~scrappydi~

Did you know...?

2010-03-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

Did you know that it takes blood donations(plasma spun from whole blood, and direct plasma donations) from over 300 people to make this 3 gram vial?

Intragam is essentially other peoples antibodies, Immunoglobulin,which are infused via IV into Immuno-deficient adults and children, to give their bodies a chance to mount a response to infection.

Intragam allows our little guy Zak a second chance at living a normal and healthy life as possible.

He is infused with 2 of these 3 gram vials every 4 weeks.

It has changed his life. It has changed our whole family's life.

As a mum, I want to thank everyone who donates blood...everyone who selflessly gives...so that my little man and many others can have another chance.

For me, that is an amazingly wonderful gift, so from the bottom of my heart, Thank you♥

welcome 2010...

2010-01-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, Im a little slow on the uptake!

Can you believe it is nearly the end of january?

I don't do new years resolutions, but this year I would like to try and keep my blog updated a little more regularly...

Firstly, a little share of a LO completed for a weekly challenge at scrapchat...the challenge was to scrap something you lost...the journaling reads..."parts of 2009 saw me a little lost. It was a big year for us as a family, and the challenges we were forced to meet.For me personally,I was so caught up with the needs of everyone else,I lost the ability to appreciate the simple things in life...the simple pleasures..."

This one is the latest LO I have completed...and I've done it again...it seems I can't scrap a LO without bling,thickers,rubons,flowers and butterflys....I desperately needed to update our family LO thats in a frame on the mantle above our fireplace, so this is it!

This is a really bad pic, sorry, I had already framed it when I took the pic! Oops!

A LO created for a friend...

And finally, Russ got himself a new tatt....on his chest above his heart...♥

I hope 2010 is treating you all well so far...I'm hoping it will be a good year for us☺

Thanks for reading xxx

Christmas is nearly here...

2009-12-13T17:41:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

Well, Christmas is only 11 sleeps away!

Are you ready?!?!?!?!?!?

I'm getting there! lol

I thought I'de pop by and share the chrissy cards I created, and the calendars for the relo's.

All cards have been sent now, so I'm pretty safe to think they have been recieved, and I can share them here...

Firstly, below, is just one the calendars, very simple,flowers,bling and butterflies!

Can you say "obsessed"?!?!? lol I can't seem to create anything without at least one!

This year I created 6, all very similar, for the grandparents and relo's.

I think they are an expected gift every christmas now☺ I really enjoy creating them, so it's a good thing!

I like the red,black and white...

Below, are the cards I have created for our friends, as you can see, similar design to the ones made especially for Miss K's school friends...the backs of them are exactly the same as the ones in my last post, a christmas tree made from 3 triangles of pp...

And yep, as you can see below, I made ALOT of them...lol

I hope everyone who received one, will hang it on their tree, or in their home,and know that we send them with love....

HaPpY ChRiSTmAs to you, and your family...♥

a little christmas creating...

2009-11-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are the first little chrissy cards I have made this year! They double as a tree deco too!

Here are the fronts of the ones I have made for Miss K's little school friends...chrissy trees made from triangle pp...I don't own any chrissy stamps, so had to come up with something! lol
A little bling, lots of kindy glitz,a stamp,a star, printed names,and they're done!

Here are the backs of them...

Using a recent pic of Miss K(my fav one!)

Once again, I don't have any chrissy themed stamps, so I had to make do with a few circles of pp,a few stars,a little doodling,and more kindy glitz!

They are supposed to look like hanging baubles.....be honest......do they???

Miss K added her own special touch to them by writing "from Kyiah".

Mr Z helped the whole process by eating half a bottle of kindy Glitz! Thanks Buddy!

All that needs to be done now is a little loop of ribbon, to hang them by!

I hope Kyiah's little friends like them!

What do you think???

Finally some family photo's...

2009-11-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

WOW! It has just taken 45 minutes for Blogger to upload these 4 pics!!!

Lucky I wasn't in a hurry! lol

Anyway, FINALLY after 18 months, I have some pics of the 4 of us as a family! YAY!

I'm pretty happy with them, these are a couple of my fav's.

Mr Zak man...

I love this one of miss Kyiah...

This one cracks me up...Mr Zak being extra cheeky, and shoving his finger up Russ's nose!

AND finally...the 4 of us....this is the best one I have....not 100% happy with it, but hey, its better than not having one at all, right?

Will be back later today with another post of chrissy cards I've been making...

Thanks for looking, wishing you a wonderful day♥

This feels like home to me...

2009-10-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Just a quick post today to share with you a LO I created as a gift for a special friend of mine, of her daughter Zali....

