Another Christmas Finished...

Hello all

Hope you had a fabulous Christmas yesterday to those of you who are from my side of the world or are enjoying your festivities today for anyone on a later time difference. I enjoyed a great Christmas Eve and Christmas day surrounded by loved ones, with lots of good memories and food.

Lily slept a lot of Christmas day after a restless night Christmas eve. Perhaps she was hoping to spot Santa on her first Christmas lol Either way, I started the day yesterday very tired. I haven't yet had a chance to go through and upload my photos from the past couple of days but hoping there is some good scrapbooking inspiration among them. Perhaps a few to be deleted too as my nephew was running around taking random photos... using the multishot option on my camera so there are about 20 of almost the same thing lol

I wanted to share a recent creation that I made which was part of the gift for my mum for Christmas. It is my first completed Toilet paper mini album and I made it into a Gran's Brag Book style mini album with photos of Lily.

I used the Authentique uncommon collection as its perfectly girly for the theme of a new baby girl. That teamed with some pretty pink and white embellishments and the whole thing came together fairly quickly. Although not quick enough for me to finish the second one I have in progress for my nephew Caiden. My sis is keen for the finished product after seeing mum's album yesterday.

Otherwise, I've been doing a little bit of creating in between time with Lily and preparing for Christmas, although nothing else I can share just yet. Will hopefully get some crafty time in during the next few days.

We have very little planned for this week so it will be a nice relaxing week at home. It will give me some time to play with one of my new christmas presents... Adobe Photoshop Elements. Excited! hehe

Wishing you all a safe and happy festive season.

Holly x

Layout to Share

Hello

I just remembered that there was a layout I did earlier this month that I never got a chance to share. May have a little something to do with going into labour on the 3rd. The layout was for the current challenge over at Zeus & Zoe where the challenge is Shine and Sparkle. Here is the challenge criteria:

For this month's challenge I have made it very simple. I would like to see a Christmas project with at least 3 elements that sparkle and shine… they can be 3 of the same type of elements or 3 different elements as long as you have at least 3 sparkle and shine elements on your creation.

This could be anything metallic and shiny… think recycled jewellery, gold or silver buttons, charms, foil paper metallic inks or embossing powders just to name a few... or sparkle and bling elements like glitter and rhinestones.

 

Easy, hey? So I could not help playing along. Here is my layout:

 My sparkly items are the glittery my minds eye paper and die cuts, some randomly placed rhinestones and even the sparkly and shiny balls in the photo of our christmas tree.

Materials: My minds eye paper & die cuts; Manor house creations flowers; Adorn it alphas; Other - flowers, circular die cuts.

 

At least that is the first of my holiday layouts scrapped for the year. Although I am at least getting into my December daily. I'm a few days behind but have been taking notes so I don't forget what we did on what day. Mostly it is all about Lily though lol

 

To make sure I hadn't already done a post on this layout, I had to go back through my last couple of blog posts and I came across the post on the 2nd of December. It made me laugh because at the time I was quite uncomfortable and what I now know for sure was pre-labour and I was watching videos on youtube of heavily pregnant women dancing to bring on labour. What makes that amusing is that I did spend about 40 minutes that afternoon playing Just Dance on wii... you know... just in case! And I did go into actual labour within 8 hours... just like the video suggested! haha Maybe a coincidence but amusing to think dancing may have been the thing to get miss Lily locked and loaded for arrival!

 

Holly x

Lily Update & Some Exciting News

Hello

Thank you to those of you who left lovely comments following our exciting news with the arrival of our daughter Lily last week. I cannot believe it has been almost 10 days since her arrival. She is doing really well and had her GP appointment today and has gained a little over her birth weight so that's a positive. She is also 2cm taller already. My days seem to fly by at the moment getting into the routine of motherhood, but every moment with her is precious so I don't mind.

And of course I know a mother is blinded by her child's beauty but I am so amazed at how perfect and beautiful Lily is. Almost have to pinch ourselves sometimes to think we created such a lovely little person hehe

Now for some scrappy related news to share. I have a couple of exciting things to share. Firstly, if any of you get Scrapbooking Memories magazine, you would know it is the much anticipated Masters edition this month. Well I'm not a master... but I did give it a go for the first time this year and am very excited to see an honourable mention in the bonus magazine. Unfortunately I cannot share my creations until the magazine is officially on sale on the 26th but I will post up my 4 entries after that date, including the double layout that I got the mention for.

