his reaction....

remember this pic ...

... well this was his reaction (reenacted) ;)

He was pretty pleased with himself. The balloons stayed around for about a week. Every night in the gentle cooling summer air lazily turned by the ceiling fan, the balloons would stampede out his bedroom. It was just like a herd of cows. Every morning we would have to round them up again from all corners of the house to put them back in the 'cattle yard' being Sean's room. It was actually a lot of fun, soccering them back into his room. We played different ways - no hands or no feet, or push the balloons with your nose.  Lots of laughs.

I decorated a sponge as an anti gravity cake to take to his classroom to share (by his request)...

... and it wasn't until tonight that all the pieces of his gift came together. His swag and the Minecraft Blockopedia.  That swag will come in very handy in a couple of weekends time.

He's had a swag for years, a tired and very worn second hand one. So this one is smells like a new car to him.  Wonderful to see him so excited and keen about it.

backyard gym apparatus

I do love using the motor drive on the camera to take a series of shots to produce a storyboard for scrapbooking. On Canon cameras the motor drive is called AF-Drive. Mine is always set on High Speed Continuous as you never know when the opportunity arises to grab several stills in rapid succession. Awesome setting for capturing the action with sports and busy kids. 

be you

Its a hot day today so I spent time indoors being productive. And this is the result. Still scrapping without my usual stash of ready printed photos at hand so I've had to be a bit creative with the images on my computer.

This is printed directly onto white cardstock with cream overtures.  I'm in lurve!!!

lead up to saucy saturday

The kids are getting their sauce on in preparation for Saucy Saturday at Five Loaves Bakery.

Details here.

My photos of the last Saucy Saturday from a couple of years ago here

flinders

Having zero ready printed photos organised to scrap has been surprisingly liberating.  I haven't pulled together a digi layout for the longest time. And then add a few embellishments to turn switch it up into a hybrid.   Can you pick the real elements? And a double LO to boot.

I might let myself run out of photos more often ;)

you brighten my everyday

Printing directly onto cardstock is quite fun. Embellishing is minimal so I don't overpower the journaling or the photo.  This is my second layout for the Kraft+ Mango Breeze colour challenge. I left the pink off for this one.

Gotta love those unguarded moments   :)

sister

What to do when I've run out of printed photos.........?

.... print directly onto the cardstock!

I've been so caught up with post production of images for other people/businesses, that my own stockpile of ready printed images had dwindled down to zero.  With the retreat looming closer, I've had to get my skates on to remedy my photo stash.  But this photo does look awesome printed directly onto the cardstock. So with minimal embellishing, I declare it done.

suprise

This should surprise a certain someone when he wakes up for his birthday tomorrow.  50 balloons in total.

gym comp

Flashback to 2010 with Annie and her gymnastics at the Port Pirie Regional Comps.  Gosh they're all so darn cute.

(Parental permissions granted to post this LO) And their coach's too ;)

swim carnival

The school had their swim carnival today and what a perfect weather day for it. Warm sunshine and barely a breath of a breeze. The school had erected heaps of shades around the pool for the kids and parents.

I took the rig I'm using for my Africa trip for a test run today. 7DMKII, 70-200mm L 2.8 IS lens with the Canon EF2x MKIII extender, giving me an effective 640mm zoom lens. And if the parents were wondering why the hell I was lying down on my tummy on the wet pavers at the end of the pool during one of the races.... well this is why.

If you look carefully the surface tension of the water hasn't yet been broken, so Annie is still actually underwater. Pretty cool hey!!!!!

Today was Sean's first experience at the Swim Carnival. Lots of noise, colour and fun. And a fair bit of splashing around. He came away with a first and second for the team events, and came 2nd in his heat for Backstroke (his favorite stroke)

All in all the school and students out did themselves today. It was the best one I've been involved with yet.

netta 2010

I can't show this LO in its entirety as it has other children on there and I've not sought parental permission for public viewing. However I can show you a small snippet of it. I've purposely not shown full names in the journalling either.   :)

I've shaped the journaling around the medallion so it fits together nicely.

apple

I haven't scrapped for quite a while. I mean 'quite a while!!' The later part of the year is when the family photography side of my business really takes off. So the scrapping gets put to the side for nearly six months of the year.

The launch of Kraft+ with their first mood board really got my attention.

So a quick flick through my files to find a photo and I was off. It took me all day to get it done. And I am sated. Off to add my linkythingywhatsit to qualify for their challenge. Yay.

I feel my fingers itchy to get right back into that scrapping mode again.

i....

... am ready to get my scrap on.
Looking at this challenge to get my juices flowing.

It's been a long while since I have created with photos and paper, mainly due to being involved with other families for their photos. At last my photography commitment is free for the moment, so I can get my scrap on.

back to school

Typically the first morning back to school is a little chaotic, and I forgot to get the annual photo of the kids in their school clobber and bags. So with a little persuasion the kids humored me yesterday and I got this one in the bag. I like to do something different each year and this is the one for 20fifteen. :)

I aimed to have it look like a painting. I reckon I've got it pretty close.