Our week in pictures

A busy, yet fun week for the Hackneys...but first a layout share...

Love this photo of Kate concentrating intently on playing her clarinet.  She only started learning at the start of the year and is reading music fluently, mastering the difficult fingering and even wrote her own little tune...she performs in the Eistedfodd in a couple of weeks time.  A shout out to Leeann Pearce and her gorgeous blooms that appear on this layout!

First of all, a certain someone turned TEN - double digits...another big milestone for my dearest first born princess.  We have a big party for her every year and this year, as she is getting so grown up and all...we decided, instead of having a party at home with the regular old pass-the-parcel, etc, that we would take 3 special friends to the movies to see "Coraline"...

then to the park afterwards for fish and chips and a juicy big choc-overload cake...

...here she is, my beautiful Kate, happy and relaxed, enjoying the glorious sunshine and writing in the cool "All About Me" scrapbook she was given by Lilly for her birthday...

Mid-week there was big excitement...Book Week...one of our fave annual school activities.  Costumes this year were nice and simple...only a bit of sewing involved (Dora's backpack, Miss Muffet's skirt and Mousie's tail) everything else was recycled out of the dress up box...the most time consuming part was putting Kate's hair in rags the night before to create ringlets...but well worth it I think!

Introducing....Dora the Explorer....the mouse from the Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat nursery rhyme....and Little Miss Muffet...

We had the final soccer match of the season on Saturday...a fun day with a couple of short games then a presentation.  Martha (the name my girl's give my Mum) is here visiting from the coast so was lucky enough to get to watch Bessie in action.  A very proud girl with her trophy...

We had the funnest time last night with a little celebration for Kate and Mum (their birthdays are 5 days apart)...our good friends the Rolfes came over...I cooked Stuffed Chicken Wings - a very time consuming and complicated dish I learnt this week at Thai cooking class...the kids played the Wii...and entertainment was provided by Tim, my little brother who is an absolute genius on the electric guitar.  Finally another yummy cake and Happy Birthday song for the birthday girls...

That was our week!  Hope yours was just as fabulous...

XXX

WINNERS!

With the help of my two lovely assistants this morning, two lucky winners were picked from a hat.....

The first name drawn was......

who has won this fun pack of paper-pieced embellishments hand drawn by moi.....

....the very same house that stars in my brand new blog banner (did anyone notice?)

The second name drawn was.....

....and she wins this pack - another Penny original created especially for this giveaway....

Your parcels will go in the post asap.....hope you have fun with them!  I'd love to see how you use them, so make sure you email me your creations!

Thanks to all you lovely people who left me a comment - you know I love 'em!

Have a happy day! xxx

September Workshop & a Leeann Pearce Surprise

You thought I was going to announce the winners of my 5000 visits prize didn't you! You will have to wait one more day I'm sorry.....I've been FLAT out this week with scrapbook classes, Thai cooking classes, work and sick children.....but I promise I will do the draw tomorrow.

In the meantime....I will share with you a little RAK surprise I won myself the other day from a very inspiring lady - Leeann Pearce....you know the one I raved about a few posts ago in my SM mag round up? Anyhow, she is one clever thing...even has her own line of embellishments...and this is what she sent me...


What a pretty parcel! And this is what was inside...



Gorgeous flowers and chipboard buttons handmade by the clever lady herself. Lucky aren't I! Of course, I immediately wanted to plonk some of these lovelies on a page....so I did:


I used Sketch 149 - last week's Pencil Lines sketch and some old-ish pics of our cute Mimi digging in the sand at Woolgoolga Beach.

Last night I had a ball running my workshop for September. Here is the layout we did using Kaisercraft Sweets papers and their new Child's Play stamp set, some gesso and a touch of glitter...


And here the girls with their beautiful pages to show off...

Rosalee

Rhonda

Meleah

Katrina & Deb

Jenny with a "y"

Jennie with an "ie"

Gloria

Chris & Lee

I can't offer any kits as Classes-in-a-Box again this month - I have about 20 regulars who either come to the class or buy the kit if they can't make it....and not being set up to buy wholesale, it is difficult for me to get hold of large quantities. But maybe, if anyone is interested and I can work out how to do it, I could add the instructions for the layout as a pdf download here on my blog. Stay tuned...

Good night....sleep tight....thanks for dropping in....see you 2morro! xxx

5000 Visits GIVEAWAY

To celebrate 5000 visits to Scissors Paper Pen, I'd like to give away a little something.....so if you would like to be in the running for a special RAK from me, leave a comment on this post before the end of the month and I will select a winner (or two!) Hands up who bawled their eyes out on Saturday night watching this? It gets me every time. Love it love it love it....how beautiful is Ryan Gosling??? Who else was silly enough to stay up to midnight watching the Miss Universe Pageant last night? I know I'm pathetic, but I loooooove Miss Universe....some of the answers to the final question were so dopey - cracks me up!! I was sure our lovely Miss Australia would take it out...but it was Miss Venezuela yet again... Want to see some scrapping? I put this one together for my class which is on next week - so I can only show you a sneak peek so far....but it's very girly, sparkly and PINK... ...and I finished this double today... I love the days spent at home with just me and Mia...I sure will miss them next year with Miss M at school. This is the layout she created while scrapping with Mum...(loving the hand journaling)... ...and even more creativity outdoors... Do you like my new toy? Who knew you could fall in love with a vacuum cleaner? Maybe other Dyson-owners will understand... Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather today...32 degrees here yesterday with a dreadful hot wind blowing...utter madness!!! Catch you soon xxx

