off to mackay tomorrow!

i have two photoshoots booked in, one tuesday, one wednesday. but i will be back by Friday because I have another shoot here in Moranbah on Saturday morning.

i will leave u with this pic of the kids taken a couple of days ago. this is what you resort to when you are trying to save water in Moranbah! the pic isnt perfect, but most of the pics had brianna being quite "indecent", seeing as she is topless here. So this is the best you get :)

poor liam got SO ripped off with his tiny bucket! LOL. im gonna go buy another big one for the nexttime we go swimming in buckets on the patio :D


Have a safe week everyone!


xxx K

BlogParty on tonight!!!

I will be there!!! So if you arent doing anything drop on over cos it only goes for 2 hours and there will be HEAPS of freebies. All you have to do is show up! There is a timetable up so go see whats happenin :)

http://www.scrapware.typepad.com


xxx K

late-night photo editing session!

last night i was up till midnight editing photos for the beautiful Veronica! Here are two of my favs:


If you want to see more go here.

Im really enjoying doing all these Christmas photoshoots, but I tell ya what, it takes alot of time!!! Troy and I have decided that I need to take a break so im going to do only limit it to a couple of shoots in January, then get back to normal in February. Ive done something like 10 family shoots in the last month, plus the wedding, plus an upcoming promotional photoshoot for a school coming up next week. This is alot to take on ontop of my normal SAHM, DT and Scrapware commitments.

Did another shoot this morning and it was awesome!!! ive never met a family with such a unique "family-personality". Their family had their own unique-ness unlike anything ive seen before and it was so much fun to capture in photographs. They had their own vibe going on. Hard to explain!!


xxx K

my life is full of teacups, teapots & birds atm ...

ive been scouring around the thrift shops finding heaps of hidden treasures for Briannas party ... its been so much fun! Ive found some beautiful items that i cant believe people would give away! but i spose one mans trash is anothers treasure :)

i wont share any pics yet, as ill wait until i have found the 20 teacups (i call the style "nanna cups") and the 15 teapots I aim to reach. Im also collected little china/porcelin bird ornaments to decorate the table with. all adds to the "garden" theme!

my fav find so far is a gorgeous teapot shaped like a cottage! the lid of the teapot is the roof of the house - complete with a chimney even! next week im traveling back into mackay for a couple of photoshoots and a catchup with friends so ill go around the shops there and see what else i can find.

i am fearing that ill become a collector of teapots because i just love them! this party is kind of kick-starting my collection. my bro in laws pay me out a bit for drinking real tea out of a teapot ... but i promise you that a cup of tea tastes SO much better out of fine china!

Invitations are done (shown below with the addy/ph smudged out so u cant come stalk my kids!). i chose some images online from random places and brianna got to pick her fav one for her invites. she chose the image of Alice below. so im ordering the invites to be printed today and ill have them by Friday! YaY!


Im also just waiting for a quote on the cake pictured below to be made. Ive always made the cakes myself, so im feeling a bit weird ordering one in. but i will be making her cake for the "family party" we will be having on her actual birthday - the 14th January.

Should I call this a blog-o-mercial?!?

Cos it seems like I have a whole lot of Scrapware news tonight, and I feel like one of the people on those info-mercials on TV during Dr Phil!!! :)

But tonight is the last night of the KDD Blog - and I have to just tell people what is going on! Im going to leave the blog up so people can go back and see layouts using KDD etc. But I won't be starting off any new blog posts there. There is HEAPS happening over at the new Scrapware Blog where I will be contributing:

• BlogParty - happening next Sunday!!! Check out all the details HERE! There will be tonnes of giveaways throughout the two hours. So make sure you pop over for a visit or the whole thing. There will be heaps of chances to win yourself some free Scrapware and KDD.
• Giveaway - there are three days left to get a chance to win an awesome Birdhouse. This is yet to be released and is oh so cute. So go enter!!
• Heaps of the KDD Limited Edition Trees have been sold. Already we have sold nearly a hundred!!!! So if you want to get your Christmas cards done then order a stack of them before they go. Even if you have done this years cards you can grab some more for next year.
• A new mega competition featuring a certain KDD product will be announced at the BlogParty. So get your scrapping fingers ready because this is a competition you will WANT to enter!!!! All will be revealed on the night!
• And lastly -
  I have been doing some mega-simple Christmas Tree Cards trying to get as many finished before Christmas as possible! Check them out at the Scrapware Blog.