Oh and I was even excited to see the preview for next edition included a sneak of one of my upcoming published layouts hehe I showed my hubby that he is again famous in a scrapbooking magazine with one of our wedding inspired layouts due in next issue :)

Now for my other news. I am very excited to announce that I am joining the 2013 Scrapmatts design team. There is so much talent on this team so I feel truly honoured to be joining them. The full team is listed below:

New Members
EVGENIA PETZER (South Africa)

HOLLY CONNORS (Australia)

SANDI SMITH (Canada)

KIM EWINS (Australia)

TANYA PRIVALOVA (Ukraine)

LINDA THOMPSON (Australia)

RENEA HARRISON (USA)

LAUREN TOMACEK (Australia)

VICKY VARVADOUKA (Greece)

HELEN TILBURY (South Africa)

Returning Design Team Members
ANGELLA PEARDON (Australia) DT Co-ordinator

JENNY GARLICK (Australia)

RENEE IVESON (Australia)

ANNE PATTERSON (Australia)

SONIA THOMASON (Australia)

SHARMAINE KRUIJVER (Australia)

Be sure to check out all the action at the Scrapmatts Ning site.

No actual scrappy shares today but in between adjusting to mummyhood I have done some crafting. Just no finished projects. I am working through my December daily album, plus another mini album featuring some new release A2Z scraplets, and the toilet paper mini albums that will be part of a christmas present so just a whole lot of mini albums right now.Will share some pics soon.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Holly x

Our New Arrival - Lily

Hello

Well it is with great pleasure I get to share the news of our baby's arrival. Lily Lavina Connors arrived on Monday 3 December. She was due today so a bit of an early arrival. Just couldn't wait to meet her mummy and daddy perhaps :)

We could not be happier or prouder of our perfect little bundle of joy. She is so tiny and precious. She weighed in at 6 pound 4 ounces, or 2.83kg so a very tiny bundle. Even the 0000 clothes are big on her as I didn't expect to need anything smaller. She was 47 cms long.

We arrived home yesterday afternoon after less than 48 hours in hospital. Initially I was considering staying a bit longer as she took a bit of time to get the hang of feeding but all is going well now and we have settled in at home as a family. She gets a bit restless at night so one thing we need to work on now is getting into a routine where night time is sleep and not the reverse lol But otherwise all is going very well.

Proud daddy Simon

Mummy

Thank you to those of you who have already wished us well on our pregnancy journey and the many of you I have on Facebook who have sent lovely comments of congratulations on Lily's arrival. Expect plenty of updates as this is going to be one very spoiled little miss hehe

Holly xo

December Daily & Other Projects

Hello

How are you all enjoying your weekend? It's another hot one here but that's to be expected now that summer has actually arrived. And I'm feeling every bit of it at almost 40 weeks pregnant. But I do still love summer.

Very sore and achy today. I think the baby is definitely moving into position but who knows how long til the big arrival. I am keen to get things moving today and had a bit of a laugh at some videos on youtube of women trying to induce labour through dancing. Unfortunately with my pelvic girdle pain/SPD, walking or stair climbing and all those type of things are a wee bit too painful, but lets hope the wait isn't too much longer. For now though, here is a funny video of a 40 week pregnany woman trying to induce labour with some vanilla ice dance moves:

At least I've had plenty of time to do scrapping over the past few days in my attempts to take it easy. My December daily is up to date so far, since I started it a week ago when the tree went up. Here are my completed pages so far:

November 25th and onwards

With the journalling insert flipped over:

 

1st Dec - Journalling in a handmade envelope:

 

And as per my post last week, my first toilet paper roll mini album is almost done. All it needs is photos, journalling and a few embellishments once our baby arrives and its ready to go to its intended recipient as an extra christmas present. Lets hope she doesn't read my blog posts. If so... mum... stop reading now or you'll ruin the surprise.

 

 

I am also making a boy themed one featuring my new nephew but have run out of toilet rolls for now. But I've already cut out all the tags and pp to do it so it'll come together quickly once we get a couple more spare rolls.

Could not be happier with the way the one above has turned out so far though. I will post some better pics once they are both completed but it is looking incredibly sweet and with a collection I love, Authentique Uncommon. So perfect for little girls!

Anyway, I think its time to go do some more scrapping in case things really do happen soon with bubs. I'm hoping all these aches and pains are a sign that we are near. Will keep you all posted.

Holly x

The Bump

Hey there

Well its December already and the shops are already crazy with people getting ready for Christmas.We went to pick up a few things this morning and it was kinda awful lol But that could have something to do with me being pretty sore and sorry with only 5 days left til bubs due. I almost finished my christmas present shopping, with the exception of one item that thankfully I don't have to go to a shopping centre to get. We also picked up some last minute baby items to save worrying once she arrives.

