fete cupcakes

my creation for Lillys School fete tomorrow.

i discovered glitter dust for cake decoration, i love it the stuff, its pretty cool.

ive been using the cupcake recipes from joyofbaking.com its a fantastic site. i want a reason to make the red velvet ones, they look so cute.

all the flowers and butterflies are just fondant with royal icing. its easy as. they have been through all sorts of conditions this week to. it was hot when i made them, sweating type hot, not fun, in fact YUK, and now its freezing and been raining for a few days, which made everything extra fragile!

i managed to get a cupcake carrier half price last week. it will get quite the work out between now and christmas.

next cupcakes will have snowmen on them for emilys preschool christmas party. wish me luck

mc happy day

it goes without saying that tomorrow is an important day for us.

most of us go our whole lives with no need for a facility such as ronald mcdonald house, but words rarly describe whats its like to actually need it, more than once.

its the simple things, from access to a kitchen, to a washing machine...the normal life stuff you still have to be able to achieve while your little one is in hospital. A safe affordable place to stay for extended periods of time. A place to retreat to on days outside the walls of the hospital, where even your sick children are welcomed. A location either within hosptial grounds or very close to for those times when your needed asap.

its so much more than a house. its understanding. where all going through similar experiences at the same time.

give what you can, buy a big mac, it really does make a difference.

its a barbies life

what to do what to do, three nude barbies, one unhappy four year old.

collect one scrapbag of material for her to look at, and maybe 20 cents worth of elastic, 30 minutes of my time at the machine and we have barbie fashion happening.

seeing something that excites her as much as my minimal effort with the clothes was pretty priceless i have to say.


this poor barbie, is Attitude Barbie. Nice tats...hehe...she had to have trashy clothes to match...seeing as we can't get the pen off.

Do your kids barbie hair look like this too? i wish they would find something bettter to make barbie hair out of

pleated strip skirt

i found this on moda bake shop, its very sweet.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/08/strip-pieced-pleated-skirt.html

its a pattern for a jelly roll, but strips of fabric do the trick. most of this material was made up of letf over bits and pieces and a fat quarter here and there. i had two 14 strip panels with six pleats in each, made for lilly who is seven and not a small seven.

it was easy stitching. and a great way to use up left over strips of material. its one i will make again.

i love moda bake shop, lots of patterns for all sorts of things. its a great blog.

sewing again

so i've been sewing again. a whole quilt which i had my first go at free motion quilting. and while its not perfect, it looks like. i found th epattern i used on janelle winds blog first. a link she shared. the quilt is easy and i love the scrappy look of it. heres the link. http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/12/raw-edge-circle-quilt-tutorial.html
i will share pics of mine later, its not a nice day here for pics today. i did add a boarder to mine. but i found the whole thing easy and quick. i had it complete in less than a week to use. its currently the rug we take to little athletics on a friday night.


today i woke with the urge to sew clothes. god knows why. i came across the link to this dress on one pretty thing. http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2010/08/solar-dress-free-pattern.html
the dress is easy to sew and i had it in less than an hour. way less. and emily loves it, it gives good twirl, very important in four year old world. the pattern has multi sizes and im thinking it would also look great as a top, which i think i will make for lilly so their clothes are just a little different.

the back, emily is in the four/five size of the pattern. its a little big on her, but i hope she gets to wear it next year as well.

and this one is just cause she is so damn cute..:)

garden birthday cake

While lilly may turn seven on the weekend, this is (thankgod) the off year for birthday parties, yes im one of those mothers, every second year is plenty if you ask me.

but that didn't mean in lillys eyes that she still couldn't have a cake worthy of a party. This cake was meant to have a crown instead of a seven, but the crown met an untimely end, i droped it. swore up the kitchen and then dan presented me with a seven and all was well once again..:) hehe. Anyway this is to share with her class at school tomorrow.

excuse the bench that is still covered in corn flour and icing sugar. i just finished the mother things. i have spent all day putting this together and lets not forget the days prior actually making the damn flowers! i tell you who does this??


im happy with it but. way to cute.

have any of you looked at cupcake wrappers lately, there are so many on the market, and they r all so damn cute! i got these at my local house store in ballarat and went with the pastel because of the garden look on top, but they had some really very cool ones.

Last Week

What did you get up to last week?

ME? Well it seems it was a mixed matched bunch of things.