Wow, there is just too much to announce! too much fun stuff :)

Enjoy your weekend. Mine will be an emotional one that I will have trouble surviving. But Im not quite ready to share this online as its a bit personal. If I think about it I just want to cry. and Ive been crying a fair bit this last week and a bit. so I just try to push it aside for the now and deal with it tomorrow once Im in the thick of things. But it's life's experiences that teach us about what life is really about. But each hurdle you live through will teach you things and make you stronger.

xxx K

I didnt think this day would ever come ...

we are finally ... FINALLY ... moving house!!!!! Those who know me well know that for the last TWO and A HALF YEARS I have been trying to move out of this place! And come the 17th December it will finally happen! This place is just too small for us and the list of reasons why this house just doesnt work for our family is just too long.

So the house we are moving into has four bedrooms, is fenced (yay), has a big patio/deck, and has just recently been refurbished with a brand new kitchen, bathroom, and lots of other stuff. The owners have invested a fair chunk of money into it. And for that we are eternally thankful :D

I still havent even seen the inside yet!!!!! So Im just going off what they have told us.

So come mid December I will disappear until the beginning of January. Because we are moving in on the 17th, and then on the 22nd we go away for a week for Christmas holidays. Cant wait!

yippee!!!!!


**************************************

In other news I didnt realise Brianna's birthday was sneaking up on me!!! Normally Im planning birthday celebrations months in advance! But its in something like seven weeks!!!!!!!!!! Where has the time gone???

So after being inspired by some photos shared at Two Peas Im going to have an Alice in Wonderland Garden Party.

So I started organising this morning and went shopping. So far I have bright yellow circle paper lanterns (I want some hot pink ones in a different shape), heaps of crepe paper in tonnes of colours so I can make hanging crepe paper flowers from the branches, bright yellow tealight candles, lace placemats (these are SO cute!), and some gorgeous big bright fake flowers to make table centrepieces.

Here are the images that are inspiring me with my party planning. I know there are alot of pics below but I want them all in one place so i can easily find them if I need some more decorating ideas. Today I bought some AWESOME sherbet straws filled with pink, purple and blue sherbet. They are like 80cms long each, so are perfect for in flower vases :)

Photos from Jessica Claire:





And some more Jessica Claire (from another post there):




This is similar to how im going to have mine. But Im going to do a mix of lanterns and also crepe flowers and hang them vertically from the branches overhead. Im having the party at this gorgeous lush parkland in Moranbah (there are no toys here, just beautiful plants and trees).

And some inspo from Two Peas (she has heaps of pics here, but im only using a few to inspire my party):





And here is a cake ive found. I adore the colours of this! But I think will decorate it differently:


Here is some tips on making whimsical cakes. I tend to use this page when i bake the cake :D

Let me know if u have done a party like this before! Any ideas would be fabulous :)



xxx K

PS. I know Im sposed to have shares today but my computer is being lame. Troy set up a new network and my computer craps itself every time i try to get my photos from the other computer .... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Tomorrow Ill post them up.

MyMini winner :)

Ok so we have a winner! Thanks everyone who popped into my blog over the last week during the comp for a browse :) I did a lucky draw and the winner is Shandell, with this lucky comment:

********************

Shandell said... They are so cute - who wouldn't want one!?! What a great prize!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:59:00 PM

********************

So please email me at karen (at) tkday (dot) net ... Ive got your MyMini all packaged up and ready to go

I hope you have fun with it!

Also, Ive been busy making christmas cards! So check back latas for some shares!


xxx K

sneaky peakys :)

Oooh gee i wonder :) Get in quick!

xxx K

soooo ... tired ......

Zzzzzzzzz ......

tonight i just edited 70 photos from the wedding a couple of weeks back. today i decided on the spur of the moment that tomorrow im taking the kids into town for a spot of christmas shopping, to get our christmas tree, and to go to the lagoon for a picnic and swim. so that meant cramming three night-sessions of photo editing into one night! so thats why its 12:20am and im just going to bed.

maybe i shouldnt have done this! the kids will be up in five hours and ill be driving two hours to mackay. but ill be fine :) im a morning person.

my eyes are about to fall out of my head tho!

but i will still be finding a computer with net tomorrow so i can talk about a few exciting things going on at the moment :) itll be fun!

night peeps. luvs.


xxx K

i have been SO blessed this year!!!!!!!!!!!

* warning: secret revealed early *

this year has been an amazing ... AMAZING ... experience for me. Ive found out stuff about myself, skills I didnt know I had, interests I didnt partake in before, and opportunities that have landed at my feet.

Ive been given an amazing position that I LOVE at scrapboxx, I was given the chance to do some design work for Ange at Scrapware, Ive gotten two magazine articles as well as I got cover at SC twice (my goal this year was to get cover once!), and ive had a few guest DT positions come my way too. Ive been invited to my FIRST scrapping retreat to teach in Augusta in March ... and then in April Im going to SIA thanks to Scrapware!!!

Plus my photography stuff is getting pretty big! I just did my first wedding a couple of weekends ago, and I just got a call from a school in Mackay wanting me to do a promo photo shoot for them in early December. Plus ive had a string of family shoots. So that all helps with the christmas bills!

