Sisterhood of Scrap Sketch Saturday - Happy Birthday

I finally scrapped Charlotte's birthday (as justin says I'm just in time for her next one - but I still have 3 months so i'm only a little behind lol) I decided on a double page layout, so I used Deanne's Sketch Saturday sketch for the first page, then took the grid detail and carried it over to a very simple 2nd page, part of my inspiration for the patterned strip along the bottom comes from this layout (page 2) by Joanne Pullen.
Here's a closer look at the first page:
I should have used a ruler to position those thickers... I didn't realise how crooked "Birthday" was until I was editing the photos in photoshop, oh well, isn't it the little things like crooked titles that put the charm into handmade crafts? For my crooked title I used some cute felt thickers (from Marcia's shop) and lightly inked them with Riding Hood Red. I love how they look all splotchy.
It doesn't show up well but the journalling is actually printed onto DSP, I edited a text box in word to be the size of the piece of DSP I wanted to print on, printed it out onto plain paper then used the tiniest few dabs of SNAIL onto the paper and stuck down the DSP and fed the plain paper through the printer again, I find it's the easiest way to print smaller one off jobs like this one. I also printed in a colour similar to Close to Cocoa, to keep with the theme of the Candy Lane DSP.
The sketch called for a little date tag hanging from the title (which is perfect for a birthday layout anyway, don't you think?). I made the tag by punching a piece of Pink Pirouette with the Scallop Square Punch and then trimming it like this:
Here is a close up of the 2nd page:
I love all these photos, especially the birthday cake one, I did have to take her highchair outside and hose it down later that night though, pink icing everywhere!
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Candy Lane DSP, Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Dimensionals, Silver Brads
Punches: Eyelet Border, Scallop Square, 1 1/4" Square
Contraband: Thickers

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Brag alert!

Ok, so before you accuse me of losing all my talent & or mojo I want to tell you that this is a card Charlotte made at playgroup.
Anyway, I've been making heaps lately, but nothing I can show you right now (don't you hate when people say that???) and my scheduled posts have run out, so to keep up with my new years resolution of blogging every few days I thought I'd share this one with you.
I felt weird helping her make me a mothers day card so we made one for my mum instead. Someone had got some cardstock and cut love hearts out of the front for the kids to colour and stick stuff on. Charlotte had fun with the glue, it ended up all over her.
And we decorated the inside and the back too:
She "wrote" in the card (ie me holding her hand holding the crayon) and I was telling her what we were writing as we were writing it and when I said "love" (for the heart) she leaned over and kissed the page so I had to add the 2 little kisses at the end, and I'll make sure to tell my mum that they are real kisses lol.
I'm actually pretty impressed at how simple these were and how much she loved making it so we made one for Justin's mum & nana too, which I'll share if I don't get more stamping done soon lol.

Just My Sketches - Love You

Here is my April reveal for Just My Sketches. The heart shaped photo's were actually meant to be circles but I think Deanne will forgive me as they are something other than your regular 6x4's...
This layout is a little bit of an inside joke, the photos are of Stefan & Charlotte when we were in Albury recently. Stefan is Sarah & Mark's son, Sarah is probably the closest thing I have to a sister, she has known me since I was alot younger than these 2 are and it doesn't seem to matter how far away I go (because I'm the one who moves, she has stuck around, now she literally lives around the corner from where I grew up lol) we always keep in touch and we can always just pick up right where we left off and hang out as if it hasn't been over a year since the last time we saw each other, so we were really really excited to find out that we would be having our first child at around the same time (there are about 3 1/2 months between Charlotte & Stefan) and then we were even more excited when I had a girl & Sarah had a boy (neither of us found out ahead of time what we were having) and we decided the day Stefan was born that he would have to marry Charlotte so we could be related! Because of all this I thought it was only fitting that the journalling should read "Charlotte & Stefan - True love forever..."
The funniest part of the whole thing is that these photo's were probably the loviest they acted towards each other the whole weekend, when you have 2 only children under 18 months they don't tend to share very well and we had a few little barnies lol
I have used the Stained Glass technique for the flower in the top corner & I have cut out another heart from the love you in DSP and popped it up on a dimensional.
If you want to have a go of the sketch here it is:
PS I have just realised that by the time this post goes live the Ginger Blossom DSP & possibly the stamp sets will be retired, so I am really sorry about that, I try to publish only current products on my blog so that if something inspires you the products are still available.
Stamps: Big on Spring
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark, Earth Elements SW Markers
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Ginger Blossom DSP
Accessories: White EDP, Black EDP, Sewing Machine

