Nuts About Sketches - Week 188

What a great week - my birthday yesterday and Aaron's on Wednesday.... plus his party on Friday.... I'm busy making decorations for this now and will soon be pulling all the details together.... never mind that this is the big week of his exams... ALL the study stubjects in one week!

Now on to the lastest sketch from Nuts About Sketches.

For my layout, I turned to nature again.

You will notice that I didn't do all the bits of the sketch this week... mainly because I had this awesome paper with the owls on it that I wanted to use, so just put on the bits of the sketch that worked... shows how to start with a sketch and make it work as you go along.

Happy creating.... and check out the blog this week for some more inspiration.

Celebrating My Birthday

Today is my birthday.... and a rather fun date too.... captured this screen at 20:11 on 20/11/2011

Yesterday I had a tea party with my friends to help me celebrate.  I had spent the week baking (in between lots of studying with Aaron for his exams).  So here is the table just for you to drool over...

With most everything containing chocolate (my fav food) this chocolate tart was definitely the highlight for everyone.

Aaron took this photo to help me remember my day... the best of the three he took but still a bit blurry!

I got spoilt with vouchers (to spend on scrapping goodies), a new devotions book, a lovely plant and also a bag full of choccies.

This morning I had planned to sleep in but ended up waking just after 7 anyway.  So after a quick cuddle with Aaron I had my bath and then it was present opening time - Aaron wanted me to open my present as soon as my eyes were open but I quickly put a stop to that one!  Keith bought me new dinnerware as ours is on it's way out (after more then 20 years!)

Between Aaron and I, we made flapjacks for breakfast this morning, served on my new plates (which Aaron had first washed too!).  After breakfast, we went to church and the congregation sang Happy Birthday to me... though most of them didn't know my name so there was a bit of a flat moment at that point in the song... hehe. Afterwards we went through to my folks for lunch... my mom served a great cold lunch of chicken, beef and salads, with jelly, fruit salad and ice cream for pudding.  She also made me a birthday cake.

My present from Mom & Dad was this delightful wind-chime that is now hanging outside my kitchen window waiting for a breeze to make it tinkle.

Now off to have the last slice of chocolate tart before bed... yummy!  Will be celebrating a bit more tomorrow at work with leftovers from yesterday.

For the photographers in us all

Nuts About Sketches - Week 187

Exams started today for Aaron - his first ever!  It's quite daunting but in a way we have an easy week to get them into it with English and Afrikaans orals then language, comprehension and creative writing plus mental maths this week.... next week is all the hard learning subjects - with his birthday right in the middle of it too - ouch!

Seeing as it is Monday, here is a new sketch from Nuts About Sketches.

I turned to a nature pic for this week and chose this stunning one of a sun bird that visited us earlier this year.

I was quite fortunate to get this shot as the tree he is in is in our neighbour's yard and this was just one of many that I took... but it was the only one in focus that showed off his red chin.

For my layout I used lots of scraps and leftovers.... a great way to use up stash.  Also I repurposed a prima packaging for the green strip at the bottom.... I loved the little butterfly details all around the edge, though it doesn't really stand out that much.

Be sure to check out the blog post this week for some inspiration from the rest of the design team.

I am also entering this layout for a competition that I read about in ScrapScene from Scrapping Everyday Miracles.

The time today

All the 11s today.... 11th day of the 11th month in the 11th year ... and it is 11 minutes past 11... just missed the seconds on this screenshot!!!

Nuts About Sketches - Week 186

It's the first week of November.... birthday month in our house.... party arrangements are happening fast and furiously.... but we are also busy with the last official school week of Grade 4.... Aaron starts exams next Monday.

As it's Monday, it means another wonderful sketch from Nuts About Sketches.... a double page with lots of photos.

 My layout for this week show cases trains.  My Dad had taken Aaron to his Saturday Afternoon Group and the little guy got to ride trains!  It also proves that you can use flowers on a boy's page.

Don't forget to head over to the blog to see what the rest of the design team has done.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 185

The last day of October.... BOO! - that's it for this day for me... I don't "do" halloween in any manner.

Here is today's sketch from Nuts About Sketches... an awesome single page with lots of photos.

My layout captures all the toys that Aaron has collected over the years from Kinderjoy.

Be sure to check out the blog this week to see a great variety of layouts by the sketch team.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 184

Boy but it is HOT today... we're in the middle of a heatwave.... in all my years I don't think I've EVER known it to be this hot.... temps of 33 degrees and higher predicted for Jhb.... so NOT my cup of tea!  I battle to think in this weather and even end up with horrid heat induced headaches..... bring on the cooler temps please!

What better way to recuperate than to scrap.  So here is this week's lovely double sketch from Nuts About Sketches.

For my layout I turned to holiday club photos and used lots of extra paper piecing bits for effect.

Check out the blog this week for some more great layouts which will give you lots of ideas of what to do.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 183

I had hoped to post this week's sketch from Nuts About Sketches last night but we ended up with lots of thunder and lightning threatening, so the pc didn't even go on.  So without further delay, here it is.

My layout for this sketch is all about a little visitor that I found next to my bed late one night.

I love how each one of the design team interpreted the "banner" on their layouts.... so interesting to see how such a simple design feature can be transformed on a page.... so be sure to go and have a look here.

Today is hubby's birthday - a special celebration day in our family.  We will also be going out for supper tonight so no cooking for me (big smile!).

The other biggy that is happening is that today we received Aaron's exam timetable for November.... ouch.... two weeks of exams.... going to start studying in earnest next week to make sure he is all prepared.

Happy Birthday to Google

Okay so I'm way past posting about this, but thought I'd get it in there anyway just to keep things going.

On the 27th of September Google turned 13 and celebrated with a true birthday party look and feel.

I almost don't know where we would be today with our dear friend Goggle... as just about any time I need to know anything that is where I turn to first!