a wonderful moment.

LO no. 7 from the retreat. This one was started with the cloud background and chalk on the Swiss Dot Bassil. I then finished it at home. Loosely inspired by Ebony Van Der Starre's LO that she taught at the retreat.

This one did cause me a little angst...... when I stuck my finger under the needle of the sewing machine. Ouchies. I ran to the sink and called for Kym to pull out the needle that had broken off from the machine and impaled itself on my finger. Fortunately it slanted through the top of my finger and missed any important bits. And yes, it did go straight thru.

The photo on this LO was taken at the top of North Block after the Retreat in 2010. From L-R there is me, Kylie and her daughter, Lou, Maryanne and Jaki.

4 today

For me scrapbooking is mostly about preserving the story and reliving the memories. It's certainly not about product or keeping up with the latest trends. I scrap for me and for my family. If it happens to interest you, that a bonus. If a magazine happens to like a LO, that's a double bonus.

That being said, this LO is all about the story of his birthday. The story is told by pictures and with words, so there is precious little embellishing as there is a lot of journaling.   :-)

published

LO no 5 from the retreat. Handmade blooms to imitate those of Annie's in her LO.

I've kept the magazine with her LO in it which I will pop in next to this LO for her to keep forever.

its my party

I don't think I've ever inked so much in my life as I did at the retreat. And I'm pretty sure it stems back to Beck Beattie sending me a kit from Scrappy Chat Designs to play with and an example to follow. (here) I've been pulling out the inks or texture paste ever since then.

This LO number 4 from the retreat is no exemption.

he and me

LO no. 3 from the Escape2Create Retreat. love this one. Texture paste used for the chicken wire detail.

I did notice that there was a LOT more mixed mediums used at the retreat this year. Texture paste, gesso, sprays, resists was a fairly norm application onto so many LO's. Cool to see the confidence grow using them. Me included.

feet on the ground

Another favourite LO. Very simple but still a record of him.

every child needs a pet

One of my favourite LO's created at the e2c retreat over this last weekend.

Big weekend in so many ways. Best retreat to date in my opinion. So many laughs around Table 8, and all the way round the shed. 

It was a brilliant weekend that the girls have pulled together. While it was relaxed and seamless to us as scrappers, Amanda and Meredith have been working like trojons to make it look and appear this way. Well done girls. Every year seems to top the last, and this one sure does.

asthma

Annie had her last major asthma scare back in 2010. And by cripes, it was a really big scare. I don't ever want to relive that night ever again.

The story of the night can be found here.

I just wanted the words on these LO's. There's one for her album and one for mine. It was such a significant event in both our lives that I feel its needed documenting for both of us.

For the purpose of identity online, I've erased any identifying data on her wrist ID band that I've kept since then. Its still there on the band irl, I've just erased it on the image going online.

•••my son•••

I've had the journal sticker since I first started scrapping, way back when. And at last it's been used. But it did cause me grief. I was about to place it on the page when a part of it dropped from my finger and stuck itself totally in the wrong spot. With a bit of cursing and some embellies to hide the torn spots, I can live with it. Not totally satisfied, but I'm moving on.

love you

 I had a quiet weekend in, just for a change lol. Annie stayed home with me yesterday while the boys went shooting in Lincoln. We went to the library for Annie to borrow a couple of DVD's. She appreciates a day off now and then too. I made a really big inroad into the processing of the family photo shoot from the night before.

Today saw both kids head off with Kym to shoot at Ungarra so they could play with the other kids there. I finished off the processing and other pressing commitments so now I can scrap without guilt.

It usually takes me a LO or two to get back into the swing of it after being away from the desk for a bit, so I hope to get a few more done and then prep for this coming weekend's big scrap retreat.

Today's effort.

tx4

Been a bit busy the last few days working my way through a family photo shoot. We went to a spot that is near and dear to them and these are just a few of them. There are more sneak peek ones in the Tx4 album on my Photography wall.

I love this one just cause it breaks all the rules.

 Mr T no. 3 - 'Mr Aviator Sunnies.'

Mr T 'no. 1'

Every child needs a pet and 'Butterdog' is certainly his.

Mr T no. 4    - 'The Sandman'

•king• of the couch

Journaling says it all  ;-)

a young picasso

A bit of a happy accident with this LO. I normally print my journaling on the LO with a printer, but I got ahead of myself with this one and forgot to do it and it was too late. So I hand wrote. Something I don't normally do. Nice to put a bit of me on a LO. Makes it more personal for him later on I hope.

the yellow door and the beach

I had a great evening last Friday night for a family photoshoot. Warm and gentle light. Perfect.