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould for Deanne Burton

Ride On

I love the Bali Breeze DSP! Every time I use some on a project it becomes my new favourite project lately. For this layout because the colours I chose are so bright I wanted the photo's to stand out by not being colour if you know what i mean?
I also did this layout in reverse, I was playing around with some scraps of DSP and came up with the layout then had to go looking for some photo's to use it with
Ink: Taken with Teal
Cardstock: Basic Black, Bali Breeze DSP
Accessories: Rose Red 1" DS Ribbon, Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain, Scallop Edge Punch, Photo Corner Punch, Lots of Letters On Board Chipboard, Flower Fusion, Pretties Kit Rhinestone Brads

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

I've been tagged...

I've been tagged by both Natasha & Marcia to do this photo challenge, you have to go into your pictures folder and upload the 6th picture to your blog and explain the story behind the photo, I have all my pictures sorted into photos and the 6th photo in the 6th photo was really random and I don't think there's a story, if there is I can't remember it so instead I went into the 6th folder of the charlotte folder and found the 6th photo in there.
This is Charlotte in June last year, I don't think there's much of a story except that she was sitting under her high chair playing with her ball for ages.
I'm supposed to tag some more people to play but I've seen these popping up everywhere so if you've already done it feel free to ignore.

• Carol - a fantastic stamper & lovely lady
• Robyn - a great lady who always take the time to comment
• Lisa - The best upline a girl could have
• Sam - She always makes the most fantastic cards for the CSCC
• Debbie - another great stamper who always makes my days with her comments
  

My little stamper!

On Saturday I had my first Terrific Techniques class and I was lazy and didn't clean up the table straight away, then yesterday I noticed that I hadn't noticed Charlotte lately and found her in the kitchen sitting at the stamping table pretending to stamp. (Can you see the empty tupperware drawer to the left of the picture? that was what she had been doing...)
She was picking up the stamps and pushing them into the grid paper pretending to stamp. She loves having all the stamping girls over, she gets cuddles and all sorts of attention before she goes out with daddy to see her Nanna & Grand-dad.


Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

My Baby girl's first card!

This year we have been going to the Playtime playgroup at the Parkes Baptist church (IMO the best playgroup in town!), Charlotte has only just started participating in the craft during term 4 and I was so excited last week when their project was a Christmas Card, and since we have a special little friend in mind to send it to I thought I would post it here as a record of this MAJOR milestone.
I will admit that she had a little help (I'm not going to let a 1yr old run wild with a paintbrush full of PVA glue) but I was only helping with the fine details, everything is where she wanted it put - well except for the candy cane, she wanted that put in her tummy ;o)

Anyway, here's what she came up with:The inside of the card has the story of the candy cane and a little Merry Christmas message with a place to write their friends name & sign.

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

So Shelli Creative Challenge - I thank God for you

This is my entry for So Shelli Creative Challenge Season of Thanks.
For the journalling pocket I took a pocket from the "Pockets and Pieces" set then I covered it in cardstock to match my layout as the Kraft didn't suit my layout.
The journalling outside reads: "You are my Reason to give Thanks" and inside: "I am thankful for your smile, your laugh, your health, I am even thankful for your strong will (sometimes). I thank God for YOU"
I got the rhinestones for the photo corner by pulling apart some Rhinestone Brads. I did this as I really wanted a little bling but because I'd use Pewter Hodgepodge I thought the silver on the Rhinestone brads would have clashed. You might notice the 'n' in thanks might look a little different, it's because I had already used the 'n' but i still had the 'm' so I trimmed the extra 'leg' off and turned it into an 'n'.
Sketch: Got Sketch Express
Stamps: One of a Kind, Short Order Alphabet, Best Friend Alphabet, Linen Background
Ink: Mellow Moss, Soft Sky, Rich Regals & Soft Subtles SW Markers
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Regal Rose, Soft Sky, Fall Flowers DSP
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Hodge Podge Hardware Pewter, Fire Rhinestone Brads, Pockets & Pieces

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

1

This was the card I made for Charlotte's birthday. I have used Pretty Princess (which you can get for 20% off as part of our birthday promo this month!) She was coloured with Markers & an Aquapainter, with some little white gel pen doodle dots.
To get the Pink Glitter, I've dyed some Dazzling Diamonds with a drop of Pixie pink reinker, mixed it around until it was fluffy and then stuck it onto my chipboard with some heat and stick powder. It's a little hard to get it just right and it was a little clumpy still but after i heat set it most of the excess blew off.

