I had a wonderful year full of new beginnings and challenges, but a wonderful year. A lot has happened in the last couple of days, I will have to talk about it and post here when the time is right, but for now, enjoy your holidays, family and friends. I wish you all the best and wanted to thank everyone for their love and support over the last few months.

See you next year :)

xoxoxo

We had a great weekend with lots of parties, I am astonished I am not tired, it was actually quite nice weekend. Now I have a crazy week ahead of me, I am glad things seen under control. Matty's birthday is almost ready to go, need to get all the little lollie bags ready and make some brigadeiro (little chocolate deserts, yum). My birthday is also all set, I will have a joint party with a close friend who also has her birthday this week. We are going to have a girls night out on Friday night, looking forward to that! It is also the last week of school, which in a way is such a relief for me, it has been a tough year for Matty and we didn't do so well, so I am looking forward to having proper holidays and start fresh next year. I have more to say, but not enough time :P lets just share this weeks free template based on Pencil Lines Sketch 165:

and I got my Kaisercraft sponsorship pack in the mail, great stuff to work with! I think it even got a little of my mojo back:

*sigh* he is so cute :) Have a great week everyone!

I cant believe my little boy is turning 3! He doesn't have a baby face anymore but I guess he will always be my baby. Super strong willed and independent, he keeps me busy. We went out this morning for some just for fun photos:

Don't you grow up too fast! Please slow down :)

We had a bday party at childcare this afternoon + I made cupcakes and we sang happy birthday at home, and he got some Ben Ten toys + a big Ben Ten themed bday party is planned for Sunday.  Oh, It is the start of the birthday season on our house, now there is hubby on the first of December, Matty on 15th, mine on the 17th and with baby Jesus on the 25th, that's a lot of celebrating :) (and a lot of work)

See you back on Sunday with the new Pencil Lines sketch and free template.

xoxo

A quick page share:

Look at his face, isn't it funny? he is doing that all the time now, scrunching up his face to "smile" haha

I did this page for the Fancy Pants blog to showcase these cool Kraft Kuts: That boy paper. I also use the Kraft stickers and some older Playhouse buttons. Here is a close up of the goodies:

My printer is driving me insaaaane. It is printing everything with black splats and I have been "creatively" covering it up but I am starting to get sick of it. Try to catch on all my latest layouts where the black splotch was and what I used to cover it up hehehe, at least someone might find that fun ;)

Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Sunday with another free template for Pencil Lines.

Hi everyone, the week is flying by, today I have just a quick layout share :) I created this one for the Fancy Pants Blog:

Couldn't get a good shot of this one for some reason, but here are some close up photos:

Everything from Michelle Coleman's Trick or Treat Collection except ribbon from About a Boy and I think there are some extra buttons from On a Whimsy.

I am not really happy about the white border, and with the magic of digital I removed it to see if I was right:

I actually like the page without the border better and will think twice before playing like that again :P

Have a great weekend!

Hello!!!!! We came back on Wednesday! I still have visitors at home so that is why I haven't been around much. But just wanted to start sharing a couple of things before they stack up :)

Firstly some highlights of our vacation that had highs and lows. The boys weren't interested in shows and the COLD water in the parks, but they loved the characters:

After lunch they managed to get in the water:

At night we had a fire show, I played with the camera!

Matty got an allergic reaction to God knows what, we think it was the smoke from the fire show. He got really puffy eyes and the next day we went to Sea World, you can still see how it is a little swollen and how he doesn't look like he was having fun:

'

but there were some good times:

As you can see from the above picture, after lunch his eyes were much better.

Next day we went to Movie World and it was by far the kids' favourite day. Matty just LOVED the Scooby Doo ride, he went twice, Lucas was very disappointed he could not go and I stayed outside with him.

Throughout the day Mateus asthma was playing up, I was giving him the puffer almost every hour, it went through the night and one hour after he finally slept he woke up screaming he could not breath. We called the ambulance and went to the hospital. Luckily we stayed there less than one hour because as soon as he was given steroids he got better. We gave him the medication for the next 3 days and he was fine, phew.

The last 4 days had rain forecast so we didn't plan anything far from the hotel, the first day I just stayed in the room with Matty to make sure he was ok, and the other two we enjoyed the hotel facilities. On the Monday night me, hubby and the in-laws went to Draculas. I loved it, it is hard to describe, it was my second time there and I have to say is something people should do if they plan to go anywhere near the Gold Coast. If your English is good you will get the jokes and the night will be complete, but just the music is worth it :) It was also the very first time the kids stayed with a baby sitter. I was a bit stressful but hassle free experience and the boys had no problem with it :) might be doing it again some time hehehe

I could share some more photos of our way back and the time we spent in Brisbane but this post is way too image heavy already and, you know me, there will be scrapbook pages with the photos :)

(it is also 4AM and I am done LOL)

See you tomorrow with a COOL giveaway :)

(no pun intended or reference to my last kit, hehehe)

You must be wondering why I have stopped posting photos. Well, I haven't totally stopped taking them but it has been hard to get out and about with the kids in the current weather. The weekend before last it was ok go, and we did go out for some exercise and I finally got the camera out.

Lucas was having a great time, he just loves being out and about. Matty on the other hand decided to be Mister Drama, complained the whole that it was too hard, his legs were hurting, blah blah blah, well, with camera in hand I don't stop, I still took photos of his "bad mood"

it doesn't last long though

and on the way back he was a happy chappy (well, it was downhill so he didn't even have to pedal!)

