I have moved...

Sadly this time has come to announce that I will be no longer using this blog. I needed to move on and start a new blog - you can find me at www.thejanellewindcollection.typepad.com

I will leave this blog here though as I LOVE it and will be returning to look at it many times myself I am sure. Please come and visit me at my new blog.

xx Janelle

My News...

As promised, today I am thrilled to share my news. To find out all about it, take a look here...

x Janelle

Hi...

I am still here - I am just totally snowed under with work at the moment. I am thinking of you and will be back with a proper blog post ASAP...

Today is the one year anniversary of when this gorgeous boy joined our family. He has fitted in perfectly and we could not have asked for a better little guy to add to our menagerie. We love you Kewell xx
AND I will be announcing my BIG news this weekend....

Hope your week is going well and you have a chance to catch your breath!
x Janelle

Lot's to share...

I had another massive week last week - my little girl took sick at her friends house very early Saturday morning - so after an early pick up from her sleepover, she continued to go downhill. She had a sick tummy and pains and fevers and couldn't eat anything properly till about Friday - which is such a long time to go without proper food for such a little dot. I am very relieved and happy to report however that she is all better now and eating like a horse - well maybe a pony. I am quite drained though as it is such a worry when one of your babies is sick.

Since we were housebound all of last week, not leaving the house or going very far - I did get lots done which is great - lots of goodies for the upcoming Christmas Extravaganza over at kimarcher@home. I LOVE everything that we have made and can't wait too share it all with you - there is LOTS. A whole bunch of new kits went onsite today and they are all almost sold out already - Kim has done a wonderful job...

Something very exciting is happening for me on Friday night too - I am teaching my very first online class - and it is FREE. So if you are would like to come and scrap with me, pop on over to Scrapboxx and take a look here. If you aren't a member of the Boxx yet, that's OK - it is super easy to join and is a wonderful place to be. Here is sneak peek of the LO I will be teaching...
Last Friday while changing Emily's sheets I had an AH HA moment - as Oprah would say. I was thinking about the wonderful friends I have made through scrapping and the amazingly supportive people there are out there whom I haven't even met. I wanted to do something to honour these amazing people - and the idea came to me - Share the Love. I knew straight away exactly what I wanted to do. Here was a chance for each of us to let someone we care about, know how much we think of them - so I quickly went and shared my idea with the girls at Scrapboxx - I said - 'Lets share the love by scrapping a LO about a fellow scrapper, or friend or loved one that we care about and let them know exactly how much they mean to us'.

Well the girls all embraced my idea and several have even taken up my challenge and scrapped beautiful LO's about their friends. Here is my LO about Mardi - and on the weekend she scrapped this beautiful LO about me - Mardi has such an amazing way with words and I was totally blown away by her journaling, and she has used red and aqua and polka dots and flowers - all the things that I love so much. I am so very lucky to have Mardi in my life and so many other amazing women that mean so much to me. SO why not take up the challenge and spread the love - lets see how far it can go!
I also received a BIG parcel in the mail last week from Helen Karanfilovski - she sent the LO's to me that she scrapped for me -as well as other beautiful gifts AND another LO - how spoiled am I?! I totally LOVE it. All I need to do is add journaling and it is done - just beautiful! Thank you SO much Helen for spoiling me - your LO's will be in the post to you this week, I promise.
Finally - on Saturday night I attended my friend Fiona's baby shower - my first proper trip out of the house all week, so it was fun to laugh and giggle with the girls. Fiona is only two days younger than me and we were inseparable in high school and beyond, so it was lovely to spend some time with her and see her baby bump and growing belly - and in about 7 weeks time I will get to cuddle a newborn - how exciting!

Here are some pics from the party - and NO we aren't really looking at and touching poo - it is the nappy game where chocolate bars are squashed in the nappy and you have to sniff and touch them to work out which bars they are - totally funny to watch everyone sniffing nappies. And then races to see who could drink the water out of the bottle quickest - totally funny and some sore cheeks as well. Thanks Debbie for organising such fun games.
And I will leave you with a final teaser - you may remember my news I have to share - well you don't need to wait too much longer. I will be making the announcement in about 2 weeks time - can't wait! Have a totally lovely week and remember to share the love. x Janelle

Catching up...

I have had another SUPER busy week last week - time has just flown by. Sorry I haven't posted all week - I will try and recap some of my week.

Early last week, my lovely friend Helen Karanfilovski and I did a photo / layout swap. We each emailed some photos to each other and scrapped two layouts each. I thoroughly enjoyed scrapping adorable photos of Helen's gorgeous boys. It was an absolute honour. I was totally THRILLED to see the gorgeous LO's Helen did for me.... The first one is a photo of Emily modelling on the catwalk - the back of Daddy's work truck! Hasn't she done an awesome job... And this second LO was a photo I took of Jasper on his birthday at school - I actually wasn't too sure how to scrap this photo so was totally thrilled when Helen chose it to scrap. She has scrapped it perfectly. And here are my LO's for Helen - The first one is of her gorgeous little man Oscar - this has to be one of the most stunning photos I have seen in ages - I just LOVE it. And how adorable are these two brothers - as soon as I saw this photo I just HAD to scrap it too - I have used lots of Love Elsie products - Helen and I are both quite addicted to them. Thank you SO much Helen for not only trusting me with your photos but for scrapping such beautiful LO's for me too - I just LOVE them both...

