AROUND HERE: December 2016

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Around here We have been busy doing lots and lots of Christmassy thing

Around here I haven't done a single page of my december daily. Hoping to get some pictures printed                  tomorrow and then start. The kids go to their dads house around lunch time on Christmas day and I have a few days to myself to work on it then.

Around here I recently finished my Certificate ||| in Community Services. I am hoping this helps me get a job next year.

Around here one of our pet birds died recently. It was hard to deal with and explain to the kids but I think we managed fairly well. This is one of those times when I really hated being single. Dealing with this by myself was not awesome but oh well its done now and still get brought up and discussed a lot.

Around here it is hot. Like so so so so hot. It is also stormy so often can't even head to pool or beach to cool down.

Around here Emma and Eddie finished kindy/school. Loving having more time with them while on holidays

Around here I have finished wrapping Christmas presents and can't wait to watch them be unwrapped. I have tried to be thoughtful in all things I've bought but have gone a bit overboard.

Around here there is only 3 sleeps til Christmas - not including tonight since the kids are already sleeping ;)


(So apparently I didn't actually upload this the other day when I wrote. whoops. Better late than never right?)

Haul

So lately I have been on a bit of a shopping spree - usually i don't actually buy many things besides my Ali Edwards Story Kit subscription and recently I signed up for Felicity Jane as well. I have done a few orders in the last month and they have started arriving so here are my TWO orders from scrapbook.com

So first up we have some misc. things that weren't like a lot of things from one collection. Amy Tan vellum letter stickers, candy cane stripe thickers, Heidi Swapp chat bubbles, C'est La Vie Cork Heart stickers from Pink Paislee, DIY shop gold puffy hearts, Maggie Holmes Bloom rubber charms, Pink Paislee Fancy Free buttons, 12x12 sheet from Pink Fresh studio Felicity collection and the WRMK fuse mat with holder.

Since Little You by Crate Paper I have been really wanting it but I just can't justify the cost usually. Well since I was ordering anyway and scrapbook.com were having a bit of a sale on all things owned by American Crafts I decided to just go for it (well within reason). As you will see I didn't get that much of it and I'm actually hoping to order a little bit more from an Australian store next pay :P. So for Little One I got the 12x12 chipboard stickers both Girl and Boy variety, Thickers in both, the embellishment pack (enamel dots and little wood things) in both, and the ephemera in both but for some reason I only ordered the card stock stickers and the paper pad in the boy design?

Ok so since the latest releases I haven't been able to resist most of them. It took such a long time to choose what to buy because I knew that even though I was spending lots of money I still couldn't afford to get them all. My first definite was Take Me Away designed by Paige Evans and manufactured by Pink Paislee. I could not choose which patterned papers I wanted so I went with the 12x12 paper pad. Major regret! I didn't realise that Pink Paislee paper pads only have the a-side included and the b-side are some of my favourites - bummer! I also picked up the 12x12 speciality acetate, the roller stamp and 3 sets of thickers that came out with this collection.

Last up, the two new children collections from Crate Paper: Cute Girl and Cool Kid. For Cute Girl I got 2 12x12 papers, the speciality vellum, 6x6pad, resin hearts, ephemera, mixed embellishments pack, cute puffy thickers and the tassels. For Cook Kid I choose 2 12x12 papers, speciality vellum, 12x12 chipboard stickers, mixed embellishment pack, 6x6 paper pad, card stock stickers and the puffy thickers.

Latest Reads - August Edition

At the end of every month I am going to try and post some monthly recaps. Reading will be one of them (don't worry I will always try to keep it spoiler free). Some months there might be 10 books and others possibly none. So onto this months reads!

