And So I Don't Forget...

Simple Scrapper: Let's Go on an Adventure

Using a sketch template from Simple Scrapper's July membership collection, I created this layout as the first page of our honeymoon album.    

A 6x8 inch layout, the patterned paper is from the Trendsetter collection by FancyPants and I added a washi tape border to the page for a pop of colour. 

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Play Date

Last weekend Mike and I had some young friends over to our house. Thankfully it was a beautiful Melbourne winter day, chilly and sunny. Not sure what we would have done if we were all stuck inside!

Us girls got incredibly messy playing and experimenting with the pottery wheel. It was a different experience teaching something so exacting that I'm still in the process of learning myself. She was proud of her creations though!    

The boys - two adults and a five year old - had great fun playing with Mike's remote control cars and drones. Mike was pretty amazed how quickly our young guest picked up driving; the vast majority of his crashes were intentional.

With homemade, everyone involved, pizzas for lunch (the best cooking always leaves the kitchen a mess, right?) the day was a success. He's already asked to come back next week.  

 

Simple Scrapper: Wedding Details Album

With the pretty photographer's wedding album all organised and approved, I wanted to begin a mini album documenting the details and decision of wedding planning and wedding day. Reading the July Simple Scrapper Story Starters, with a theme Soundtrack of Life, gave me the perfect story to begin - ceremony music.   

I printed my journaling on two Project Life cards and added some simple embellishment for a completed 6x8in pocket page.  

I resized the Wedding Run Down document to 6x8, adding some patterned paper to the three pages for some colour.  

Our RSVP cards, intentionally sized to 6x4 as I had something like this in mind, contain some great responses from our guests. I'll slip them into the 2 6x4 pocket pages and scatter the pages through the mini album. 

There are so many stories I'd like to document about our wedding; I'm glad this is a start,  

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Pretty and Pink

Dad dropped over last weekend to return a few things. Knowing I was sick (just like he was, blasted colds!) he brought me a flowering Cyclamen. Loved that; made me feel so special.

Mum has been looking after me (and Mike) too. Over the last week or so she has supplied us with servings of homemade soup, spaghetti bolognese, a casserole and pasties. So nice to not worry about cooking and shopping.

Thanks parents. You're pretty awesome. :) 

Simple Scrapper: Honeymoon Mini Album

The last week or so has passed by in a bit of a blur. I've been coughing and sniffling away, not motivated to do anything much more than curl up on the couch and watch TV. Oh, the joys of cold and flu season. Thank goodness for Netflix! 

Before the onset of this bad case of the blahs, the June Simple Scrapper Story Starter theme got me sorting though ephemera and beginning a mini album of our honeymoon. I've a looonng way to go before this album is finished but you have to start somewhere. And in this particular case, that's towards the end of our trip and not the beginning because that's what was inspiring me. :)

My thinking is that each day will have one spread in the album, a left and a right side. I'm not going to make that an unbreakable rule, but it's a starting point. There will be a mix of full page photos and page protectors. I intend the journaling spot (title font, line, text with a small date underneath) to be a point of consistency throughout the pages.

As November 29, shown above, was a travel day with few photos I included a pocket sewn from a Disney World photo frame to house maps and brochures from this portion of the trip,

On the back I added a collage of photos, created in Photoshop Elements.   

I took over 300 photos on our first day in the parks - from rope drop at EPCOT through park close after Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom - but the 14 this spread includes captures the essence of our day.

Pretty darn magic.

I don't think anywhere does fireworks like Disney!  

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Goodbye May, Hello June

May was...

• My first car accident. Oops! A month later, we still don't have Stormy back and I'm driving Charles, Mike's Landrover. 
• Celebrating Mothers' Day with breakfast out with my family and then dinner with Mike's.  
• Finishing my December Daily. 
• Participating in Day in the Life, recording my May 12th. 

• Finishing my 6 week pottery course.
• Visiting Healesville Sanctuary, for the second time in as many months. First time I've seen a baby ride a wombat though. 
• Watching Spy at the drive-in. Mike and I had intended to see Minions. only to discover we were a month early. We asked for tickets to Pitch Perfect 2, but received tickets for Spy. Figured Mike would prefer it, so Spy it was. Not a bad movie actually, just a moderate amount of cringe-worthy moments and many more laughs. 
• Attended a 1st birthday party. 

• Took a drive out the St Andrews for awesome pizza, before deciding to continue on to Yarra Glen for icecream.
• Developed a financial restructuring plan. With 12 bank accounts between us (I know, it's ridiculous!), merging finances required some thinking. The result, we're opening a 13th account.  

• Taking Mum and Dad out for dinner at 400 Gradi. Last year their chef won the World Pizza Championship in Italy with his margherita pizza. It's pretty delicious, but their tiramisu is awesome too.  
• Camping with friends.

June will be...

• Queen's Birthday long weekend. (For the record, celebrated on at least two different dates depending on which state you live in, and none of them anywhere near Queen Elizabeth's actual birthday.)
• Finally attending my first AFL match of the season. (Probably to see us lose.) 
• Envy of my sister's trip to Bali, escaping Melbourne's wintery climes.

Camping at Cathedral Ranges

Who: 10 of us, a larger group than normal. (Mike and I, Chris, Erica, Tanya, Dave, Gareth, Lierin, Ben and Esther). It was Esther's first time camping, and maybe Lierin's as well.

Where: Cathedral Range State Park, a favoured spot we've visitied again and again and again.

Food: Lamb roasted on the spit with potatoes, sweet potato and corn for Saturday night dinner, followed by Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding cooked in the coals. Breakfasts of pancakes with banana and strawberries, and bacon and eggs with toast. Toasted sandwiches for lunch one day (which taste so much better when eaten in the cold outdoors) and burgers the next.

Weather: Chilly, enough to keep the fire burning all day with us cozying up extra close to it when night fell. There were a few moments of passing showers, but the downpour stayed away until Mike and I were tying down the trailer for the trip home. Mike figures the weather was such we didn't use up all our good mojo and can chance another trip before winter's end.

Sighted: 4 kangaroos calmly nibbling on grass at the edge of our campsite. A wombat by torchlight; Mike was pretty delighted when he realised it wasn't a rock and he could show Esther her first wombat in the wild.

As we were sitting around the campfire after dark I had the thought, this is it. You know that touch of envy sometimes experienced watching TV ads of friends having a great time, this right here is what they are portraying. It may not look the same, we're not taking a roadtrip on a summer afternoon while drinking Coca-Cola, but the connections and history together, the shared jokes, laughter and teasing, talking as we ignore the passing of time, the escape from daily obligations...it's all here. This is awesome.