A week in 40 pages?

Can you believe that's how many pages my "Week in the Life" album ended up having??! Shheeeesh!
Of course, I'm not going to bore you with all 40 pages, and I have already shared a few pages here. So I'll just show you a couple more in their completed form to give you an overview of what my album looks like:

Feel free to click on the pictures to get a larger view of all the details (and journaling, if your eyesight is that good!)

My pages are approximately 5 x 7.5" and all the photos are 2 x 3"
All the base pages are cut randomly from manilla folders, envelopes, packaging, filing cabinet folders..... basically anything that was about to go in my recycling bin ended up as a page in my album instead!

I really wanted to go for an 'artsy' look and have used lots of non-scrapbook supplies like doilies, lace, washi tape, security envelopes, packaging and whatever I could find within arm's reach while I was putting it all together. I've used my new doily stamp in a lot of places, and have sewn on most of the pages too.

As far as 'real' scrapbooking supplies go, I've used nearly my whole book of American Crafts clear stickers and Scenic Route labels, and scraps of whatever paper was hanging around - mainly Kaisercraft and Sassafras Lass. I've put all my paper punches to good use, especially my new and favourite Martha Stewart ones.

I also used all my kawaii supplies I bought from Pretty Tape's etsy, which I blogged about here. That includes the ninja rabbits and Korean girl stickers. Loooooovvee :-)

If you have any more questions please feel free to ask them!
Thanks for sharing my week with me :-)

A bit of this and that (and a winner)

Lots of fun stuff to share today.

Firstly, I have been working my little behind off trying to do my Week in the Life album. I'm up to page 17 and I've just started Thursday!! It looks like it's going to be a long one! But I'm having so much fun and I'm just totally loving the process rather than caring what the finished page looks like :-)

That saying, here's a couple of pages to show you how it's turning out:

I'm getting to use up a lot of scraps and recycled materials and stuff that's been in my stash forever, and play with my punches - I'm having a ball! And yes, it includes a lot of doilies, ninja rabbits, and washi tape :-)

Secondly, I'm in love with this prize that's on offer at Lilibee's blog:

Oh, what I wouldn't do to get my hands on that! Well, for a start I would blog about it :-) Go here and find out how you too could win.

And speaking of prizes........ today I'm drawing the winner of Giveaway #5 Naked Chipboard (ooh la la)

And the winner is....... drumroll please..........


*** CLAUDE from Life and Tribulations ***

Congratulations Claude. Please send me an email with your postal address and I'll pack up your prize and get it ready to send once I've drawn all the prizes.

3 prizes down, 5 to go :-)
Go here to enter the other giveaways

I haven't quite

made the handmade pledge yet, but I have made my first Etsy purchase! And I'm so excited because it's here already - talk about speedy delivery :-)

Today in my mailbox I got this:

which I bought from Pretty Tape. Yep, there's a big ol' doily stamp, some kraft ring stickers, kawaii ninja rabbit labels (!) 16 pages of cute Korean deco stickers, and.......... some lovely washi tape. I've been hanging out for some for the longest time, and now it's in my hands ready to be put on anything and everything :-)

Now I'm going to get stuck into this:

my Week in the Life album. I told myself earlier that there was no possible way I could complete this album without washi tape and ninja rabbits. Hhhmmmm, it seems I have run out of excuses :-)

I have already put them both on this:

More coming soon......

A Week in the Life - Sunday

Phew - made it to the last day of taking photos for A Week in the Life.

Sunday is church day for the Elphies.
I was on creche today so I didn't get to take part in the actual service, but me and the kids had fun doing some crafty things. Munchy loves it when I get to stay the whole time at creche.

Moodle gets doted on by lots of fans.

As does Munchy.

Went around to a friends house for coffee after the service (in return for dropping her kids back at home)

And then I had my own friend over for coffee after that. It was supposed to be a bit of a catch up with a lot of my doctor and physio friends, but do you know what it's like to try and organise 5 doctors to be in the one spot at the same time (unless it's a Code Blue?!!) so in the end it was just me and her! But luckily she just so happened to have her Cricut in the car so we had some scrappy fun!

After all that excitement, it was take-away for dinner tonight. Chicken, chips and salad. Pretty good :)

Bath for both the girls, and off to bed early for them.
I can relax a bit now.

Thanks for putting up with this journey through my life for a week. It will just make it so much easier when I go to put the album together because I can see at a glance which photos correspond to which day, and I've got the skeleton of the story in place too.

Will share some scrappiness with you in a minute. Stay tuned :)

A Week in the Life - Saturday

Oh, I enjoy the sleep-in on the weekend. Even if the sleep-in really only means 9am.

And I never know what I'm going to wake up to. This morning it was The Man trying to get crafty with Munchy because she had asked him to make her into a snail!

He struggled a bit at first (mainly with getting those antennae to stick in her hair) but they got there in the end :)

After lunch he took both girls to the park, which allowed me some quiet time to finish my first DT submission for a yet-to-be-announced new team I'm on (!!!!)

After naps for the girls, Munchy and I also had some crafty time and worked on the 'bird project' I've been promising her for the past few days. I'll post the photos of the finished product another day.

Dinner was the left over risotto from last night. A common scene at our house is trying to convince Munchy to eat all of her dinner in a timely manner. She would sit there for hours mucking around if we let her.

A bit of time to chill before the bed-time rush begins.

 The Man decided to be very brave and have a shower with both the girls. I don't think he'll be repeating the experience any time soon.

Now what to do.
Maybe some scrappy time :)

A Week in the Life - Friday

Sometimes we go and visit The Man for lunch. We go and pick him up from work and go to the market for some hit-or-miss food, fresh fish shopping and other adventures. Today was one of those days.