This LO certainly feels like home to me...lots of flowers,butterflies, bling,rubons and thickers...aaahhhh, its nice to be home!

"If you look, you will see, a little magic in these eyes"

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!♥

Happy Scrapping Saturday!

2009-10-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

A fun saturday layout!

Today, I had full intentions of giving my scrap table, shelves and drawers a good spring clean....but I ended up scrapping instead! lol

Also, wrapped a few little goodies for a certain little Miss K, who turns 6 tomorrow!

Yep, 6!!!!!! No party for her this year...which didn't go down so great! lol

She had a big party last year with a jumping castle and lots and lots of friends, so I think she was expecting the same this year! lol

We are also off to a wedding tomorrow arvo as well, just Miss K and I.

Russ has decided to stay home with Mr Z, as he has to work 11pm till 7am for the next month...

I hope you are all having a great weekend, and manage to squeeze in a little happy scrapping!

Disappointed...

2009-09-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

Im quite unhappy and disappointed with myself and this LO below...

It has taken me quite a while to even tackle scrapping this...

It has sat on my desk for the last 4 days, and I kept coming back to it...now it is finished, I am not at all happy with it...I just want to tear it up and throw it away...but I won't.

It is the first ever LO I have attempted about Mr Z's condition...it was hard to do...maybe I am not ready yet...I don't know...I thought I could start the healing process...

Maybe I put too much pressure on myself for it to be "perfect" ...I don't know...

I wanted to focus on the journaling, because it is certainly the most important part...for me, as a scrapper and a mum...for Mr Z...

Maybe when I have a little more strength, I will re-do these photos, but for now, here it is..

"finally an answer" LO....

close up of the most important part...

Until next time...♥

Embracing simple...

2009-09-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

Yes, I have scrapped again!

You can get up off the floor now please!☺lol

Firstly, this LO "big haircut for a little girl" We had been battling nits for what felt like forever with Miss K, so we decided to get it chopped off! I was really hesitant at first, but as you can see from the pics, it really suits her don't you think???

In the after pics here, her hair is freshly cut, and full of product, so it is quite spikey, which she loves, but I like it a little more tame to be honest! lol
Sooooo much easier to care for now.......and the nits are GONE!!!!! Yay!

Oops,my pics are around the wrong way, sorry! The LO was supposed to be first.

This LO is completely inspired by Leanne Stamatellos....I have scraplifted from her LO after I saw her amazing creation of her boys abc's...so I have done the same for Miss K.

Hoping to do one each year, as she makes her way through school...

And lastly this LO....

Sorry my photography skills aren't the best today!

I hope to get back into my scrapping groove, I have missed it so very much!

I hope you all have a wonderful friday!♥

Finally....I SCRAPPED!!!!!!

2009-08-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Yes people...you read correctly....I have actually scrapped a LO!

It certainly has been a long time coming thats for sure!

And I tell you, it feels so very good to create once again.

Many times during my long scrap drought, I blog surfed to try and find some inspiration, and I stumbled accross many "simple scrappers", which I fell in love with.

I don't know exactly what it is about the simple style that I like so much,maybe it is the clean lines and focus on the photo, but it has me by the horns now thats for sure! lol

I really enjoyed creating this LO below, I hope you like it too!

Hopefully this is the end of my drought, and the beginning of something new and exciting...

Miss Kyiah and Mr Zak...

2009-08-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

This piccy is for Alz and the girls at scrapchat! And of course, anyone else who is interested.

An updated piccy of the kidlets for you!

I hope everyone is having a great day!♥

I have come to the conclusion....

2009-07-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

that I am so NOT a blogger!

I wish I was, but it just isn't happening for me.

I haven't scrapped for the longest time again, so nothing to show.

As some of you know already, since Zak entered our world, he struggled to stay well, he battled infection after infection, and had many trips and stays in hospital.

Well, finally, after lots of tests, the Doctors(the Paed) got to the bottom of why.

He has a rare Immuno Deficiency condition called "X-linked Agammaglobulinemia" which means he has no immune system at all.

His little body does not produce B cells in his blood, so he has to have blood transfusions every 4 weeks for the rest of his life, to replace what he does not produce.
He also is on anti-biotics constantly.

So, at 11 months old, he started treatment, he is now nearly 14 months old, and the difference in him is amazing.He has been well for 3 months!!! Yay!

It is so great to see him grow and develop now like a normal baby.

We have to be very careful with who and what he comes into contact with, and try to keep him germ free, by not exposing him to anyone who is sick, so it limits the activities we can do as a family, which is hard, but thats just the way life is for us and him now, and will be forever.

To keep him well is very important.

