I {heart} hearts!

Thought I'd post some pics of the hearts I made a couple of weeks ago. First up are some fabric hearts I made for a craft market, that are now selling in a little store called Blooming Marvelous at the Bloomingdales Nursery.

Just a simple design, with some gorgeous fabric. I also made "lollipop flowers" from circles of organza and stitched them to the hearts with a button. I left the edges raw and rough looking for texture- a look I love. I took the pictures in the shop with the owner's permission- it's such a gorgeous setting! Wish my house looked like this- oneday =)

I made another heart, this time from scrapbooking materials. I used chipboard as my base, and glued a heart cut from My Mind's Eye paper- the Lost and Found range. The paper had the Eiffel Tower on it, but it was right in the corner, so I cut it out and centred it a bit better. I then used a Making Memories metal plaque and FabScraps flower and key charm. I edged the whole thing in ric rac- a very sticky process!- and used velvet ribbon to hang it from. It came out so pretty! I love the Eiffel Tower, and would love to see it one day. I remember my Dad making a trip to France when I was about 10 or so, and I was so incredulous that he was going to see the Eiffel Tower! It is an amazing feat of engineering to me, and so incredibly beautiful and iconic. I have always loved looking at pictures of it, and was so thrilled when it became a popular image to be featured in scrapbooking.

When my Dad returned from his trip, he brought each of us kids a gift- my three brothers each got a model car, and I got a Barbie. To this day, I have that Barbie. Her name is Sandy, and I use her as the angel on my Christmas tree. Each year, Chris asks,"You do know that's a Barbie, not an angel, right?" And every year I roll my eyes and say "Yes!" Haha!

I was never one to play with dolls as a kid, but this Barbie has always been special because my Dad chose her for me. She came with a brightly coloured dress, and bright yellow panties- very modest, compared to the Barbies my friends had- or so 10 year old me thought! I have since bought her a white dress, and I can think of no more fitting an 'angel' to go on the top of my tree. If I had my way, the tree and Sandy would be up all year.

New Additions...

... to the family and my album!

Selina had her kittens late on Friday evening. Shortly after I got home from work, she started meowing unusually. I picked her up, and while holding her, her waters broke- a slightly messy experience! I tried to settle her in the big box we got for her and the kittens, but she kept jumping out and cuddling with me on the bed. So, not wanting to stress her out, I gave in and laid old towels on the bed. We cuddled like that for a good hour and a half, with very little happening. Then Chris came home, and we had to go out to supper with some friends. We didn't stress too much about leaving her, as we had been informed she would know what to do and it would be best to leave her to get on with it. When we got home around 11pm, there were three little kittens in the box with her. Thankfully she had moved into the box, as there was quite a bit of blood and it would have ruined our bedding and mattress! There are two males- a ginger and a dark brown/black, and a female, that looks just like her. My parents have subsequently named them: Garfield for the ginger, Baghera for the dark one, and Raymond for the girl- at that point we didn't know she was female, and as they could not think of a name for her, they called her Raymond after Raymond Ackerman, the owner of the Pick 'n Pay group and the No Name products, hehe! Since we have now been enlightened as to her sex, it has been decided her name is Rae. It is going to be sooo hard to part with them =( I, and Chris, are getting quite attached to Baghera- we call him Baggy, for short. Amazing how attached you become after 5 days!

Patterns: Bo Bunny; Stickers: 7gypsies; alpha's: American
Crafts, Quickutz font; Other: bread tags,ribbon, cord,
eyelets, craft foam, brads, brown paper bag.

Elvis has been very wary. He has only peeped at them once- I don't think he knows what to make of them! But he seems very happy to let Selina do her thing, and licks her to pieces whenever she leaves the box to stretch her legs. This is a page featuring him and Chris that I did for the Food Technology assignment at Scrapz University. We had to scrap a layout (l/o) about our essential tool in the kitchen. Well, mine is Chris! While it is true my cooking has improved drastically, he is still the head honcho in our kitchen. When Elvis was young, he would perch on Chris' shoulder and watch what he was doing. He's a little too big for that now, but he still loves the kitchen- he's a walking stomach, really, to quote my parents! We had to include something found in the kitchen on our page, so I used two bread tags on my garland. I also printed my journalling on a brown paper bag once again. I cut the word "COOKING" from craft foam, and then used some discarded plastic packaging to stick the word "buddies" on, and attached it with brads.

patterns: Scenic Route, Unknown, K & Co;
alpha's: American Crafts; stickers: 7gypsies;
journal spot: Daisy D's; bling

The layout on the left was for the Speech Pathology assignment. We had to scrap a conversation, and use at least two speech bubbles on our l/o.
I used Wordle to create the word cloud, and printed it as a photograph. I cut two clouds from patterned paper and used then as thought bubbles, and used bling to make it look as if the birdie is thinking the words of my title. I did it in A4 format, as I am slowly doing an album that features things about us and our lives. This is my second page- I am actually still working on my first one! Basically the word cloud features the pet names Chris and I have for each other, and that you will hear on a daily basis in out home.

These assignments were all due, and handed in, last Wednesday. Unfortunately I did not manage to submit anything for this week's assignments, but I think I needed the break from scrapping under such pressure =)I have also been trying to fight off flu for the past 2 weeks- it has been just sitting there, a niggling scratch in my throat and a slightly stuffy head. Yesterday, I woke up with full blown flu. I guess it was inevitable- so many people around here have been ill with it, and three of the ladies I work with have been down too. I fought it off as best I could, for as long as I could, but today I left work early and crawled into bed, only to surface a little while ago. I was feeling pretty good, but typing this post has made me see that I need to rest some more. Guess I'm not Superwoman... DANG! Oh well, I like sleep too so it's not all bad, hehe!