It has been a great couple of days, except for being sick, I had a LOT of people shooting good vibes at me and really pushing me forward on everything I want to do. Even the guys at work gave me a *nice* gift certificate to the craft store which I can use to make more art supplies to do what I want :) Spoke for hours with a good friend over the phone, got a ton of e-mails from friends supporting me and helping me. I mean, what more can I ask for? And now that I am not sick anymore, I just feel over the moon :)

Yesterday I posted my page for Pencil Lines Sketch 142 at Two Peas and got selected as featured layout:

 

got love that too :)

aaaand, if you head over to the Create Well... Create Often blog, I am the guest designer this week! Such an honour to be listed amongst the other guests, wow, what a line up! Thanks so much Jen for the opportunity!

I am still working on that alpha from the sneak peek, I realised it could be a pain to recolour it so I am making lots of coloured versions so people can pick and chose their favourite :) I really like how it is turning out. Check back soon for more news!

Oops, it has been a while since I have done a hybrid feature, which was something that was supposed to be a weekly thing :) So, let's get back into it?

This a little butterfly album I created for myself when I was close to turning 30. It is great to have something like this to remind me how loved I was and the innocence of that time. Here it is:

 

Credits:
Pink Chocolate Papers by Michelle Coleman.
Font is Honey Script.
Materials:
Butterfly album, pearls, paint by Kaisercraft.
Thickers by American Crafts.
Epson Premium Glossy photopaper.
Flowers by Bella.
Assorted buttons and ribbons.
Mod Podge.

and obviously, my very own template:

  

Thanks for stopping by :)    

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.

Hello :) Hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day! Mine was nice and quiet (well, as quiet as the kids allowed), just the way I like it. Woke up to handmade presents from the kids and the Twilight DVD from hubby (movie I haven't seen yet of the book I also haven't read). Took photos (had photos taken, see below) then brunch at the local shoppes and shopping for a new handbag and boots. Then back home and everyone did exactly what they wanted. Matty played Batman Lego on the Playstation, Lucas watched a new Mickey Mouse DVD, Alex went to take a nap and I... was scrapping and editing photos :) Ended the day with a little TV we watched the finale of So you think you can Dance Australia that was recorded a couple of weeks ago. I was happy I still didn't know the winner and even happier that it was Tahlia, I think she did great and I can't wait to see her performance at the US Finale of So you think you can Dance.

Yesterday I thought I was going to buy myself a new lens or camera for Mother's day, but found out the prices went up so much the money we had saved was not enough (it was a major bummer). Even Alex was disappointed, now he had to think of something else to give me LOL. But, if camera gear is not available, the next best thing he could do was take photos and so he did.  Even though I put on a ton of weight over my vacation time and had my hair back, I still think this will be one of my all time favourite photos of me and the boys:

Thanks Alex!

(the sunflare was a complete fluke, we had no idea the sun was entering the lenses and we didn't plan for it. Some people would toss something like this but I absolutely love the feel of this photo)

xoxo

As some of you may (not) know, I have been away visiting family in Brazil for the last 3 weeks. It was short and sweet.. maybe too short. I certainly didn't do everything I wanted to do and didn't see everyone I wanted to see. But as usual I was crazy to get back home by the second week. I miss my routine, my bed (even though I need a new bed), my friends and my usual life :)

All the posts I posted while I was away I put together and saved as draft before I left. It was a pretty busy couple of weeks in March :)

Happy belated (inter)National Scrapbooking Day. Yet again I missed all the fun of this special day :( I was away last year too, we went to Sydney for the weekend. So I missed all the wonderful sales, promotions, challenges. I didn't even participate on the LDD collab for our birthday celebration (that got me sad) but at least I was part of the sale and I had my Kaisercraft Giveaway. By the way, I already send out the e-mails with the Kaisercraft Giveway winners. I will announce them as soon as they confirm their address so I can send them the albums :)

Ah, and once again I didn't nominate for DST's Scrappers' Choice Awards. Lucky people are wonderful and I got nominated for my hybrid projects. Thanks Laura, Léa, Jule, Monic, Dúnia and Christina for nominating me, you guys rock!!! I was just frustrated I didn't get to submit my own projects and specially because I didn't get to nominate some pretty incredible projects by some very talented people! Maybe I will have my own little awards post in the future :)

As you can imagine I have a crowded inbox to go through, so if you sent something urgent feel free to resend it to me so it doesn't get lost with everything else. I didn't take a laptop with me but I did take my camera. Talking about my camera... I have 2200 photos to go through. Not too bad, I figure it could have been worse. But now everyone is waiting for the photos and I have to edit all of them extra fast. Yes, ALL my photos have to go through Lightroom. And if I really like something I edit it in photoshop too hehehe.

