The tourist thing

When we first cam here we kept looking at all the sites and planning all the things we wanted to get back to take "good" photos of. We kept thinking we have plenty of time. Well, we now have 3 weeks left, so I have spent much of the weekend out visiting all the iconic New York spots to make sure we have photos to take back with us. I am exhausted and sore from carrying all the gear, but I think I have some good shots. Some are typical tourist shots and there are a few (hopefully) artistic ones as well. Here are a few highlights.

New Sketch Class and a free class

My new class One Sketch, Many Ways starts at My Creative CLassroom on Monday. Cost is $30 for a 3 week course. You can fins the details here.

Today at Scrapscene.com You have a chance to get the class for free. Simply go the the blog here and leave your answer as a comment to be in the draw.

A rushed update

It's obviously been a long time since I blogged. I've been very busy, and today is so exception, so a very quick update from me.

* Around 6 weeks til we head back to Australia
* Went to Vegas
* Went in a helicopter
* Went to Boston
* Have had all the grandparents here for visits
* Cameron took his first steps on Sunday, although hasn't done too much since
* Cameron also has 4 teeth coming through
* Kyan turned 4 last week
* Made the top 50 shortlist in the Australian scrapbooking masters
* Have some new classes stated/starting at MCC

and some random pictures.

Running all over the place.

Michael had a job in upstate NY this past few days so he arranged for us to go with him and visit Niagara Falls. It was kind of last minute. I expected the have the net but didn't so now I am a bit behind. I'll be back to post some pictures though.

Meanwhile CHA is on this weekend. It has come up so fast. Lucky I didn't forget to go. Can't wait to meet Jess while I am there as well as see Lynn and Linda and Holly again plus a few others. I once again got the opportunity to do Design Team work for The Crafters Workshop doing layouts for the show with their new templates. They are even better agaon and I had a lot of fun with them. I have been given permission to give a sneek peek, so here you are: You can see the new templates on the website www.thecraftersworkshop.com










I'm looking forward to meeting Jaime, one of the owners at the show. Only a few days to go.

Sorry.

I didn't realise when I wrote my last post that I made the reasons for us coming home sound a bit ominous, and I've made people worry. There is absolutely nothing wrong. Without going into the specifics, we have decided to come home for a few reasons. Financial being one of them, but also Michael's career path and some opportunities that he has been offered back home, plus Kyan's schooling. All of the factors combined make it better for us to be in Brisbane. Although we would love to have stayed another year, there are lots of good reasons for coming home too, so now that the decision is finally made we can start looking forward to a plentiful supply of meat pies and cheese twisties again.

Meanwhile Kyan is a bit sick at the moment. He has asthma which has flared up over the weekend, so he is in hospital at the moment. He is doing much better though and hopefully they will let him come home today. It's been pretty tiring for Michael and I. We don't want him to be there by himself, so we've had one of us there at all times and one of us home with Cameron and we switch whenever one of us gets weary. They have a sleeper lounge in his room though, so that has made it easier, but when Kyan is awake we have been working hard to entertain him without getting him too worked up. Not an easy task for an active 3 year old.

Anyway, just wanted to put everyone's mind at ease. Thanks for your concern. It's good to have friends who worry about us. I better have a shower and swtich shifts with Michael.

An update finally

Yes, I know it's been a while. I feel like I am still catching up from being back in Australia. There is lots to update on so I'll try to be organised.

Family
The biggest and latest news is that we have decided to head back to Australia. It's not exactly what we wanted to do yet, but given our current circumstances it is the most sensible thing to do. We are looking at going in Mid November, so that gives us 6 months to make he most of New York. One thing we are doing is really ramping up on our photograpy so we have lots of good shots to take back. Here's some of The Brooklyn Bridge I took a few weeks ago:
Bridge
It was Father's Day here last weekend, so we headed to the park to take some photos. Here are a few:
Father's Day
Cameron:
Cameron is getting bigger all the time. He's happily eating solids and plenty of it. He rolls onto his tummy all the time, and can push himself up on his hands and knees and rock back and forward. He gets cuter every day. Here's a pic. This one is a few weeks old. Will try to take some new ones today.
Cameron
He also has a tooth starting to poke through.