The other night I decided to do a bit of a just because layout. It's been a while since I've done any layouts for any purpose other than DT stuff so it was fun to scrap something random. This pic I chose to scrap was a brave one. Not really one to go around flashing my belly in its huge state but its important to record my pregnancy in its full glory lol The pic was at the almost 31 week stage so a while ago now. I guess I should do another bare belly one before the big arrival.

 Materials: Coordinations cardstock; Kaisercraft miss match mini pad & collectables; Scrapmatts chipboard kite and branch; AC thickers; Adorn it alpha stickers; other - flowers, twine.

Anyway I'm about to drag hubby to an advance screening of Pitch Perfect. It looks pretty funny and I'm a Glee fan so I like the dorky singing theme. Thought it was best to get in one last movie date before the big arrival.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend so far.

Holly x

Recycling Toilet Paper Rolls...

Hey there

I've done a bit of creating the past few days, but unfortunately most of it is DT work so I can't even share just yet. Otherwise, its been all about christmas cards. I have made close to 30 now so am pretty happy with my efforts. I will share some photos sometime soon of the latest few I've done.

On Monday I had my weekly doctors appointment due to being in the late stage of pregnancy. It seems my perfect blood pressure is no longer travelling so great and the doctor told me it was borderline at this stage and I would have to closely monitor for any headaches, excessive swelling (I've already had cankles for weeks...) and other feelings of unwellness just in case it rises further. So with that news, I have actually taken it pretty easy this week for a change. That means there are lots of pre-baby tasks I haven't done that I would like to do before bubs arrives but I guess some can wait til after. Or never... lol

I am 39 weeks today so it really could be any time, but I think I have a good chance of going over my due date as bubs is still fairly high. Although I don't really have much say in these things so we'll see.

Instead I have been spending some time today being inspired by my favourite website... Pinterest and even a bit of Youtube today. Ages ago I saw this totally gorgeous mini album on Pinterest by Emily Lanham on the Authentique DT:

 

And I was fascinated to learn the album was made from toilet paper rolls. Since this time I have hoarded a few rolls here and there, with a plan to one day make my own TP mini. That day has yet to come but today I am feeling inspired so have been looking online for tutorials and inspiration for a TP mini.

 

Here are some that I found:

Love love love this one. So much detail and such a gorgeous colour scheme!

 

And this one is a great tutorial for making the mini albums.

 

So now I just have to sit down and start creating! I am off to dinner tonight with my team from work as a pre-baby get together since we didn't get to have a seperate team one before I finished work. It will be nice to catch up with most of them tonight and see how they are going almost 2 weeks without me lol Hopefully all is going smoothly. However as I'm sort of in night mode now to try and fit in with my hubby's work hours, I might get a chance to get into my first TP mini tonight hopefully.

 

Oh and this might sound amusing to those of you who are tool vetrans, but I finally got myself a Crop-a-dile this week. OMG... how did I survive without one! I had been trying to manually do holes for my minis all this time but the ease of this tool is fabulous! So mini albums here I come...

 

Would love to see your own take on a TP mini. If you end up making one or if you have previously made one, link it in my comments so I can come have a look and stay tuned for my own first attempt :)

 

Holly x

A2Z Scraplets November Releases Pt 2

Hey there

 

Still no clue what to do with blogger and my issue of having no room left in my picasa web albums. I don't want to upgrade and pay for an account. Would love to know what everyone else does for uploading their photos? I realise my file sizes are probably my biggest problem as I don't usually reduce the size and am now stuck with this issue since I dont plan to go back and re-load all the photos into my old blog posts at smaller file sizes lol. So all tips much welcome :)

 

So onto the next lot of shares:

 

Bright Sunshiney Day - How cute is that title?

 

 

 Materials: Echo park pp; Crete paper pp; Kaisercraft Collectables; D-lish scraps doily & other embellishments; Kaisercraft rub on; A2Z Scraplets title; Kindy glitz; other - flowers.

 

 

Baby Boy

Materials: Kaisercraft PP, Mini pad & alpha stickers; A2Z Scraplets heart; adornit alphas; AC Thickers; D-lish scraps flowers.

