surprise!

catch up with me here now!

I have BIG news!

I just had to share!

There is a new scrap store just up the road from me. For all you locals it's Heaven Scent on Dorset Road in Croydon South. It used to be a VERY small store in Kilsyth - Clair you may know it.

Anyway, a friend of mine spotted it and told me she was going there last week, so I asked her to put a good word in to the owner about my work and teaching. She did that for me and the owner told her to send me in with some of my work to show her.

So anyway, I went in yesterday afternoon and showed her about 15 layouts. She said they were all completely different to the other teachers work, so she wanted me. She asked me to come back last night to chat with her more about it.

So off I trotted last night and we chatted some more. It ended that I will be teaching every second Friday night. Next month I am teaching 3 classes there. I had the freedom to grab anything I wanted in the shop to use for the sample, all free of charge. It's just that the samples are not my property when finished, they will belong to the shop and be up on display to promote products. But that's cool with me.

So, this is what I am doing. First class will be a simple layout teaching covering chipboard and distressing the edges. I can't believe the other teacher hasn't already done this! Second class is a daisy flower mini book. Third class is a altered clipboard. I have plenty more that she wants me to do though, but I will let you know about those closer to the time.

So for all you locals... drop in to the shop. It's small at the moment cos she only just moved form a tiny shop, but will be expanding. Once my classes are finalised I will post the details on here again.

In other news... it's my 6 years anniversary today! Happy Anniversary Israel! Love you lots babe!
He gave me a little cupcake case filled with candy and a frame with a beautiful poam and a nice pic in it. I will scan it to show off later.
I haven't given him anything! *BLUSH*

I really should go now though... will be back later!

Scrapniques Classes Info

Okay, the voting is now open for the class 2 homework kits! Pop on over to the Scrapniques Classes Blog to have a look and then send your vote to me asap.

There is also info over the about a crop I am holding - check it out!

Web Album is ready

Check it out... July Holidays 07

Once into the album, you can click on the indivual photos to see them bigger, or you can even view a slideshow.

Hope you like!

(The following are just some of my fav's from the album)

Terrific tuesday!

It's raining, but that's not spoiling my mood for today! I am so happy!

I just went up to my LSS to buy some more supplies for my next Scrapniques class. I was telling Maxine how I am now runing classes at home and that my next one is on Bleach, and to cut a long story short she wants me to run classes there! She wants to book me in for a wednesday in August!
I just need to do a sample using products from the store. How amazing is that!

In other news... I am just finalising the photos on the web album from our holiday. They should be up tonight. Sorry for the delay.

Just some news about the kids now....

Chloe is soooo funny. She is constantly coming out with wise cracks. For instance, she tells me when the traffic lights are green and says "Go Mummy, Go!", also when we were driving to the scrap shop today, I told her that we were going to see Maxine, and she asked "Mummy, does Maxine love me?" I of course had to say yes!

Gemma is a little box too actually! She says muma, dada, baba, uh oh, and also mimics a lot of other sounds we make too.

Ashca isn't talking as much but is very very close to walking! She also just started clapping hands the other day, very cute!

Ashca and Gemma are now on cows milk for their bottles, we now go through HEAPS of milk!

That's about all the goss happening for now.

I better go and get some work done before Cam comes over this afternoon. He is coming by after school to watch Shrek and eat popcorn with Chloe and then he will get picked up to go to Soccer from here.

Will be back later with the web album.
Dannii xx

Home again!

I have actually been home for 4 days now, but only now getting the chance to update my blog. And that's only cos I am ignoring housework!

It's really great going away, but it sucks coming home cos there is soooo much to do. All the washing, restocking the pantry and fridge, trying to gets kids back into a normal routine, and just general day to day stuff. But we are slowly getting there... slowly but surely.

Well, here I am to update the rest of our holidays. I have not got the photos yet as they are still on Izzy's computer, but I will be hopefully getting them tonight. There are a lot of photos, so I am planning on just putting them on a web-album instead of on the blog. So watch out for the link in upcoming posts.