Emily learned to write her name. How cute is that. She forms all the letters without help, we only told her the order. Now she writes it on everything. Not bad for a just turned four year old.

I love old bus scrolls, but have you ever priced the things. Reproductions are a ridiculous price. so while i loved the look i was unwilling to spend that amount on something that would so easily be placed on a wall and only appreciated once in a while.

until i watched better homes two fridays ago and watched her make one. How easy was that!

IM one for cost cutting and bargins, so the whole thing only cost me a bit of glue, white card and two tubes of paint.

i had the boards sitting in the garage from something else that were actually taking to the tip. a bit of retrival, a double coat of black paint, and using my trusty electrontic cutter all the letters were cut and glued in place. And there you have it, a london bus scroll.

this one a more personal one, all the placed that dan and i have lived during our relationship. the bottom half is blank ready to fill with places to come. It was fun to remember and think back on all these places and we r looking forward to placing some more interesting names on the list.

We filled the cookie jar with choc chip cookies and apple muffins. Needless to say they never last long!

We were kept warm by this. I heart this thing especially as we suffer or enjoy depending on your preference the last surge of winter this past weekend and coming week. We have had hints of spring promise, its coming.
I planted out the green house with seeds for the spring garden in a few weeks. We have an onion crop to look at in a few weeks hopefully. but its been an especially wet winter down here, the wettest in fourteen years. There are now full dams in our district that haven't been full in that long, its kind of amazing really. It also shows us that to much rain is as bad as no rain at all as the walls of dams crack under pressure. Anyway we r not all the confident in our crop because of it. what can you do? :)

We have been toying with the difficult decision on moving these past few months. Since emilys op actually. wondering if living in melbourne would help us cope during those times. but between the both of us we just couldn't get fully on board with the idea. we do love our house and the things a small town provides. Anyway last week dan accepted a new position with a very large pay increase in a town about 50 minutes away. so he is going to communte and we become a two car family again. its an odd feeling to get a car back, i have been without one for so long, but the wet weather makes the school walk largely difficult so the decision was made. Anyone own a suziki alto?? very effecient and lots of saftey features. and a pretty good price as well. we test drive it on monday. but it looks like it will be the winning choice.

this week life is all about lilly turning seven. will share pics of her soon.

Crochet fun

I love to knit and crochet during winter down here. I first learned to crochet in Mitchell, small country town in QLD where i did my country teaching service. I made the traditional granny square blanket that everyone has. YOu know the type that goes around and around that you add to every year.

Making things for the kids while Emily is in hospital calms me. I sit beside her and knit, I knit or crochet during her operations, something mindless that keeps me from pacing a hole in the floor of the parent waiting room.

After emilys stay eariler this year I walked away with a poncho for Em, and a shawl for myself as well as something for Dan that isn't quite finished yet. Its nearly done. BUt I also started a blanket for lilly to use at night in front of the TV. It tends to go to bed with her as well..:)

So I started my crocheting in long lines and then edged it, it is so very warm. She now wants a bigger blanket for her bed and im inclined to agree that it would make her bed toasty warm during the winter months so its on the list for nextu years winter projects.

Not to be left out of course is miss emily who wanted a blanket as well.

I found this pattern
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60689AD.html?noImages=&r=1

i love the colours in that pattern, but do you think i could get the pattern to work, no way. but i also couldn't get the hook they used or the wool. im guessing that had something to do with it heh!

so the pattern wouldn't leave me alone and so i went searching on google, gotta love that thing and found a how to video on crocheting an octagon and off I went. 4mm hook and regular 8 ply wool and here you have it.

it could do with another two rows added to the width, but right now im calling it done, i am sick to death of crocheting around eight sides. it has taken weeks and weeks, but emily loves it and i have to say it is warm as. so i figure in a few weeks i might look at it again and feel like adding the extra rows to it.

if you have never crochet before and you want to learn google how to crochet in a square and video a million will turn up. With easy to follow steps to watch. Start with a granny square which is the traditional round and round blanket and go from there. They grow pretty quickly and are super warm.

Organised Chaos.

Almost two years we have lived in this house. Two years without a linen cupboard. Thats a long time! I have had two metal garage shelving units in this perfect spot for a built in cupboard in the hall way to our bathroom with all our linen stacked on it, including our drinking water from the rain tank. Yes our tap water isn't the best to drink. Its the country what can you say.

