Long time no see

Sooo its been more than awhile. I believe keeping this blog has been a seasonal project for me more than anything; it served a wonderful purpose for awhile there, deepening friendships, keeping up with and being inspired by eachother,a place to express myself and show my new projects. Not to mention it was plain fun!
But now i think the season has passed for me. My life is quite happily full with a number of things that require my time and creative energy.

1. Parenting and homemaking for one, which will always be my first priority. Learning to embrace my life and role. Not just accepting it, but enjoying it and finding new ways to serve and delight in my family. It's a full time job, as you all know, i am sure!

2. Stampin' Up. Business is going really well. I am really enjoying hosting workshops and now that we have moved closer (yess!!!) I am free to open my home for classes, crops and fun with girlfriends! This keeps me busy, motivated and satisfies my need to create and play with new ideas.

3. Encouragement ministry at church; Creating cards for the Pastoral Care department, birthday cards for the office workers and a couple of big events this year which i will be doing invitations and bon bonieries for; father's day, volunteer appreciation night, christmas projects etc. I love creating and serving; my desire to make things exceeds my needs and it is wonderful to have a purpose to use my gifts to bless others and serve God.

4. My newest commitiment; the Babes project.
It has been a slow burn over the course of time; I have felt such a stirring of my heart towards this incredible and God-birthed ministry. After much prayer and advice from my closest confidantes (my wonderful hubby and beautiful mum) and after going through the process with the Director of Babes, i have come on board with the wonderful ladies who have been working so hard this last year to birth this project
My commitments are for creative design with a view to connecting more to the heart of the project as time passes.
I feel honored, satisfied, full and excited with the wonderful things the Lord has opened up for me this past year.
I am so looking forward to the journey of learning, stewardship, time and life management and joining with others for a bigger purpose. My cup is truly full at the moment.

Our move has brought with it a new season; one of social freedom; having a comfortably sized home to share our friends and guests, and being closer to where our lives have taken us. It is allowing us to focus on the things that are important to us; friends, family, ministry, productivity. We aren't held back by geographical limitations any longer! Yaay!And it is enabling us to get on with life and expand and put our goals and dreams into action. We feel truly blessed for what God has done in our lives and with all the wonderful people we are blessed to share our life with.
So I am writing this for a little closure on my blog. I manage better with fewer things to invest more of myself in, so its time for this little lady to stop blogging for now!
It has been a pleasure getting to know you guys through your blogs and being inspired by all of your journeys. Thank you for your encouragement and lovely comments! I will still pop in to read your blogs from time to time! You are all lovely ladies who I look forward to spending more time with.
Happy blogging and God bless!
Love from Rach xox

My baby girl

I love this picture I captured of our little sweetie. Just thought I would share it along with a couple of others.Below is Hanny's newest little pout face. It melts me every time. The elephant she is holding is the one her daddy bought for her in hospital when she was born. I cannot believe how fast time flies!

This last pic was taken today, at Aces Spaces, a cool kids amusement centre in Lilydale; she had an absolute blast! I want to try and do more things for her to enjoy rather than just dragging her along to our things. It does my heart good to see her so happy!

Bon Voyage Card

Here's a card I made this evening after being inspired by a colour combo here. Anyways, its a going away card for a certain lovely lady who is travelling to England in a couple of days (shhhh!!!! fortunately she doesn't read my blog!)

More Projects

A little card using some new products.

This gift box is the right size for holding Stampin' Up's Love notes - they are miniature notecards with cute little matching envelopes. I haven't bought any yet but love the idea of making a little gift set using this box, filled up with mini matching cards.
Will post some more stuff shortly

Yay!! New Catty Stuff!

So I finally put an order in from the new Stampin' Up catalogue (see link at right) and it arrived yesterday! It is always so exciting to get things through the post, isn't it? So I made a few projects today using some of their AMAZING new stamp sets and papers. (I am in love!)

I have just bought heat and stick powder and glitter which allows you to actually stamp using glitter; so the outline is glitter! (see the big rose on the card below) I have always wondered how this was done - I love it!

I am planning to have a party soon, so let me know if you are interested. I am keeping it low key, low numbers (if lots of you are interested, I will split it into 2 parties) at my place, we can decide what we want to make or do, so if you want to come and learn a new technique or if there is a certain project you would like me to demonstrate, let me know.

We can shake up the traditional format, keep it more casual and stretch into an evening and have a fun night of it, if you like. Or if you are interested, we can make it more of a class than a party and do something really fancy! Only difference is that as we would be using a lot more supplies I would have to charge a couple of dollars for supplies (will keep at as cheap as I can, just to cover costs)

Next month there is a special on their papers and if you buy 3, you get a fourth pack for free. They are $16.95 for 12 double sided sheets. They are matched with all Stampin' Up's colours and they really are beautiful. Some of them even match stamp sets. Rather than buy 3 for yourself, if someone else wants them too, buy a pack each and split the free pack among the 3 of you. Alternatively, you could split all of them and that way you could have a few pieces from 4 different packs. If anyone is interested in a mini-album these would be good and we could do a class or two etc

I will post more pictures over the coming days which will give you more of an idea the sort of stuff we can make.

Comment on this blog or email me if you are in and any ideas or suggestions you have! Just remember, no pressure to buy (friend first, sales person second!), super casual and lots-a-fun! xox

My friend Kaz

It was Karen's birthday on Wednesday and she was coming up to visit so I made some cupcakes to celebrate. I used the pre-made flowers I had made at Edwina's using a push mold and we celebrated with some little sandwiches and fruit skewers. Of course the kids wanted to go straight to the cupcakes - that's the problem with tiered plates; they can see the dessert part straight away, so who in the right mind would eat the mains?? hehe

Anyway, we had a lovely day; Karen is my oldest friend and we have the kind of friendship that every time we get together, no matter how long it has been, we are always going through similar life seasons or God is showing us something similar at the same time. I love our friendship and the richness and challenges it has brought to my spiritual walk.

Karen always encourages me to reach higher, think positively and change my perspective on so many issues. She is amazing. In my Quiet Time this morning, I came across this Proverb; 'Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; so does the sweetness of a friend's counsel that comes from the heart.' Proverbs 27:9 I think this verse could sum up our friendship. She is a true blessing in my life.

After a lovely and relaxing visit, I took some photos of Karen with her gorgeous kids, Bailey and Samuel. Hannah and Bailey are 2 1/2 months apart and really enjoy playing together. I always joke that they may marry each other one day! Wouldn't it be funny! But I do envision our friendship going right into our children's adult lives. She is a gem.

Some latest creations

This is a little notepad cover that I made for a swap with the ladies in my Stampin' Up team.
Very easy and fun and makes a cute gift! A swap is where everyone in a group is given the same item (in this case a notebook) to decorate then when you get together again you swap what you have made with what someone else has made.

With the second notepad I made this fridge magnet To Do list.
Am getting a bit tired just making cards so I whipped up this little accordian style album using 1 sheet of 12" double sided paper for the main album. It could be used as a special kind of card with lots of space for a personal message or you can put little photos and journalling in it for a mini scrap album.

These were a bunch of quick cards I made for Pastoral Care. They were really fast and fun; I made 30 cards in a couple of hours.

This is scraplifted from the current Stampin' Up Catalogue

I had fun with this card - it is 3D so you actually see inside the window - the pic doesn't show it too well. It was fun using bright colours and this little girl stamp reminds me of Hannah, which is the main reason I really wanted this window set.