I am a bad mummy

I am a bad mummy. I must be. So many people are telling me I am. My brother called me daft, a friend asked why I was ruining things for my kids, others just think I'm a nutter.

What have I done that's so horrible? So disgusting and wrong???

I've told my kids that Santa is a great story that heaps of people like to pretend is real, but it really isn't true. Santa doesn't magically leave presents under the tree, Mummy and Daddy do. It's something Matt and I have dscussed and something we felt was the right thing to do.

I guess it's unforgiveable. We are ruining their Christmasses for the rest of their lives. We are taking away the magic of their childhoods. We are scarring them for life and segregating them from all other people in the human race. Or at least that's the impression I'm getting from everyone else!

Why do we feel the need to out-an-out LIE to our children to create a magical and imaginative world for them to live in? Kids are amazing creatures. They can watch movies and be taken to fantastical worlds, read book and be transported to out-of-this-world wonderous lands. They play with a brown box that can amazingly become a car, a rocket ship, a boat, a house, a cave, or whatever else they want. But when it comes to Santa, we can't trust our kids to take it as an amazingly wonderful story about the giving spirit behind Christmas? Why do we have to tell our kids that Santa is alive and well today and lives in the North Pole and has magical elves and reindeer and delivers presents personally to each and every child? Why do our news programmes feel the need to perpetuate this downright lie by giving updates on "Santa" and even little graphics on where he is by using the modern technology of GPS? Why can we not trust our kids to create some magic themselves, and instead foist it on them in the form of our own ideas?

Elizabeth isn't missing out on anything. She gets to lie under the Christmas tree and count all the twinkling lights with me. Tonight or tomorrow night we're going to pop some popcorn and drive around looking at Christmas lights and ooohhhh and aaahhh. She's getting a chocolate every day from the Advent calendar as we count down the days. She has heaps of presents under the Christmas tree all waiting for her to unwrap (she claims there are 10 - that's a big number for her). She'll celebrate on Christmas Day with a whole pile of loving people and plenty of good food.

Phillip doesn't seem to be missing out on anything magical either. He screams with excitement at every single Christmas decoration he sees (if it has flashing lights that deserves an even bigger yell). He's overjoyed every time he comes down the stairs to see our Christmas tree (despite the original fear because he shattered a glass bauble). I can just imagine the noise tonight or tomorrow as we search for lights! I might bring some ear plugs. He's gobbled down each Advent chocolate as I give them to him. And he's sure to gorge himself silly on Christmas Day!

Why on earth do we have to lie to them about a big fat man in a red suit to make it magical???

And why am I classified as a bad mother and a killjoy because we have chosen this way, and why do I have to keep justifying our choice to every friend, brother, shop assistant, and meddler around?

I'm running away!

I am a bad bad blogging mummy. I have neglected my blog. How bad am I???

Sorry blog. What can I do to make it up to you?

Maybe after my retreat this weekend I'll have some cool things to put up in here. I'm running away to QLD for a few days! I'll be heading to the Ohana retread with all my lovely ScrapChat friends (except for some that sadly couldn't make it - we'll miss you guys!).

As it is, I'll just have post up a few photos from the last couple of (rather busy) months. I hope that makes you happy, my poor neglected blog...

We've had Elizabeth's 4th birthday. That was heaps of fun. She got heaps and heaps of presents, and her cake was a treasure chest that she helped me decorate...

My sister had her baby - Isabella Ruth Alice. It was a looooong labour, and was set to go even longer, but they decided enough was enough and chopped her out by emergency c-section. Both mummy and baby are doing really well now.

I finished crocheting a dress for Isabella, about 1 week before she was born. Good timing I reckon! Modelled by the ever-poseable (but rather grumpy) doll Beatrice.

And we had fun around Halloween by actually carving jack-o-lanterns! Not that we actually celebrate Halloween, but I've always wanted to carve a jack-o-lantern, and now I have!

And finally, a quick picture of my 2 kiddles *acting* like little angels. Of course Blogger is having a little hissy fit, so you might have to flip your head sideways to get a good look at them...

OK, I'd better run. Phillip's having his immunisations this morning. That'll be heaps of fun...