Anyway, below is what it looked like, well not quite I had started the big move out of this spot so its missing a shelving unit that was relocated to Emilys room, and actually has the cute industral look going on now. I hated this spot. It drove me nuts. But by the time I had people out to make the cupboards and paid travel time etc, it was becoming an expensive problem to fix, so we sat on it and just put up with it. UNTIL!


This! Same space, only fantastic now. Flat back cupboards that installed ourselves, all built in and attached to the wall. And the best bit, just for 300. Our kitchen is white, and just off this hall way and it all matched perfectly. And thankgod too, because I hated the way it was! I even have the perfect spot beside the cupboards where our heated floor switch is for the vaccum cleaner.

We have had a birthday girl this week and what does this little girl want for her, her ears pierced. So off we went on her birthday to have it done. Both ears at the same time, and thank god too, cause i don't think that she would of let us do it a second time.

We had told her it would hurt, she all like ok, i know i'm brave.

she was a little nervous, but it didn't stop us at all.

and lets just say she was shocked when it happened and for a few seconds i didn't think she was going to cry, but oh did she. Sigh, beauty is pain! Anyway, she loves them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY, four, how did that happen??

They somehow make her look so old don't you think? But still so sweet.

Lilly is a no go on the earings, she took one look and went i don't think so. hehe

Some making

Well thats what emily calls it..:)

I have had the softies book forever. And this is the first and only thing I have made. Polly. For my niece. She is so soft. And i love that amy butler fabric.

Next is a change mat with pocket, that i found on one pretty thing. The pattern was easy and the whole thing was done in a matter of an hour. It to went in the baby present..:) Ps i really had to talk myself out of buying the Amy butler baby book...oh my god, its so nice!

And a card to go with the gift..:)

sorry about the pics, camera needs new batteries so its just an iphone in this house atm.

Later

Jacqui

Long time between posts....

Well its been a while I know.
Is there anyone out there anymore??

What do you say. I just stopped. Everything it felt like.
I haven't scrapped in a very long time.
I haven't taken a proper photo in longer.
Sewing, not even thought about it
The garden, well it needs some attention but we did have a crop while I was gone.

After Emilys accident i threw myself into life as a way of coping. But as we drew closer to the year of that accident and it got colder last year things started to fall apart for me. I just didn't want to do anything. Depression was a title thrown around. And I guess i was. PTSD is still an issue. Even two years later I still have flashbacks? I stopped talking to people and as a results friendships suffered, but no matter what I did, I couldn't stop it all from happening. I lost hope.

With my husband to talk to, I have slowly been putting myself back together. I'm not who I was, but I feel better. I have done nothing special, just taken some time for me. Time to quietly, in my own way deal with what happened to us. Some days I barely made it out of bed, others I got in the car and actually went somewhere. Mostly I was locked within myself trying to come to terms with myself. Getting over the feeling of motherhood failure. It still haunts me that if one small thing changed that day none of it would of happened. If I changed one thing that day. But you can't do that.

Life continues on. And so I jump back on the bandwagon of life and move forward. The past few weeks I started to crochet again. Much of it in thanks to Mel goodsells blog. I love to crochet this time of year. Keeps you warm in front of the tv and it forfills my crafty need when its too cold to be away from the fire in the scrap room.

While Emily was back in hospital in may, I turned to knitting again. And it made me smile. Finding those small snippets of my personality coming out again.

Just this past week, I have had to ideas for canvas's, one for my amazing new niece and I can't wait to start. I forget the last time I had inspiration to do anything arty. I even want to sew!

Tonight dan is going to start the fire in my art room so I can do just that and I can't wait. It feels good.


Heres my beautiful niece with my baby brother, I can't believe he is a father. Brooklyn. I'm so excited about her. I can't wait to get home and meet her, but it will stll be a few months.
Emily
hehe, she is such a ham. The things you find on your phone when you leave it where she can touch it! And just how did they learn to use an i phone before me, said owner of the at times frustrating thing. Now I can use it and have found all the little ons and offs I love it.

Can you believe she will be four in just 10 days? I can't.
The new improved arm~! I don't think I ever shared a pick of the graft she had. It covered that whole space. At the beginning of May she was admitted for the first lot of reconstructive surgery. I lovely five day stay, or so they told us. I really should of known better.

The first day, a nine hour stretch in surgery. Where they took that large expanse of skin you see from her back and relocated that, muscle, fat other tissues to her forearm and then under a microscope reattached it and the blood supply. The first night she had half hourly obs on her arm, needless to say dan and I slept very little for the first few days after.

