anita meade - simple.creative.life

An exciting new journey in scrapbooking.

    I am super excited to be enrolled in Stacy Julian's "Library of Memories Course" for 2009 over at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

                            

    As I've said before, it was Stacy and her Simple Scrapbooking philosophy that reignited my passion for scrapbooking a couple of years ago. Without her inspiration I doubt that I would still be scrapbooking today. I would have, long ago, been overwhelmed by all the products and scrapbooking "stuff" out there. I would have thought it was all too much, felt totally inadequate and lost interest! Stacy reminded me that scrapbooking is supposed to be fun! We need to let go of our guilt about not being "caught up" and allow ourselves to experience the joy of scrapbooking the stories that matter most to us.

    Since I have been using a digital camera, I have become more and more overwhelmed by the number of photos I take, most of which never make it off my hard drive! I am being snowed under! Last year I bought Stacy's book "Photo Freedom" which helped me to think about a better way to organise and scrap my photos. As Stacy says "You can only scrapbook in the way you are organised".  Hopefully her system, "Library of Memories", will help me to reinvigorate the way I enjoy my photos and therefore document and celebrate my life with my gorgeous family.

                               

    Class starts on February 7th and I'm hoping to get started on the pre-class activities next week when the kids are off to school. I received my welcome pack in the mail on Friday. I know that this journey requires a commitment of time and effort (as well as money) but I think that the benefits will certainly outweigh the costs. No doubt I'll be sharing my thoughts on the adventure with you here. Anyone else out there coming along to the Library of Memories classroom? I'd love to hear from you if you are.

                            Love  xxx

Wow.....it is HOT!

    Hi, just popping in to say I'm still here. It is ridiculously hot here. 41C today, 43C tomorrow and at least 40C on Friday and Saturday. We are hiding inside with the air-con pumping, the curtains shut tight and the TV on. Not much going on creatively. I'm just trying to keep the kids occupied because it's too hot to go out and do anything. Also I am without a car today because my beautiful, brand new (4 week old) Commodore Sportswagon is at the panel-beaters! Yep, some inconsiderate so-and-so scraped the front bumper bar with a (?) trolley when we were at the shops last week. :( I was SO upset. I know it is only a car, but it is BRAND NEW and oh-so-shiny and I love it. Anyway, we will have it back tomorrow all fixed up. Here's a pic of the new car BEFORE "the incident".

                     

    In other news, we spent the Australia Day weekend up at my sister's place near Albury (man was is HOT up there!). Had a lovely, relaxing time hanging out with the family.We especially loved the visit to their generous neighbour's rockin' pool! (Thanks for letting us use it Glenda). I took umpteen photos of the kids in the pool, but here are a few of my favourites:

                     

That's Corey under all that gear. Love how he even manages a smile for the camera with a snorkel in his mouth! LOL!

 

And here's my little swimming machine - he was able to swim the full length of the pool (about 12 metres)  all by himself without stopping (with and without the snorkel! LOL!) Yay Jayden - you're going so well with your swimming. Love ya matey!

  

    Here's Jack and Granmama having a cuddle and a chat. Love the hat Jack! Keep up the great swimming practice mate.

                       

    Last but not least, Cooper in full flight! This kid is fearless! With the help of his Dad Colin he was flying through the air. This is my favourite photo for the weekend. I feel a scrapbook layout about this photo coming soon....

    Thanks so much, Jode and Col, for having us for the weekend. We love you guys very much.

     Only 5 more sleeps until school goes back....I have mixed feelings about it, but overall I'm looking forward to a little more time to create, and also time to keep things around here a bit more organised. For now though, I'm going to spend some time with my boys. I think there might be a few games of Wii bowling coming up this arvo.

    Take care and for those in Australia, stay cool and well hydrated in this heat wave. Come and visit again soon.

                                   Love   xxx

Something quick to kick off the weekend!

    Just popping in quickly this morning to show you a recent page.....

  

    This was my last page for the Souloglogy project last year. It is an interesting exercise to think about what kind of legacy you want to leave the world. It makes you think about about how you are spending each and every day, and whether you are living your best life. Hopefully pages like this will help my kids (and others) understand me better.

      I promise next week to lighten the mood a bit! I'll have something fun and not so philosophical to show you in a few days! lol! In the meantime, thanks for visiting, and enjoy your weekend!