Polka dot cookies, a new do and some layouts

Here is the recipe I promised you...we call them POLKA DOT COOKIES...makes about 27 cookies...fun and easy for the kids to make...Mia loves pouring in the M&M's best (and trying to sneak some dough when Mum's back is turned)! 125g butter 1/2 cup castor sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 1 egg 1 1/2 cups sr flour 1/3 cup quick cooking oats (or one sachet if you buy that kind) 3/4 cup "polka dots" (we use mini M&M's, but choc chips or smarties are just as good) Beat butter, sugars, vanilla and egg with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted flour, oats and mini M&M's. Roll dessertspoonfuls of mixture into balls. Place on lined trays and flatten slightly with fingertips. Bake at 190 degrees celsius 10-12 mins or until just golden. Cool on trays 5 mins, transfer to wire cooling rack. Mia announced she would like all her hair cut off. Aaarrgghh!!! was my first thought as I was only thinking the other day how lovely and long it was getting and so much easier to put into a bun for ballet class. Anyhow, it's her hair after all...so out came the scissors. This is the result... So very cute and grown up! She loves it and couldn't wait to go to the bus stop to pick up the girls and show them. I did these layouts this week...this one was using a take away pack from Pip Prosser and this one is with the Happy Bird-day range by 3 Bugs in a Rug...not a great photo, but oh well... Spending a day at home today house-working...ho hum...must find some time to get outside and enjoy this glorious weather though...is this the end of Winter I wonder???

Scrappin' to the raindrops...

Oops...that was a long "few days" wasn't it! Sorry dear cyber friends... Today I scrapped to the heavenly sound of rain on the tin roof...aaaahh, what bliss...I'd almost forgotten what rain sounded like. A few layouts to share: "If There's Mud" - yet another layout featuring Mia and mud! This one was done using some gorgeous goodies sent by the lovely Trisha all the way from the US - thanks Trisha!

"Two's Company" using Ruby Rock-it Vintage Beauty products, this one has some very cute photos of Tim and Bethany fishing at Yamba last April... Oh, and this was the layout I taught at my class last week...here are all the different variations that were created:

Libet...

Tracy and Jane... Deb... Rosalee and Katrina... Lee... Rhonda and Meleah... Gloria... and Dana... Aren't they clever!? So proud of my ladies... I've booked myself into a Thai Cooking class! Starts in a couple of weeks - so looking forward to doing something just for me (well...AND for the people that will be eating all the hopefully yummy food I'll be creating). What else, oh, going to visit my dear friend Linda this weekend - yippee! And Linda, I promise I will never feed another hot chip to a seagull...but as for the snakes, I'm sorry, but if they are where I need to be, it's bye-bye snakey. Today was a good day for baking...Mia and I had some messy fun in the kitchen...will share a recipe with you soon! Have I mentioned lately...I love my dishwasher!!! Toodle pips for now. xxx

Zoom....there went the holidays!

Did everyone enjoy the school holidays? To me they seemed to be over before they barely began - but every week seems that way to me lately..... Our first week was spent running Kate to and from town each day for Craze Dance Academy's Winter Dance School. She found it very challenging but extremely fun. By the end of the 4 days we had one very weary little ballerina. Then it was off to the coast to visit the family, staying at Mum's farm....extremely green and pretty after all the rain....managed to catch up with all the relatives, including my Gran (94 and gorgeous) who was simply thrilled to have the girls visit and to watch their Eisteddfod performances on DVD....we even had a mini photo shoot.... While in Taree we saw "Hannah Montana" at the movies, fed the seagulls hot chips on the riverbank, got addicted to Uncle Wik's WiiFit and Bethany had fun trying out her new pink fishing rod off the wharf at Manning Point... We came home to lots of cute baby calves....calving season is such a lovely time of year....checking the paddocks each day for newborns, and sometimes getting to witness a birth.... We had a fun visit by my old school friend Sue, and her lovely family and showed them the sights of Sunnydale including a favourite attraction "The Curly Tree" (an old fallen apple gum that crosses the creek and makes a great place for the kids to play....and a perfect backdrop for a photo shoot!)... We made some garden beds! This excites me somewhat because our garden has consisted of a few trees in a (not very nice) lawn....until now. We created two raised beds and used a heap of lovely granite rocks we collected from the front paddock....having to kill a brown snake in the process... No plants will go in just yet....we need RAIN first! Everything is bone dry, in fact we had to get a tanker out to top up our water supply.... Look what I got..... Yay!!!! And it's no longer sitting on the front verandah, it is installed and working and saving me hours of my life standing at the kitchen sink, and even saves water. To the person who invented dishwashers - THANKYOU!!! This little fellow waltzed into our life a couple of days ago and has made himself quite at home! Who knows where he came from, but he was ravenous and we fed him and now he stays. The kids are delighted and so was I when I found the present he left me on the laundry steps this morning....a chewed up mouse! A couple of layouts to share....... and did you see Creating Keepsakes (Aust. edition) mag this month??? I'm sorry I've neglected you, my dear blog readers, this month.....but I promise I'll be back in a few days with some more layouts and another Gum Flat workshop to share with you. Until then.....happy days! xxx