anita meade - simple.creative.life

Happy Birthday Jo

    Today is my friend Jo's birthday, so I want to share the card I made just for her. Jo is the sort of friend you can rely on to pick up your kids from school if you're running late, or drop them home when you're not well. She cares about you and what's going on with your life. She remembers the things that are important to you. She's there in an instant for a cuppa, a hug or a chat when you need it. Everyone should have a friend like Jo. I'm lucky because she is my friend. Here's the card I made for her today:

        

This is a picture of Jo with my kids and her kids. It represents to me how much I trust her with their safety and care. Thanks Jo, for being such a wonderful friend. Happy Birthday.

 

I've fixed the link....

I just wanted to let you know that I have fixed the link in this post to my sister's wonderful Etsy site "Jodie Summers Designs". My apologies to anyone who tried to click on it and found it not working. Remember there is also a link and mini gallery of her work over in my right hand side bar.....so it is always easy to find. Check it out! Here's a reminder of what one of her gorgeous pieces looks like...

      

Just to be fair.....and because I love this idea!

Here's a matching nicknames page about Jayden. I just went back into my word document (the one I created for Corey's page), and played with the text boxes that were already there.....no point in reinventing the wheel! Now the boys both have a page recording the common nicknames we have for them right now. One day I'm sure, some of these names would have been forgotten. Not now!

Really should get off the computer and fold some clothes now....my house is looking less than stellar at the moment! Thanks for dropping in today. Love Anita. xxx

Nicknames.....

First up, I have to admit that the idea for this page was completely scraplifted from the very talented Belinda Venables. Thanks Belinda, I just loved your layout about McKenzie's nicknames, so I decided to create a similar page for my Corey. Mine is much more simple. The words are completely done on my computer using text boxes in a Word document. Then I printed it out, added the Stampin' Up! DSP, and then my photo with a little handwriting next to it. Voila! From inspired to complete in under an hour!

 

 Just to keep you up to date, my elimination diet is going well. I am definitely feeling clearer in the head and I'm having less "wipeouts". Now we begin the challenge of reintroducing foods one at a time to try to work out what the culprits are that are contributing to my fibromyalgia......we'll see how it all goes. I am seriously missing my coffee I must say, but most other things I can live without....so far. The tricky bit it is that other things trigger my symptoms too, so working out whether my aches and fatigue on any given day are caused by a particular food, or the cold weather, or my hormones, or how well I slept etc etc. is difficult. If I could just live in a bubble while I'm experimenting with the foods, to exclude any other influences, then I would be able to get a much more scientific result. But alas, I live in the real world so my detective efforts may be a little stretched.     

Speaking of sleep, I'm getting pretty weary so I might sign off for the night. Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to leave me a comment and say Hi, yes, even you "lurkers' who visit without letting me know - I'd love to know who has been here to visit. Take care and see you again soon with some more crafty stuff. Love Anita. xxx

I love you spotty....

 Happy Monday everyone! I have a fun, modern style card for you today, with just a hint of twine to "countrify" it IYKWIM! Rounded corners on cards are really big at the moment.  This simple card is made using the "A Happy Heart" stamp set (retired), some retired DSP, American Crafts Thickers, Making Memories glitter brads and some Stampin' Up! ribbon and a button. Quick easy and fun.

This would be a good Valentines or Anniversary card for a hubby/boyfiend who doesn't like too much frilly, mushy stuff (like most men I guess). It could also be used to tell Mum how you feel about her this Mother's Day - you've gotta love a multi-purpose card!

Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by today. Hope your week starts out wonderfully (and continues that way too!). Love Anita. xxx

Trendy Trees.

     Here's some cards I made on Friday night using the new stamp set "Trendy Trees". I decided to make a matching set of two cards. Card sets always make great gifts I think, expecially if you include matching envelopes. The ingredients for these cards are listed below. Love these little trees so much. There are two other foliage designs in the set too. I think this set will be really versatile. Another thing I adore is the new "In Colour" Kiwi Kiss, especially paired with Chocolate Chip and Kraft. It's so earthy-looking.

 

 

Ingredients:

Stamps: Trendy Trees

Cardstock: Kraft, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip

Patterned Paper: Good Morning Sunshine DSP

Other: Dimensionals, Linen Thread.

    

Hope you like em'! I think they're just lovely, personally :)

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow for a more modern looking card creation. Love Anita. xxx

Here's trouble!