I can't help but feel guilty, as it was my dodgy X gene that gave him this condition.
I am struggling with coming to terms with this.

Also, Miss K could be a carrier of the gene, so when she gets to an age when she may start a family, we will have to go through the whole genetic testing journey.

Same as me if we decide to have another baby.Which I think we have pretty much ruled out.
I don't think I could go through the process of genetic testing.

Hard choices to make :(

Anyway, enough from me today, thanks for reading :)

Hopefully I will be back soon with a couple of pics of Miss K and Mr Z :)

It went from bad to worse...

2009-03-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

To cut a long story short, things in our world went from bad to worse.

Zak got sicker and sicker and ended up in hospital for 3 days with pneumonia.
He has also been diagnosed with asthma.
We now have a long road ahead of specialist ENT and Paed appointments to try and get to the bottom of why our little mans body continually has infection after infection of some kind.
He has had a pretty horrible first 10 months of life, but it could be worse, there are many families and children that are going through much worse than us.

I also got very sick with pneumonia and pleurisy. I have never been so sick in my life.I wouldn't wish it upon anyone.It totally knocked me flat for 3 weeks.

Luckily my MIL came to stay for 2 weeks, to look after the kids and do the basics like cook,clean,wash etc as I was unable to do anything.It was a huge effort to even have a shower, it took all my energy. Remind me never to complain about my MIL again, she was a godsend.

So, there has been no scrappy goodness emerging from my house, in fact, you should see my scrap table, rather than a neat clean space it used to be, it has become a place for storage of random junk, you know, things that need to be put away or paperwork and mail seem to keep accumulating there.I really need to tackle it and get some order happening.

I also really need to get Zak's photo's in an album too. I was so good with Kyiah, every 30-40 pics I took, I had printed and put them into regular albums and dated them etc.
I was so organized! Made scrapping easier too, I just scrapped the pics I wanted and had the regular albums to look in for reference.

BUT with Mr Zak I have 300+ pics here printed, but still sitting in their packets waiting to go into albums......I am so slack, it is starting to drive me nuts, cause i am a virgo, and I like things to be organized and in order!
I must get onto it asap...no excuses! Its gonna be a big job, but I have to do it!

Sorry I have no pics to share either, what a boring blogger I am. I have just been too sick to take any. I wish I could just erase the month of feb and March, and start again!

Thanks to those of you who have been thinking of us, and have sent well wishes via here or facebook, i truely appreciate your kindness♥

A magic wedding...

2009-02-16T16:55:00.000-08:00

We had a great Valentines Day...we went to our good friends wedding! It was just beautiful.

Although it was supposed to be an outdoor ceremony, mother nature had other ideas, and decided we needed torrential rain instead.
As it turns out, this didn't dampen the spirit of the day at all, the ceremony was held where the reception was setup.
And WOW! It was just amazingly beautiful, just perfect! But I always have been a sucker for weddings! lol

I took over 140 pics! lol! So I will share a few with you!
The pouring of the sand vase.The crystals represent the bride,groom and their daughter...how sweet is that!

The wedding cake...bottom half chocolate, and top half white chocolate...so yummy!

They had a local little old lady make it, although by the taste of it, I think maybe she could have been having a little tipple herself while baking, and possibly some of the rum found its way into the mixture! lol

That wasn't part of the plan, as the cake was used instead of other desserts, and the kids needed to be able to eat it too! Note;no harm came to any of the children!

The beautiful heart decoration that adorned the covered decking where the wedding was held.

The pouring of the sand ceremony...so unique and special.The bride and groom each pouring coloured sand into the vase in unison.

This pic is of me and Kyiah at home before we left....

We had arranged for Mr Z to spend the afternoon and night at his Nanny's, as you know from my last post....he still isn't well...so to cut a long story short, My mum and her neighbour(who happens to be a child and family health nurse!) had to take him to the hospital....turns out that it isn't just a virus like our GP had said, he has a severe middle ear infection!!!!!

The guilt I feel is still so tremendous at the moment.

I am so disappointed in our GP for not picking it up, and I am disappointed in myself for not going with my gut feeling and taking him back or getting a second opinion sooner.

My little man has been in agony for 2 weeks, and here I was last post selfishly whinging...I have learnt a lesson from all this though....trust your instincts...don't doubt mothers intuition...

So our weekend was half half....half amazing and half not so great.

What did u do for Valentines Day?

I told Russ he was off the hook this year, as were going to the wedding! lol

We don't normally do anything special anyway, but sometimes it is nice just to know you have been thought of, and for me its about the thought, not the gift at all.

