on Easter Sunday

Bella watching the Tarra Valley Festival in Yarram, Easter Saturday

Two years ago, 2008

Daddy and his little girl (Bella) on her first birthday
 

Kinder homework (what I did over the Easter school holidays) 
 
Three years ago, 2007

Aunty Didi's birthday at the "spaceship" park in Narre Warren. Shaunie gets some air off the swing while Nanna pushes Drew, Nikki and Josh on the swings.

Isabella Hope Davidson was born at 12.02am 18th April 2007 and Daddy "caught" her as she was being delivered.

Nikki with a funky hairstyle created by Aunty Didi. Also see her undies poking out from her jeans, reminds me of how all the kids (except Josh) were toilet trainned before they were two. Josh picked up his toilet training skills once Nikki begun toilet training approx. 18/19 months old.

Aunty Fiona (or Fi-nona as Josh called her) and Josh. Who else would drop everything and fly across the country to help family clearly struggling with a mother in her final weeks of her fourth pregnancy. I probably had undiagnosed pre natal depression with post natal depression being diagnosed when Bella was 3 weeks old.

 

Drew during Easter egg hunt, Easter Sunday. Photo more to capture the yellow gumboots (Josh got as part of his first birthday present from Grandma and Grandad )which all 4 kids wore and we only got rid of when they became too small and Bella was forever attempting to squish her feet into them.

Four years ago, 2006

Holiday to Gold Coast with Nat, Aunty Didi and Shaunie. Visited Movie World (photo). Also first time left the kids for any length of time (5 days).

Drew wearing his Easter hat, a present from Aunt Mandz for his first Easter.

Nikki and her curly mop of hair

Josh with Chalazion (eyelid cyst). Had day surgery to remove the 3 infected meibomiam glands on the bottom left lower eyelid.

 

Five years ago, 2005

Nikki and Josh in a toy dolls cot. A gift I received from my maternal grandparents (Oma and Opa) for my third Christmas. Many a time have I found a child playing (or even sleeping in the cot)

Nikki (and Josh) would have a shower with an adult with Nikki getting out first. She would be dressed and then would entertain herself with "junk mail" before falling fast asleep.

 

Happy birthday Aunty Didi

It is my sister's birthday today, she is turning 24 and of course I had to make a card for her. How could I not???I am making (well, I will certainly be receiving help!!!) her a handbag from either denim jeans or fabric of her choice in this style (minus the flower)

I already have a marlo bloom handbag and it is reversible. I was unsure for what fabric choices she wanted hence my stalling and/or if she'd prefer the denim jeans handbag made from kid size Quiksilver jeans (none less for my fashionista icon sister!)

Obviously her card had to feature a handbag and I decided to go with the denim look. It also falls into a challenge on our team forum of creating something with the big shot. If anyone would like more information about joining my team and being part of a larger forum, contact me. 

Did you know the big shot can cut through a variety of materials? Obviously, fabric is one of them as I have woven some real strips of denim to create the handbag along with using the "faux denim" technique.

Materials list:

Stamps: On your birthday, tiny tags

Cardstock: More mustard, brocade blue, night of navy

Ink: Chocolate chip, more mustard, bashful blue, whisper white, not quite navy, night of navy, brocade blue

Accessories: big shot (autumn/winter mini catalogue), top note die (autumn/winter mini catalogue), 1/4" real red & night of navy grosgrain ribbon, medium jewellery tag punch (autumn/winter mini catalogue), linen thread

Other: Scrapbook paper from my stash

ESAD autumn/winter mini catalogue blog hop & Day 7 of mini catalogue creations

Hi all, just a quick few words before I move onto the blog hop. This is my final day of my 7 days of Autumn/Winter mini catalogue creations and it so happens to have coincided with the ESAD blog hop! Lucky me!!! :D

Welcome to the ESAD autumn/winter mini blog hop! As normal with blog hops, this will be a longer post than normal. Remember to grab your drinks and get comfy before you start traveling round and round from blog to blog.

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 so 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 are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

Just before I share my project with you I also want you to know that if you do make it around to all 25 Blogs involved in today’s Blog Hop and if you comment on each one, you are in the running for some Extra Special Blog Candy.  The 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. Also, just wanting to let you know, this blog hop there will be blog candy for both Australian and New Zealand commenter's (demonstrators not included).

