Howdy :)

Well, it's only been a bit over a month this time... I'm doing well! LOL!

So, from where I left off... We had a great Christmas and New Year! I had my first holiday in I don't know how long and had nearly a month off! We stayed at a lovely resort up at the Sunshine Coast for a couple of weeks just after Christmas, and it was awesome... And then, since we returned, we've been spending every spare minute we have painting the house - yay (not)! In a strange way it's been kinda good, even though it's hard work, as Marty and I have really enjoyed spending the time together and working towards a goal. Sounds kinda gay, but it's true! We're nearly there, we've finished the first coat on the last wall and just have the gapping, second coat and final coat to go, and then we're done - yippee!! It's nice to not live in a little log cabin anymore - LOL! So, apart from that I don't really have anything new to report, just wasting time, as per usual! I swear it's been hard to get back into work mode after being on holidays for so long - LOL! I have just finished my first solo kit of the year though, so it looks like the mojo might have returned...

Speaking of mojo, I've been really inspired by the Project 365 thing that everyone seems to be doing this year, and so far I've stuck to it (which is a MAJOR achievement for me not to forget about something after a couple of weeks - LOL!) It's funny how you get used to taking your camera everywhere so you don't miss a photo opportunity, even after only a couple of weeks. I've decided I'm gonna get myself a nice little happy snapper though, so I can take it easily in my back instead of lugging the SLR around with me... I updated my Project 365 Blog the other day with some photos, so if you're interested and want to take a peek at my life away from the computer, you can check it out HERE!

My favourite pic so far:



Onto some business stuff, I'm so excited that I've had another dual paper line with MME debut at CHA this past weekend - yay!!








For those of you who follow my digital side of things, you'll notice that one of them is a completely new set of designs in the colours of my Bloom and Grow kit; and the other is the same designs that are in my Bloom & Grow kit, but in Persimmon colours - LOL! Very confusing! See, I had originally designed the papers for MME before I released the Bloom & Grow kit, and I wanted to use the colours again, so yeah! There you go, a tidbit of news for the week :)

Well, I'm gonna go and hit the sack before the clock strikes midnight so I can have some form of an early night... Hopefully I'll be around again soon!

Don't Die Of Shock...

No, you are not dreaming - LOL! Yes, I know it has been OVER A YEAR since I blogged - how terrible is that?!? I've been meaning to, I really have, but I just never have anything interesting enough to write about so it gets pushed to the side - LOL! That and I'm always too busy... but today I'm not! It's my Birthday, and I have the day off - yay! No designing, no accounts, no work, but where am I?? On the computer. It's a disease I swear - LOL! My Mum has taken Josh for the day & night so I can go and get my haircut, and then Marty's taking me out to dinner, so all in all it should be a great day! :D (I do feel a bit lost without him here, but I should make hay while the sun shines).

So, wow... a whole year to catch up on! I honestly don't know if I can remember everything! I'll try and wrap it up in a nutshell (although judging by my previous posts, that is an impossible task - LOL)

Josh is obviously much more massive than the last time you saw him... He's now 16 months old can you believe? Time just flies when you're having fun... He's such a big boy and all grown up, running around, breaking things, throwing missiles at me, but totally adorable. I think he's the main reason I don't have a lot of time to do anything anymore - it seems the older he gets, the harder it is to keep him entertained, so I spend most of my days playing with him and only working during the day if I have to... Here are some pics, you'll see how much he's changed over the last year!

Secondly, around the time I stopped posting, I signed on as a designer for My Mind's Eye... I now have a number of traditional paper lines with them, and that's been keeping me super busy as well! Some of them you'd recognise from my digital kits, and a couple of them are new as well.

I've been so overwhelmed by how lucky I've been this year with my work, and it's taken me in directions I never thought possible! I am looking forward to taking a break for the rest of the year though, as it's been such a crazy time around here!

And, I think that's all I have time for! I just looked at the time, and I need to get my butt into gear if I'm going to make this hairdresser's appointment! I will try and update more regularly, I promise... I might even try and think of some more stuff and update today... I'm in one of those moods lately where I want to tick things off my list, and I'm sure if I don't, I'll be frustrated - LOL! Although it's not like i have much exciting stuff going on, but I will if and when anything blog-worthy happens...

Hope you all have a merry Christmas, and a safe and Happy New Year! Thank you for all your support over the last year - it truly means the world to me!

Okay...