I would be happy with a picked flower from the garden!Anytime for that matter! lol

Anyway, chores are calling me, if you stop by, please say Hi!

I wish for you all and your family happiness and good health♥

a selfish whinge...

2009-02-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

With everything that is happening in Australia at the moment with the fires and floods, my heart is heavy.
We have seen so much devastation on the news, but what makes me proud to be an aussie is the generosity and compassion we have also seen.
The photo that some of you have on your blogs of the koala drinking from the water bottle has to be one of the most amazing pics I have seen.It brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.
We did what we could and dug deep to donate $ to help,wish we could have done more, but every little bit helps.
Also, Miss K wants to donate some of her toys too, what an awesome little girl, she came up with this on her own, no prompting from us at all! I think that is wonderful.
It must be on her mind alot, because now she is waking at night with nightmares of fire...alot for a little 5 year old to take in I think, so we are now limiting her viewing of the news, etc.

We are still having a really tough time with sickness in our house...and with everthing that alot of people have gone through recently, I really feel I have no right what so ever to whinge, but it is really starting to affect me and I need to vent...

So I apologize in advance to anyone that thinks I should pull my head in and be grateful I have not lost my home, family or community...

The reality of my world at the moment is just getting on top of me.

Miss K and Mr Z have been sick with high temps for 13 days now...miss K now has a nasty bark like cough, and mr Z has had random vomiting...I took them both to the Dr on day 5, and he said it was just a virus and we had to ride it out...Both Russ and I are exhausted, as mr Z isn't a good sleeper at the best of times, but now he is up most of the night...and he is miserable when his temp spikes, it takes so long to settle him down, it is such a horrible feeling holding and cuddling our little man after giving him panadol or nurofen and some water, and he is still so upset and having to just do what we can to make him comfortable by holding him and rocking him.This has been taking almost an hour everytime.Then once he is calm, we put him back in his cot only to be up again 1/2 an hour later to do it all over again.
I am finding it very difficult to function at all with so little sleep, and Russ has been falling asleep at work in his lunch break, which of course puts his job in jeopardy...it is really starting to affect our life... :(
When will my 2 get better??? I am ready to fall in a heap...

Some good news is we are going to a wedding 2moro, Valentines day!

I am really looking forward to it, mr Z is having a sleepover at his Nanny's, to give us a break, and of course, I felt that dragging him along while he isn't well was just cruel.
Especially as it will possibly be a late night, well thats if Russ and I don't fall asleep! lol
Kyiah is coming with us, with her dog like bark cough and all!
She will have a great time with the other kids I am sure!
Altho I am a little worried, as it is raining here and according to weather reports, it is set in...and yes, u guessed it, it is an outdoor wedding!!! Fun Fun Fun!

I must go now, there is a little man that needs me again.
And hopefully at some point this arvo I will be able to look thru my wardrobe to find something to wear 2moro!

Thanks for dropping by, until next time,I hope you and your family are all well, and staying safe♥

sick little kidlets...

2009-02-04T15:14:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update to let you know I have 2 very sick little ones at the moment...they are miserable....so I have very limited net time.

Hopefully will be back with another update as soon as my 2 are well.

We're on day 4 now, so surely we are nearly at the end of it?!?!?

Poor miss K has missed 3 days of school, in her first full week!

I feel so bad, she really needs to be there, especially now,her first week, but she just isn't well enough....keep your fingers crossed she makes a fast recovery and can make it 2moro.

2009-02-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, im back! with a few things to share....

Firstly, this LO below is the ONLY LO I have done of Zak....it was the day he was born, meeting Daddy only minutes old.....yes, how slack am I....only 1 LO of Mr Z.

We are still really struggling with his sleeping unfortunately....at almost 9 months old, he is a shocking sleeper.So getting only 1 good night every 7-8 days is very draining. I guess this would explain my lack of mojo since he has arrived into our family.

I guess it's my karma for having miss K who was an awesome sleeper, who slept thru the night from 6 weeks old.(yes I know, we were sooooooo very lucky!)

Anyway, I really like this LO, I suck at taking pics tho! You can't really see the detail,so from now on I think I will take some close ups of my LO's so u can!

This LO I made for an old school friend, who sadly lost her little man not long after he was born.
You can't really see in the pic, but I have an acetate sleeve on the left hand side of the LO, so she could choose her favourite pic of her precious little angel to put in...

It took me alot of time, and procrastination to actually do this one....She is not a scrapper, so I wasn't sure, and was really worried if I was over stepping the mark by doing this LO.
Also, it made me reflect and think alot....just how damn lucky I am to have 2 healthy children.

It made me take a step back, and to realize that at times when I whinge, and think it's all too hard, that there are people out there who are far worse off and struggling with much greater issues than me...

