The Story of 3 for 3

There's no doubting that I'm not always the world's best mum. My family often pays the price for my career. The Man came into this arrangement willingly, but the kids didn't have a choice. And whilst I try my absolute hardest to make sure they never lack attention, it's simply not possible to spend 100% of my time with them.

I miss out on things naturally. Award ceremonies at school, taking them to friend's houses, dinner-time conversation, putting them to bed, milestones and new words (and those are only things I've missed out on this week). I overhear Munchy saying "I hope God doesn't ask me to be a doctor when I grow up because it's too much hard work", and I overhear Moodles praying "Please God let Mummy stay at home all day tomorrow." It's heartbreaking stuff.

But there are some things which will never be sacrificed. Birthdays of course are always a time for family celebration. A time for parties and lollies and gifts and cake and laughter and fun. Neither set of the kid's grandparents live in Melbourne with us, so an extended family gathering requires travel from at least some of us. On the occasion of Moodle's 3rd birthday we celebrated in stages. She ended up with a party here at home with us, then at The Man's parent's house, and thirdly at my parent's house too.

So sometimes I guess I allow some over-compensation! She had an absolute ball at each and every occasion. I don't mind that they spoil her rotten! 3 parties means an aweful lot of gifts, not to mention candles and cake but she didn't complain one bit ;-) She's growing pretty fast which is scary... and starting to talk about wanting a baby sister which is even scarier!

The inspiration behind this numbers page came from the current challenge at Pages of My Book. Check out the blog post and challenge details here. And thanks for listening to me blog.

xxx

Every Day

 Now I don't want you to think I've forgotten about the giveaway I promised... believe me it's coming...! Just waiting to actually be home in daylight hours so I can put together a fabulous prize for you all :-)

But in the meantime I couldn't wait to share this latest layout I did which is for the Pages of My Book challenge. Mainly because the competition finishes on the 20th so I knew I better hurry up and get it done! 

 The challenge word is "Daily" and there's a lovely Japanese poem to inspire you as well. At least, I'm sure it's lovely. Google translate didn't do such a good job so I'm pretty sure I haven't grasped it's meaning at all ;-) But I think the gist of it was about celebrating the every day moments that make life amazing, even in the midst of daily routine and business. Well I certainly get that.

Where I sit at my scrap desk I can look out the window at the kids playing outside, and one day I got such a shock to see Munchy deciding she would bring the clothes in off the line all by herself. All of her own volition. She saw it was getting dark and the job needed doing so she did it! My kids amaze me constantly.

Lots of recent favourite products on this page, like those Candi dots I told you about last time. And that gorgeous FWAB Jasmine flourish was only enhanced by some matching Mango pearls. I wanted it to seem like the photo continued onto the page with the extension of those sunrays and bokeh flairs.

I took my colour inspiration from our current challenge at Flourish With a Bling. Such a bright and happy combo, it was perfect for this cheery page. Now that challenge is open until the end of the month so there's still plenty of time for you to enter. One lucky winner will walk away with a load of FWAB goodies so it's definitely worth your time. (And just to give you some inside info..... we haven't had many entries this month so the odds are in your favour. Wink wink!!)

Supplies:

American Crafts vanilla	Studio Calico Abroad Locale	Studio Calico Take Note Cubicle	Teresa Collins Everyday Moments diecut sheet 3
Crate Paper Paper Heart Border Stickers	Heidi Swapp Day Glo Neon Washi Tapes	KesiArt MetaliKs "Inspiration"	Candi Dotty Wedding Silver
Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Clear Stamps	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Dusty Concord	Greatest View Chevron Bag	Greatest View Sunburst Badges
FWAB Jasmine Puffy flourish: Orange	FWAB Adhesive Pearls: Mango

InLinkz.com

A Page of My Book

I'm pretty laid back most of the time. In general my philosophy is that stressing about something rarely ever helps, so why bother? Certainly in my work life this makes a huge difference as I'm constantly faced with high-pressure scenarios and if I lost my head every time I couldn't cope.

I carry a lot of this in my parenting style too. I'm generally not fussed if the kids are loud or messy or crazy when they're playing at home. I don't mean my kids are misbehaved - quite the opposite. They're really good kids, with fabulous manners :-)

But I believe in allowing them to create, and explore and discover things for themselves. And if that means they make a bit of a mess in the process then so be it! This photo for example, captures the moment after I found Moodles had discovered my makeup. What a sight! I think she had done quite  a reasonable job to be completely honest :-)

The Man is a little more uummmm..... what a nice way of saying.... he prefers things done in neatness and order. Which makes it harder for him sometimes to embrace the 'creative mess' the kids make. This page is a message to both of us as parents to make sure we chill out and let them be kids - whatever craziness that entails.

I was lucky enough to have an afternoon off today so I had time to whip up this layout for the Pages of My Book challenge which is to use the word 'Relax' and the inspiration picture. I used my latest Studio Calico kit (35mm) knowing that another one is just about to land on my doorstep any day now.