Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Project Life 2014 - Week 7 and Reality TV...

Is anyone else slightly addicted to Real Housewives of Melbourne?  I can't get enough!  Honestly, I think I have a serious addiction to these reality tv shows.  Or is it that it's an easy watch; one that you don't really have to concentrate on.  I love sitting and Project Life-ing and catching up on my recorded episodes when the boys are sound asleep.  It's my 'me' time and I love every second!

Watching these women bicker, bitch and spend copious amounts of money intrigues me.  Majority of the time I sit there cropping, journaling and embellishing with my jaw on the floor.  I get gobsmacked by the behaviour of some cast members.  I quite often shake my head at the things they say.  I find myself gasping at the way they 'get all gansta' and "tut-tut" at the backstabbing that goes on.  Real or not real, I'm addicted.

I could finish layout after layout watching my trashy reality shows, not thinking, just watching cray-cray women and being thankful for my gorgeous girlfriends... :)

So that's how my week 7 came together, whilst having a Real Housewife catch-up session.  I was sticking, cutting, gluing and making it all look pretty while watching Melbourne women attack each other over their cocktails and dinner.  I'm surprised I didn't stick my fingers together at some stages...  These women can be brutal!


Playing with pretty pinks and teals kept me calm.  At some points I wanted to use my Typo washi tape to stick their mouths shut...  Well, just one particular 'rude and vulgar' housewife that has an expensive tennis court ;)  WOW, can women really be that nasty or am I just naive and living in the land of crafting, rainbows and unicorns lol.


In saying that, I don't condone any of this behaviour, even though I can't help but watch it all play out on my screen.  I'm not sure how much of it is 'real' or scripted but one thing I do know, when I'm caught up in these episodes I tend to create some pretty cool layouts lol...  This one came together so easily and I think it was because I was too busy concentrating on the Chinese whispers that this group of women were playing.


So while I excitedly wait for more episodes to be aired, I gather my supplies and edit my photos so that my next marathon session can produce me some more 'non-thought-about' layouts.  Here's to reality tv getting my creative juices flowing and these housewives making me feel grateful for my happy, drama-free life.

Happy days peeps, happy days!
xox

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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Project Life 2014 - Week 4


I'm going back a little here as this was a week that I just couldn't find my mojo on.  When that happens I usually take a break, leave that page and come back to it when I feel more inspired.  That kinda didn't happen for quite a few weeks lol.  But...  I eventually felt inspired by this layout again and got the urge to get cracking, and here it is...


I used some ephemera that I had lying around to add to this layout.  A Minecraft swing tag from a cute little piggy that my Mr 3 got as a present and a Lego Movie mini catalogue that was in a Lego box we bought.  I think adding these little extras on my pages adds some great interest for those looking through my albums, especially the kids.  They love finding tags from their toys or a wrapper from something they like to eat in my Project Life pages.  I'm hoping it will spark some fond memories of their childhood in years to come.

The little envelope is from a Studio Calico Project Life Kit, I honestly can't remember which one (sorry).  It was perfect for me to print out and insert the instructions for a 'Pay It Forward' project that I am taking part in. I also just had to include a photo of my gorgeous friend who lives interstate and I had a girly phone chat with during this week.  I want to remember how close our friendship remains even though we now live miles apart.


So into the album she goes, another week finished.  Even though I skipped it and went back to it, it's done and that's the important thing.  I think by leaving it and coming back to it when I was ready, made it much more enjoyable to finish.  There's nothing worse than having "Project Lifer's block" lol.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that sometimes suffers from it.  Maybe it's just a way of our creativeness telling us to take a break and come back when we feel the time is right...  And most times, timing is everything ;)

Happy Easter peeps and hope your belly's are chocky full... I'm off to top mine up now hehehehe!


Monday, April 7, 2014

The Liebster Award

Guess what? Simply Bella just won an award!!!