She text me when she received it and said she loved it and will treasure it forever....so that was a nice reply to hear. I am so glad that maybe just maybe, I have helped somehow in the healing process for her.

Our biggest event so far this year is miss K's first day of big school! It's Kindy here in NSW.
Over the chrissy holidays she wanted to wear her uniforn nearly every day! I told her she would wear it out before school even started! lol
She is quite shy by nature, so I was a little worried we would have tears come the first day....but NO! She just lined up with all the other little ones and headed into the classroom! what the? lol
I even had to call her back for a goodbye kiss!!! Poor mummy! lol
I can't believe our little girl is now a big school girl....

Now,a big thank you to the girls who have visited me here and left a comment!
I truely appreciate it!☺

I must go now, have to head over to miss K's school for a parent/teacher interview!
OMG! 3 days of school and this is happening already! lol

Bye for now♥

Aus day long wkend-update yet again!

2009-01-31T16:27:00.000-08:00

Hello again!
As I mentioned yesterday, Miss K had a great time at Nan and Pops, getting spoilt and having some fun with Nana on the ride on and in a bucket of water!

Well, here is nana and miss K on the ride-on!
Nana even let her steer all by herself!
She was very proud of herself!

And here is K in a bucket of water, that she used to fit in with lots of room to move, but, um, now, well its a bit of a tight squeeze! She had lots of fun in it though!

I have added some of you to my blog list, I hope you don't mind?!?!?!?!?

I kind of stuffed it up first, and did something with "following" so Im not really sure what that means.....so I am very sorry if I have messed something up your end with your blog!

Then I managed to get your blogs listed down the right hand side(which is what I was trying to do in the first place!)...so im leaving it as is for the time being!

Technology and I don't often see eye to eye!

Its lunchtime here now in my little part of the world, so I better go and feed the hungry troops, but i will try to get back later today with a pic from miss K's first day of kindy,an another 2 LO's.... if not, I will be back 2moro!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your sunday xxx

2009-take 2!

2009-01-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

We spent the long weekend at my inlaws place, about a 2.5 hour drive from us, beautiful home and property bordering the national park, nice to get away for a break,and to have such a peaceful quiet atmosphere,and the inlaws love seeing their grandkidlets of course...but nice to come home also!

Mr Zak who is nearly 9 months old now, decided to be a VERY unsettled boy unfortunately, he decided night was NOT for sleeping! So we were very tired when we got home to say the least.
Kyiah was a good girl tho, and she had fun on the ride-on and in a bucket of water!

I will try and upload pics(probably next post!).....managed these two...looking from inlaws verandah to the Border Ranges National Park...the QLD and NSW border runs right accross the top of the mountain.

This one too, their property is for sale...they are at the point in their life where they want to travel now...

well, not sure how to do numerous pics in one post with the appropriate text under...do I have to upload the pics first, then add my text?!?!? lol Im clueless!

Anyway, I might leave it here for now....Kyiah is hungry and Mr Zak is awake! Never a dull moment here at the moment...

Thanks for reading, will be back with another update in the near future!☺

2009- a new beginning

2009-01-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

So you have something to read when you get here I thought I would give you a little insight into what 2009 so far has involved in my little part of the world!

Early in January, a dear friend of mine came all the way from Adelaide to spend some time with me...well, not just me,her family too,as she grew up here also, but we scheduled in an arvo just for us. Her DH looked after her 2 kidlets, and my man was on Daddy duty for the arvo too, so we had a great arvo with a couple of bottles of wine, enjoying each others company,chatting and laughing!

I have had such a scrapping drought for so long now, having some fun and taking some fun pics inspired me to actually create!
So here is a fun LO I did of our arvo...

The journalling reads...

A friendship that began over 20 years ago with "wanna lolly"

We grew up together as kids

and spent alot of our 20's together too

We only manage to catch up every few years now,

but I love that the time we are together

It's like no time has passed at all.

We always have so much fun!

I can't get another piccy up where I want it too add more, so I will have to do another post! Arrgghhh! Sorry! It will probably take me a while to get the hang of blogger! lol

Blogland here I am

2009-01-30T18:11:00.000-08:00

well....yes, here I am in blog land!
I read so many of your fabulous blogs that I thought I may just jump on the bandwagon myself in 2009!
Now, please forgive me for my boring blog graphics so far...hey, I have my L plates on, hopefully I can get a little more interesting stuff happening soon!
And hopefully it won't be too long before I can figure out how to link your blogs, and create heaps of cool stuff for my blog too!
I may need to ask for a little helping hand if you don't mind?!?!?