Family week - day 5

Central to our family is our faith in God and Jesus as Jehovah's Witnesses.  I truly believe we would not have such a happy family if we didn't hold our religious beliefs.  We regularly attend weekly gatherings at our local Kingdom Hall and once a year we have a larger gathering or Convention, which for us is held at Rod Laver Arena - the place where they play the Australian Open Tennis.
Here is Miss Emily some 4 years ago burning off some energy outside at lunch break.

Reading the bible can be a daunting task, but it helps when you understand what you are reading.  The many bible study aids and attending the meetings helps to unlock some of the messages contained within the bible.

(photo from wikipedia.org)

I often get asked about our beliefs - what we do and don't do.  There is an excellent summary found on the watchtower.org website listing beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses and the reason from the bible.
link: What Do They Believe?

Do you and your family hold certain beliefs?  Are you religious?  Did you know there is even a scrapbooking term called "faithbooking" which involves making an album about all of your religious events and recording your beliefs?

Family week - day 4

Today is all about happiness or is that "happyness"?  I find there is so much in our lives to be thankful for, and that makes me happy.
It makes me happy to see my 2 girls playing together and sharing.

To see Emily looking after her little sister.

It makes me happy when Emily has to stop and pick me some flowers (even if they are weeds).

It makes me happy when I get cuddles without having to ask.

It makes me happy to see Matt playing with his girls, and enjoying it.

What makes you happy?

Family week - day 3

Following on from yesterday's post of activities, today is all about holidays.
Traditionally we have never been the long vacation type - we've just never had the money to go on extended travel or to fly far away.  We have spent a week here or there but never very far from home, and usually road-trips.  Last year we got our first tent and set ourselves up with camping gear.  We did our first expedition in the tent last Easter when I was 36 weeks pregnant!  We all loved it.  Matt was in his element fetching firewood and water, chatting with the guys we went with, and playing bush cricket with stick for stumps.  I loved doing the basics (washing up, cooking, sweeping out the tent) then sitting back around the fire and relaxing.  Emily loved being able to run and play as much as she liked.  Don't get me wrong, camping can be a total disaster if the weather turns sour or you encounter a group of louts, but there is something rather satisfying about being self-sufficient (no power, no running water, etc).

 

This year we went camping at a beautiful bush location called Blanket Bay.  It is set in a National Park, and there are no facilities or power - self-sufficient, just how we like it.  It was like a dream when we woke up and found koalas sitting in the gum trees over our tent.

The beach was a lovely sheltered inlet that was safe (but too cold) to swim in.  We had fun building sand castles and playing in the shallows.

There are so many gorgeous spots to explore in the great outdoors, and by avoiding caravan parks we get to experience it all for next to no cost.  Priceless!

Family week - day 2

When we are together there are certain activities that we enjoy participating in.  We often play games - we are very familiar with bingo, pairs, my little pony game (with a colour spinner), mousetrap maths and any other game suitable for a 5 year old.  We sometimes even enjoy playing with 5 year old toys.

We also enjoy getting out of the house and having a picnic.

Or having a kick of the football - AFL of course!

We also have our own interests and hobbies.  Miss 5 loves to do the crafty thing like her mummy.

She loves colouring in, playing with stamps and inks and sticky tape, and even writing (which at this stage is just a whole heap of letters jumbled together).
Matt enjoys playing on the Playstation3, while I like doing my crafty thing.

What are the activities that you enjoy doing as a family or individually?

Family week - day 1

I started this blog to display some of my craft works in the hope that someone would find it informative or get some inspiration out of it.  This week I am going to step back from the craft side and just share a little bit about me and my family.  Perhaps this may inspire you to get out some of your photos and scrap them so you can remember certain aspects of your family too.

If you read my blog and have done so for a while you would know I am a mum of 2 girls.  I love taking their photos and capturing their youth and personality.
Miss Emily is 5 years old.  Her interests include riding her bike or her scooter, AFL (Go Cats!), My Little Pony, Barbie and all other things 5 year old girls like.  She is a very caring child and most of the time is well mannered - I hope it continues like that as she gets older.

Miss Sophie is 1 year old.  Her interests are food, sleeping and stealing her sisters' toys.  She has an awesome personality, even at such a young age.  Her talk is still babble but she uses tone to get her point across!  She is a bit of a firecracker in that she will go off at you if you tell her "no" or take something away from her.  I like her spunk :)

Matt and I don't normally star in the photos, however I have been making a point of taking more photos with us in them (I'm usually behind the camera).

I don't think I have more than about 10 photos with me and Emily from when she was a baby, so I have made an effort to swing the screen around to the front and capture some with me in them with Sophie (more to share later in the week).  I am a primary school teacher, but haven't worked in the field for the last year and a half due to our littlest bundle of joy.  I would like to go back to it once Sophie is a bit older, but right now I love being a stay at home mum (SAHM).  I love crafts - I have done knitting and cross-stitch before learning about the wonderful world of papercrafts, and since have tried crochet (just this month!) as well as jewellery making, scrapbooking, cardmaking and other off the page and mini album projects.  My true love is for all things paper and ink - or should I say "Stamp n Scrap"!
I am so grateful for Matt - he is the BEST husband anyone could wish for.  The photo above shows a more serious side, but then he was driving at the time!  Most of the time he is light-hearted and having a laugh with or at me ;)  Often people he doesn't know very well think he is quiet, but I think he just takes a while to find his groove.  He works hard to provide for his family, which is a very admirable quality.  When he's not working you can find him near some sort of technological gadget (he's especially fond of his PS3), participating in family activities, attending church, or in the garden (which is a work in progress).  He has difficulty sitting and doing nothing and has voiced his opinion that an island holiday is totally not his thing - much to my disgust!  When we do go on holidays, recently we have been on camping holidays which allow us to do as much or as little as we like while experiencing the great outdoors.

So now that you know a little bit about us, why not share something about your family?  If not publicly or online, then grab a piece of paper and let it all out!

Impromptu wrapping paper

My daughter Emily was invited to a kids party on the weekend, and much like that Kmart ad they are showing on TV at the minute, I only thought about presents the day before.  To make it that much more hectic we spent the night in the city and only got home at lunchtime with the party starting at 2pm.  Wouldn't you know it, I could not find any suitable gift wrap for the presents at home.  Stamps to the rescue!!!  I managed to find 2 pieces of A3 paper which got the stamp treatment.  Unfortunately none of my Rollagraph wheels were particularly kid-friendly so I used rubber stamps instead.  For the boy present I used dark blue paper, and stamped with a star stamp in white ink, and I love how this made the stamps look like a light blue for a tone on tone look.  For the girl present I used an orange paper, stamped with the ladybug stamp in black ink.  I also stamped a matching gift tag for each present and wrapped them in some pretty ribbons.  Problem solved :)

Next time you are stuck without wrapping paper, why not have a go at making your own?!

Haus Designs is Officially Here!

After much headache between Blogger and PayPal, the Haus Designs blog is up and running.  On the blog you can view and purchase the pins (which is the cheapest way if you want to buy them), and there is a gallery of the projects I've received from my trial.
Because I was having limited success with the blog I have also set up an Etsy store to sell them, but because the prices are $US you will end up paying more for them.
My favourite pins are the Deluxe Swarovski Crystal pins - like this:

In the light they just sparkle! 

 My second favourites would have to be the Value Pearl Pins - like this:

They are a bit smaller than the large crystal pins, but they are so pretty - and are great value.

Keep your eye out for more projects featuring these pins and there may be a giveaway or competition or 2...