anita meade - simple.creative.life

Cool cars on a craft blog? What the.....?

Despite what you think, I have not fallen off the face of the earth! lol! We went home to Myrtleford for the weekend, which was great but it throws me out of kilter a bit. Our flying trip was not just to visit my folks, but to visit the huge hotrod show in Bright. My hubby is a hotrod enthusiast. In fact he owned a very cool hotrod when I met him - but we needed a deposit to buy a house so unfortunately it had to be sold. I've felt guilty about getting rid of his "toy" ever since - even though he assures me he's not too scarred by the experience :) Here's a really poor-quality photo of his beloved car, taken many years ago.

Anyway, we went to the Bright Rod Run and, I swear to you, I've never seen anything like it. I have been brought up with an interest in cool cars, thanks to my Dad, and while I don't know anything about engines and the mechanical side of things, I do appreciate a beautiful car. Let me tell you, some of the cars we saw on the weekend were works of art. The amazing colours, shapes, paintwork etc were truly a feast for the eyes. 

 

 

This one (below) was my favourite colour. The paintwork was amazing in real life. I can see why they call this colour "Candy Apple Red"

 

This one (below) was on the cover of a recent hot rod magazine (Cruzin') It was great to see it in real life. Those flames were amazing!

 

 

 

I think Kermit had a great day out at the Rod Run - must have been hot sitting up there though! The temperature was 34 degrees! The kids did really well considering how intense the heat was out in that sun.

This purple car was incredible too. Check out the Marilyn Monroe painting on the boot. How cool is that!?!

 

Even the littlest car fans had hotrods. This little guy was having a blast.

 

I've never been to a Rod Run before and I have to say it was a great atmosphere. Really family oriented. Lots of great old rock'n'roll music. People taking pride in their cars and everyone showing a lot of admiration and respect for the hard work that goes into creating and maintaining these amazing vehicles. Danny has a wishlist as long as his arm now! Hopefully some day we will be able to get him another hotrod. I would love to be able to do that for him. It's fantastic to see someone you love really enjoying their hobby with such passion. 

I promise I'll be back with a more "craft orientated" post soon, but I hope you've enjoyed seeing what we got up to on the weekend. It was lots of fun.

Birthday Boy!

                         

                       Look who's six today!

 

     

 

   

         Happy Birthday Corey! We love you to bits. xxx

Making Merry Monday #19

    Hi everyone and welcome to Monday number 19 in our Making Merry quest! Can you believe Christmas is less than 3 months away now? If you've been playing along with MMM, it is comforting to know you have made quite a dent in your Christmas card quota by now. If not, you'd better get cracking!

    Please excuse the dreadful photo of this weeks MMM card - unfortunately I have taken this at night with a flash - but I guess it's better than no card at all! :) Hopefully you can imagine how much lovlier this card looks in natural light. I have strayed from my SU supplies this week, using a Christmas tree stamp and some ribbon from my stash. I've coloured the image using my blender pens and SU Stampin' Pastels, and I've used my old fave "Warm Words" stamp set for the sentiment. The silver label frame is also SU - silver hodgepodge.

 

 

Here's a closer shot - please excuse the glare!

 

Busy with kids and school holidays here at the moment. Wish the weather was a bit more conducive to getting outside. Kids + holidays + rain = stressed Mummy! Ah well, only a week to go.....I am really enjoying the "sleep-ins" though!  

Thanks for stopping by. Have a truly Merry Monday and a great week.

                                    Love Anita. xxx

Making Merry Monday #18

I have just managed to squeeze this one in while it is still Monday ;)

Here's what I've used:

Cardstock: Mellow Moss and Very Vanilla

Stamps: Christmas Classics, Winter Post (and the sentiment stamp which is not SU!)