Kyan:
Kyan's asthma is giving him some problems at the moment but other than that he's good. His playgroup finishes next week. He didn't get into pre-K, but that doesn't really matter now. We are putting him Summer camp a couple of afternoons a week just to keep up the social interactions. We are also going to try to get him into swimming lessons.

New York
It's Summer here and Good Morning America have been running concerts in the park. We went along last week to see Cindy Lauper. Here's a pic that Michael took.

MCC Classes:
I have a new class open at MCC on making 3D flowers. It has already started but it isn't too late to join in:

Enrol at http://www.mycreativeclassroom.com/

2 Croppin Cousinz
2CC has their 2nd birthday this month. There is a big crop next weekend. It starts with a live chat Friday night NY time. The challenges will all be announced then. There will also be games across the weekend, and presents to download. There are some great prizes on offer too, including a very generous prize from Green Geco Deisgns. I would really love to see some of my friends there. Lots of you signed up ages ago but we haven't seen you for a while. Kerryn will be there too of course, so come and say Hi. You can even just come and chat on Friday night (Sat morn Bris time). 2croppincousinz.com Don't forget you can also come and do my page plans there and you could win a store gift voucher. Here are some of my projects from the June kit.






I'm actually giving away the hanger as part of the birthday celebrations. See the homepage for details.

I am a Scrapaholic.
I am still doing the monthly competition using my sketches, only at the moment we are also giving away a product prize for the winner. Check out the details on the website or blog: iamascrapaholic.com If you haven't visited the blog, add it to your sidebar. There are some great tips and tutorials posted there almost every day. Here's my June stuff:






I better leave it there. It has already been a big post. Remember to leave me a comment so I know you visited.

Home for a visit.

We are back in Australia on our yearly home leave trip. I've been catching up with lots of people which has been great but tiring. I got to meet Kerryn and Trudi on Friday which was awesome. They are both so sweet and it was so nice to meet them since I have known them online for such a long time. I got to see a couple of layout in real life too. They always look different than in pictures. Both Kerryna nd Trudi do amazing work. Time to lift my game a bit I think.

I had my hight school reunion on Saturday night which was incredibly strange but a lot of fun. It was great to see my good friend Leisa and her beautiful new baby. I also got to see lots of old friends which was really nice.

Lots of people have been saying that they keep an eye on my blog. I didn't know if people were still visiting since i've been so busy and therefore slack, but it seems they are, so please leave me a comment, so I know you were here and I promise to update more often.

I have pictures, but haven't taken them off the camera yet, so I will share those soon.

Free Class

I have just opened up a brand new FREE class at http://www.mycreativeclassroom.com/ (look in the papercraft section)

There's no catch, it's completely free. It's an introduction to a full course that I am runnng in May.
It's using a template from The Crafter's Workshop.
The class is available right now and will be for about a month, so I hope to see you there.

Here's the ad for the full class.


We are off to Australia on Friday for about a month. I hoep to see as many people as I can while we are home. I have so much to do before we go though, so I better get back to it.

General update

We booked our flights for our trip home. I'm looking forward to eating a lot. We can't wait for meat pies, lamb sandwiches, silverside, sausages, ice break (that's for Michael) chocolate of course, and I'm sure plenty of other things too. I have my good friend Nic's weddinig while we are there, as well as my high school reunion. No idea what I will wear to either yet. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends Tania and Leisa from school. Kyan is counting the sleeps til he gets to see all his grandparents, and I'm sure they are equally as anxious, especially since 3 out of 4 of them have not met Cameron yet. The boys are both good, althoguh Cameron is having a bit of a whinge fest at the moment. I wonder if he is having a growth spurt.