Then Day five comes and everyone is so happy, the blood supply has been good and what we could see of the transfer looked good. until they pulled all the dressing down. Then all hell took place.

The part of the flap over her wrist was to tight, they think, it cut blood flow and the layers of skin died. They released the pressure and hoped for the best. And we sat in her humid hospital room (humidity was needed for her arm to heal) for another week and a half. It was horrible. The heat got to us all. She wasn't allowed out of bed. It is so hard to keep a three year old entertained when they want to get out of bed!


Anyway, back to theatre, another skin graft and another three week stay in hospital to add to her record. ANother month spent with Ronald Mac house. And may was over. It took so long for the graft to actually heal they thought it was going to reject at one point. BUt her poor arm was so stressed its not surprising really. So for the following eight weeks we went to melbourne twice a week mostly so they could keep an eye on it. And then over the space of five days, it just up and healed and all the worry was gone. Amazing really. Her doctor things he will be able to get rid of the graft in time without to much effort and it won't limit anything theyw ant to do next. THankgod!

so now we are on a six month recovery wait until the next part. Tendon transfers. Beginning of next year at this point. I however expect it to be anything but easy when it occurs!

Thankgod for family. My dad came and took care of lilly for a month while all this went on. She was only in Melbourne for the final weekend. My poor dad thought he would get to spend some time with us. but it wasn't to be again! And now we are all kinds of homesick and can't really find any time to get home before next year.



Lillys teacher left at the end of last term. And I had to task of making her goodbye cake. Cupcakes..:) I hadn't done anything like this in so long. And it was so much fun. I forgot how much I enjoyed making cakes and icing them. A small amount of knowledge goes a long way.


And finally my two being silly in the thai restaurant in ballarat for a girl dan works with birthday. oh the noise, lucky it was a sunday and not to busy!

My heart is with my dear friend Kirsty Piper this week as she deals with the loss of her mum. Where thinking of you and we love you and we wish we were with you. We are there even if we can't physically be with you.

have a good week everyone

jacqui

A pox over my house

Sorry for the not posting.
The first week in march lilly came down with the chicken pox. And of course just 3 days after I got lilly back to school Emily also got them.

Emily was quite sick for a few days.
Overall the month of march was a complete write off around here.
I remember lots of lotion
I remember sleep less nights for us all
I remember seeing pox in places i didnt need to see them. Miss emily had them on her tongue!
I remember stinking baths at 2 am when we couldnt stand the cries because of the itching anymore.

And now, I think we have all healed and recovered enough.
Normal life should resume from now..:)
I have my dare for this month to share too, tomorrow now, havent downloaded the photo yet.

corrupt ipod

two words u never want to see after u have spent the better part of the day waiting for i tunes to download the new u2 album that came out today, but u guessed it, plugged in my ipod ready to add the album to my playlist and what message did i get corrupt ipod. WHAT! its not even a month old! after much trying to fix it, it ended up being as simple as pressing two buttons....thankgod!!!!! my trusty little silver nano is on the go again. ps i like the new one,it sort of feels like a mix between their older music and newer music, easy to listen too.

12months on
well this time last year we had just arrived in victoria, had no idea what avoca looked like and were scared stiff about what we were doing.
12 months down the track...part of me wishes we never came and then maybe emily would still be perfect the way she should be, but i know that what happened to us last year could happen to anyone at anytime in anyplace and it cant stop your life. (will i ever purposely seek out a snow get away again...i dont think so)
the first 4 months or so of being down here life was all about looking around and settling in. we went to visit lots of places and vowed to go places and experience all the things we wanted to in our newly adopted state. we started out right. since august we havent really been anywhere. im ok with that we had lots to deal with and a few changes to learn to accept.
for all that went wrong, we're not sad we moved, our lives changed in so many great ways. we see dan so much more than we did in brisbane, we actually have a family life here and many nights a week we even eat dinner together a jones family first (chefs have the worst hours!!), we r in a good financial place right now its nice to have a small morgage and only one car to worry about. i was able to take the opportunity to not work while we have lived down here, a blessing in many ways apart of the obvious (especially after july), i loved being home before lilly went to school it was great to get to know her properly before school and its great now for emily to have her time with me too. its nice..:) and i hope and i think the kids have benefitted from it alot. (i am getting organised to enter vic education system this year, i dont want to lose my skills totally they r so much a part of who i am) the best part of our move is the peace and quiet of a country setting, its fantastic and we r close enough to escape to melbourne for shopping for the day if i want too....:) and we love the weather even in winter..:) we r loving the house we bought and the land that came with it, so much space for all our food trees and veg patch (that copped a flogging in the heat wave...but im on the seedling thing again to get it going again)
overall we r still happy to be here with no plans for changes this year or probably the next.

