Monday, November 29, 2010

Recycle This Christmas

I wanted to share a little and simple tip I have been using for a couple of years now thanks to my wonderful Mother In Law. If you have kept your Christmas cards from last year, you can cut the front off the card (as long as there is no writing on the reverse of it) and use it as a gift tag. Here's a photo of one I prepared earlier.



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Thursday, November 25, 2010

An interesting thought...

I subscribe to this blog and really loved the thoughts behind this post today.  Have  a read and see what you think. http://zenhabits.net/achieving/

Monday, November 15, 2010

Energy Conscious

Due to the rising costs of living we have been, for some time, seeking more energy efficient products for our home.  We do love our garden and as a family we really look forward to the weather warming up so we can make the most of the great outdoors.  We tend to eat outside most evenings and enjoy the atmosphere in our garden created by fairy lights and the like.  My husband found these inexpensive solar garden lights a few weekends ago and installed them on each of our outdoor steps.  I love the light they give off so I spent a little time outside tonight taking photos of our new solar lights.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Escape!

Usually every few months I need to escape the family routine to reclaim my sanity.  Normally I enlist the help of a couple of girlfriends who also need to escape and we head to an idyllic spot that the budget can allow for and do whatever we want for the weekend.  Usually breaking routine is big for me.  You know, dinner at 9pm, late lunch (if at all), walk along the beach whenever I want instead of when it fits in with the family, that kind of thing.
A few weeks ago, something caught my eye. I found it here.
http://bit.ly/ArtCorp I already had taken some scrapbooking classes with Jilly http://bit.ly/JillGG at a retreat I frequent with Direct Scrapbooking Warehouse http://www.scrapbookingwarehouse.com.au/ which I loved.  The pages I completed were very different to my 'usual' style and were very creative.  So I took the plunge and attended the workshop for altered canvases (I guess that's what you would call them).  WOW!  What a fantastic day.  This is so totally not the type of creating I would normally do in regards to construction and results yet it was exactly what I needed.  In the morning I was certainly ready for a break from routine, leaving the house after having a rant about feeling like I was taken for granted and that I had just given up on the housework due to the fact that no-one picked up after themselves.  Once in the car, all was forgotten with some great music and enjoying the drive in my new car. 
Well, 7 odd hours later I had in my hot little hands a canvas that just needed a bit of tweeking.  I came home, put some finishing touches on it and now it is on display in my lounge room.    I learned some great techniques and how to prep a canvas from scratch.  Talk about motivation.  I have already prepped the three canvasses I had in the cupboard.  A couple of years ago, I was going to do a mixed media painting of the ocean and never had enough courage or knowledge on how to complete it.  Who needs courage?  And now I have the knowledge.  I have mapped out in my mind the process I will use to complete this new project and am already hunting around for other things I can use on my canvasses.  I feel renewed and refreshed and like I had a weekend away.  It helped that the cleaning fairy came whilst I was away and picked up and vacuumed and washed the floors.  Isn't he a wonderful cleaning fairy!  So if you have the chance, break routine as soon as you can, allow yourself to do something out of the box and enjoy the moment!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Boosting Creativity

On November 13, I will be in creative heaven.  I will be attending this art class.  It looks fantastic and I'm hoping to not only spend some time with like minded ladies, I'm also looking forward to learning some new techniques.  http://scrapblogmebaby.typepad.com/artcorps/2010/10/novem.html