Stamps: Pretty Princess
Ink: Stazon, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac, Bold Brights SW Markers
Cardstock: Pixie Pink, Watercolour paper, Lovely Lilac, Very Vanilla
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Heat & Stick Powder, Pixie Pink Re-inker, Dazzling Diamonds, On Board Lots of Letters

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Charlotte's Birthday Party

These are the invitations that I made for Charlotte's Birthday Party, I have used Pretty Princess & Scribble This sets, and made them in an almost Kings Orders sealed with wax style (I'm sure there's a name for this fold but right now I can't think of it). The card closes with the Wild Wasabi Striped Grosgrain.
On the front closure I have stamped the Cake from Pretty Princess in Pink Passion on Pixie Pink Cardstock (7x7cm I think), I've then roughly coloured over the icing with my 2-way glue pen and sprinkled with dazzling diamonds. I've layered it on a piece of Wild Wasabi (Just a tip if you attach the Wasabi layer then the ribbon and then the top layer the invitation will close better, if you layer the ribbon underneath the wasabi layer the card opens slightly at the bottom when it should be closed)
On the back I have layered some Wild Wasabi & Confetti Cream and stamped the kid's names in Wild Wasabi with the Short Order alphabet and the little flower from Pretty Princess in Pixie Pink.
On the inside I have printed the invitation details on confetti cream cardstock using Publisher (the Tent Fold Card template works well as you can type on all 4 'pages' but it prints each 'page' in a corner of the cardstock meaning you can get all 4 with only 1 pass through the printer) I have then stamped the Princess using stazon and partially watercoloured her with my watercolour wonders. Watercolour Paper definitely works best for watercolouring, however on a job this large it just isn't cost effective, but confetti cream (or confetti white) has a nice texture that holds the water better than normal cardstock. Then I stamped the flourishes from "Scribble This" on the plain flaps to break up the blank space. I don't have it but 'So Swirly' or something similar would have looked great wheeled on the flaps. Just cut a piece of cardstock the same size as the middle panel and using the 2 way glue as a removable adheasive you can mask off the centre panel.
I should also add that you can buy Pretty Princess for this month only at 20% off as part of our Birthday Promo!

Stamps: Scribble This, Pretty Princess, Short Order Alphabet
Ink: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Wild Wasabi, Stazon
Cardstock: Pixie Pink, Wild Wasabi, Confetti Cream
Accessories: Wild Wasabi Striped Grosgrain, Bold Brights Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

A year ago today...