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Phillip is sitting on my lap right now about to head off to bed, and he just wanted to say "hi", and "good night". I guess his spelling isn't the greatest... LOL

I actually got a few photos of my kiddles the other morning. TOGETHER! That is virtually impossible. The last photo I had of the 2 of them together and both looking at the camera, and HAPPY was in January I think. I've been able to photoshop a couple of decent pictures from combining 2 vaguely decent ones, but it's not the same! So here's one of the photos I got on Friday morning. There are others that I love too. Maybe I'll share them in my next post...

Last weekend I got to stay over at Sharon's house (thanks for the hospitality Sharon if you ever read this!) to do a bit of scrapping on the Saturday, and then we headed off to the stitches and craft show in Sydney on the Sunday. I managed to complete a few things on the Saturday.

Sadly I'm not as impressed by the work I do when I'm out of the house, as the stuff I do when I'm at home. I tend to get a bit more arty and do a lot more detailed work at home. At crops and retreats I tend to do a lot more clean-cut stuff and it tends to be a bit more, I dunno, boring? Not really the right word, but I'm never quite as happy with the things I do. But in the end I have a few more memories down on paper, a few more challenges done, and most of all, I get to have fun! And I guess that is the point eh?

The "Fashionista" LO is the basis for a sketch over at TAN's blog if you want to have something to get your creative juices flowing...

I'm starting working on a rag quilt at the moment (I figure if I put it in here I might actually FINISH a creative project!). I haven't really made a quilt before. I made a king-sized quilt cover for my mum using a very random style, but never actually a REAL quilt! Wish me luck!

Woo Hoo! I'm on a roll!

Elizabeth likes dressing herself at the moment. We have had some interesting combinations so far - dresses over jeans, singlet tops in winter, and of COURSE orange, navy, pink and red go SO well together. But yesterday's outfit was a stunner...

So what if the grey and black striped leggings are inside out? So what if the bright blue knitted jumper is inside out too? So what if the off-the-shoulder checked red gingham Dorothy the Dinosaur top doesn't match anything? It's FASHION daaaahhhlings!

All done, and some digi scrapping to share

Well, Tanyah's blog is all set up. All pink and pretty with butterflies and flowers and gems.

My blog is set up too - a little bit different... A bit of a grungy, dirty and ecclectic look I reckon! I like the coffee stains particularly. Even though I don't actually drink coffee... LOL

I put in an order with BigW online the other day for 2 8x8 soft-cover albums. At less than $10 it's a GREAT way to get digi creations out of the computer and into a book. You can fit 20 LOs in each book (more if you put multiples on each page, but then they get pretty small and you can't see the detail). I wanted to do 2 books, but I needed a few extra LOs to bulk them out, so I whipped up these LOs in an hour or so!

So today I get to go pick up the 2 books. Added to the 1 I already have, I will then have just about all of my digi scrapping in a hard-copy form as well as on the computer.

It was my sister's baby shower on the 8th. Lots of preperation. Of course, like usual, we over-did it and had heaps and heaps of food, lots of games and all kinds of things. It was a fun day!

I made a nappy cake. It's got wipes, baby bath, 2 packets of disposable nappies, 3 cloth nappies, 4 pairs of frilly baby socks, and the thankyou gifts for everyone for coming (the lolly pops).

And I HAD to include an embarrasing present opening photo of Sarah here. Love the double chin... hehehehe

So, I guess I should go clean the house or something like that. Maybe go get some morning tea for the playgroup tomorrow. Lucky me is on morning tea.

Please excuse the dust

I am in the process of changing my blog around a little bit, and also experimenting with Tanyah's blog (figured I'd muck around with mine cause I know I can change it back). So if you're popping in you might notice a few strange things happening...

Great news and my first Scrap N Craft With T Digital Freebie!

I am very proud to announce that Tanyah at Scrap and Craft with T has asked me to be on her design team, and I (of course very reluctantly! LOL) have said yes! And to celebrate there is a gorgeous digital freebie (even if I do say so myself) all set for you to have a play with.

There are 2 papers, a 5x7 frame, buttons and more!

Head on over to HERE to get yours!

And for those of you who like a bargain and some great scrapping products, head on over to the Scrapchat's auction site this weekend!

WOW is it going to be BIG or what???

Come and grab a scrap bargain and the biggest bargain is a FREE DIGI PAPER!

Hi there everyone. I have been a busy little girl lately. Sadly not too much to share on here. More washing vomit and poo. Sadly so many bugs have come throught this family in the last month!