(first four photos and last photo edited with Itty Bitty Actions)

No hybrid feature this week, I think I might have to start having them every other week as I am torn between lots of different projects :)

Hope everything is good on your end because here... it's crazy good, hehe

xoxo

For the one little word prompt this week: Joy.

Everything by CD Muckosky except background paper by Michelle Coleman.

Now, I think this page is cute, but it really doesn't fit my style... I think. I am not sure what my style is, I can't see it, but I know what is not me, and even though I love fantasy settings and style, I find these pages very pretty, I can't do it myself. It is the same with the minimalist style. For example, I loooove what Dunia can create, her style is amazing and so clean, but when I try it myself... it doesn't work. So, I am still trying to figure out my style, anyone knows? hehehe

Here is the original photo:

I *have* to stop scrapping these photos of Lucas, listen to me, do what I tell you but don't do what I do, do NOT scrap more than two pages of the same series of photos or you will end up in the situation I am in at the moment, where I still want to scrap a couple more pages for 2008 but am already way over the 100 page limit, which means I will have to chose some pages to not make to the album. and I still wanted to scrap these two photos:

Will I ever learn? :)

In other news, I am still sick, but a little better, like, I can stay out of bed, and we did go out for brunch today, so that's good...

oh, and Happy Fourth of July to my American friends, hope you have an amazing day of celebrations :)

See you guys tomorrow with Pencil Lines :)

I know most of my readers are in the US and in the middle of summer, but it is Winter here, COLD winter. My last month's photos? are Autumn photos. I am going to save some of them for later, but here are some of my favourites this month:

Lucas loooves the moon, he is always looking for it.

Just after we got back from our trip to Brazil I noticed that Autumn was at its peak and I was going to miss out. So I grabbed Mateus one day after school and let him play with the leaves while I photographed to my heart's content (I swear the trees look like they were on fire... the photos don't do Autumn justice in here!!).

awww my sun flare (and my cheeky boys LOL)!

check Mateus' fingers on this one LOL isn't he too young for that?

Now some home shots (since we have been at home so often with this weather!).

Lucas has been VERY attached to Mac, they are together non stop. Mac has become an inside dog since we came back from Brazil. It is too cold outside and I don't to keep her outside if she is allowed to come in all the time. If she is coming in so she should stay in so she is clean! She has been VERY good up until now, she is very clever and rarely has an "accident" inside but she started to get interested in the kids toys now that it has been a while and she is started to get bored with her own toys. She chewed on a couple already. It is good to teach the kids not to leave their toys in the floor though...

(ugh, look at the carpet next to Lucas, meals area + carpet + children = not a good combo)

My boys at home sick and just so tired:

and lastly, the state of the living room that week we spent home:

that was like a minute after I had organized everything and tried to settle the boys down with a movie... it does get worse than that if you put toys in the equation, but that is supposed to be the TV room which is clean and organized at all times (quite different from the family room). 

Talking about being home sick... we are sick again... just me and Lucas this time, but still, it sucks a bit. Hoping to get out of that cycle... I want to go see the snow. I have a feeling the kids will LOVE it.

Sorry for the long and image heavy post, it just built up and up and I still have loads more photos I wanted to share. I did a photoshoot last week that I REALLY want to share, it was with a friend who is pregnant, and I like the results of this first attempt at a maternity shot. But I wanted to share my photos before so, next time :)

*** Edit to add: from the sun flare photo down, all photos edited with Jinky Art's Sweet Photoshop Actions. The first 4 photos just had a little boost of light, shade and color in Lightroom.

I think it is the first time since I started this blog in January that I take a whole week to post again. Even when I was in Brazil I managed to get posts drafted and ready to go even with no access to the Internet.

This past week I had Internet, I had material/layouts/stuff/news/stories to post, I was at home the whole week, but just could not sit myself in front of the computer to blog, just didn't have the right frame of mind. Lucas was sick, then Mateus, than Lucas again, and Alex, then Mateus again, then finally it got me. Mateus was incredible, in the last 10 days he had headaches, earaches, asthma and a cold. All of each led to nothing and he was better in less than 24 hours each time. He is either very strong or very dramatic. Lucas is another tough cookie, the days he were home he actually did not nap in the afternoon like he should. He could barely breath but he would not rest. On Tuesday he passed out around 5PM and we tried to wake him up at 7PM so he could get some dinner and he just wouldn't wake up. The result was that he woke up at 1AM and didn't want to go back to bed... so stubborn, it wasn't a pleasant night.

Talking about Lucas, my layout for Pencil Lines Sketch 136 was about him starting toilet training last week. Obviously it didn't go so well this week and with him sick and being so cold around here I slapped his nappies back on for the days he was home. But in childcare on Friday he only had one accident, so that's great, I think he will do really well. Here is my page:

Everything by the uber talented Kate Hadfield except scribbles by Designs by Lili, date stamps by Michelle Coleman and (you might now by now) that alpha stamp is the Free Spirit alpha by CD Muckosky LOL

oh, and you got to be wondering where is the free template? hehehe I didn't forget, I haven't been THAT sick ;) Here you go:

Have a great week everyone, Finger crossed everyone here will stay well, I have a lot to catch up on.