                            Love     xxx

    

       

Digging deep journaling

    Today I wanted to show you a layout I did for the Soulology Project online course by Erika Martin. It is called "Redefined" and it is an example of how, with a little prompting, you can dig deep and tell the stories of your life in a meaningful way. Without the story, this would still be a lovely photo of our home with a rainbow above it.......but with this journaling attached it becomes a record of my thoughts and feelings; a story of where I am in my life right now. I would not have this page if it weren't for Erika's course.

    Her next course, Journaling 101 starts on Monday 26th January. I urge you, if you seek to become more confident with journaling on your pages, to join me for this journey. It will enhance your scrapbooking, and the way you view your life and experiences. If you pop over to Erika's blog you have a chance to WIN a spot in this course for FREE! You can read all about it in this post. But you'd better be quick because she is drawing a winner FRIDAY MORNING (US time).

   

    Thanks for coming to visit today. Glad you could stop by!

                          Love xxx

Photo memory game

    My buddy Sandie has set me a challenge.....a fun little game called the photo memory game. Here's how it goes:

Go to where you store you pictures on your computor.
Go to the SIXTH folder and pick the SIXTH picture.
Post that picture on your blog along with a SHORT story about it.
Tag SIX people and leave a comment on their blog or email them letting them know you chose them.

So here are the six people who I think would enjoy this quick little challenge (hope you are up for it girls):

1. Sue Madex

2. Claire Daly

3. Jo Mitchell

4. Di Herman

5. Leanne Stamatellos

6. Nicole Southworth

And here's my photo........

            

    It was taken on the 4th of May 2005 which was Danny's 39th birthday. We'd enjoyed dinner and birthday cake with Dan's lovely sister Laura and her family. Obviously it was all too much for Jayden! He must have been completely worn out! I love that you can see our clothes airer full of washing in the background, including Jayden's swimming top - we had been having lessons at the local swimming school here in Lilydale. In those days I had to get in the water with both the kids for their lessons. How times have changed in 3 1/2 years.....Jayden rarely falls asleep before he goes to bed now, and certainly not cuddled up in my arms. He barely fits on my lap like this these days. He is much less chubby now and has more freckles on his face. Of course I haven't changed a bit - ROFL! Except maybe for an extra chin!

    Thanks for the challenge Sandie - I love this photo and I'd forgotten all about it!

                    Love   xxx

Celebrating our anniversary

    Yesterday was our 8th wedding anniversary (and the ninth anniversary of the day we met). We decided to celebrate as a family this year, with dinner and a movie with our boys. It was a fun evening as we went to see "Bedtime Stories". We usually go to dinner and a movie for our anniversary because that is what we did on our first date - which, by the way, was a blind date that neither of us thought would go anywhere! Boy were we wrong! Exactly one year later we were tying the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Hawthorn. It was a dream come true romance. Here's a page with a pic of us on our wedding day.....seems like just yesterday.

 

    I didn't get around to taking a photo of us on our anniversary this year, but I did do this quick page with a photo from our anniversary last year.

      

    I really love this guy, and it just keeps getting better. Sure it's not all hearts and flowers EVERY DAY but I have no doubt that we were put on this planet to be together. He makes me ridiculously happy and I'm so grateful that he knows all my faults and loves me anyway!

    After nine years together, he came home yesterday with the most amazing bunch of 20 long stem roses....."Sure", I hear you say "flowers on your anniversary....not so unusual". But it was the fact that  when he gave them to me, he commented that he picked out the champagne colour roses because they were the exact colour that was in my wedding bouquet - now that completely blew me away! He's such a romantic....often more so than I am. How lucky am I?

                                Love   xxx

Fun with stamps, shrink plastic and a heat tool.

    I love shrink plastic! There; I said it. It may go in and out of vogue; it may have been around for decades, it may be for kids......but I love it. And now I've combined it with my stamps and my heat tool for even more fun!

    Today I want to show you two cards I whipped up this morning using shrink plastic and my stamps. For both these cards I've used the Ginger Blossom DSP from the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini Catalogue and the coordinating cardstock colours (love how easy this is) River Rock and Groovy Guava as well as Whisper White and Basic Black. I've stamped in Black Stazon ink, then cut out my images, punched holes in them for brads/stitching and shrunk them with my heat tool in a heat proof tray (I use my Tupperware silicone baking tray). I love the final result, and I hope you do to. The possibilities for shrink plastic and stamps are endless! What do you think?

 

Here's a close up of the flowers from the Embrace Life stamp set. The sentiment is a rubon from the Eastern Elegance set.

 

    This second card uses the little birdie from the "Always" stamp set out of the Spring Mini last year. I think he looks even cuter at 1/3 the size.....and facing the other way too! See how I punched holes in him to make him like a button? You need to do that before you shrink him.