... I'm about to flood you with so many photos - sorry!! I've had a bit of a lightbulb moment and worked out that I can change the ISO speed on my DSLR (duh!), AND the light meter! So, I've worked out how to take a half decent photo - LOL! Well, they're not the best in the world, but I was getting so frustrated because I'm still used to my film SLR, and I couldn't work out why sometimes the DSLR would take awesome photos, and others were complete crap... yup, it helps to read the instruction booklet sometimes - LOL!!

So, I had a little photo shoot with Joshy this morning, and OMG isn't he just the sweetest little thing?? He's just started to push himself up while he's having tummy time - so cute! Oh man, my heart just about breaks every time I look at him... love him soooooooo much!!

And, check it out... his very first pair of Vans thanks to his Aunty Kell & Uncle Clayt! Look at the soles on them... priceless! I love baby shoes.. I think it's cos they're completely useless, but that just makes them even cuter :D

Well, that's pretty much it on the personal front :) Yeah, I know I'm boring... I need to get some sort of life happening so I have more to talk about than my baby - LOL!! Ah well...

Can you believe it's almost Christmas?? It's so crazy how fast time is flying this year! I seem to have gone from pregnant to being a mum to a newborn, to a mum to a 3.5 month old all in the space of about 1 minute! I can't wait for Christmas this year - I know Josh won't know any different, but it'll be our first Chrissy as a proper family... And Marty will be home for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!! YAY!!! ADULT CONVERSATION - WOOHOO!! Can you tell I'm excited? Plus, I just love that feeling that seems to be in the air at Christmas time... and the fact that it's my birthday the week before, not that that's too exciting anymore - LOL!!

In other exciting Zoe-Land news (not - LOL), I've finally bought my own domain, and plan to open my own little shoppe early in the New Year... I already have my own site, but at the time I got the domain name, I had planned to sell paper scrap products as well as my own digi stuff... but that all went out the window. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, but I hate the name of the site, so I'm starting fresh - yay!

And, I don't know how or when it happened, but I seem to have become a bit of an absentee in the community... and it makes me feel really bad. I don't know, it's kinda like when you haven't spoken to a friend in a long time, and the longer you leave it, the harder it gets to pick up the phone... Does that make sense? So, I just have to get more involved... and scrap! That's something I haven't done enough of either...

Okay, onto the business side of things :) Lauren Grier and I did a cute little 2Scoops for this weekend... Pretty much all of the Sweet Shoppe girls teamed up to do a whole lot of awesome collab kits, and they're just rockin'! Here's ours, it's bright and summery and so not wintery, but oh well... If it makes any difference, it's coming into summer over here in the land of Oz!

And, my latest love in designing seems to be glitter for some reason... I think I'm about 2 years behind the craze, but I just love it! I think cos it's shiny and pretty and so girly... Anyway, I've done these two packs of glitter backgrounds:

You can click on the images above to go to the store :)

I have so many things in my idea book at the moment, I just don't seem to have the time to do them!! So, I've got a bit of a backlog happening... I think I'll get onto the Christmas kits in February the way I'm going - LOL!

Well, that pretty much wraps it up for this week :) Thanks for reading and I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Zoe

I'm Back for an Update :)

Hello!

Yup, I've pretty much dropped off the face of the planet huh? LOL... having a baby is a lot more work than I thought it would be (how naiive was I??). So lately I've just been using the time I've got on the computer to design and that's pretty much it. Except if I'm procrastinating, which is what I'm doing now!

Wow, so Josh was only a couple of weeks old when I last posted! So much has happened in that time, it's gonna take a bit of catching up, so I apologise in advance for the mega long post if it turns out that way - LOL!

My sister got married on the 1st September over at Stradbroke Island, and it was just lovely. Travelling with Josh was not the nightmare I thought it would be, and the place we stayed at was just awesome! I kept saying to Marty the whole time that it would be nice if we were still just a couple cos it would have been a good romantic getaway type thingy. Except for the 4 week old baby... heehee! She made a gorgeous bride and the day went off without a hitch. They'd asked everyone to wear white to the wedding, and at first everyone couldn't see the point, but when we got to the beach and everyone was standing there in white, against the sand, sea and perfect blue sky, it looked so lovely! Because I was pregnant when they were planning the wedding it was a bit hard for me cos I'd always wanted to be her bridesmaid, but because they had the wedding when they did it was pretty much impossible. I was really sad about that, and it made me feel really bad that they knew I was pregnant when they chose the date. But, in the end they made me a part of the ceremony, and it was lovely, except for the fact that I only knew about it 5 minutes beforehand - LOL! So, I looked like such a third wheel standing there in my post-natal outfit, and them looking so glam... anyways it all turned out great, and they had a wonderful day, so all is good :) Here's some pics of the beautiful couple:

