Lots of new layouts to share!

Well the girls and I have been the Hunter Valley and we're now firmly back on the north coast.  It's the middle of November but you wouldn't be able to tell with the way the weather is at the moment and Christmas and the end of the Year is approaching at break-neck speed!  End of school concerts, dance rehearsals and concerts, Christmas shopping, holiday entertainment plans and too many birthdays....the mad season is well and truely upon us. 

Keeping me sane is the little bit of me-time that I'm sneaking in here and there.  I went away with my two best scrapping girls to a retreat while I was south.  It was our first one and being so close to home-base for all of us made it easy.  We have a lot to learn though about what it is to go on retreat.  There are some hard-core scrappers out there and but by the end of day two, we were burnt out!!

My two scrapping besties and I have a monthly challenge that we do and when-ever we get the chance to scrap together (rarely) we give each other a theme, idea or layout that we love.  From this we either take inspiration, used as a sketch or completely compliment the person and do a scraplift.  This time we shared two layouts each to do a scraplift and we all went prepared to get down to it.  All up we managed to finish around 15 layouts each over two days (massive achievement for us) and here are a few of my favourite LO's of the weekend:

 '3 Steps Back' was Mandy's pick and a scraplift from Georgia Keays.  My youngest is so funny.  She sees you sitting on the floor and happily toddles up to you, about-faces and then takes three steps back before plonking herself down in your lap.  Bless her!!!!  Also thanks Michelle for the little vellum butterflies.  They just added that finishing touch!

This next one of the 'City Farm' is Donna's pick and a scraplift from Tiff Firth.  When I saw these October Afternoon papers of Central London I had to get them as a commemoration of our 8 years there.  They were perfect for these photos of my eldest daughter on her first visit to the city farm.  I've now been holding onto them for 2 years waiting for the perfect opportunity to scrap them...and this was it.  Thanks Don.

'Princess Vanilla' was my pick and scraplifted from Lisa Warren.  Again this is of my eldest in one of her dress up moments and was just to adorable not to scrap.  Lisa Warren's LO was great for it!

I had a great time with the girls, Amanda, Lois and Teresa - laughed so much there were tears running down my face.  Can't wait until we can do it all again.  Thanks Peta at Scrapbooking from Scratch for a great weekend.

These next two I also love.  The first is again of my eldest.  She's turning into such a girly girl which really isn't me...not sure where she gets it.  But the dress she is wearing was mine as a little girl and I just had to scrap it with the Dr Suess saying - 'Today you are You, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive who is Youer than You.'

And this one is of my youngest who had just learnt to sit up.  I think it's the colours in this that I love and the fact that the papers are all different manufacturers.  I love mixing it up, but they all went together so perfectly.  She is so very cute!!!

So I will leave you with those as I go inside to relieve my poor suffering husband from his very full on day with the girls, especially since he has a gig at a wedding tonight!  Probably needs to have a nap!!!  It's not often I get to escape but sometimes you just need to....right?!

See you soon with some more new layouts and one OTP that I'm very excited about!