So, when I last wrote I was at Dunja's, just basically bumming around on the thursday. I noticed that I mentioned we were going to go on the zig-zag railway... well we didn't end up doing that. The Blue Mountains are just too darn cold at this time of year to be doing outdoorsy stuff like that! I ended up having a day sleep, and Izzy and Sean just played computer games. Then on the thursday night Dunja and John came home early as it was John's birthday and we had a nice dinner and some cake for him.

Friday morning we packed up and left Little Hartley and headed just a short distance away to Kurrajong. I think it's only about 30 mins away. Izzy's aunty and uncle live there so we spent a couple of hours with them having lunch. It was a gorgeous day so we had lunch outside in the sun. The kids loved playing around there and we got some gorgeous photos.

Friday afternoon we headed to my aunty and uncles place in Castle Hill, but on the way there, dropped in to see my uncle at his Video Ezy store, and he gave Chloe a free ice cream which she loved of course! Friday night we had a nice dinner with my aunty and uncle, and also my cousing Heather and her GORGEOUS family. Unfortunately my other cousins Fiona and Doug were not able to make it. It would have been great to see them, but hopefully next time! My kids and Heather's kids all played so well. Jordan, Heather's son who I think is 5 or 6 said he liked Gemma the best - it was so funny!

Saturday we packed up again, and headed off to Bicentenial Park in Olympic Park for a picnic lunch with Israel's family. Not everyone was able to make it unfortunately, but still a lot did make it, which we are thankful for. It was a fun day filled with baby talk (2 of Israel's cousins are pregnant), kite flying and lots of yummy food. We don't see Israel's family a lot, but it's great when we do.

After the park we headed over to my Dad's place in Dee Why. We didn't get there til just before the kids dinner time, so when we arrived it was a bit chaotic trying to get food prepared for them. But once all that was done we had Christmas in July. In true Dad style, we all got spoiled! Then we sat down to an amazing dinner with 4 types of meat! It was very extravagant, again typical of Dad! It was wonderful. I was thinking of staying up and watching a movie that night, but I had too much wine and just crashed in bed instead.

Sunday, we decided to head over to Bondi so Izzy could have a skate, but just as we arrived there it started raining - which isn't good for skating! He did manage to have a bit of a skate, but nothing too much. We ended having a lovely cafe lunch though. I had a mushroom omelette which was yummy yummy!

Sunday night we went to my Aunty and Uncles for dinner. I love spending time with Steve and Pip and there family, they are such a crack up! I always feel very comfortable there, it's great. Chloe was very well behaved there too, which is always a bonus! Hehe!

Monday we had to head off from Dad's early, well 9am, as we had a 3 hour drive up to Nelson Bay to see Israel's grandma. It was really lovely to see her again, but unfortunately I was very sick with a head cold. I had been sick for most of our holiday but this particular day was my worst. I was so clogged up in the head I couldn't think, and of course the kids were still sick too, so not too easy to deal with, so it was a bit uncomfortable at Grandma's. Having said that though, I am still very happy we spent some time with her. I just hope she doesn't get sick too!

Monday night, we drove down to Gwandalan which is just on Lake Macquarie and spent the night with Israel's cousins. On the way there, we also drove through Cooranbong, the town we lived in before moving to Melbourne. Not much has changed, except for the damaged caused by the floods. Oh actually the Mobil service station that Izzy used to work at is now a United, and owned by different people!

Anyway, back to Israel's cousins - Steph and Steve. They are a truly wonderful family to be around. So calm and easy going - I love it! There kids are just gorgeous too. They adored our kids and all played so well together - it was beautiful to watch.

We were meant to spend Tuesday night with my Godmother and her family back down in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, but they were too sick, so we ended up staying another night at Steph and Steve's - so that meant that we could relax on Tuesday, which was super nice. We ended up going to Frazer Beach. The bigger kids and Israel made a dam and Ash and Gem ate sand. It was the first time Ashca and Gemma had been on a beach I am pretty sure, so it was all new to them. The sun was out so we managed to get some really nice photos there too. But it did get too cold eventually, so we all headed home again. We had a lovely BBQ lunch and then headed off to Tuggerah for some retail therapy. I bought a few things which I am really happy with. But my fav thing is my neice's 1st birthday present. I bought her some clothes, which I think are gorgeous! I can't wait til summer and she can fit them!

