Play dough time

I have a pet hate.

This pet hate is playdough.  I hate it getting smooshed into my carpet.  So up until recently it has been banned in my house.  When we were living in a house full of floorboards I was happy to have it around as soon as we moved into a house with cream carpet, goodbye playdough.

At our last paediatrician appointment for Master 4. She told us that due to the EDS and hypemobility in his fingers (essentially they are like rubber) that he may have trouble writing and with other fine motor skills, and an occupational therapist will have to be consulted later this year.  Before the change to Primary School.  While speaking to a girlfriend who is a primary school teacher about this she said "I know you wont like this but as far as fine motor goes, playdough is the way to go". OH MAN REALLY.

It had to be orange... Master 4's favorite colour

I procrastinated over this for a couple of days.  How do I get my head around the play dough in the carpet.... Then a couple of Saturdays ago I woke up and a friend on Facebook had a playdough activity table she was throwing out and wanted to know if anyone was interested.  OK I looked at that as a sign.  So we sadi yes please and proceeded to make some playdough.  I really like the thought of play dough from scratch,  but the recipe I have always used uses 4 TBS of cream of tartar.  Thats alot of cream of tartare, almost the whole tub.  So It comes down to remembering to buy some everytime I need to make a new batch.

At first I though Oh god what did I do wrong.  But keep stirring it will work

While perusing Pinterest (I mean who doesnt these days), I came across this recipe. and it only uses 1tsp  of cream of tartar. BRILLIANT.  I did add the essential oils, however I question as to whether adding them to hot dough will alter their therapeutic qualities. But hey I have pretty smelling playdough.

Getting Master 4's tick of approval. Actually he was
convinced I was fibbing when I said it was too hot to
 play with yet, and had to see for himself

Unfinished Projects

I am the queen on unfinished projects. Some are because I got bored halfway through, some went into the too hard basket and some were simply forgotten.

So this year I am planning on completing some ALL of my unfinished projects and making a start on my crafty wish list a couple of things I really want to do.

☆ Keep up to date with my project life. Now that I have a picturemate this task doesn't seem quite as daunting.
☆ Finish my about me album using the Heidi Swapp memory file album I was gifted last year.
☆ My children's baby albums. They are on their way but still works in progress
☆ Wedding album - this one I almost completed last weekend I just need to do a little journalling
☆My photo a day album using fat mum slims photo prompts
☆ Complete my 2013 project life 

Tasks I wish to start and finish this year

☆ I really want to try my hand at quilting. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Today I actually bought some material to try my hand a paper piecing some cushions for my loungeroom.  The scrapbook desk is going to be temporarily packed away to accommodate my sewing machine.
☆ A before we were us album. Contrary to popular belief before we were parents we had a life. I really want to document this.  Their is more to our story than the now

Do you have plans for your unfinished projects?  or are they going to stay sitting in a cupboard?

My goodies I bought today all ready to go.  I hope the you tube tute is as easy as it looks

Getting Messy

I lost my crafty mojo....

I'm not sure where it went but I was having alot of trouble getting back into it.  I needed it, For my own sanity I needed it.  But my get up and go had gotten up and went.  I hadn't even started project life for this year.  It was all too hard.

Then I watched a video by Heidi Swapp on My Craft Channel using stuff I already had lying around the house.  That's when I had my aha moment.  I needed to get messy.

I love getting in the zone.  Getting my hands all messy, the type of messy that leaves me with rainbow coloured hands for days.  And I love the results.  I could have done this canvas twenty times and every time the colorshine would have reacted differently with each other.  Not one of them would have looked the same.  I really find it quite therapeutic.

I tell you what once I had finished this I felt quite invigorated and ready to take on the world.  I even signed up to and nline mixed media class to expand my horizons. (thats a different blog post)

How do you find your mojo?

I adore this photo of miss 2.

Welcoming Elhers Danlos Syndrome into our Household

Hi All,

I have drafted and drafted and drafted this post.  And to be honest I am having a lot of trouble putting my thoughts onto paper.  So I'll try again and see if i can get through this post without hitting delete again.

I never intended this blog to become a personal blog.  I wanted it to be about my crafts and things I am passionate about.  Being a mother my children are the things I am most passionate about.  Recently we have been rocked by some medical relevations.  That I'm not sure I quite have my head around yet.

For a long long time I have questioned the extent of my sons bruising and injuries.  I have been questioned about how he received the bruises.  I have been made to feel like a terrible mother when we go shopping and his head is glued together.  And it has become a running joke about how he is so accident prone.  Personally I don't find it funny.  I find it nerve racking, emotionally and physically draining and heartbreaking.  If there's something he can possibly hurt himself on he will.  His poor legs are a mottled assortment of old bruises, new bruises and scar tissue from bruises.  I'll  be honest Its not pretty.

Finally I found a doctor to take me seriously with my concerns and we ended up with the paediatric haematology department in the children's cancer centre at Monash Medical centre.  After months of extensive blood testing they ruled all the normal stuff out. At one point they were even looking at leukaemia, I said to my Husband If its not leukaemia I can deal with anything!  We got referred onto a geneticist who Diagnosed master 4 with Elhers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Classic type.


Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), classic type is a connective tissue disorder characterized by skin hyperextensibility, abnormal wound healing, and joint hypermobility. It includes two previously designated subtypes (EDS type I and EDS type II) that are now recognized to form a continuum of clinical findings. The skin is smooth, velvety to the touch, and hyperelastic; i.e., it extends easily and snaps back after release (unlike lax, redundant skin, as in cutis laxa). The skin is fragile, as manifested by splitting of the dermis following relatively minor trauma, especially over pressure points (knees, elbows) and areas prone to trauma (shins, forehead, chin). Wound healing is delayed, and stretching of scars after apparently successful primary wound healing is characteristic. Complications of joint hypermobility, such as dislocations of the shoulder, patella, digits, hip, radius, and clavicle, usually resolve spontaneously or are easily managed by the affected individual. Other features include hypotonia with delayed motor development, fatigue and muscle cramps, and easy bruising.

Source here  

Its alot for us to get our head around.  There is no treatment or cure it is something that we have to live with and live around. In November I was rudely woken up to how large this is for us.  Master 4 fell down a step and knocked his leg while on an interstate trip.  He flayed his shin open meaning an overnight stay at hospital and a plastic surgeon to stitch it back together. not so bad i hear you say... well the stitches pulled through the skin opening up part of the wound.  Then once the stitches dissolved the wound hadn't healed enough to hold closed so it opened right up again.  We then spent 11 weeks twice a week backwards and forwards to the GP to get his leg dressed and monitored.  Luckily we escaped infection but it was quite a drain leading up to the silly season.

Where do we go from here?  Having Elhers Danlos Syndrome means my son needs to stay away from contact sports and sports that put unnecessary stress on his joints.  (Early onset Osteoarthritis is a reality for us).  We will have to see an occupational therapist, as he will tire easily with his writing and other fine motor skills. Making teachers and other caregivers aware of his EDS so they can keep a closer eye on him.  We need to teach him about this so he understand why he can not play football like the other kids and have a look at other extra curricular activities that he can do.  I am looking into some natural therapies to help him with pain management as I could not think of anything worse than being doped up to the eyeballs to get through day to day.  This is not something we need to do NOW but down the track it will happen.  

So there you go.  That's the answer as to why his legs look so sore and battered.  

Do you have Elhers Danlos Syndrome? Do you know someone with it? 

 How do you cope day to day?

Documenting 2014

Last year I had alot of trouble focusing on my journalling for my project life. I had no problems printing the photos (that being said I still have empty weeks), taking photos or doing the layouts. My weakness was journalling. Why? well I think it was because the layouts the crafty fiddly bits are the fun bits. I found the journalling to be a bit of a chore.

So this year I needed to find a different approach to my project life. I found a cute little day to a page day to a page diary at aldi for $3.99. hmm we will give this a go...

So far, and yes I know its only 27 days into the year. I have written in it everyday. its not a teenage dear diary sort of journal. just points about our day, quotes from the kids, creative lists, photo prompts. im using the note section for my creative planning, and goals.

I know that some of my notes wont be applicable to my project life but at the end of the year I will have a diary to look back on and realise where we've come. Now I just need to work out how to keep little fingers out of it.

how are you planning on documenting 2014?

project life 2014

So... we are 6 (maybe 7) weeks into 2014 and I am yet to print a photo.

I have however kept a daily journal and been noting what photos im going to use. I seem to have lost my mojo a bit and I really need to find Mel time. this year I am going back to basics and using the k.i.s.s. theory (keep it simple stupid). Last year I only used core kits when I needed to do a quick catch up and pump out pages. I focused on embellishing and making my pages fun. this resulted in me falling behind with journalling as I focused on the pretty. I did however keep buying partial core kits the people were selling off leaving me with quite a stock of core kit partials. and two albums exploding at the seams for the year. which is fine. But if you look at the big picture say 10 years of project life and there is 20 albums, plus my traditi8nal albums. I have been scrapbooking (as opposed to the dabbling I did prior) for 3 years and I already have 10 full albums and two 'in the process albums' on the go so in the grand schemem of this 1 project life album a year is ideal.

SO using this mind set I have preloaded my pages with project life cards. A kit per month. and the only embellies I will be using is stamps, rub ons and other flat embellies NO BULK.

  I am going on a retreat with a group of girls from the Project life Australia facebook group in two weeks and will be using that time to complete 2013 and kick start my 2014.

What are you using to simplify this years album? what did you learn last year that you will do differently?

stamp storage

I have a confession to make.

I love clear stamps. It is safe to say I am addicted to them. I prefer photo polymer (and love love love the smell of them) but if I find nice acrylic stamps that I must have I will buy.

The problem with acrylic stamps is storage. I have seen people use clear DVD cases to store them or Avery clear pockets. But with the amount of stamps I have I feel I need to have a system to store them that condenses the room that take up.

A while ago I came across this tutorial from mercy tiara on stamp storage and I just knew this was what I needed to keep them all together.  In this tutorial she keeps them in baskets on her desk but with my limited craft space I decided to punch holes in it and store them in a lever arch folder. And you know what? They fit nicely in my expedit with my albums.

What you need

2 a4 sheets of transparency
1 a4 sheet of white card stock
A hole punch
Masking tape or washi tape
Double sided tape

Start by adhering 1 piece of transparency to the piece of card stock.  Peel your stamps off the plastic they are on and place them the way they are on the plastic onto the left side of your transparency. Place the remaining piece of transperency over the top of the stamps. Using washi tape or mask in tape tape along the bottom of the page to stop stamps from falling out the bottom. Turn over and using double sided tape the printed piece of plastic to the card stock lining it up with where you placed the stamp. I also write under the price of printed plastic what brand of stamps they are for reference.  Punch holes in the page and put it in your binder. You can fit 3-4 stamp sets on the page this way. And then just flick through the binder to see what to use.

I love this style of storage. so much so I am about to start my third folder. I also have a binder I take to crops with just the stamps I need in it.

How do you store yours?