Engagement Party LO - Mission 2

This LO has been a major headache for me. To start with, I decided to use one of the new Kaisercard cardstocks I purchased yesterday but I didn't notice when I bought it that this one had already warped. Given I then misted the background and put acrylic paint over it it's now VERY warped. It's based on a lovely sketch from Scrapz.biz but for some reason it just didn't come together for me. :( Anyway, the photos are some more from my engagement party in September 2009. Top photo is with my brother and sister, middle is the cake and bottom two are with my grandparents and Ben's grandma.

This was created for the Scrapz.biz Biggest Loser Mission 2. The focus of this mission was cardstock. I don't keep too much cardstock. I store it in two pockets of my accordian paper storage folder, ordered by colour gradient and put new purchases away quickly so I didn't need to re-organise it. The second part of the mission was to create a LO using cardstock as the base for your layout using the following sketch by Nati. Since I normally use cardstock as my base I thought this one would be easy.

I also combined the sketch with the latest challenge from Punky Scraps. I've been watching Punky Scraps for quite a while but it seems I've never managed to get around to creating a entry. This is for Challenge 39, which was to pick at least 3 suggestions from the following list by the DT:

Kerry: Since it is the month of fresh and shiny new starts I'll choose something shiny

Cheryl: in the same vein as kerry, since you might wish to turn over a new leaf in the new year, let's have something to do with books
Misty: stenciling or masking
Jolanda: Use some charms
Ashley: have some negative space
Celina: Use silver or gold
Marie: Use Stickles
Kat: bubble wrap

There is a whole heap of shiny things on this LO (title alphas, glimmer mist, star). I used some hand-cut masks for misting the stars in the background, they only show up in the light though since I misted blue-gold on the blue background and it dried lighter than I expected. There is some negative space in the top right of the page. There is gold throughout the LO. I've use red Stickles to highlight the emblishments and finally bubble wrap for the background.

My engagement party!

Just a quick warning that this post if photo intensive. I wanted to show off some of the best shots from my engagement party on Saturday night. It was such a fantastic night and great to catch up with so many friends that we haven't had a chance to see in a while.

We'll start off with some family shots:



Photos of my lovely fiancee and I:

Photos with friends:

Showing off all the lovely cards we received:

Engagement Venue

Ben and I checked out the engagement venue with Charles today to finalise numbers and decorations. The place seems very nice. It should be the right size for the number of people we're having. I've included below some photos of the outside of the building we took while there. We decided to carry out the purple and gold theme with the decorations inside, just some balloons and table runners. Bit upset that the dress I've bought is blue, since it wont match. The dress itself is nice though and I'm happy to finally have something to wear. We also booked the cake today, we're going with a chocolate sponge with butter cream and raspberry jam inside, covered in pure chocolate icing. It wont match the theme, but I'm thinking of buying some decorations to go on top maybe.

Pet LO and Engagement Party Invite

I have had this LO partially done for about a week now and only just got around to finishing it. It's of my family cat, Artemis. We bought her a few years ago from the Greensborough Cat Shelter and I talked the rest of the family into choosing her because she sneezed when we were looking at them all. I thought it was so cute, especially since I was sneezing too by that stage being surrounded by so much cat hair. I thought she was going to be a fierce little kitty, so I called her Artemis after the goddess of the hunt. She's actually the scardiest cat EVER and runs away from everything and everyone. The patterned paper for this LO came from a kit I bought for $2 from Spotlight. It will be another entry into the Gold Coast Show.

In other crafty news I spent a few days last week making up invites to my engagement party with Ben to be held in September. They took a fair while, with the ribbon being the most frustrating part as it kept wanting to curl up into the roll shape it had been stores in. I'm happy with the finished design though. You can see a sample below, with certain details blurred out.

8 Year Anniversary and... I Got Engaged!

Yesterday was my 8 year anniversary with Ben. To celebrate he booked a long-weekend (Saturday to Tuesday) getaway at Byron Bay, NSW. For those who don't know, it's a little hippie/arty town on the beach just down from the NSW/QLD border. We stayed at Azabu, a stunning B&B just out of the town. It's set amongst the beautiful rainforest/swapland of the area. You can see how much we're enjoying our stay in the photo below, taken just after arrival. We spent the weekend checking out the view from the lighthouse, checking out the independent/alternative stores, browsing the arts and industry park and just relaxing in general. We also had the joy of a couples massage together, which was lovely.

Ben and I in Azabu's "reading gazebo" in their gardens.

The view from our bed. The lack of curtains made it a bit cold in the mornings, but it was worth it.
The lighthouse at Cape Byron.

Visiting the lighthouse at Cape Byron was a real highlight for me. We went at about 4pm on the Saturday, so got to admire the view in the daylight. From the lighthouse it's only a short stroll to the most easterly point of the Australian mainland so we took a walk to that. Ben then decided he wanted to follow the walk all the way down to the rocks and the beach at the bottom. It's actually a fairly touch 3km return trip, but I hadn't realised it was that long when I agreed. :) By the time we were on the way back up to the lighthouse the sun was setting and it was stunningly beautiful.

Me, and one of the beautiful sunset shots we took.

The lighthouse is also special to me because Ben took us back up there on the Monday at 6pm before dinner. The light was actually working so it kept sweaping over us as we stood in the carpark looking out over the lights of Byron Bay in the distance listening to the waves crash on the beach with some bongo music in the background. Ben then popped down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Even though I had been expecting it, it was still a lovely moment.

The ring!