Anyway, it is almost the weekend so I hope you all have something exciting planned. For me it will be a busy one. Tomorrow we have lots planned to do around the house. Hubby is going to mow and I want to get a few more things ticked off the to do list because at this rate, I am not going to get half of what I want done before our bundle arrives. But I did achieve a couple of to do list items today -  defrosted freezer and negotiated better rate on our home loan. It doesn't hurt to ask. The savings may not be huge but every little bit in our pocket instead of the banks is a bonus.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend planned... and hopefully some scrapping!

Holly x

A2Z Scraplets November releases Pt 1

Hey there

I just realised I have yet to share my November DT layouts for A2Z Scraplets, other than over at the A2Z blog. Oops!

So here are the first couple:

"28"

This one I am entering into the current Authentique sketch challeng on their blog. Don't you just love their papers. I do!

Materials: A2Z Scraplets zipper; Authentique Unique paper, Authentique Uncommon 6 x 6 pad; Bo Bunny paper; AC Thickers.

 

 

 "Footprints on my heart"

 Materials: A2Z Scraplets title; Echo park, Glitz designs papers; D-lish scraps embellishments; Kaiser brads & paperclip.

This layout was a pretty difficult but important one to create. As you may have seen on earlier posts, our little Squeak kitten was diagnosed as having a heart murmur when we went to get him desexed. We were devastated that he could have a shorter life span because of it. So I wanted a place to include lots of extra journalling and photos. Therefore I decided to create a mini album into my layout. Unfortunately I have run out of room on my google account for photos so there are a couple more pages that you may need to pop over to my recent post at A2Z scraplets blog to see more.

However, the good news. Yesterday we took Squeak to the cardiologist vet for his specialist appointment. Extremely expensive but we wanted to know what we were up against. The good news was not expected by us or the vet. Turns out it isn't a heart murmur but in fact a small ventricular hole... hole on the heart. It is so small that it is unlikely to affect his life span providing it does not increase in size. The vet was great explaining everything and said he'll need a 6 month re-review with ultra sound etc to make sure nothing has changed then yearly from there but that means we should get at least a year or two warning when things are starting to go bad and can look at medication from there to manage potential fluid on the lungs. So overall... looks like our baby should be with us a long time still! Could not be happier.

And the vet was most impressed with how chilled our little guy is. He said it was like working with a dog because he just laid down and let the vet do as he needed with the ultrasound. That's our boy! hehe He's quite the sweetie. Not like his much rowdy big brother who is a total bad influence haha

Anyway I shall share more of my November layouts from A2Z once I figure out the technology to allow me to share more pics lol

Have a great weekend

Holly x

Maternity Leave & Christmas Cards

Hey there

So on Friday I officially finished work. Hard to imagine walking out the door that day was my last day for around 7 months. Not to say my next 7 months will be easy but it's a nice thought to know no 40 minute drive each way and no Mondayitis! I will miss my team during this time but will be sure to keep in touch to see how they are all going.

I did get quite spoilt on my last day too. A BBQ, cake and some lovely pressies. It was a really nice day... other than the extreme fluid retention giving me the cankles from hell haha

So I'm down to the last couple of weeks of pregnancy and yes, it has finally started to get a little uncomfortable. A lot actually. The fluid retention has been going on for a few days and is especially bad on really hot days. So I no longer have normal ankles. Or feet. Or legs for that matter. Maybe all over is a little bit swollen. Freaky. But ice packs are my friend. Then Saturday I woke up with horrible aches and pains down my back and side. This progressed to complete hell by Sunday. I think I have something called pelvic girdle pain which has symptoms pretty much like sciatica nerve pain. And anyone who has had that would know how painful it is. It means I am pretty much hobbling around in pain at the moment and putting weight onto my left leg can be agony at times. Oh the joy!

But on a positive note, I have managed to get a nice start on my christmas cards. Here are some pics of their progress.

Sorry for such horrendous photos. I took these indoors, at night under unnatural light as I knew I'd have no time to photograph them the next morning as it was my last day of work and half these cards were made for my team and other co-workers.

I have got another crafty project in progress that I cannot reveal the details about for quite some time. Lets just say it's going to be a very exciting secret to reveal once the time comes :)

Hmm... now I think I might finish cleaning out the junk corner from my bedroom. Gotta love the nesting instinct... since its almost midnight!

Holly xo

23 Days...

Hello

I have been a slack blogger. Oops! It doesn't mean I haven't been creating anything, because I have. Not a lot, but a few bits and pieces. A DT project for Designer Scrapbooking which I can hopefully share soon and I have started on my christmas cards.