Raelia by Lynette Noni This book is #2 in "The Medoran Chronicles". I read the first book Arkarnae last month where it was recommended in an Aussie Book Lovers group on Facebook. I absolutely loved both of these - as in 5/5. This series follows are girl who goes to a different dimension and in this other dimension there is magic and bad guys. She attends a school in this alternate dimension where she  learns to control a magic gift. I really enjoyed finding out more about these characters and absolutely adore all the main ones. My heart raced multiple times and I totally cried at others. I love this author and can't wait for the third book in this series and any future books she releases.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and JK Rowling I honestly enjoyed this book. When reading this it is very important to remember that 1) this is a play NOT a novel like the previous Harry Potter books and 2) this play was not written by JK Rowling - it was based on a story she wrote for the purpose of being turned into a play. I personally find plays hard to read and I have done since I first read one when I was around 8years old. I didn't particularly like what happened with Harry, Hermione and Ron in this and wish we got to see more of what happened between the final battle and the start of this story. I did enjoy learning more about Albus and Scorpius though and thought their adventures were pretty cool. I super wish that a different villain had been used because so over he-who-must-not-be-named. All things considered gave this 3/5 - mainly due to the fact it was a play and not a novel.

The Crown by Kiera Cass This is the 5th book in The Selection series. I super loved the first three and was happy with how they finished. While I do like reading this follow on to do with their daughter I think I could have easily not read these last two and not have missed anything. I did like the plot of this book and the character development. I adore the authors way of writing and just find it easy to fall into and not want to put the book down. This book go 4/5 for me. Overall I'm glad this series has finished but look forward to reading different books from this author.

Hopeless and Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover I have heard great things about this author and her writing style did not disappoint. I saw Losing Hope super cheap at a book store and picked up without realising it was the second in the series. In July I got gifted the first one at last and was really eager to get into it. I read these books quickly but did find them slightly predictable. I wish that the characters actions had felt more believable and that Dean Holder did not come across so abusive as I don't think that was the intention. Again I enjoyed these books but I wouldn't reread them. I want to read more by the author and hope I get more out of her others - she has about 30 more to choose from. 3/5 for both of these books.

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton This book was awesome. I love YA and I love the fantasy genre. This book focuses on a bad ass female named Amani. She escapes her small hometown, finds the love of life and fights against an oppressive regime. I wish there was more character development or maybe chapters written from another point of view. I raced through this book and am honestly so excited to the sequel to come out in 2017. 4/5

So this ended up being super long. I will work on that. I also forgot to take pictures of my books this month but I will make sure I do next month. In the future I might do a recap every 3 finished books to keep these shorter. We shall see. x

First post!

I have been stressing and stressing about what to do as my first post. I can think of many many things that I want to post but none seemed to be good enough for THE FIRST POST. So I have given up and am just posting something that I knew I wanted to post :)

Back in July I went over to my friends Nae (from Hey Nae Daily) and a catch up come scrap night. I had so much fun just chilling with her and brought nearly my whole scrap room. Seriously multiple trips from the car were required!

First up I pulled out my open book collection. I had a bunch of bluish coloured chipboard stickers left and knew I wanted to create a layout of Eddie. These photos were taken in June 2015 by Rana Rankin Photography and I love them so much. I have since added a bit or journalling between the title and the photos in black ten explaining that he actually wasn't five yet and just some bits about his personality at the time. I am trying so hard to use up my open book collection. I love it so much that I keep hoarding it instead of using it. Slowly making progress. 

It took a lot of chatting, a dinner break and playing with a stamp set to complete this one so that night was wearing on. After I tidied up my desk space and I decided to pull out a cut file from Jen Schow and use a photo that I have been wanting to scrap for a very long time. It is one of my favourite photos with one of my favourite anecdotes from when Eddie was a baby and nothing ever seemed good enough for it. I was super inspired by a video Jen made using the same cut file and knew I had better get it done while I was still excited about it.

I dug out a super old sticker set (the massive dream word) and Flying High collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio to complete this one. After pulling all the dvds of the shelf Eddie fell asleep holding Sleeping Beauty and its was oh so sweet so I knew I wanted to use a quote for the title. Once upon a dream was as creative as I was getting. Even though I had planned on backing each of the hearts with patterned paper I thought it looked better with only a handful done. Behind the photo is some hidden journalling along with another photo that is a bit more zoomed out.

By the time both of these were finished it was the wee hours of the morning and Nae and I were both exhausted. Our beds were calling!

Thanks for reading lovelies! Be sure to check back soon - I plan on posting again tomorrow :) x