But why am I telling you this?

Its just cos ive been realising the last few days just how lucky i am. ive been whinging alot lately about houses, kids sleeping (not sleeping), everyone in the family getting sick etc. and ive been thinking about how i need to "lighten up!". Ive had so much good stuff come out of this year that i need to focus on that, instead of the downer stuff.

But now Ive had ANOTHER blessing come my way :D This is the secret ive been holding out on you ;)

Two weeks ago I was contacted by Kim from Scrapbook Creations and she invited me to take over from Lusi Austin with a new column she was putting together :) So of course I said yes!!!! She invited me over the phone so I was trying to sound very professional and not squeal in her ear!!!!!!!! I said in my best cool calm and collected voice "yes well send me the documents when you have a chance and I will read them over". But as if I would turn them down :D

I wont tell too much because then what surprise would there be when it goes to print!!! But just very briefly the feature will be in every second issue. The first one I think is in next month's issue, so you wouldnt have seen them in the mag yet. Lusi has done the first two, and then my ones will appear afterwards. The feature is called "Show and Tell". So some of you ladies might be hearing from me soon to do some commissioned work!!!!! How exciting!

So anyways, if you read any posts with me whinging about how stuff isnt going my way, and Im being a total downer ... feel free to e-slap me through a comment and tell me to shutup. Because I need to focus on the good, not the bad :)


xxx K


PS. Is anyone else having trouble viewing TypePad blogs???

PPS. If you havent checked my blog in a few days scroll down cos there is an easy competition here on the blog :)

PPPS. Im working on a minialbum for Christmas 2007 so Ill have shares soon :) Im so glad Im scrapping this album as Ive wnted to do a chrissy minialbum forever.

i know something u dont know ....

... doooo dahhh - dooo dahhhhh

:D

secret squirrels. i cant WAIT!!!!!

but not only is there announcements THERE on monday ... there quite possibly could be an announcement HERE as well. :D kekekekeekekekekekekeeeeee

gee i wonder what is going on!?!?!?!?? so much secrecy!


xxx K

ps. if u havent visited in a few days check the Giveaway post below :) there is a few days left to enter!

ten years today ...

my hubby and i started dating 1o years ago today :D wow what a long time!!!!

i had a major crush in him when i was in grade 10, i was 15 years old. it was one of those stare at him across the oval at lunchtime but only talk to him like twice in six months. he was in grade 12 so was totally out of my league. he was so hot in his little school shorts.

but then he graduated so wasnt at school anymore ... and so i moved on ;)

but then when i was 17, him and his mates started hanging out with me and my mates. some ups and downs with him chasing other girls, while i was dating other guys. but then i started falling for him again, but he didnt notice for a few months. we became best mates and he would confide in me when he was crushing on some other girl. it was hard cos i wanted to be more than friends but i just was happy to be his friend.

but then on 11 of november 1998 he called me while at his mates and asked me out for the movies ... and the rest is history :D

dating at 17, engaged at 18, married at 19. those were my ages, he is 2 years older than me.

lots of memories in those 10 years. mum has photos of us when we were dating. i really must find those in her photoalbums cos that was in pre-digital camera days!!!

:)


hope yas had a nice day!

ok, you twisted my arm ... i may as well have a giveaway as well :)

the MyMini took awhile longer to get into the Scrapware store than we had expected. Its a long story :) But anyways, it went up a few days ago and they are selling like hotcakes!! So I thought that I may as well have a giveaway here while Im up.

If you havent heard of the MyMini go here and check it out! Then jump into your email and ask your fav store to stock it!!! There is a big competition coming up, and not wanting to give too many hints away, but you may need one for it (*wink wink nudge nudge*).

So for this giveaway just simply leave a comment on THIS POST or ANY OTHER POST taking place up until midnight Monday 17th November to go in the draw to win your own MyMini worth of $22 free of charge!

anyone up for a quickie??!?

just some layout shares :) its nearly midnight so thats all you are getting out of me!

My stuff from The Dozens kit:









And the layout I did for the latest weekly challenge over at The Boxx. This layout doesnt have a black background, thats just the floor I photographed it on. This layout has an odd shape - missing some of the right hand side, and also the bottom edging. But I was in the mood for something different!

four blogger attempts ...

... that is how many times it took to get this post typed up! There was just too much to say and I kept having interruptions! So here is some insight into my last few weeks.


Liam turned 2
My last baby is well and truely not a baby anymore. a bit sad about that but i am more excited about what is to come. Liam is such a character. he is so funny and DEFINITELY cheeky!!! We had a pirate adventure party with buried treasure behind the shed (a box full of toys and chocolate coins), cannonball fights (waterbombs) and a pirate tattoo shop (I had 60+ pirate-themed temporary tattoos. Here is a his cake. I should have taken the photo BEFORE the candles were lit and blown out cos there is wax everywhere.