Since we were still up on the coast on Tuesday night, we decided to visit some friends of ours in Cooranbong after dinner. We left all our children at home with Steph and Steve, and headed out for about 2 hours. It was great to see them again. Donna is pregnant and starting to show a cute little baby bump. It makes me clucky again! No Dannii! NOOOOOO!

Wednesday we had a huge day of driving. We had to drive all the way from Gwandalan to Jindera, which took us about 10 hours! We stopped a lot though. Fortunately for us, our kids are pretty good travellers.

Wednesday night we arrived Cynthia and Paul's all starving hungry and a bit wild from our long drive. Our hungry was quickly met with a yummy meal of Corned Beef - oh I love corned beef! Then once the kids FINALLY went to bed, we played Bang, which is so much fun. I so have to buy that game!

Thursday we spent the afternoon at Beechworth, which I must say - I LOVE THAT TOWN! I could have spent forever there! The toy shop and lolly shop there are both amazing! Along with spending up at the toy and lolly shops we also went to the old brewery which now does cordials. We taste tested a few and ended up buying the Rhubard and Apple one and the Portello one. Very noice!

We ended up staying in Beechworth for dinner and having a scrumptious chinese dinner. Then once the kids had there bottles, we headed off for the last leg of our adventurous trip. It was just a 3 hour drive back home, so it was quite easy. The kids all slept the whole time and Israel slept a lot of it too. But the best bit was at the end of it... we were HOME!

Sorry it has taken so long to update this, I hope you weren't bored, sorry if you were!

I will try and get this web album up and running asap for you all to see.

And I will try and be back in the next few days to chat about other stuff too, until then... keep smiling!

Dannii xx

On holidays!

Hi all! Here I am at the beautiful Little Hartley in the Blue Mountains of NSW. We are staying at Dunja and John's house, which I must say is such a gorgeous country home! And they have been so hospitable too!
Israel is out 4WDing on the track that Sean has for his paddock basher, so I thought I would jump online and update my good old blog. Unfortunately we have been slack with taking photos so I havn't got any to show off, but hopefully we will take some today. You will just have to put up with a verbal account of what has been happening.

Well to start with, Tuesday we set off for our big trip. We were going to leave home at 5am, but we had a really rough night with the kids. Basically Gemma was up screaming all night. We finally got her to sleep, and then ended up leaving at 6:50am. We drove to Benalla and then stopped at the beautiful Benalla Bakery for breaky. It was really funny at the bakery cos the family that runs it is full of multiples. Twins and triplets all through the family!

We then drove from Benalla to Jindera which is about 20 mins north of Albury. We stayed with Israel's cousin and her wonderful family. They have the most amazing house. It's bloomin huge I tell you! The kids all had a great time there, not too much fighting. When we got there though it became evident that Chloe sickness was maybe more than just a cold, so Israel took her and Gemma off to the docs to egt checked out. It turns out that they have a respiratory infection, mild tonsilitis and inflamed ears, so not too well. It explains a lot! We have now got them all on AB's and nurofen, so hopefully by the weekend they will be a lot better. We have already seen a good improvement so far.

Tuesday night we had a great time with Cynthia and Paul. We played a very interesting card game with them called Bang! It's so confusing at first but once you understand it, it's awesome. I am so looking forward to playing it again when we go back there next week! Has anyone else ever played it?