Munchy loves the market because of these cute little juice bottles she can get. That's really the main reason she likes going.

But she sometimes finds it hard to chose between her juice and Daddy's milkshake.

The Moodle watches on in amusement, because she's already eaten (or rather drunk) her lunch.

We choose some kind of seafood for dinner.

There are like 10 different rides to choose from, but Munchy chooses the ambulance because it's been her long-term goal to become an ambulance driver. Well, as much as a 3 year old can have long-term goals. What really upset her, apart from the ride finishing, was that when it did, she couldn't get her passenger out of the back and into the hospital she had taken him to :)

All the excitement sent both girls off to sleep on the drive back home again. That's one of the main reasons I like going to the market!

Dinner was fresh oysters for entre, followed by a scallop and mushroom risotto.
Yum.

A Week in the Life - Thursday

So much going on today - I tried to capture most of it.

This is what helps me crawl out of bed in the morning, at least I mean, the thought of this helps me get out of bed. It's two very lively little girls that wake me up every morning. But once I get them both fed and settled I can sit down with my (homemade bread) toast, a cup of coffee and my blog browsing. Love it.

So while I'm doing that Munchy is usually curled up on the couch watching cartoons. Today it was a Barbie DVD.
I also had the postman ring my doorbell this morning (which I love, even though sometimes I'm still in my pajamas) because it means the delivery of some scrappy packages - yay!! Today it was a load of October Afternoon yuminess. It made me very happy.

Out of nowhere she said "can we make cupcakes today?" which actually sounded like a good idea once I remembered that we had Home Group at our house tonight (it's usually at our house since we lead it and all!)
Shortly after this photo one of my friends came around so we could work on her resume before a job interview she had this afternoon. So I put the cupcake-making on pause.

Except, while I was busy with that, I hear Munchy in the kitchen 'making' the cupcakes herself. She decided to simply through everything in the bowl all at once and just stir it up.
I explained it didn't quite work that way.
But at least she had all the right ingredients in all the right quantities for cupcakes so I figured it couldn't turn out all that badly.

And apparently they weren't too bad after all.
They certainly looked pretty enough once Munchy had sprinkled them with butterflies.

 After that, I went on a cleaning rampage through our house. Vacuumed, mopped, steam-cleaned, washed, scrubbed..... you name it, I did it. Knowing that a whole bunch of people are coming over to spend the night at your house is a big motivator to my cleanliness :)
And lucky for me, Moodle slept through most of it.

Most of the time Munchy can be quite shy, but once she feels comfortable then she's quite the entertainer. Here she is singing a song for everyone at Home Group and playing along on her piano.

And me.
Thoroughly exhausted by it all, but enjoying the feel of my freshly cleaned carpet :)

A Week in the Life - Wednesday

I didn't think I would wear down this quickly, but I only took like 7 photos today, 3 of which was today's scrapiness that you can see in the post below!

But in justification, it's not that I've lost interest, it's more that with Munchy at day-care again today, and Moodle either crying or sleeping (both of which don't make very interesting photos - well maybe they do, but I've already taken photos of them before!), and with The Man only being home for like 30mins today (he came home from work, ate the dinner I cooked and had to leave for Music Team meeting for church) there hasn't seemed much to actually photograph.

 But maybe I'm thinking too literally and should stop trying to photograph the 'events' and try to photograph those everyday 'moments' that make up my ordinary life. Will try harder tomorrow.

 Took The Moodle into the shower with me today. Mainly because she was crying (and not sleeping) and it was like 11am and I really need to have a shower and get dressed in order to feel slightly sane. I'm not one of these people who can comfortably hang out in their pajamas all day. I even tried to give her one of those soothing, calming baby massages afterwards.
She cried.

 I see tonnes of scrapbook pages by Julie Fei Fan Balzer with photos she's taken of herself in the mirror. Thought I would give it a go.
But in the meantime go and check out some of those pages like these ones here and here.

I was able to watch the second half of this after finally getting the girls both settled in bed.
Don't ask.
Lucky I've seen it already.

Today's scrapiness

Although I'm a week behind taking the photos for Ali Edwards 'a week in the life' I'm a (little) bit ahead in the actual making of the album.
I'm totally into the whole recycled thing at the moment and am going with that look for my album. It's a bit arty, not too many real scrapbook products here.
I like it.

This is what I've been working on today. Doing a few random page decorations (will add the journalling later) and all the page headings.
I've half done the covers too.

A Week in the Life - Tuesday

The Man is on a bit of a bread-making kick at the moment. We don't have any store bought bread in the house (unless you count the mountains of English muffins in our freezer - but that's another story), and he's trying to perfect his bread recipe.
He sets the bread maker on a timer so that it cooks overnight and is ready when we wake up in the morning. I must admit, at least when I wake up at odd hours of the night for The Moodle fussing it's nice to smell freshly baked bread :)

Tuesday is Munchy's day at child-care, which she absolutely adores. And even though I'm still a full time stay-at-home mum we've kept her in care because she loves playing and socialising with her friends there so I think it's good for her in some ways (and good for my sanity too!)
She usually eats breakfast there, but today The Man was running very late (alarm was still on silent so he slept through it) so she ate it at home.

The Moodle had her grumpy-pants on for most of the day.
She gets frustrated at the things she wants to do but doesn't yet have the ability to do. Like here where she really wants to put all of the giraffe in her mouth at once. And for whatever reason, today she chose not to sleep properly, or eat properly, and spend a lot of time screaming instead.

So with all that going on, do you think it was ok of me to declare that this morning's bed-hair was socially acceptable enough to wear just as it was? And not put on any make-up?