I made 30 of those sharkfins and used them on the top of the cupcakes. I had piped blue icing on them so that it was like water.

And here is my birthday boy!



Loss in the family
My mum's foster mother passed a couple of weeks ago. I won't go into detail but this really shattered my mum. A few days of my disappearance were due to going into Mackay early to be with her. I was sposed to be going in on a Tuesday but went in on Saturday instead. So I was gone for eight days in total. This woman saved my mum and I know I wouldnt be here if it werent for her influence. I just wish I had a chance to spend some time with her once I was older and could appreciate her a bit more. I just have a random memory of being at an avocado farm with her when I was really little. But she was in her 90s when she passed away so she lived a full life.


Photography
In the last two weeks Ive had three family photoshoots plus also my first wedding!!!!! So I have been BUSY editing photos. Its taking up every spare minute I have lately. You can see sneak peaks on my photo blog but I still have another about four hours worth of editing to do.

But then I have another three shoots coming up over the next ten days, so Ill still be editing once I finish these shoots :) Its so much fun though! I am really enjoying it.


Scrapware
There is some mega-exciting stuff happening over at Scrapware!!! I can't tell you yet, but Ill let you know when I can :) This includes a huge competition that you will just HAVE to enter!! Massive prize.

As you know, I have my KDD line through Scrapware, but I have also just taken on a new role there as well. I have taken on some employment doing some marketing for them and getting some of their other marketing-based designs done, including designing a kick-butt e-newsletter and such. So I start that next week which should be good! Itll be interesting getting back into designing html emails and such.


Christmas
I have started getting all my Christmas stuff done. Last week I sewed my first dress!!!! It is SO mega cute and I wish I took a photo before giving it to my neice Hula. But I bought HEAPS of the same material and Im makig a similar dress for brianna. i wanted the girls to have matching christmas dresses at the family christmas party this year. i cant believe i made a dress. and that it actually turned out!!! i havent sewed anything except for paper since i was at highschool ten years ago. once i finish brianna's dress i will take some snaps. :)

all my christmas present shopping is completed so i dont have to worry about that! thankyou to oo.com.au for being so awesome with offering free shipping every now and then. thanks to that i got some awesome specials and finished all the shopping by the end of august.


Scrapboxx
The latest awesome Scrapboxx newsletter is out! Go check it out here. Here are my two layouts for this issue:




Over at the Boxx we are planning some AWESOME stuff for the girls for Christmas. So if you are looking for inspiration you will have to keep your eyes peeled :)


Scrapbook Creations
While gone I got contacted by Kim to do a quick lastminute article for the magazine using Kaisercraft stamps. Wow what a gorgeous pile of stamps I recieved!! Was so much fun! So once that is out ill pop some images on the site and do shares.

I havent recieved my latest issue of SC however I got a phone call from my mum who has a subscription and she said that I have a layout in there. This is one of my favourite layouts. My heart just melts at the photos, and the journalling is ALL TRUE!! She really said "mummy quick ... take my photo, I look beautiful". One of my favourite memories because it confirmed in me about how my daughter sees herself. She was just watching TV and I was standing behind the chair fiddling with my camera. She jumped up and turned around, said that quote and then struck that cute pose.






The Dozens - kit club in America
I got a cool opportunity this month to be the guest DT member for The Dozens kit club in America. I fell instantly and totally in love once I saw the kits and so have added a subscription to my chrissy wish list (family if you are reading this I hope you come through with the goods!!!)

Check out this awesome I got to play with:

Marni - this is the kit I was telling you about!!!!!!!!!!!! its totally YOU. It looks good up there but even better in real life ;)

Check out their kits here: http://www.thedozenskits.com/
And their blog here: http://avocadoishyummythings.typepad.com/thedozens/

I just went to the blog and Dana has described me as "colorful and bold, yet sweetly classic" ... its so odd hearing people describe your style when you don't even know what it is yourself! haha.






Tomorrow I will be back with some Dozens shares and also another layout :) I also have some huge news that totally blew me away. But unfortunately I cant share that until about January or so, but when Im allowed to I will :)

Over and out!
xxx K

i have a looooooooong blog post coming tomorrow ...

i promise! sorry i went AWOL. ive had alot of stuff happen (some very sad, some happy) and ive been out of town for a bit. plus when im here ive been totally flat out. so i have lots and lots of goss and stuff for u :)

but the good news is that i come back to moranbah to have probably the BEST kit i have ever EVER seen!! heaps of funky stuff that ive never seen before or would have put together. i grabbed a kit from an overseas store and im in love! i think i need a subscription for chrissy!!

(marni - this is TOTALLY your kind of kit ... so prepare to be jealous! lol chicky. maybe ill share!).

catch yas then!


xxx K