Well, Wednesday morning we were again off to a late start, but all for a good reason. The kids slept in! Gotta love that! We ended up leaving Jindera at about 10ish, so really it wasn't too bad. We were in for a long drive though. I drove the first 4 hours to Goulburn. We played Veggie tales for Chloe on the laptop to keep her entertained. At Goulburn, we stopped at the Big Merino (by the way, it's moved now). We had a very expensive lunch there, but it was nice. We then headed off for the last part of our trip. We drove through Black Springs and Oberon to get to Little Hartley. Israel's description of the trip was simply curvy and steep, oh and windy too! I actually got car sick for the first time in years! It was very scenic though. Chloe watched Madagasca during that trip. It was very cute to see her laughing at it with headphones in her ears! I was highly offended when Chloe told me I looked like Gloria the hippo though!

We stopped again at Oberon to give the girls some dinner, and we were spoiled with good old country hospitality at a little eatery... free frankfurt and lovely chats! But then once the girls were fed and had clean bums we once again got in the car. We only had a short drive this time though to Little Hartley. I think it was only about 45 mins to an hour. We also arrived there at the same time that Dunja and John arrived home. They work in Sydney city, so drive 2.5 to 3 hours to get to work, and then do it again to get home! I don't know how they do it!

We had a lovely pasta for dinner and got all the girls in bed. Soon after Dunja and John went to bed also, since they have to get up at 3:30am. Israel and Sean played around on the computer for a while, but I enjoyed the comfort of bed and soon fell asleep.

Today so far we have just been bumming around most of the day. The boys went out for a drive, and then Chloe and I went. It was so much fun, but oh my the car is absolutely caked with mud! We are going to have a tough time getting it clean thats for sure! We have taken some photos, will load them up this afternoon.

At 3pm we are also going to go on the zig-zag railway, which is appartantly like Puffing Billy in Emerald. A steam train trip up the mountain.

Well I better get off the computer now and let Izzy load up the photos.

Will check in again as soon as I can.

Time flies when your not having fun!

Oh that title sounds horrible, but our last week or so hasn't been fun at all. We have had sleeping problems with Ashca and Gemma. Lets just say it's been quite horrid! However I am glad to say that last night was good, and I was talking to a friend today who gave me more survival tips, so hopefully things we be moving up from here.

A few other things have been happening, nothing too interesting to you guys probably. But it's the little exciting things that make my life worthwhile.

Gemma has started talking a little bit. She says "uh-oh", and the other night she said "bye bye". Ashca and her both say the normal "mama" "dada" and "baba". Previously they have just been saying these, but not in reference to the actual people. But I have noticed them saying "mama" just to me now, so that's pretty cool. Ashca has also started making "woof" sounds when she hears a dog. It's pretty funny.

Gem has also now progressed to 3 teeth (she got one up the top the other night), and Ashca still has 2 with no signs of any more coming through just yet.

Ashca has also been cruising around lots more now. She lets go of furniture and can stand for a coupld of seconds unassisted, but this is only when she feels like it of course! She has also taken a couple of steps on the odd occasion too. Not anywhere near wlaking by herself completely yet, but definitely a start.

Chloe has also been a great source of entertainment lately. She is talking so much! She is always coming out with things that make me laugh or go "awwww". The other night I was making her a choccie milk and she started singing. You may know of the kids christian song "Jesus loves me", well if you don't know it, it goes... "Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so. Well when I made Chloe her choccie milk she made up a new version of the song, it went like this... "Chocolates yummy this I know, for the bible tells me so. How gorgeous is that?! She is such a funny chook!

All the kids are little bit sick at the moment, which is probably a major contributor to the problems at night. I think they are on the mend now, so happy with that.

I haven't been doing a great deal of scrapping lately. I have been busy working on Ashca and Gemma's birthday invitations. Talking of that... we did a little photo shoot the other day for their invitations. We didn't end up using any of these photos, cos we found better ones from only about 2 months ago, but here is a little collage to show you what photos we did get.



The only other scrapping I have done for at least a week was this card...



Good news though... my "Love, Elsie" products arrived yesterday, so I think I will be scrapping with them very soon! Well at least once I get the courage up to do it. I have a lot to live up to to achieve her kind of look. I really hope I don't stuff it all up!