I woke up at 5.30am with regular back pains that made it hard to go back to sleep, after a while I realised that these were definately contractions an decided to get out of bed. By 8.30am they were still so irregular and relatively pain free that I decided to send Justin & Mum to work promising that I would call if they got to 10 minutes apart. I rang Karin the "Contraction Distraction" to come and keep me company for the day, she came over with strict instructions from her mum not to drive me anywhere in her own car in case my waters broke (Thanks alot Rhonda!), it felt calming to have an RN around, even one without midwifery experience. We spent the day watching DVD's and chatting and eating Hot Chip Sandwiches (maybe those kinds of pregnancy cravings have something to do with all that pregnancy weight I got lol).
Mum came home (she was staying with us because it was during the time where they had moved to Orange but she hadn't got her transfer yet so she was still working in Parkes) and took me to the Doctors (I had an appointment anyway so I decided to go in and see what he had to say) and after I showed him how long it was between contractions and that they still weren't anything regular he told me that I wouldn't have the baby tonight but probably sometime this week (Did I mention this was only Tuesday!!) So we went grocery shopping and then home for dinner, about 10 that night (just as we were getting ready for bed) my contractions decided to get organised and regular, so we started getting ready to go up to the hospital. We hung around at home for a while longer. At on stage Mum started to get sympathy stomach cramps and back pains and had to sit down, I was half way through a contraction and offering to go get her a Nurofen! It was hilarious!
We headed up to the hospital at around 1am & Justin got lost on the way! Well not technically lost but he just turned too early and that intersection was a left turn only so we had to go around the block and try again at the right one.
When we finally got there the midwife told us that babies are only born at dawn or dusk (I know what the???) and I wasn't far enough along for dawn and if I was lucky I'd have the baby at 6pm but probably not until 6am the next morning, but she decided to admit me anyway. That midwife was a little weird, she had been a midwife for a million years but she was having trouble telling how far along I really was because charlotte was posterior (where her back was against my back instead of being against my stomach) and you progress really slowly then all of a sudden the baby turns around and they're born really fast, at least that was how it workedfor me anyway. She also put me into a shared room when the entire maternity ward was empty that week except for one other lady and her baby and she put us in the same room!
At 6am 2 new beautiful midwives came on duty, a trainee midwife Tanya (Charlotte was only her 8th baby she'd been there for and the first she'd actually delivered) and Karen who is actually the mother of one of my friends from school. I just felt this incredible sense of calm every time Karen walked into the room, like she was in control and there was nothing that she couldn't handle. Tanya was great too, as she was a new midwife she knew that some of the lingo and procedures could be a little overwhelming so she explained what and why they were doing everything they were doing.
At about 7.30 when the doctor came to do his rounds he decided to break my waters and speed things up. That didn't seem to work and they were still having trouble getting charlotte (even though we didn't know it was charlotte yet) to turn and each contraction was pushing her head into my tailbone (It ended up cracked by the end!) so they decided to put me into the bath around 11am to give me some relief, I fell asleep a few times and got woken up mid contraction, that was really not fun! (I hadn't had any sleep since the first contractions about 30 hours before!) I had started getting the urge to push, however I wasn't far enough along that pushing would have actually been dangerous so before they put me in the bath there was talk of an epidural if she didn't turn while I was in the bath, I hadn't really considered pain relief before hand just figuring that I would make up my mind when I found out how painful labour actually was. Anyway after 10 minutes in the bath I started demanding my epidural, by this stage they'd realised that Charlotte was turning and this was the 'Transition' stage they talk about, where the mother gets really bad tempered (I don't have the best temper to start with so you can imagine how bad I was), so they kept putting me off telling me that they couldn't find the doctor and that he had just left the hospital to go back to the surgery, at which my response was "Why did you let him leave when you knew I wanted an Epidural? You knew! and you let him leave!", during all this they were starting to tell me that if I needed to push I should, so that should have tipped me off but I didn't realise. I also started to calm down and get less demanding, so the next time Karen came in she told me that it was time to get out of the bath because "We have some work to do" I won't go into the really gory details but Charlotte was only born half an hour later, they rang the doctor to warn him that they would call back when it was almost time and they had to call him about 2 minutes later. He walked in just in time to see her born. As soon as she was born they put her on my chest to keep her warm and to let us bond.

As soon as she was born she started cooing and chattering away, it was as if she wanted to tell us what she'd just been through, she kept making that noise for about the next 36hrs, even in her sleep, after about half an hour they actually checked out her breathing to make sure that she was breathing properly as she shouldn't have done that! I remember thinking if she's like this now, what's she going to be like at 3?
So sorry for the novel, but I want to write this stuff down while I still remember it and I thought the perfect time would be a year to the day from when I went into labour.

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

2 months

Day 5 over at Paper Goddess' Layout a Day October challenge! This is another layout in Charlotte's 1st year album, I am picking a photo from close to her birthday every month to show how much she has grown. This picture is a photo of her and my Poppy, this was not long after they met for the first time and she took to him instantly! I just love this photo so much! It is a beautiful photo of 2 of my very favourite people in the world!
I have punched a border around the edge with my double rectangle punch and threaded some Pretty in Pink Taffeta through the holes & tied the knot with the ribbon slider from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware. The Heart is from the Onboard Accents & Elements and I have covered it in Pretty in Pink Cardstock then inked the edges with Close to Cocoa Ink.

Stamps: Short Order Alphabet, Big Bold Butterfly
Ink: Earth Elements SW Markers, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Versamark
Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Double Rectangle Punch, Pretty in Pink & Chocolate Taffetta, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, On Board Accents & Elements and Lots of Letters.

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

When the twins went to Fiji...

This layout is for our Cardinal Stampers team challenge that was my turn to set this week. You can see all the details over at our blog. I chose to do a scrapbook page rather than a card so that I could combine it with Day 4 of the October Layout a Day challenge over at Paper Goddess (Day 5 layout to come later today).