 

    Thanks for coming to visit today. It is about 38 degrees (celcius) here in my outer suburb of  Melbourne and we have been hiding inside with the air-conditioning on all day. Just watched "Horton Hears a Who" with the kids. I just adore that movie. Definitely one of my favourite kid flicks.....a bit philosophical for the grown-ups too, if you're that way inclined! Come and visit again soon.

                                        Love      xxx

Lucky me....TWO blog awards!

    I feel very honoured to have received two blog awards in the last week or two. The first one is called the Proximity award and it is from my lovely and talented friend Sandie Downey. Sandie is a fabulous girl who always has lots of colourful, fun and inspiring ideas over on her blog. She is one of the true gems I have come across since I entered Blog-land. Thanks so much for your ongoing friendship and support Sandie.  Here is the award:

                                      

"These blogs believe and invest in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their awards".

     Now for my choice of eight deserving recipients of the Proximity award:

1. Jo-Anne Mitchell

2. Sue Madex

3. Tanja Westwood

4. Claire Daly

5. Miriam Thomas

6. Kathleen Glossop

7. Sharon Jonsson

8. Trudi Hopkinson

    The second blog award I have received is from Fiona Fabiyanic and it is the Marie Antoinette Award. Fiona's blog "Fab Creations" has been a new discovery for me this year. She makes gorgeous cards. Go and check out her beautiful work, and leave her a comment to say hello!

                                       

I am to pass it on to 7 talented bloggers so here goes:

1. Meredith Treloar

2. Ros Oakes

3. Lee Woodside

4. Alana Galagher

5. Janelle Wind

6. Mardi Winen

7.  Belinda Venables

    All of these ladies (from both awards) are extremely talented, creative and just plain nice people. Stop by their blogs and check out their work......and make sure you leave them some love in the form of a comment.......I'm sure they'd love to know you've visited. Tell 'em I sent you!

    Well, that's a wrap from me today. I have actually posted three times today! That has to be some sort of record! My head is brimming with creative ideas so I'm sure it won't be long before I have more to share with you. I made my beautiful hubby an anniversary card tonight (we celebrate our 8th Anniversary tomorrow, January 20th) so I'm sure I'll be posting a pic of it soon.

        Thanks for stopping by......again. I'm so grateful you feel that this is a worthwhile place to come and visit.  I really do enjoy putting it all together for you.

                                    Love     xxx

 

Journaling 101 - come and join me!

    I'd like to invite you on a journey.....a journey that will make you a better writer, journalist, and storyteller.......a journey that will make your scrapbook pages really mean something to people who read them. Come and join me for this fantastic course, by Erika Martin - Stampin' Mama.

 

    I'm honoured to have been asked by Erika to be on the design team for this course. As you may know, I was a member of the design team for her online course "The Soulology Project" last year. As a result of that course I now have an album full of layouts that tell my story....layouts that I would not have without Erika's guidance. This new course "Journaling 101" will help you to develop your skills and confidence in journaling on your scrapbook pages. After all, that is the part of scrapbooking that I am most passionate about....the stories. I have said before that scrapbooking is not just about decorating photos. It is about using words and photos to tell the stories of your life. Not sure where to start? Then Journaling 101 is definitely for you. So come along and join me - class starts next Monday 26th January, so there is still time to register. Make sure you tell Erika I sent you when you register. I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with you.    

    Here's one of my layouts from the Soulogy Project course.

 

    Thanks for looking! Come and visit again soon.

                            Love    xxx

This is one very cute little human!

    Just a quick post this morning to show you a layout I did last week of my 5 year old Corey in the bath after swimming lessons. The conversation we had just had to be documented. His "baby-talk" days are almost over which I'm a little sad about. I know he has to grow up but I will miss these little gems of pronunciation. The trick is finding a way to spell them the way he says them!

               

    I made the little fishy out of shrink plastic and markers. The patterned paper is Stampin' Up as are the rub-on, and the brads.

    It's going to be a hot one here in Melbourne today. Only two more weeks of keeping the kids entertained before school starts.......looking forward to that! It is 9am and they are arguing already. Sometimes they are the best of mates and sometimes they just live to antagonise each other. That's siblings I guess - my sister and I were the same.

    I'll be back later today with some info about the new course I'm on the design team for. It is going to be such a valuable journey and is certain to get the words flowing onto your scrapbook pages. Come and visit again soon to find out all about it. Have a happy Monday.

                                   Love   xxx