Ink: Mellow Moss and Bravo Burgundy

Ribbon: Mellow Moss Taffeta

Other: Burgundy button, Nestabilities labels dies

    It is school holidays here and the weather today was absolutely gorgeous. We spent as much time as possible outside. I enjoyed my morning tea on the front verandah watching my boys ride their bikes and scooters up and down the street. (Watching them flying down the hill took years off my life! Perhaps I shouldn't have watched!) I chatted on the phone to my best buddy Erica and did a little dishcloth knitting.  The boys washed down the outdoor table, which was very dusty, and then we made pancakes for lunch and enjoyed them outside under the pergola. In the afternoon, our new drafting stools were delivered so we muddled our way  through the instructions and put them together (will post some new pics of the craft room on Thursday). We enjoyed a visit from Tom and Will (Erica's boys) in the afternoon while their Mummy did some last minute shopping for Tom's birthday party tomorrow - the boys can hardly wait! In amongst all this there was 3 loads of washing to hang out and bring in, dinner to prepare and just a little bit of fluffing around in my craft room. I think I'll sleep well tonight!

    I hear the weather is supposed to deteriorate as the week goes on, so I'm glad to have enjoyed the sunshine (and gotten the boys outside for a play) today. Off to the movies to see "Up!" tomorrow for Tom's birthday. Looking forward to it :)

    Thanks for visiting today - I'm glad I finally got this card up here for you. Hope you like it.

                     See you again soon. Love Anita. xxx

A scrapbook page.....what a surprise!

Yes, you read the title correctly. This morning I scrapped a page using some photos which I came across while fluffing around in the craft room. I just love the combination of colours in these photos - the pale blue, red and white. I used them as the basis for this layout. I need to get a longer USB cable for my printer since setting up the new desk, so my printer is not connected at the moment. I decided to just handwrite a little bit of journaling in white gel pen. I don't love my handwriting, but it is a part of who I am so I think it's important to use it on my layouts from time to time. Our boys really are our whole world. Having this happy little family is a dream come true for both myself and Danny. We really do thank God every day for blessing us with happy, healthy, gorgeous little boys.

Thanks so much for all your comments on yesterday's post. It is nice to know that other creative folks out there just "get" my passion for making things. While I was quite shocked at the lack of manners from this particular person, I can't say my creative spirit was dented in any way. It would take more that one thoughtless comment to impact upon my need for creative expression. While I don't claim to be the world's greatest artist by any stretch of the imagination, I would never allow anyone or anything to take away the gift of creativity from me.

Thanks so much for visiting my little blog today. I hope your day is a happy one.

                                     Love Anita. xxx

Making Merry Monday #17

     

    Hi everyone and welcome to another Making Merry Monday! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was busy but fun. Jayden's basketball team won their match by just one point on Saturday morning, and they are now into their very first Grand Final next weekend. What a thriller of a match it was. The other team had a shot for goal with only 11 seconds to go and it missed, and we were able to hang on! They did such a fantastic job. I was a very proud Mummy.

    I'm sitting at my amazing new craft room desk typing this post. My wonderful hubby has done a fantastic job building a new desk that will be so much more functional for all of us to use. And it looks so clean and neat.....not sure it will stay that way once I get creating! There are a few very special finishing touches he needs to add to it, so I'll save some photos for when it is completely done - in a couple of days.

    Anyway, onto today's Christmas creation which features a soft, subtle earthy look. Again I've used "Lovely as a Tree" and "Many Merry Messages" stamp sets. I've stamped the trees in white craft ink first, then heat set it to dry quickly and stamped the image again in Chocolate Chip, using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to position the trees exactly where I wanted them. This technique was inspired by a gorgeous Father's Day card by the lovely Christing Blain. (Thanks Christine). It's a little hard to see in the photo, but I've added small rhinestones to the middle tree to make it the festive feature. The kraft background cardstock has been stamped in Sahara Sand in with my Aida Cloth background stamp for a bit of texture. To finish it off I've added a pretty Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon.

    Thanks for dropping in today. Wishing you a Merry Monday and a wonderful week all-round!

                    Love Anita. xxx

Pottering around at home....and loving it!

I am enjoying a new peace after finally accepting that home is where I am supposed to be right now. I am staying on top of the little chores, which is making life more enjoyable for all of us. We know what we are eating for dinner every night according to the menu plan. No ducking out to the supermarket every afternoon to get something for that night, or - worse still - resorting to Macca's because I'm too tired to shop and cook. Pre-planning and pre-shopping has made a huge difference to our stress levels and, dare I say, our general health.