This layout is of the gorgeous little shirt that my friends Karin & Olivia bought Charlotte when they went to Fiji. I've also turned the photo mats into pockets for the postcards that they sent us while they were over there. I will finish the layout off once they email me a photo of themselves on holiday!

Stamps: Live your Dreams
Ink: Groovy Guava, Earth Elements SW Markers
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Old Olive, Fall Flowers DSP
Accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware Pewter, Groovy Guava & Soft Sky DS Ribbon, Word Window Punch

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

2007

Day #3 for Paper Goddess' Layout a Day Challenge. I cheated a little on this one as it was a 8x8" layout (Olive Layer) from my Dashing DSP display at the Parkes Show that I have been meaning to turn into a 12x12" (but I figured that it doesn't matter if it is a layout started and finished a day or just a layout finished a day). I just trimmed another piece of the DSP down to A4 size and layered it and the original layout onto a piece of Real Red 12x12" add a bit of extra ribbon & Voila! A 12x12 layout in 10 minutes!
Now off to start work on another I have an idea for, it will probably take a bit of extra work than a normal layout so I might work on it over the next few days.

Ink: Real Red
Cardstock: Dashing DSP, Real Red, Old Olive
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Old Olive & Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain, Real Red 1/4" Grosgrain, Bold Brights Buttons, Linen Thread

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Blooper Reel - You can't be perfect every time!

Day 2 of the October Layout a Day Challenge over at Paper Goddess. There was a bit of a conspiracy involving 2 flat tyres and 30-something k's out of town (can I just say I love NRMA!!)that almost stopped me scrapping, but I managed to make time tonight (when I should have been cleaning up for visitors tomorrow night, but oh well! you get that).
I've had an idea to scrap some of the weird and wonderful faces that Charlotte manages to make whenever we pull out the camera, but I didn't want to do an 'ugly' layout, I still wanted it to be nice (It's ok if that's the 'Aww mum can't you throw that one out' layout, but i wanted it to still be a pretty page if you know what i mean). I especially wanted to scrap the large photo as that is the first photo we have of her, so even though it's a horrible picture it's still beautiful to us (I don't think I'd even seen her properly it was so early, she was placed on my chest straight after). She was perfectly happy at first and didn't do more than a wimper when she was born, but as soon as I said take a picture the poor thing burst into tears! And it's a face she still makes when we're about to get some serious tears, she is a master at the dropped lip.
I've used the "Live every moment" to remind us to remember the good and bad, that it's all what makes life life and that 'you can't be perfect all the time'.

Stamps: Big Deal Alphabet, Baroque Motifs (gotta love that flourish!) Short Order Alphabet
Ink: Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant
Cardstock: Rose Red Prints DSP, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Accessories: Anchored Rubons, Pretties Kit, Elegant Eggplant 1/4" Grosgrain, Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Walk Tall

I made this layout for Paper Goddess' October Layout a Day challenge, I don't know if I'll be able to do every day because Charlotte's birthday (and party) are in the middle of the month, but a girl can try, right?
The sketch is from A Scrap Addicts Sketches again, I really love her sketches and blog right now, I seem to be lacking inspiration but have a million pages and photos I want to get scrapped and her sketches always give me some sort of direction to get started. You can see here I've moved some bits and pieces around but the point of a sketch is to be a jumping point not an exact science.
This page is probably the quickest I have scrapped a photo from when it was taken, the photo was taken on Monday of Charlotte walking, (she decided to sit down straight after this and the next photo is her crouching so it was good timing) I just loved how she has her little arms out and a look on her face that is a combination of pride and concentration! The day was also perfect for getting photos, I didn't have to touch this up in photo shop! After months of dodgy inside with flash photos over winter it was nice to just be able to point and click and have a nice shot.

Stamps: Polka Dot Background, Big Deal Alphabet, Polka Dots & Paisley
Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss
Cardstock: Petals & Paisley, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red
Accessories: Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals, Pretties Kit, Styled Silver Hodgepodge

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

My baby is now a toddler!!!

My little baby girl is walking! She's not a baby anymore she's now a toddler!!! I was running my Christmas Card Club yesterday and Justin yelled to me that she took a step, we stopped what we were doing to see if she would do it again but she decided to make a liar of Justin (she's good at that). After the class was over 2 of my friends stayed behind to hang out (and maybe to have some margarita's...) and we sat around on the loungeroom floor taking turns calling her and after a few little one or two step 'walks' she practically ran at Karin for a cuddle taking a grand total of 4 steps!!! We were all cheering and clapping her (charlotte that is, not Karin, she was just the bait hehe) and she looked so proud of herself! It was beautiful!