do you have a scary age??

mine is actually 45
its like what my brain thinks is half way i guess
i will have one child about the move into adulthood, i will hopefully of been married for like 20 years (if were lucky), i dont know....SCARY stuff

lots of things to accomplish before that age...some i already have, some im working on..:) i kind of hope that by that age i will feel like an adult!

whats yours
share it

33

argh birthday - 33, weigh - argh argh argh (but in truth scales r ban on brithdays), calories millions (but its national no diet date due to said birthday), birthday gifts- 2, birthday calls - 1 (hmmmmm calls from father 0, calls from brother 0) very bad, brithday emails LOTS - very good. two well behaved kids, a day spent reading and scrapbooking and then dinner out ... overall pretty good.

ok heh ive been rereading the bridget jones books...so funny, got to love a book that makes u roar with laughter just from the imagines in your own mind. so i just couldnt help myself.

yep i turned 33 yesterday. it effected me more than turning 30 but its not my scary age just yet. thats still over 10 years away yet....:)

school is still going well for lilly. friday we all walked across the road to her first swimming carnival. where she came first in all her prep races. they were very cute kick board races and noodle races. she was very proud.

then this morning an award on parade. i wasnt there but dan was. i was at home with miss emily who has a cold. not surprising really seeing as the stuipd weather is so up and down here atm. its cold (like start of winter cold) and then its heatwave summer hot. noone knows if they r coming or going.and then the first day of homeworking homereading. scary proof i have a school aged child. i would like to say she had an idea of what it was all about, but she had not seen the book and had no idea. thankgod for my reading recovery training. after a breif talk i could tell she had no idea so i was able to start in the right place and make it a positive first reading and homework situation. god help the rest of the kids in her class as im guessing none of them had any idea. (and yes being qld trained i find it werid that prep kids have home readers. i guess i will get used to it)

ive spent a fair part of the last few days scrapbooking. dont die of shock. i really dropped my ball on the whole scrapbooking thing in recent months and weeks. no enjoyment, didnt want to. but a friend asked me to do something and so when the right mood appeared i started with this layout for her to give to her brother when he is married next weekend. and the rest just sort of rolled from there.

its 8 by 10 and going into a silver frame. i hope they all like it, its hard to scrap for other people. i find what i put on the page is just a personal taste. i guess i will find out tomorrow..":_)
a card to go with the above layout.

after that i pulled out our santa photo. and mum i found the extra one here in the santa photo bag. i will put it in the post. im loving that spotty cardstock its pretty cool. emily didnt cry, but she wasnt impressed with santa either in the photo which is sad because when we walked up to the photo booth she was super excited, but seeing santa and sitting on his lap where two very different things.next was this one. i love this photo. it was taken just before her accident last year. she has changed so much in that time its hard to believe. the journalling on the photo is all about her baby giggle and how much i loved her baby giggle. that innocent giggle that babies have, that toddlers lose as they learn to fake laugh.

heres another one, ive had this photo for an age. but have trouble with photos where i can see her left arm the way it should look. but ive been getting over it alot more lately and it didnt seem to bother me today. acceptance of what happened. i guess.

i think the scrapbooking key was the have photos available. not having to print them outhelped. soemtimes i get stuck in photoshop and very get to the print stage. i think i will have a few printed so they r jsut there waiting for me.

week one down, onto two

Lilly is LOVING SCHOOL
she wakes up each morning and just cant wait to get dressed, pack her bag and get out the door. every afternoon she is full of stories about things she has done and learnt.
the first day she came home tell us the sound of g and that it was for girl and the sound of b and it was for boys (lol they had the toilets explained to them)
the next day it was sssss for snakes and the movement of her hand to match. its all so very very cute.
she loved music, is loving going swimming each day (yes preps have started swimming the second week of school....brave) but her fav place was the library. (bestill my beating heart she is going to be a book kid) its the only place she dragged me to by the hand to show me where it was. which is funny considering she could of pointed to it from her classroom. our school only has like 3 buildings...:) 120 kids its very cute.