I also went over to Tracey's on thursday to celebrate James turning 4. Here is another little collage of photos we took that day.


In other news... Mum and Max leave for the US tomorrow morning. They are going to be gone for a month. It's going to be so weird not having Mum right around the corner or just a phone call away. I will miss you heaps Mum! The good thing about her going away is that she will be bringing me back Elsie's book "52 scrapbooking challenges". I am totally excited and can't wait to get it!

We are also leaving for a little holiday in a couple of days time. We are heading up to NSW for 9 days. We are driving so it's going to be ... ummm... fun? Well, how do you think it will be with 3 kids!? I will try and log on and do a quick post every couple of days while I am away so you can see what we are up to, but I don't know how lucky I will be with getting internet access. I'll see how I go anyway.

Okay, I have one more little girl to put to bed, so I better get going. Will try and come back again and post before we leave on Tuesday, but don't hold me to it!

some scrapping...

Just popping in quickly to show off some scrapping I have done lately.

some cards first...




And now for the LO's...

(Some of you from my class may recognise these papers.)

And lastly a "photo frame thingy"...


I have done a few other things which I would really love to show off, but I am holding back as I may be entering them into the FK awards of excellence.


Thanks for looking!

dress ups, a tin, and a kid free cleaning day.........

Oh my this week has been busy! I feel like I have had so much happening, it's hard to keep track of. Fortunately, my gorgeous Mum bought be a really beaut diary to keep track of all my comings and goings - thanks Mum!

Here are some pics of Chloe. The other day she came running out of her room yelling "Look at me Mum!" and this is what I found...



Apparantly dressing up like this looks "pwetty"! I must try it when I next go out... PMSL!

I held another class last night, as you probably already know! Here is my sample of the keepsake tin that everyone made at the class...


There are other pics on the Scrapniques Classes blog if you want to go and check them out. Plus there are the details for the next 2 classes too. Still spots available! Also, I am in search of people to help me get the party side of scrapniques happening. Here is a link to the post telling you all about what I mean. Email me if you want a class list. Also I can run crops with raffles and games too!

Okay, enough promoting for now... hehe!

Well today was a big day for me and the girls. It was their first day in family day care. They are going to be going once a week now, every wednesday. They babies seemed okay with it, but Chloe absolutely LURVED it! Put it this way, as we were leaving, she was yelling out to her carer Cheryl... "Bye Shewyl! Jum (thanks) for habing me! See you ned (next) time! Luv you!" - How adorable is that?!

As soon as I walked in the door to pick them up, Chloe ran up to me and showed me her bracelet that Cheryl made for her. Apparantly Chloe picked all the beads for it, and Cheryl put it together. It's her pride and joy right now!

So, what did I do in my spare time? Well it's not really spare time for me. The day is set aside for me to do things that I can't do with the kids, namely housework! However today I desperately needed to go shopping. So right after I dropped them off I went to Get Fresh (local fruit and veg store) Then I went to the meat Get Fresh right next door, and then to NQR on the other side. I then packed it all into the car and drove over to Kmart and Coles. In Kmart I bought new runners for Chloe (which I have to take back cos they are too small) a new bathmat, and a bulk box of washing powder. Then lastly I ventured through Coles.

Now this is something that I very rarely get to do. Going to many shops I mean. Usually because I have the kids I have to go to just Coles, cos it's too hard trapsing them around everywhere. But doing that means I am paying waaaayyyy to much for meat and vegies. So this way I was able to save a bit of money.

Then when I got home I made my house look very nice indeed! I mainly worked in the main bedroom and bathrooms cos they were pretty horrid. But I am proud to say they look darn good now! I also vacuumed the whole house and tidied everything as I went. The only thing I haven't done is the scrap room (which I will do tonight) and the toy room (which I think is better doing with Chloe so we will do that tomorrow).

Oh my, I have rambled on quite enough already. I better shut up!

Will come back later...

They all went well there. The biggest giveaway that it went well is that they all had an afternoon nap. I think if they were unsettled they would not have slept. So that was a relief for me!