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.

Making Merry Monday #23

Not much to show for MMM this week. We've been feeling the effects of a very BIG week! Jayden has tonsillitis, and I have had a horror couple of days with my fibromyalgia. I have just popped a photo in of some of the cards I've been making that are sitting on top of my printer. Same materials as last week. If you have any specific questions please let me know and I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back, and better, very soon I hope. Love Anita. xxx

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

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

Scenes from our home today.

     A couple of little things caught my eye in our home this morning that say a lot about our life and so I picked up my camera to capture them. When I got home from school drop off I thought I'd go down to the boys bedroom to see if they had made their beds.

 You see, bed making has never been one of my must-do chores in the mornings, but I am making some changes around here with regards to the state of our home (more on this in a later post), and I made a deal with the boys that we would all make our beds every morning. I thought that this simple task would be something they could manage, and reminding them to do it would also mean that I toed-the-line and made my bed each day too. Anyway, long story short, this is how Corey's bed looks this morning - yes, the bed is made (as best a 5 1/2 year old can) but I also wanted to share the cute way he has hung up all his teddies etc from the bunk above. Also, notice how he loves his motor racing posters - Holden of course! His bed really is his cosy little place in our home. Very cute.....

 

Whilst in the boys room I noticed a couple of other things. The boys have small set of drawers each and one big tallboy to share. This was how their drawers looked this morning.......

These are Corey's:

 

and these are Jayden's:

 

Above their drawers I noticed this scene:

 

On top of the tallboy are a few treasures; a photo of Jayden and his basketball team, a certificate for winning the Heritage Holden colouring competition last year, a container holding pretty beads from Aunty Jodie, and boxes with other treasures. Behind the photo there is the chocolate Holden racing car which Jayden got for Easter - apparently better to look at than to eat!

On the right hand shelf are the boys cricket, football and basketball trophies, a couple of prize winning artworks and another certificate from Holden. The left shelf simply holds Daddy's trophies, mostly for indoor cricket. The boys are in awe of all Dad's trophies. I think they like to display them in their bedroom and secretly pretend they are their own! One day I'm sure they will have just as many!

And just for the record, this is what my bed looks like this morning.

         

Please note the bedside tables are not in the frame of this picture......they need a bit of a tidy up! Don't want to peak too early in the day! Thanks for stopping by.

Have a happy Wednesday, Love Anita. xxx

A new hobby for my boys....

Here's what they were up to while I was cooking dinner the other night......

 

Jayden playing his DS - not so unusual. Corey absorbed in his new hobby - knitting - now that is something to behold. I had an insane moment last weekend and offered to teach him to knit. I thought it would keep him occupied and therefore I could knit in peace. But no! Every 45 seconds I hear "MUM! I need help, I've got a hole" or "my stitches fell off the hook" or "I need you to start off the row" or just "I think there is something wrong".........bless him! I am proud of how he has taken to it, and he really is making good progress.  Not sure if his "scarf" will ever be long enough to wear, but he's having fun along the way. Just look at that sweet, contented face......

 

Jayden had a go too, but his concentration span is no longer than a commercial break in the Friday night football telecast! Maybe he'll pick it up again some time.....when his DS battery goes flat :)

Crocheting like a crazy woman.

 Well, the love affair with crochet continues.....I can't get enough of it! To paraphrase my dear friend Joylene, crochet and knitting are like "meditation with sticks and wool"! I wholeheartedly agree. Here's what I've been making recently......

       

       

       

  

Busy stuff hey?! I've enjoyed every minute of it! What better way to pass the time when the weather is cold and wet, and you just want to curl up on the couch under your quilt? The hats are all for sale in my little Madeit shop, Anita Meade Creations. The granny square rug is just for me and will be a work in progress for a while. I plan to pick it up between other projects and it will come together slowly. I've made about 36 squares so far. I just love those rich colours, and the black border makes them stand out beautifully. I'm sure I will post more photos of my progress as I go along.

    I'm off to watch the kids at their school swimming lessons now, so I'll sign off. Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been creating. Happy Friday! Love Anita. xxx