anyway the said love of the library had to have a new library bag. lillys is the navy one, and the brown one is for lillys friend little school friend.
not bad for days sewing...:)

tomorrow the prep kids have a rest day. woohoo!!! but i will admit that in a small school parking doesnt seem to be a problem at 3:15 when the kids get out..its great (that wasnt something i was looking forward to the whole pick up thing...but its great)

just a quick one

to those that have wondered and called

we r ok
while the fires r now in our wider district (bendigo and horsham) they r not anywhere near us. so apart from dieing from the temp yesterday we are all ok...:)
we saw a cool change come through at about 2 this morning, big storm, electricity outage (which meant i was missing the fan big time for a few hours), but we have woken up to news of 24 degrees and more in days to come...its beautiful here this morning.

our hearts go out to the vic familys that had to pack a car and drive away from their homes and now wonder what they have left. (this is our fire plan so noone need worry) saving love ones is the only thing that matters.

how did i become a school mum!

when lilly was born school seemed like something i wouldnt have to think about for so long!!! but 2009 had a way of creeping up on me and this morning i had to face that moment when your first born child is no longer a baby, no longer at home with me each and everyday and has suddenly become a school girl. in her words a BIG GIRL! how did that happen! im sure i didnt allow it! heh

i had only one moment during the whole process. and thankfully it didnt involve crying (i was shocked) and it happened before taking her to school. must be somehting to do with the uniform i think. they look so big when u put them in a school uniform! the scrapbooker in me knows how lucky she is to have a red and navy uniform..:):):)

she has been super excited about this moment for weeks, months even and bored at home for even longer. she wants and needs to learn. i cant wait to see what she thinks this afternoon and again when she gets up in the morning knowing she has to go to school again. when she lined up with her class (a straight prep after all...we were expecting a composite but we had some incoming students during the holidays which changed everything...:):) ) she only looked back once to check i would pick her up at the end of the day and she was gone. her face was eager and bright and my heart soared. i wasnt even sad (well in that moment anyway..:))

no real super great photos. she could hardly stand still. she admitted to being a little nervous and was so funny pinching her fingers together to show us how much she was nervous. lol and of course she was up during the night, school playing on her mind and was up long before the 7am alarm went off that i had set just in case.

i would love to know what she is up to at the moment..:) when they walked into class i had to sneak a long peak. sitting inher classroom on the floor in a circle with all her preschool friends already interacting and putting her hand up to answer questions. (ive witnessed children do this year after year of my work life, i was and am always amazed at the people they r, but seeing your own child, the one u worked on their whole life to get to this point is not really something i have words for. like every parent this morning...i was so proud of her, she took it all in her stride and made it look like she belonged there.of course the said jumping around..:)
and even my blond curly bear was in on the photo taking action this morning, posing and smiling for the camera! shock! SHE is missing her sister and saying goodbye to lilly and then taking daddy to work was a little to much for my girl who very much wears her heart on her sleeve..:)

it is amazingly quiet at home, its going to take some getting used to i think

queensland, scrapping and being just plain lazy

were home
have been for a week. lots to do in a house about the start the journey that is formal schooling for the first time. there has been much shopping! uniforms, shoes, socks, lunch boxes, book packs the list is endless. we r starting to look organised for it but.

so organised that i finally decided that today i could scrap the day away.

its not an exciting page at all, these are photos from lillys preschool year. they were on display during the year and as a fundraiser the photos taken r sold to parents to repay the printing costs. i came home with 7 of them! they r just random pics of miss lilly from during the preschool year at some of the different things they got up too.

this is my happiness canvas. i was just going to add a word to my pin board but part of my happiness promise to me was to rediscover art so a mixed media piece seemed to make sense. it came together so easily i was shocked. art is one of those things u love it or u hate it, i am happy with this end result. on the green cardstock is the definition...i liked this one, characterised by good luck, fortunante - enjoying, showing or marked by pleasure satisfaction or joy - being especially well adapted, cheerful. it felt like everything that im trying to bring together. ive been doing some positive visualisation before going to bed at night (i know i know its way out there) but its working, im sleeping well, im eating properly and im feeling 100% on top of everything and im smiling!...its great

our holiday at home looked alot like this all the time. plenty of time in the pool, plenty of spending time with family and friends. we had a blast!