So, the weekend after the wedding Josh started to have some troubles. It all kinda started when I couldn't breastfeed. Not that I didn't want to, but he wouldn't latch on, I didn't get the support I needed, and I was a nervous wreck... we tried until he was around 4 weeks old, and I was expressing for him, but it just wasn't happening so he went to formula. I was upset, but the whole situation was just stressing everyone, including Josh, out so much it just wasn't worth it anymore.

Just after he went wholly to formula, he started to get a bit constipated, which is pretty common, and we did go into the hospital one night when it was particularly bad and they told us it would all clear itself up in good time, and not to worry too much. On the advice of a health nurse a couple of weeks later we switched to another formula, and it was great for a couple of days. He wasn't having any more troubles, and we thought it had all sorted itself out. Then one night, a week after the wedding, he started to poo pure blood. It was terrifying. You see, Marty had been giving me the day off and was looking after him, but he's colour-blind. So he hadn't noticed the blood - he just thought it was brown. Anyways, we raced him into the hospital and he had to be cannulated and put on a drip. It was the most awful feeling - they asked us to leave the room while they inserted the cannula, and I felt so helpless! It was all quiet and then he started screaming in the next room, and there was nothing I could do but cry and hope they weren't hurting him too bad...

Turns out he was allergic to the cow's milk protein in the formula, which apparently is very common and they usually outgrow it after 12 months. So they put him on a prescription formula, and initially it was a hassle because he hated it, but it seemed to be going fine... Then we went back to the specialist the following week for a check up and he'd started to lose weight. They said it could just be an adjustment phase, and they'd check him the following week. And for the next 2 weeks he lost weight :( It was awful, he lost 600g total, and they had no idea why. Each time he went in, they'd give him blood tests and on one occasion his neutrophils (?sp) had dropped dangerously low and we had to keep him "in quarantine" because his body wouldn't have been able to fight any bacteria it came into contact with.. OMG what an awful time that was. I've never been more frightened or my nerves so shot in all my life!

Thankfully, after about 6 weeks it all settled down and he finally started to gain weight - yippee!! Now he's healthy and a little chubber and so damn cute - I just love him to bits! The best bit is, he's been sleeping through the night since he was 6 weeks old, so that was a huge turning point for us as well. Makes life so much easier when you can have more than a couple of hours' sleep at a time! And, of course, now he's smiling and cooing and doing all that stuff that just makes my heart melt... Man, I've never been so fiercely in love with anything in my life! He's a good baby too - only really cries when he's hungry. Although, I think his teeth are starting to move around cos he's getting a bit grizzly, but I can't complain cos he's been so great until now!

Here's some more recent pics that I think are the cutest... please excuse me and my tuckshop lady chins/arms/body, but I've let myself go - LOL! I guess there's plenty of time to get my figure back :) Not that I had that great a one to start with... ah well :) And the quality of a few of them isn't the best because I was just holding the camera and blind-shooting, but the expression on his face is just priceless and they're some of my faves...

Isn't he a cutie?? Yeah, I'm biassed, but I could just eat him up... love him so much!

And then, some more sad news... My wonderful sweet Nana passed away on the 19th October... I've actually handled it a lot better than I thought I ever would. Nana dying was always one of my biggest fears and I always thought I'd fall apart when it happened, but for some reason I'm okay. I think it probably happened at a time in my life when I can accept it. I really feel like she's at peace, and it makes me feel good for her. I have my moments, and I don't know if I'm just putting off the inevitable by keeping myself busy, but so far so good. I loved her with all my heart, and I know that she knew that. I'm just thankful for the 26 years I had her in my life. She was a wonderful, strong and loving woman who did everything for us, and I will always remember that... I don't think I can go into it any more because no amount of words I can say will sum up how I felt for her :)

So, that pretty much brings me up to date. I had a few new products in the store over the last few weeks, including a kit dedicated to my lovely Nana...

some buttons:

and some alphas:

Yay!! Blog post done! :) Whew... I'll try to do it more regularly so I don't have to chew your ear off so much next time - LOL!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you are all well :)

Zoe