There are only 23 days left until our baby is due so that countdown is getting a little scary. Scary mostly in the way that there is sooooooo much I want to do before she enters the world but as I haven't yet finished work, my time is limited on a lot of those tasks until next week. So Friday is my last day of work for 7 months. Hard to imagine! A lot to finalise there too and I feel bad leaving my team but they will be in good hands I hope...

My focus will then become my house. It is still quite a disaster and I had planned to completely declutter and organise it before the baby arrived but at this rate, I don't think it'll be quite where I wanted it to be. But I am doing little things where I can like listing a few unwanted things online since I'm too lazy to organise a garage sale. And I have been cleaning out different areas when I get a burst of energy, such as the linen press last weekend and the ensuite cupboard this week. Small steps are better than nothing! But come Monday... or maybe even Sunday, it will be full operation house organisation time! LOL

At least on the weekend we got to have more cuddles with my adorable nephew Caiden who is just over 3 weeks now. Uncle Simon finally got to meet him and had a chance to get in some baby holding practice before our own arrives lol Very cute!

So just to prove I have been doing some creating in between working and preparing myself mentally for motherhood, here are some pics of some christmas cards I did last night. I am shocking with the fact that cards can sometimes take me hours because I over think them. This time I went with the KISS method... Keep it simple stupid... because it's the only way I am going to get the stack of christmas cards I want to finish done before bubs arrives.

 

Anyway... time to make some more cards. I have another couple in progress tonight so that should make it a total of 6 cards in two nights at least. Woot!

Holly x

December Daily

Hi all,

I recently got an iPhone 5 so thought I'd have a go doing a blog post on my phone.

I've been working on my December daily album to get myself organised before December arrives. Especially since we are expecting a little bundle of joy December 6th.

So here is my front cover:

Nephew and Belated Anniversary

Hello

Last post I mentioned my sister had given birth to a baby boy on Saturday but at that stage we had not yet met the little guy as there were a few birth complications that had us all quite worried. Well on Sunday we had the opportunity to go meet my new nephew. What a cutie!

His name is Caiden Callum and he was 8'5', so quite a big boy. He looks so much like some of his brothers already, especially with his cute button nose. Despite his rather tricky trip into the world, both he and my sister are doing great now. In fact, they went home on the Monday to meet the rest of the family... including his 7 brothers and sisters.

 First cuddle with Gran

 Still so tiny

 Excited big sister Shannon

After a feed. The big bandage thing on his arm is to keep some monitoring thing on him due to the difficult birth but it was due to come off soon after this photo.

It was so nice having baby cuddles so soon before we have our own little bundle due to arrive. I am hoping our little girl isn't quite that big though as Caiden was about a pound bigger than any of my sisters other kids. But it was a nice chance to learn a bit more about what to expect as we actually got to visit my sister in the hospital. Normally she is home before we get that chance.

Only 6 weeks to go before our own baby is due to make an appearance. I've started washing  baby clothes to prepare.

This week was also our 2nd wedding anniversary. Although it seems both Simon and I had a baby brain moment this week and we celebrated on the 24th instead of the 23rd without realising until we started getting messages etc that made us both re-think what date our wedding was hahahah Shocking. Normally I'm good with that stuff but my brain is definitely a little hazy these days. But the good thing was we actually got to spend the 24th evening together as the 23rd, Simon was working.

The card I made

We went to dinner at Ribs and Rumps resturant in Fortitude Valley which was a nice surprise for Simon as he is a fan of their food. And he surprised me with a lovely charm for my new pandora bracelet shaped like a little pram. So sweet!

Unfortunately I have been suffering from a stomach bug this week though and it didn't hit in force until 4am yesterday morning when I woke with horrible cold shivers. Yesterday was my worst day and I seem to be on the mend today but spend the day at home to recover. I went to the GP too as my appointment was next week so I brought it forward. The doctor was not worried about the bug and did all the usual baby checks to find that baby is facing downward and all is looking perfect so far!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Holly x

A2Z Scraplets October Releases Part 2

Hello

Well I said I would share the second half of my October A2Z scraplets so here they are:

 This first one was a project that I had begun a year or so ago and had left half finished so I am happy to have finally finished it and decorated it with a lovely embossed A2Z dragon fly. There are a couple of other older A2Z designs on there too. It is a kaisercraft recipe box with Kaiser papers and paint.

 

 

Weekend Escape

Family Portrait - Kaiser paper; d-lish doily; a2z scraplets chipboard; tim holtz distress ink; embossing powder; cardboard.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I am looking forward to meeting my new nephew this afternoon hopefully

Holly xo