Sorry about the eye candy-less post. Right this moment, I don't have photos or pages or projects to show you and I am way too busy to do a hybrid feature with an older project.. I have yet another load of laundry to get done and with the jet lag the kids are waking up in the middle of the night so what I really needed is a nap, but I have to go grocery shopping before picking the kids up in less than two hours! I hope to be back with photos soon, thanks for stopping by!

No hybrid feature for you this week! I have photos to share :)

Final countdown of photos in March - over 2000. I am a big failure when it comes to resolutions LOL I wanted to start taking less photos, but as soon as I see an opportunity I snap away. Plus, my brain is wired that way nowadays that everywhere I look I imagine how that place would be like as a photo backdrop. Does it have the right light? interesting colours? bla bla bla I need intervention :) The other factor in all this is that my brother is here and, well, I can ask HIM to take photos of ME. It has worked well in my favour and he is not complain hahaha I get good shots of him too.

Anyway, all that to say I have loads of photos to share and can't possibly scrap them all so let's flood this blog with images of last weekend when we went to Sydney spend some time with my bestest friend Melissa :

me and my boys

My *not so little anymore* brother:

I just LOVE this photo of Melissa and Mateus, so I had to get one of the two of us too:

Talking about Mel, I have this "family shot" I took of them: Indy, Alex, Mel and Jack (they are so pretty!!!)

Mateus loved riding Jack :)

 

 

and by the end of the day I was chasing flare again LOL

That was just the first day, and there are MANY more photos love... maybe they will end up in a little album just for this day :)

xoxo

Pencil Lines Sketch 125 is up on the Pencil Lines blog. This week with a sketch by yours truly :) Here is the free template:

(click on sketch for download ink)

and here is my page:

 

Credits: Loveable Papers by Michelle Coleman. Altered book one and Jack Font by Jackie Eckles.

Have a great week!!! I have a busy (and exciting) one ahead of me :)

Whoever has my voodoo doll, can you please just drop it? LOL

My computer did not work at all today until late night. After I dropped off Mateus for his first day of school (it was great, by the way) I came home thinking I could use those two hours to finish a couple of things to prepare for getting back to work tomorrow.

Turn on the computer, it starts loading and... black screen... maybe it was just a hic up, try again. Nothing...  Shut down, I get the option of logging into safe mode… it hangs while trying to load windows!

I was pretty confused, last thing I was doing was editing photos last night and now windows won’t load. I thought maybe it was a monitor configuration problem (like it happened three weeks ago, when I had to replace my monitor). So I got the other monitor (the one that is flickering)... Nothing. Disconnected everything from the computer, tried everything, called hubby and whined about it. Finally I gave up and did a system restore, fully aware of the repercussions, but they worked out even worst than I expected.

It took me till lunch time to get the computer to even load windows. I went to pick up Mateus and came back to try to log into the internet, another drama. I had to wait until Alex got here at 6:30 PM to fix it for me, and it took him (an IT expert) a good half hour.

Now, all my software is here, but it isn’t. Since the registry was reset I lost a lot of stuff. My fonts are in the fonts folder but the computer won’t recognize them and won’t let me install then again, which is the case with a lot of the software. My address book disappeared, my e-mail accounts set up are gone (but I didn’t lose any e-mails). My folders are intact, the only good news. Even my back up external HDs are not being recognised by my computer at the moment, so I don't have acces to my pages/designs/kits/etc. 

We figured this is the same pain as buying a new computer, so I will try to back up everything and my beloved husband has offered to give me his MAC and he will reformat this computer and rebuild it for him.
 