How excited am I? The lovely Sue from The Making Table has chosen to nominate my blog for the Liebster Award. I could not me more honoured or grateful... My little ol' blog? Really? Thank you so much Sue; I really am touched.
So, what is this award? Well, technically it's not an award, but I'm thrilled all the same to have been nominated. It's more of a chance for newer bloggers with under 200 followers to get their name out there by accepting their nomination and completing a little bit of a challenge. You can read a little more about it's origins in this post I found here.
So here's what you have to do...
  • Firstly, accept the nomination from your nominee (you do not have to)
  • Answer the 11 questions that they have asked you in a blog post and share this
  • Then nominate another 10 bloggers that have less than 200 followers
Firstly, here are the 11 questions that Sue has given me to answer...
1. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up.
I wanted to be a Solid Gold Dancer lol. Do you remember that show? I would watch it as a young girl on a Sunday night eating my dinner and then venture off to play dress-ups in my Mum's bedroom and dance in front of her mirror to all of her disco vinyl.
2. What is your favourite breakfast?
I'm not much of a breakfast person, never have been, a coffee or a veggie juice is more of my thing. But I do love a good Sunday brekkie of poached eggs, spinach, bacon, grilled tomato and mushroom... Mmmmm mmmm
3. Describe your dream garden, if time, space, climate and money were not an issue.
Without a doubt, a tranquil Japanese garden with lots of maples, ponds and the sound of water flowing and soothing wind chimes... Ahhh I can just imagine sitting in it now :)
4. Who is your dream celebrity to have dinner with? (past or present)
Oh that would definitely have to be Freddie Mercury!
5. Name something you wished you had learnt but haven't yet.
To play the piano... Maybe one day I will take some lessons.
6. Name one of your all-time favourite movies that you have watched so many times you know all the lines?
There's so many, but I can't go past mentioning Dirty Dancing and Grease... Who doesn't love those movies!
7. What is your favourite fruit?
Watermelon for sure! I could eat it until the cows came home lol.
8. If you could holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Mmmm that's a tough one as I've never really had the travel bug nor the urge to travel (mostly because I have a fear of flying). But if that weren't an issue I would say Disneyland. My inner child would beside herself with excitement.
9. Lipstick, lip gloss or lip balm?
Lip gloss
10. Describe what "you-time" means to you?
Uninterrupted time to scrapbook till my little heart's content.
11. If you could choose 2 super powers, what would they be and why? (ie. invisibility, self healing, speed, strength etc)
To be able to heal others and for obvious reasons; no one ever wants to see their loved ones unwell.... And the ability to create calm in an instant and in any circumstance; ooh now THAT would be so handy as a Mum lol.
Now I'm off to have a think about who I am going to nominate and will be back with a post in a few days announcing my chosen bloggers and a list of questions for them. Thanks again Sue for nominations me and giving me the opportunity to answer your fantastic questions (had me thinking on a few lol).
Cheerio peeps and have a great day! :)

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

I chose today to share this...