These are just a small sample of what I've been working through. I'll be adding more as I process them on my Tiff Firth Photography page. Look for the yellow door and the beach album.



SOOC. no editing required. 
As soon as I saw this on the back of the camera I had a PO. (photographic orgasm). I sucked in a big breath and took a step back. I looked at the Mum (up on Jetty) and said 'wow. I just got the shot of the day. It's a PO!' I then had to explain to her what a PO was. ;)

Playing with the light.

'they whip their hair back and forth'.    SOOC (straight out of camera). no editing required.

As soon as I had this shot in camera, I just knew it was such a winner. I love it.

showing me her 'star' shape in the yellow doorway.

A bit of backstory with this one. Her sister wanted to take a photo, so I put the settings on what I needed and holding the camera, she looked thru the viewfinder and pressed the shutter. I really should put her name as the watermark, but then that would be telling who the family was lol. I don't tag or name people in my family shoots. They can if they wish to, that's their choice.

storm front 7.3.2013

At 1313hrs I was hiding in the shade of the tractor out in the paddock taking photos of the leading edge of the storm front that began the forecasted 20-40mm of rain around the place. Some places had more, some less. All depended if you were under the storm when it let rip.

This shot was promptly shared on Facebook by a number of people and other business pages. Sweet.

sports day 2013

What a humid day it was. Thank goodness the sun was behind the clouds for much of the day. If that was out, it would have been horrid.

As it was, you just sweated standing there watching the kids compete, let alone run around doing what they were doing.

I was shooting photos for Sean's class as requested by his teacher before I focused on Annie for the rest of the her day.



Sean cleared all three rounds of the high jump. Little jumping bean. :)

Annie punched the air as she took the tape in her 100m heat. So glad I caught this moment for her.

The day was very nearly finished when quite a dark and loud thunderstorm started looking ominously close. Kids were dismissed and the results of the day will be announced on Tuesday at school.

The storm slipped to the east of Cummins, but did cause flash flooding alert on the CFS website. And another callout down near White Flat.

I took this shot on the iPhone and popped it up on Facebook. It was shared straight to ABC Eyre Peninsula within minutes. We certainly do live in the age of now.

loosening those apron strings

 I blogged in detail my feelings when Sean had his first day of Transition Kindy back in 2010. Very deep feelings and emotion.

And this is why I blog. I can go back to revisit that date to collect the details I need for scrapping LO's at a later date.

that blog post here.  (I've copy and pasted the majority of the post straight onto the LO)

Did you notice where the printer had a bit of a hiccup lol

Baird's Bay diving with the Sea Lions and Dolphins

What a weekend. Kym, the kids and I headed up the coast on Friday to dive with the Baird's Bay Sea Lion and Dolphins. I rang to confirm our booking on Thursday and it looked like it may not happen on Friday, depending on the weather. As it turned out, it didn't happen. The swell was up (2-3 metres) which is just too big for the kids to handle. 

As we were staying at Venus Bay with 2 other families on Friday night, we had time to meander around the coast. We were in Elliston when I made the 11am call to the charter, so we mooched around the Sculptures, Black Fella Point, and the funky Playground in town. 

We decided to head back down the road to Lock's Well to spend some time on the beach. Best idea for the day.

It was going off. The sky, the waves, the clean sand, the fish. It was perfect.

(posted with permission)

We explored Taliha Caves (pics to come), and Camel Beach. Watched the sun go down with a glass of wine and good friends.

Kym went with the other families up to Ceduna next morning for the 2 day clay target shoot (the reason for the trip in the first place) and the kids and I went diving.

What a blast. At first Sean was a little tentative but he soon found his confidence. Annie just took to it.

 This is Rocky. He's a rock collector and saves them in his piles, which he comes back to check on frequently. He was so very interactive. If you threw a stone in the water, he'd play with it as it sank to the bottom and then add it to his collection.

 Nick who was in the water with us is half seal lion I'm sure. He played with Rocky and Rocky played with him. They certainly do have a relationship.

I do have pics of the dolphins too, but its late and I need to hit the sack. The kids had a ball and will remember this day forever.

quiet time

Rebecca Beattie, who I had the wonderful pleasure meeting irl during this last summer, sent me a surprise parcel in the mail. I had no idea this kit was coming my way. Bec and Renee Aslette run the Scrappychatdesigns blog. And this is one of the kits from there. 

I had a LO to base mine on, but typically me, I started with the idea of it, gave it a Tiff twist and it finished up quite different to the sample. I love that it happens that way. I really enjoyed the inking. Haven't done that for a while.

Thanks Bec. You are just a bit naughty and a whole lot of wonderful. Cheers to you.