But I still have had the chance to upload some (what I think are) gorgeous baby clothes to the Scrapchat TRASH AND TREASURE day!

Head on over to the auction site to check out the rest of my things (the trash and treasure day is Sunday 26th - all items are only available for one day!), and there's SO much more there too - crocheted flowers, transparancies, kits, hand-made buttons, felt and paper embellishments, and HEAPS of stuff! I am sure to be doing a bit of shopping for my bargains.

And next up to share with you lovely people is a small digital freebie. I made an antiqued scalloped paper for a page I did for Roll 2 Create's fortnightly challenges.

Here's the LO which includes the FREE PAPER...

And HERE is where you can pick up your own copy. I also used other elements from my different freebies for this LO - the blue paper was from my GROOVY GRUNGE Pt 1. The paper flowers are from my first kit I ever made KIT 1 (the colour of them have been changed). Hope you can use something in your own LOs! If you do please drop me a note and let me see your work!

I have also done a little scrap therapy in the last few days - scrapping about the every-day stuff. The stuff that takes up so much of my life, but so rarely makes it into my scrapbooks!

So here's my POO LO!

Hope it gives you a bit of a giggle. If you take up the challenge of creating your own "every-day" LO, let me know so I can check it out! It's great to have LOs like this that aren't the lovely posed portraits and beautiful landscapes...

A2Z stuff!

Well, being on a DT is fun, but it means you can't share your work until it's all on the main site! Not a major hassle, but as I've been a baaaaad blogger you guys get piled up with heaps of LOs at once! :D

So, here's a couple of months worth of DT work for A2Z Scraplets. Hope you like!

I *think* that's all of them that I haven't shared yet!

Enjoy!

Love you all!

OK, I'm a soppy person. I just wanted to say a BIG "I LOVE YOU" to all of my online friends.

I wake up every morning happy in the knowledge that I'll get to "see you again today.

I love sharing your lives with you, even if I'm a bit reluctant sharing my own.

I count you among my best friends right now...

Challenges!

Just thought I'd give you all a "heads up" about some great challenges happening around the place at the moment.

Head on over to A2Z Scraplets for a cool sketch competition. No restrictions on products (so you don't need to use A2Z Scraplets, but I love them and would anyway!)

My friend Tan is holding a great sketch challenge at her blog too. There are 2 sketches and different products/techniques to use for each. It's a great way to win vouchers in her awesome shop (I LOVE her shop, it has so much I want!)

Biting

What is it with my kids at the moment. I think they must lie in bed at night and conspire together how to best annoy me! They are having biting competitions right now. Eilzabeth has a couple of decent sized marks on her back right now.

How on earth do I stop Phillip biting?!?

Feb 16: Raindrops keep falling on our house...

Feb 17: That Tendo is a real favourite! Pity she keeps giving the dogs away in Nintendogs...

Feb 18: My scrapping room needing a bit of work...

Feb 19: Phillip and some more mess!

Feb 20: Happy birthday to ME!

Feb 21: A nicely made bed

Feb 22: Some of our many many photos on display in the house (the squares below are mirrors - I'm such a child care teacher!)...

Feb 23: Matt and I - a vaguely decent photo (even if it needed some drastic Photoshopping!).

Feb 24: A major accident on the corner just near my house. A fire engine flipped a ute over into a neighbour's garden. The rescue teams and everyone were there for about 7 hours. Pretty scary stuff!

Feb 25: The Devil Wears Prada. What I'm reading right now. A pretty good read!

Feb 26: What a cutie this girl is! Elizabeth posing for the camera.

Feb 27: Phillip posing as well! He loves the camera.

Feb 28: My rockstar baby girl!

An update on the cleaning situation...

We did pretty good. The inside of the house got thoroughly cleaned and sorted (except sadly for my scrapping room. That needs some major sorting attention with a decent block of time). The garden hasn't been finished yet, but we're about half-way through the weeding. Sadly during our clean-out we found out cockroaches were having heaps of fun inside our bookshelves! They weren't in the kitchen or anywhere like that, but in our books! I was really really mad because they'd gotten into a couple of my scrapbooks. So now we've been spraying and squishing and cleaning out all the cockroaches (3 bug bombs, 1 huge can of surface spray, 12 baits, we've completely finished one can of spray now). If anyone has any tips on how to get rid of the little german cockroaches, PLEASE let me know!