Today seems like the most appropriate day to write and share this post. I've been sitting here contemplating whether or not I am courageous enough to do this... Whether I feel knowledgable enough, educated on the topic enough or even strong enough within myself to write this... The first two I believe will possibly never be the case but the last I feel that I need and WANT to be! So I am going to try... Bare with me :)
A few short months ago my world was different. My life was plodding along, my days were busy, life was a little tough, stressful, all those 'normal' things we complain about. The same mundane routines that pull you down, the same fun friendships that lift you up. That's just life yeah?
Then in a short instant, things changed. A conversation with a childhood friend, one that I've known since the age of six to be exact, one that I will cherish forever, changed things for me. I mean REALLY changed things...
She asked me a question that no one else ever had. One that deep down in my soul I'd asked myself, time and time again. One that I'm SO eternally grateful that she did ask... The question that all parents want to answer with confidence and pride. One that made my whole head spin and turn my insides out. Something inside of me knew that I couldn't answer it with the boldness I usually possessed. I answered fearful, can't say confidently, but definitely truthfully! Someone whom I wholeheartedly trusted, asked what I so needed to be asked... And I answered honestly! She knew...
What was the question? That question that changed my life? The one that changed my world that I knew only minutes before? Made every light in my head switch on brighter than an oncoming train in complete darkness?
"So Bells, how is your little man doing? How is he developing?"
BOOM!!! That oncoming train hit me.... HARD! All of a sudden I was circling with my own questions I already had in my head. Every single thought I'd already had was surfacing and hitting so intensely that I couldn't breathe. But... I answered! I answered with the same honesty that she so graciously showed me. WOW!!!
That was the first moment I realised that my little gorgeous 3 year old man had Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Did I already know this? Heck yes! Did I have a name for his quirky little characteristics? Heck no! He was just my 'unique' little meatball that I knew was a little different than my first child.
I felt guilty for always comparing his development to my eldest son, so therefore would push those thoughts away. "Every child is different", I would tell myself. My first was the 'angel baby' that most mothers speak of, so this was my second that was going to give me a 'hard time'.
I had often sat and wondered what I did differently. I 'parented' both the same. Okay, the second obviously got less of my time, but why was he such hard work? Was it me? Why was I not coping? Why did I feel so stressed all the time? Why did his tantrums and whinging sound like nails down a blackboard to me? Why did I fall into bed at night in an exhausted heap? Why was I struggling to be a Mum to this beautiful little boy of mine?
Ahhhhhh relief! Uncannily enough I felt relief from that one question my beautiful friend asked and I had answered honestly. I could breathe again... Admittedly it was through uncontrollable tears, but I felt a weight gone. With her incredible knowledge, own personal experience and amazing support, I probably would have not gotten through that initial 'shock patch' (that I like to call it) and moved forward with gusto. She had turned my 'Mummy intuition' into overdrive!
Next step... Diagnosis.
I honestly, looking back now, already knew what the outcome would be. After hours and hours of googling and researching I had to stop. Yes, Google can be a great friend to us all, but in circumstances like this, it can be your worst enemy! I had to pull back from it for a bit, it got WAY too intense.
I won't go into the nitty gritty details of how it all went but in the simplest form for those that would like to know... Here it is.
  • GP appointment for refer all to Paediatrician.
  • Paediatrician appointment to assess whether there is enough concern to refer for an official assessment.
  • An official assessment with a team of therapists, in our case a speech pathologist and psychologist, to give a final in depth written diagnosis.
  • Then, with an official diagnosis in writing, back to the paediatrician to discuss starting therapy with specialists.
The above process was my experience to get a diagnosis, so I want to share that yours may or have been different.
So that's where we're at... We started therapy in Feb and currently seeing a Occupational Therapist and Speech Pathologist.
This is all new for us, VERY new! It's all quite daunting, to say the least, the very least. It's been honestly, the toughest challenge that I have ever had to endure. I am not one, and let me make this clear, that ever strays from having a positive attitude towards anything. I've had my share of ups and downs over the years and staying positive has always gotten me though. But I'll be honest, this was hard!
This was, to be quite frank, the most confronting process that I have ever had to face. A pure stranger (paediatrician) tell you that he had 'more than enough concerns to move forward with an assessment for Autism' was earth shattering for me. As a mother, I'm sure I can safely say that, that no parent EVER wants to hear that their child is going to face 'challenges' in any form.
I sat there for an hour in his rooms, listening intently and watching every single 'test' he did with my child with my heart in my throat. I held back tears of heartbreak, tears of frustration that I couldn't answer for my baby, the questions I knew my boy COULD answer but just didn't know how to find the right words to use. It was torture!
Those first few weeks of diagnosis were an emotional blur but I can still clearly remember how gut wrenching it was and how much my heart hurt to watch it all and come to terms with what was happening. My baby was struggling and I had been struggling to help him.
That brings me to the now... How my world has changed. How our days are different now and how those 'stresses' I thought were so important a few months ago, are now things I don't even consider worthy of taking up my time.
I now, after overcoming my initial emotions, can sigh a big sigh of relief and feel comforted by the fact that I'm honestly and truly BLESSED! My baby is not sick, he is perfectly healthy... He is absolutely amazing!!!
He is ridiculously intelligent and shows that in so many ways. He has an amazing ability to retain information and recall it in ways that astound me. Yes, he gets frustrated to the point of 'major melt down mode' I call it. But hopefully, with my understanding, love, devotion, strength and patience, (some days my patience is not always there LOL) we can DO THIS!!!
He just turned four on Sunday. We celebrated with a trip to Scienceworks to see his favourite interactive robot Nao followed by a train ride to Southern Cross Station, just so we could just sit and 'trainspot' (another favourite past time of his). It was EPIC, as his big brother would say!
So, yes my world has changed... Not in the way I expected or would have ever imagined. But you know what? After countless hours of thinking, soul searching and asking why... I can now confidently say that I wouldn't change a thing! This IS my new world and I couldn't adore it more!!!
It's all still raw, still very new. I'm still in a place that I find is very emotional, but I'm told that that will get easier.
But uncannily enough, I WANT that emotion to stay with me. I don't ever want to get numb to it. I want it to drive me to push further, try harder and be stronger. I want it to always be present and make me do things like write this post. After all, that's the emotion that made stand in front of that oncoming train, let it hit me and then wipe my self off to be the Mummy I know my son needs to help him 'SHINE'!
So today, I chose to share this post as it's Autism Awareness Day! I want to thank everyone who has been there for us along the way in this new adventure of ours. I want to share my utmost gratitude to my friends and family that have supported me in my times of tears and frustrations, listened to my stories and laughed with me and held me up through the tough days. You ALL mean the world to me and I honestly would not be able to do this without YOU! Love and hugs my gorgeous ones, forever and always xoxox
Please be the 'light' that autism needs and help those affected by being...
That little more patient with a Mum dealing with a tantrum in the supermarket.
A little more kind to that 'quirky' kid who can't help but fidget that's standing next to you.
And a little more aware of how sometimes, someone's world is a little different than yours.
I could go on and on... But you know what you need to do... ❤️
Here's to being 'unique'! I think it ROCKS!!!! xo
Kye :)
xox