The countdown is well and truly on

It is only four more sleeps until Scarlett and I head back home to New Zealand for the first time in 18 months. I have only just realised how many things I have to get done between now and Saturday afternoon. It is a little bit daunting to be honest.

We made a real effort to do some fun things as a family over the weekend. Saturday's visit to Little India was a great success and one of the malls along the road had a great outdoor playground. Scarlett had a wonderful time scaling the climbing wall and wooshing down the slide. On Sunday we split up - Tet and Scarlett did the grocery shopping while I had a pedicure. I think I got the better deal! In the afternoon we headed down to one of the local malls as they had a live Sesame Street performance. Scarlett loves Ernie with a passion and she really enjoyed watching the characters dancing on stage. We had hoped to have a trip on the Singapore Flyer which has all been decorated for Christmas but sadly Scarlett had reached the end of her tether and we headed home.

I have got a bit behind with completing pages of my December Daily and I have realised they do not photograph well at all. This is in no small part due to my using silver pen! I have plenty of ideas for each day but no photos printed! I am off to the mall this afternoon to get some photo paper and we will attempt to print some photos on our Pixma at home. I will let you know how that goes.

I have finally taken a photograph of the layout I completed last week. I am really happy with how it turned out. I used an idea from Shimelle's PPP again - combining spots and stripes although I think it is clear which way my heart lies. 

I am hoping to complete three days of entries in my DD today and to make my Dad's printer's tray from Elle's Studio. The sad thing is my photos are all landscape and it is designed for more portrait so most of the cute notes and labels will not fit! Hopefully I will work out a way to make something good.

Busy weekend

I was sure I would have a spare minute to post over the weekend but it was not to be. We had some of our favourite people visiting from KL and they kept us entertained. Scarlett loves her honorary uncles and they make such a fuss of her.

The best thing was they agreed to babysit Scarlett on Saturday night so that Tet and I could go out for dinner with friends. To put this in context, this is the second time Tet and I have been out in the evening since Scarlett was born 21 months ago. We were really excited! Scarlett was less excited and in fact was a real monkey. We spent a lot of time trying to get her down before we left but she was not having a bar of it. So we left with her screaming. She continued to do this for quite a while and her uncles gave in and let her come out to the lounge. She watched half an hour of Happy Feet, ate a snack, had a drink and then asked to be put down in Mummy's bed. She was still sound asleep when we got home. 

We had a fabulous evening with our friends K and P. They introduced us to their local wine bar. It was wonderful with an amazing range of wines. Even better though, they have the menus for all the restaurants in the area. We decided we felt like Thai and so we rang the restaurant and they delivered the food (on china no less) in less than 15 minutes. We had a great evening. They are wonderful company and we look forward to getting together again in the new year.

I have definitely decided one of my resolutions for 2012 is to find a reliable babysitter and have a date night once a month. It makes us feel a bit more like the way we were pre baby. I think we could do with putting a bit more focus on us as a couple instead of just us as a family.

I am working on a couple of new layouts - still working through the Boardwalk kit and using Shimelle's PPP as a starting point. I am so much more productive with a sketch to get me started - even if the finished product bears little relation to the original idea.

SC have had their reveal this past weekend and I have been very restrained. I have not ordered a single add on - although I have picked up more than a few items in the shop. I have my fingers crossed that the box will arrive before I head overseas but suspect that hubby will be bringing things back for me.

I will try and post a couple of layouts today or tomorrow - it all depends how long my daughter naps for and if she goes to bed easily tonight. Yesterday it was a short nap and a battle to get her to sleep at night so here is hoping she plays the game and lets Mummy get some crafting done!

Layouts!

I have finally taken some photos of two of the three layouts I have worked on this week. I have decided that one is a bit unfinished and needs something else so will hold off on sharing that one.

The first is based on one of Shimelle's sketches from Pretty Paper Party lesson one.

Please excuse the slightly washed out colours. It does have a washed out feel but not to the degree it appears here. I used the Studio Calico "Boardwalk" kit for this layout and  I am really happy with how it turned out. It is not actually a wonderful photo but it is the only photo of all three of us from this holiday and I am glad it has been scrapped and preserved.

Last night I completed another layout from Shimelle's PPP. This time it was from the second lesson. This took a bit longer to come together as the combination of so many patterned papers really did take me out of my comfort zone.

This one also used papers and embellishments from the Boardwalk kit along with some extra bits and pieces from a couple of the add ons. I am just so excited to have moved away from coloured card stock backgrounds with this class and have used some papers that, in the past, I would have shied away from.

I know I have a long way to go with this craft but it gives me such pleasure to create something special with our photos and my wee girl just gets so excited to see her pictures in the albums completed in this way.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!