You've just come from Richelle Fletcher's blog. Now that I have got all the info out of the way, time for show and tell! How cute is this little pillow box? I can see myself making many of these, maybe even as wedding favours for the wedding I am designing invites for as I type.... Could also be used as a mini lolly bag for the kids at school. Ohhh, all the ideas! Today, I've used it as a little pocket holder of tags for gifts. Who would like to receive something as sweet as this to use on presents?

To view the next project click here to visit Sharlene Meyer's blog.

Materials list:
Stamps: Tiny tags (autumn/winter mini catalogue), vintage vogue (autumn/winter mini catalogue), cottage garden (autumn/winter mini catalogue)
Inks: Rich razzleberry (autumn/winter mini catalogue), old olive, basic black
Cardstock: Whisper white, rich razzleberry (autumn/winter mini catalogue), old olive
Punches: Medium jewelry tag (autumn/winter mini catalogue), small tag, large tag
Accessories: Big shot pillow box die (autumn/winter mini catalogue), cottage wall designer series paper (autumn/winter mini catalogue), linen thread, medium window sheets (autumn/winter mini catalogue), crop-o-dile

Autumn/winter mini catalogue creations - day 5, day 6 and Making Merry Monday

Edited to add:

To purchase pdf visit http://rosdavidson.typepad.com/ros_davidson_live_life_an/2010/04/marchs-mmm-pdf.html

"Autumn/winter mini catalogue creations - day 5, day 6 and Making Merry Monday"

Wow, that is a mouthful isn't it??? Apologises to those that visited me yesterday looking for the Making Merry Monday post. By the time I had finished creating the card the lightening with terrible.

Now, onto today's autumn/winter mini catalogue creation.

Materials list:
Stamps: Tiny tags.
Inkpads: Soft suede (autumn/winter mini catalogue), summer sun
Cardstock: Summer sun, kraft, very vanilla, soft suede (autumn/winter mini catalogue)
Punches: Extra large 2 step bird punch (autumn/winter mini catalogue), 1" circle, 3/4" circle
Accessories: Soft suede 1/2" polka dot grosgrain ribbon (autumn/winter mini catalogue)

Drop by again tomorrow to see my creation for the ESAD blog hop.

Correct and a bunny rabbit

“Your boring” said Bella (to Daddy)

“Am I boring? Asked Daddy

“Yes” said Bella

“Your silly” said Daddy

“No you’re silly” said Bella

“I’m silly” said Daddy (to Bella)

There was a slight pause before Bella replied “Correct”

 

Too funny and at two, sometimes thinks a little too much!

 

The other night after I had finished my bunny rabbit sample for today's Easter basket Bella insisted on making one. I love how proud she looks even if her bunny rabbit does look a little like an elephant, I still adore it.

Family easter present

As a family easter present this year, we got the newest Glee dvd.

We sat down with some pizza for lunch and had a picnic in our lounge room and watched the first episode. When it got to the final song of the episode Bella begun sing "bup bup bup" in time to the music and all the kids joined in singing the song "Don't stop believing" and Josh and Nikki got up and danced. It was a sweet family moment with everyone enjoying the togetherness and the kids not fighting for 40 minutes!

Obviously I must have been driving around in the car too often with Glee playing on the cd player for the kids to know the words! :D

Autumn/winter mini catalogue creations - day 4

Todays creation is featuring none other than an easter bunny. How could I not with today being Easter Sunday and all. I have used the exclusive Stampin' Up! scallop envelope die and cut 4 of them out with teh big shot to create a box. A perfect little easter basket to collect small eggs on an easter egg hunt don't you think?

Materials list:
Ink: Pretty in pink, rose red
Cardstock: Whisper white, rose red, pretty in pink, melon mambo (autumn/winter mini catalogue)
Punches: Large oval, small oval, heart to hear, 1/2" circle, eyelet border
Accessories: Big shot (autumn/winter mini catalogue), scallop envelop die (autumn/winter mini catalogue)

Back again tomorrow with more and this time, combining it with my MMM.