Danny says he is loving the new "domestic goddess" that seems to have taken over my body. He loves having socks and jocks in his drawer, clean clothes in the wardrobe, dinner on the go when he gets home, less general mess around the place, but most of all he loves having a happier, more contented wife. Happy wife, happy life! You know, all along I felt guilty for leaving my nursing job because I thought that Dan was thinking I was just being a lazy slacker. It turns out that he wasn't thinking that at all and that, if it is financially possible, he is more than happy for me to be at home taking care of the house and the family. Communication is a wonderful thing! It has really made such a massive difference to our life for both of us to be comfortable with the current plan and to feel like we are a team, working on the same project - a happy, healthy family.

So as I potter around, going about my daily tasks, I thought I'd take some pictures to share....

Chairs up, waiting for me to vacuum and mop the polished floorboards......

 

First load of washing on the line, soaking up the sun (the second load is in the machine now).....

 

Wandering around the backyard, enjoying this stunning day (it is almost spring!). I've been daydreaming of bringing new life to our garden. It has suffered terribly from the long drought and a long period of neglect as my health took precedence over everything else in our lives. Here is what has survived against the odds......

Beautiful hellebore's:

 

 

and resilient poly-galas (sp?). We have three of these bushes, all thriving......

 

and apparently I can grow daphne! (please excuse the poor quality photo) The flowers aren't huge but I have three daphne bushes, all healthy and loaded with gloriously scented blooms..........

 

And finally, this is the "before" photo of our soon to be created vegie patch. Initially we were going to turn the kid's sandpit into a vegie patch, but then they rediscovered it and have been playing in it to their hearts content lately! So we (by we I mean Danny!lol!) started digging up the "lawn" (read "weeds") next to the sandpit yesterday. We will make it a raised garden bed. One day when the kids really are  over the sandpit, we will take it over and extend the vegie garden, but for now, a small plot will be fine. Notice the lovely big water tank tucked in behind the cubbyhouse? It is FULL to the top! 10,000 glorious litres of water to help our new garden to grow. No doubt I'll have more photos to share as this project progresses......

 

Enjoying this time and this change in perspective. What a truly blessed life I have - not perfect, not always easy, but most definitely blessed.

                   Thanks for stopping by. Love Anita. xxx

For lovely Laura

    Just a quick post to show you the card I made for my lovely sister-in-law Laura who celebrated her birthday yesterday. We had a fun evening with her and her family last night. Happy Birthday Laura.....hope you enjoyed your day. We love you. Mwah!

 

    The light wasn't great for taking this photo unfortunately, but I think you get the idea. Laura loves all things soft and pink and white and floral. This new stamp set called Great Friend was perfect for her. The butterfly and sentiment have both been stamped in pigment ink, then embossed with 'heat'n'stick powder' and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Very pretty I think!

    I have also been wanting to post a pic of the ripple scarf I crocheted for her.....now that she has it I can! It is made with cotton yarn and will be perfect for those nippy spring mornings coming up as it is not too heavy.

 

I'll be back tomorrow with my Making Merry Monday post so be sure to stop by.

Hope your weekend has been fun. Love Anita. xxx

Seeking simplicity and all its rewards......

    I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately about the things that will make our life more peaceful, less stressful and more fulfilling. I guess it comes from my reluctant realisation that, at this stage, I am not really up to considering a taking job outside of the home or even studying. I am a renowned overachiever in lots of ways. I have always had high expectations of myself. At school I was taught that I could be anything, and "have it all". Sounds wonderful doesn't it. However the years have shown me that it is not possible to "have it all" - the high flying career, the happy family, the fulfilling marriage, a perfect home.....I tried to do it and let me tell you, something had to give. In my case it was my health. After three years of struggling with my health I think that I have finally let go of my need to prove myself as a super woman.

    I have had to be really honest with myself about the things that really matter to me and focus my (limited) energy on those things. The things that matter to me, when all is said and done, are my marriage to Danny and raising our children. My main focus in life has to be those things. This realisation has lead me to the conclusion that my job right now, and for the forseeable future, is to be a "homemaker". I guess it's a more holistic term than "housewife", which implies a sort of trapped domestic servant. A homemaker, on the other hand is someone who takes responsibility for the running of the home, both the domestic duties and the nurturing role.