She had another go at walking today but 4 steps is still our record!

We haven't managed to capture any of it on film yet because we have been too excited to think of it, but i'm going to try to get some video tomorrow.

1 Month Old

Here is a layout I made for Charlotte's 1st Year album (I have 2 albums for her, one I am scrapbooking a photo from every month and the other I use for the random layouts). This photo was one that was actually taken on her 1mth birthday, so I had to use it. If I remember correctly, this photo was taken when she fell asleep during 'Tummy Time' and it was a really hot day and there wasn't an air conditioner vent in her bedroom so I didn't have the heart to move her (That and she didn't sleep much during the day those first few weeks so I didn't want to push my luck hehe). This was pretty much when she started sleeping on her tummy, although we didn't put her on her tummy to sleep due to all the SIDS risks, but as soon as she learnt to roll over this was (and still is) her preferred sleeping position.
I have used a sketch from A Scrap Addicts Sketches as my base for this layout, with my newly discovered colour combo of Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant & Lavender Lace, and I have embossed the "It's Beautiful" wheel with Clear EDP down the left hand side, and added some Eastern Elegance rubons & Flowers from the pretties kit (You can't tell from the picture but I have coloured all but the bottom flower with my Aquapainter and Inkpads). I have also used some Styled Silver Hodge Podge to frame the "You make my life a beautiful thing" sentiment in the bottom corner.
I scalloped the Lavender Lace strip using my Corner Rounder Punch with the guard removed (We got to use the soon to be released Scallop Edge Punch at Regionals and can I just say that it has ruined me for using all other methods of getting a scalloped border! It was so easy -and mess free - that it was almost painful to have to do it the 'old fashioned' way)

ETA: I have now added some journalling printed on vellum to the right hand side to tell the little story about why she was asleep like that.

Stamps: A Beautiful Thing, It's Beautiful Wheel, Linen Background, Short Order Alphabet
Ink: Versamark, Old Olive, Lavender Lace & Elegant Eggplant (for colouring the flowers)
Cardstock: Lavender Lace, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, Eastern Elegance Rubons, On Board Chipboard, Clear EDP, Old Olive Grosgrain

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Parkes Show part 1

As I mentioned before I had a display at the Parkes show this week, I thought I'd share some fun and excitement from the show. I have stacks of photos so I think I'll spread them out every few days so you don't get bored (that, and our internet has been capped and I could be here for that long trying to upload them hehe).

This first batch is of Charlotte, this was her first show and she loved it, she's very tired today though, I think we wore her out.

Here she is on her first show ride ever - the Teacups, she thought they were great and she ended up having no less than 4 rides on them! I took a few minutes away from the stall when Justin finished work at 12 (Our town gets a gazetted public holiday from noon onwards especially for the show on the Tuesday, it's fantastic because everything shuts and most of the town heads to the show - used to be great fun when we were at school getting out early to go, half the teachers would give up trying to teach on that day because everyone was too restless to work, lots of fun!) so I could take her on the ride while he took photos.I love that pic, how she's leaning forward makes it feel like she's going so fast!

Here's a photo of Justin on the ride with her on Wednesday night.

Once it got dark and all the show ride lights came on she couldn't take her eyes off them! I didn't get a photo (because I was in the line to ride)but she especially loved watching the zipper go round! Speaking of which I went on it twice! I don't think I've been on as many rides as I did this year in a long time! I was very depressed when I worked out that my first time on the zipper was about 10 years ago - makes me feel old! My friend James (the only person game enough to go on with me the first time - go James!) said to me after the ride "You didn't tell me you scream on these things", I thought I was being quite constrained with my screams because I didn't want him to think I was a chicken so imagine if I had let loose!!!

Her gran took her on as well but it was while I was working in my stand so I didn't get a photo.

Here is a pic of Charlotte watching the fireworks with Daddy:

It was her first time watching fireworks and I was so proud of her, she wasn't scared, in fact when they got really loud and we tried to cover her ears she would yell and pull our hands away. We were pretty much front and centre with most of the fireworks going off from about 200m away so it was as loud as it could get.