I headed out to take a few photos today. It's definitely getting towards Spring. I found lots of flowers to take photos of. I'll upload them to my photography blog over the next few days once I have had a chance to edit them.

I have been busy trying to get lots of jobs done now beofre we go away. I've put a couple of new classes up at MCC.They are both projects and I have special offers on both of them at the moment. One you can do for just $10 and the other one you can get for FREE (conditions apply) Check out the site for the details.

Kyan has been doing more and more artwork lately. I'm trying to do some with him plus he does some at playgroup and at the Y, so I am putting together an art journal for him. Each time he brings something home, I photograph it and am putting together an album. It wont be scrapped. Just photos with a label. I've been doing some for a friend as well, and hope to do some more around the place.

Challenges

Two new challenges went up around the place this week. The new Out From Behind the Camera challenge is up at www.iamascrapaholic.com. The challenge is to scrap your best physical quality. Here's my sketch and my layout.




The new Dt challenges are also up at www.2croppincousinz.com I did Kerryn's challenge this month. It was to use only black, white and green. Here's my sample.


The challenges are open for submissions on both sites.

MCC Classes
I also thought I would list my upcoming classes and dates for www.mycreativeclassroom.com This is a plan, and is subject to change.

March 24th Page Plans for Cardmaking - 2 weeks- Enrolment open NOW
April 7th Baby Shoes Keepsake project -1 week
April 14th Tempting Template Techniques. (This is the Crafters Workshop one) - 3 wks
April 21st Scrap Storage project -1 week
May 12th Flower Frenzy - 10 ways to make 3D flowers. - 3 weeks
May 19th Creative Photography ideas for Scrapbooking - 2 weeks
May 26th One Sketch, many ways -2/3 weeks
June 2nd Countdown Calendar (re-run) -1 week.

If you are interested in possibly taking any of these classes email me at aliciabarry@mycreativeclassroom.com and let me know which ones, and I will send you a reminder when enrolment opens.

New class

Just a quick post to let you all know that I have opened up a new class at www.mycreativeclassroom.com It is using my sketches for card making. Don't forget that Aussie's can play too, since you complete the class in your own time.

Here are some projects I have done for www.iamascrapaholic.com




Cameron is doing well. He smiles whnever he sees us, and even if we ask him to a lot of the time. He is starting to giggle a little bit.He's not sleeping right through the night, but he does go straight back to sleep after his feed. Kyan started Playgroup last week, so that he can hang out with some kids his own age. He seems to like it so far, especially since they have Thomas toys there.

Michael is currently on his way to Cape Canaveral. He had to go to Florida for work, and it turned out that they happen to be launching a space shuttle tonight, so he is very excited. It's something he has always wanted to see. He's taken all the camera gear, so hopefully he will have something to show for it when he comes back.

2CC March kit.

The new DT have started at www.2croppincousinz.com and they ahve done a great job with the kit this month. Here are my offerings. The layouts are part of an 8x8 mini album all about Michael, which I made just by tying some page protectors together. The 3D elements are all on the outside of the plastic protectors.

We have made some changes to the forum, with a new kit area. If you haven't been over to the site for a while, come and check it out. There are a stack of new sketches there too.









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Come join my class

My countdown calendar class at [url]www.mycreativeclassroom.com[/url] will be closing soon with the class starting on Monday. You don't need a particular kit for this one.

For those who haven't checked out the format of MCC, the classes are online, but are not like most where you have to be online at a particular time. Sections will be revealed one at a time and you simply jump online and complete each part when it suits you. Gotta love the kind of flexibility.

The calendar is built on chipboard pieces for strength and you have the option to add ribbon to the top to hang it on a wall. Here's a pic:


Go here to see the info:http://www.mycreativeclassroom.com/ then look down the left side for Organisation and you can get to the description from there. I think that you might have to register for the site to be able to see it, but it's free and there is no obligation.

If you happen to be a member of any of my DT forums, check out a post on the board for a special deal.