    Now I don't have a history of being particularly organised. No-one has ever labelled me a "Domestic Goddess", but as I said above, I have been considering the things that would make our life more peaceful, less stressful and more fulfilling. I have been greatly inspired by the blog of Michelle Snape, A Vision Splendid. I've taken on board some of Michelle's tips for bringing harmony to the home. Some of the things I've been doing for the last little while include, meal planning, regular grocery shopping from my meal plan, keeping on top of little daily chores so they don't grow into huge jobs.  I can't tell you what a difference it has made just having the little things done every day, like beds made, bathrooms wiped over, sink cleared, floor swept, and washing and folding up to date. I know, I know.....my Mum has tried to drill this stuff into me for years (sorry for not recognising your wisdom Mum), but it has taken a "light-bulb" moment from someone out there in blogland (thanks Michelle) for me to realise that all this stuff is still relevant to todays' homemaker.

    I've also been following an evening routine to make the mornings less stressful. This includes organising lunches and drinkbottles, putting out our clothes for the next day, pre-packing readers in school bags etc. This has been a huge help in the mornings. I've been getting up a little earlier so that I can have my shower and enjoy quiet cuppa in front of the  computer before the kids get up. All these little things have meant a less stressed Mummy, less yelling in the mornings and happier kids! What a pay-off!

    The areas I am working on next are working out a new budget to manage our money (which has significantly decreased since I stopped working 10 months ago) and decluttering our home of some of the unnecessary "stuff" we have accumulated. I'm also excited to be planning a vegetable garden so that we can produce some of our own food. Now that we have a water tank, this is finally possible.

    So that's where I am at right now. Simplifying our life in order to regain peace, order and fulfillment. So far I feel really empowered and positive about the changes I've made. While I realise that I can't change everything overnight, I need to just chip away at little changes, and in time our lifestyle will have dramatically changed for the better. It has already improved so much.

     (Listening to school readers in the evening with my precious boys)

         Thanks so much for visiting. See you soon, love Anita. xxx

Intergalactic adventures.

    Yesterday was an RDO for the tradies here in Victoria, which means my lovely hubby gets to spend the day home with us. Well, these days the kids are usually at school actually, but this week we let them have a rostered day off as well. Why? Well we've been promising them for a while that we would take them to see the Star Wars exhibition at Scienceworks. It is here in Melbourne for a few months and we wanted to go on a Monday, as we thought it would be less busy than the weekend. We didn't factor in the six busloads of school kids who would be there on a weekday, but that's OK!

    Personally, I have no interest in Star Wars whatsoever, but it is always priceless to see your kids experiencing something that they're totally into. It was fabulous! Here's some photos of our day:

 

 

 

 

 

    This last pic is of Jayden proudly showing off his successful robot contstruction. There was lots of hands-on stuff for the kids to get involved in, an audiovisual show about robots, featuring C3PO and his friends (? robot names are a bit beyond my scope of knowledge! lol!), and the kids were amazed to see all the costumes and props.

    After we came out of the Star Wars exhibition we had lunch, during which, Jayden lost his sixth tooth! That gap in his smile is even wider than the photo above shows now. Then we headed back in to Scienceworks for a look around at all the other fun stuff. There is so much to see and do. We will have to head back there another day to finish our adventures.

    Overall, it was a great, fun, exhausting day. The kids loved it! They also enjoyed driving through the city and over the Westgate bridge. So much for a couple of outer-suburban kids to take in! Daddy even pointed out the massive building at the Docklands that he is working on at the moment. It is amazing to drive through the city and know that Danny helped in the construction of a HUGE number of the buildings there. It reminds me of that (?) King Gee ad on TV where the Dad tells his kids about how he helped build a huge bridge every time they drive over it! (lol!) We are very proud of how clever Danny is, and the work he does.

    Well that's what I was up to instead of making Christmas cards yesterday. Well worth the delay to have a family day out I reckon! Have a fabulous Tuesday. Love Anita. xxx