    Well I finally got around to a scrapbook page. This one is of my nephew Cooper and Corey last Easter. Unusually for me, this page has no journaling to speak of. The photo, title and rubons do, however tell the story of the personality of these two cousins. Together they really are trouble.....but it's all in good fun. We had another wonderful weekend with them last weekend. The kids run riot, get filthy dirty and have a ball. They come home happy and exhausted after a weekend at the Summers family home. Thanks for having us Jode and Col.

A fairytale...

    I have another recently completed layout to show you today. This one was also for "Journaling 101" and the idea was to journal in a storybook fashion. So I told the best fairytale I know....the story of us. I am incredibly blessed to have found my loving hubby and, although it's not all hearts and flowers, and although there are everyday challenges, our love truly is a fairytale. I am so proud to share it in this page.

 

          (click on the page to get a closer look and read about our fairytale)

    All the products here are by Stampin' Up! except for the black flower border across the bottom which is by Doodlebug Design Inc.

    In other news, the weather is turning nasty here in Melbourne today. Hopefully we will get a decent fall of rain though. Our new water tank is due to be delivered next Thursday, so we will unfortunately miss out on the rain predicted this weekend. Hopefully there will be enough over the next few months to fill it. It is a 10,000 litre tank, so I guess it will take quite a bit of rain to fill. Not sure about the logistics of getting it into position in the back corner of our backyard. Danny has mentioned a friend with a crane truck, and he's hoping the school behind us will let us drive in and drop it over the fence into our backyard....hmmm. Sounds tricky, but I'm sure he knows what he's doing (?).

    My elimination diet is going along ok. Yesterday I had quite a good day and I thought perhaps the diet was starting to have an effect. But today I have a stinking headache so I'm not too confident yet. We will see over the coming days......

    Well, that's about it for today. Not much excitement going on here. I feel the need to create something, but I don't know where to start. I have a yearning for something tactile, like a stitchery at the moment. While I was up at my sisters I crocheted myself a cream scarf. I've never done crochet before, so a book from the library was my guide. It turned out not too badly I have to say, for my first effort. A little crooked in parts, but it all adds to the "homemade" effect. As Stacy Julian always says, perfection is overrated.

    Thanks for stopping by today, and if you're in Melbourne it's time to go and "batten down the hatches" (or whatever the saying is!). The wild weather is a-comin'! Take care and see you again soon. Love Anita. xxx

Here's a page for you.....

     

  (click on the layout to get a closer view and to read the story about our cot)

   While I haven't created anything new in the last week or two, I just remembered a couple of pages that I haven't shared yet. These were for the "Journaling 101" course with Erika Martin which has now wrapped up. This page is about the construction of our kids cot. We became experts at assembling and disassembling this thing by the time our kids moved into "big beds". I love these photos as they remind me of the time when it was just Dan and I.....eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first baby.

    I'll dig up another page for you soon, so please come back and visit again soon. Love Anita. xxx

Taking care of myself this week.

    Hi! You're back! Thanks for visiting again.....before you get too excited, I must warn you - I have no new cards or scrapbook pages to show you. To be honest I haven't been creative yet this week. I am just doing "the basics" right now. Yesterday I started a strict elimination diet - the first step in a thorough investigation into the role food allergies play in my state of ill-health. I am feeling pretty lousy as a result as I "detox" from coffee, sugar, wheat, preservatives and all sorts of other things. I am assured by my allergy specialist that I should know within a week whether food allergies are a contributor to my condition - ie. by removing all the "stuff" that I might be reacting to I will feel a significant improvement fairly quickly. I am staying positive, and hoping to find some answers. I am also just doing a little bit of self nurture....being gentle on myself as I make these changes.

   So thanks for being patient with me. I will be blogging as often as I feel I need to over the next couple of weeks, and I'm sure a couple of crafty creations will be posted here sometime soon.

    I'll leave you tonight with a quote from Kathy Randolph Pitman about self-care:

"Today, my self-care begins from the inside out, with an inner recognition that I am worthy of nurturing. It’s a habit, a practice forged over time into a pattern of living. It’s the small choices I make everyday that make me feel pampered:  adequate sleep; a quiet lunch with a fat novel; a walk along the river; thirty minutes of solitude. 

I care for myself every time I say no to something I would only do out of obligation; when I set boundaries on my working hours; when I let my children do for themselves what they can, instead of trying to do everything for them; when I recognize that most things on my “to do” list aren’t urgent, and can wait until tomorrow.

My life, however, can't."

 

          See you again soon. Love Anita. xxx