All, this to say, hang in there, photos of Mateus first day of school still to come. Wish me luck getting the computer gremlins away, I sure had enough :)

I have created this page in July 2007:

Credits: Ashley Olson’ notepaper alpha; Christina Renee’s Worn Label Tape Alpha; Jackie Eckles Doodly Font; Dany Mogstad’s handstitched alpha, little words, and ultimate stitches – not so basic, Sue Cummings’ paper school one, Paintbrush glittter swirls paint 1 overlays (modified) and Paintbrush Nantucket colorwash volume two.

Shortly after that I quit playing WoW (World of Warcraft) because, honestly, I could not juggle my boys (Lucas was just months old), scrapbooking, and everything else. We were very addicted and we thought we weren't giving the kids enough attention. So I quit, and shortly after Alex decided to quit too. We felt we just didn't have the time.

It has always been on the back of our minds though, little jokes, everything WoW related we would up the volume or call each other to talk about it. When Alex asked me what I wanted for my 30th I said I wanted to get back into WoW. He didn't believe it but I think I planted a little seed, because we started talking about going back more and more. I reasoned that we spend 3-4 hours watching TV every night any way. So maybe we did have the time.

One day (after Alex discovered Mateus was not into Wii) he just came back home after *almost* buying a Wii and reactivated our accounts. "Let's just see how we go". Took ages to just download all the patches and updates, we were very anxious.

Lots of rules in place to avoid the addiction taking over, today was our first day (night). I have nooooo idea of what is going on, a lot has changed in 18 months and there is a lot to catch up on. It was good to see my alter ego again, Fei Aman, a night elf hunter:

If you play let me know and maybe we can meet online :) all the details of server and character names are in the image above.

We might regret this decision, we had a lot of arguments about how much we were playing before we stopped playing. But I think it will be ok. I, at least, still have my scrapbooking and don't feel the addiction as strong anymore. I can totally go days without playing ;)

I know some of you reading this are freezing right now, but GOD it is hot here! it is late at night and I can't even think about going to bed in this heat. The kids woke up a couple of times already. Air conditioning only in the living rooms, not in the bedrooms, maybe I should set up camp on the family room :)

I have been tagged!  The super blogger Gabi tagged me (thanks Gabi!)

Here is the tag:

1 - Link back to the blog that tagged you: ScrapZone

2 - Make a list of 6 (un)interesting things about yourself.
Six *un*interesting things about me:

1. Procrastination is my middle name and my motto is "why do something today that you can leave to another day?" (and I hate that in me)
2. I am afraid of the dark (seriously scared!)
3. I have a Bachelor of Tourism.
4. I am a tomboy (can't wear skirts, not fan of bling, make up, etc)
5. I am a nerd that loves computer games (and has no time for them whatsoever)
6. I am a perfectionist and a total slack at the same time.

3 - Tag five other blogs, and let them know by leaving them a comment.
It is hard to pick who I am tagging because I am not sure who hasn't done this yet (I haven't visited blogs for almost 2 months), but here is a list of talented friends that have visited here lately:
Alice
Peggy
Eliana
Christine
Heather

In the spirit of the list above, let's have a look at my scrappy to do list, shall we? (I am trying to hold myself accountable here). Things I have to do (and deadlines approaching):

• Finalise tutorial for DAM
• Pages for Pencil Lines blog
• Pages for Mix it Up blog
• Challenge project for Scrapbooking Memories (Aussie magazine)
• Products and projects for *secret*

Things I would like to do:

• More designs for LDD
• More digital pages for my 2008 book (that's just what I *really* wanted to get done)
• Repackaging of the freebies and post them here
• Repost all my scrapbooking pages here (damn you flickr!)
• Play on the HodgePodge, OLW, DigiDares and other challenge blogs
• Posting/catching up on the galleries
• and more... I can go on forever.

I don't want to even get started on my non-scrapping to do list... I would be overwhelmed.

Horoscope is driving me insane. I don't normally follow it but for some reason my Google homepage is offering me daily words of advice. And they are always so spot on, it is scary!!! Keeps telling me to not "bite more than I can chew" and don't take more on board, blah blah blah... well thank you, I know! LOL I still do it though :)

3AM, you can see I am rambling now, I better go :) Sorry for the lack of eye candy, I will make up for it. Good night you all!