AND scrapping for Helen started me on a bit of a scrapping marathon - I just couldn't stop scrapping - so I scrapped about 8 more layouts last week. 10 layouts in one week is just unheard of for me - but I loved every minute of it and think I am having a bit of a style change too - I will share a few now, see if you think my style is changing??

This first one is VERY special to me - as are all of my LOs but you will see why. Last weekend I emailed my amazing friend Mardi and asked her for a photo of her - but wouldn't tell her why. Well this is why... Thank you Roz for the inspiration to scrap this LO - something I have wanted to do for AGES. Words just cannot describe how much I love Mardi - and even though we haven't met, she is the other half of me. I have wished my whole life for a friend like her - so this is just my little LO about my wonderful friend Mardi. Scrapping truly has brought such amazing friends into my life and I am grateful everyday for each and every one of them. Dirty Hands - I was learning how to use my new camera with this photo - and Jasper was happily getting dirty in our driveway, so I snapped this photo. I am totally in love with Hambly rub ons at the moment too.... Here is my girl - at the School Book Fair earlier this year. She happily went dressed as a Pirate. Just a simple LO using some great Elsie products - I think they suit the photo really well...
Oh and when doing some sorting the other day I came across these old photos of my little family - way back in 2002. We were out the back of our house doing a photo shoot for a then new quilt design that I had made for my boy, called Three Little Engines. Everyone jumped in front and I snapped some shots of them together. I just LOVE these photos SO much - look at those adorable little faces - the kids I mean LOL. It is so fun to look back at old photos too.
I will just share one more now - I have just set this weeks weekly challenge over at Scrapboxx - so if you are looking for a challenge and would like to be in the chance to win a $5 Scrapboxx voucher, then head over here and check it out. Here is my LO following my challenge...
Well I think that is enough LO's from me for today - I have more to share - and family things too but will save that for another post. Hope you have an awesome week x Janelle

Layouts to share...

Hope you are all having a lovely Saturday and doing something that you love. I have just finished a gift for my friend Sally in Victoria to add to the box of goodies I will send to her on Dec 1. You may remember last year seeing some of the gifts we exchanged - I can't believe it has come around again. If you want to see what I sent Sally last year - take a lookie here... And these are some of the gorgeous things she sent me.

So onto my entry here - layouts to share. I have discovered that I have quite a few layouts from Kim's awesome classes that I haven't shared with you. So here they are...

The first group are from a special Father's Day celebration called 'Hey Dad'. Here is my LO listing all of the questions the kids and even the dog have for the Dad in our home. Sorry my LO looks a little washed out - I am having trouble with my scanner washing everything out -I might have to photograph my LO's if I can't sort it out.
Another gift idea was a ticket holder - especially made to hold tickets or vouchers - I gave mine to my Dad with scratchies in them - something he enjoys but would never buy for himself.
And these wallets - you will see were the inspiration for my birthday invitations for Emily's party. Hasn't Kim got the BEST ideas. Both my Dad and Michael were very happy with their new wallets - maybe they would have liked them more if they were FULL of money - but alas - photos it had to be.
We also decorated noodle boxes - these were full of chocolates - yum! A HUGE thank you to Helen for sending these gorgeous boxes to me as I couldn't get any near my home - thank you Helen xx
And finally we made book marks to give to the men in our life and since both men in my life aren't readers, I made one for myself - hope that isn't too naughty. I use mine every day and I love it!!!
NOW if you liked the look of these Father's Day gifts - you will LOVE the Christmas Spectacular. Have you been and had a look at kimarcher.com.au yet???? Well what are you waiting for!!!!

Another class Kim recently ran was called 'My Favourite Day' and for this LO we scrapped about each child's or our own favourite day. Again I completed a LO for both of my kids.

Emily's favourite day...
And for Jasper - he didn't have a favourite day, so we went with his favourite month - Sektember (no it is not misspelled - I just LOVE the way he says it and not ready to correct him!)
A special BIG thank you to Kim for the amazing inspiration she shares with each of us - I have SO many LO's that I just adore because of Kim - so thank you xxxxx

Also I had a question today from Wens regarding the pre-washing of fabric for my quilts and applique. She wanted to know if I wash my fabrics first - the answer is no. I did used to wash them but have learnt recently that washing them removes the sizing and shortens the life of the fabric. The only fabrics I would wash are some navy blue and dark burgundy fabrics and possibly cheaper wide backing fabrics that 'look' full of colour. So no - I don't pre-wash as a general rule and touch wood all has been OK. No shrinking or colours running BUT I don't wash my quilts a lot either - I really like that new look and feel to them.

I am in no way an expert but if you do have any questions about anything that you would like to ask me - fire away and I will see if I can answer them for you... Thanks for sharing my scrapping and have a great weekend x Janelle

Christmas Spectacular...

Would you like to have a handmade Christmas this year?

Well there is still PLENTY of time.

Why not come and join us over at www.kimarcher.com.au and take part in the Christmas Spectacular.
There promises to be SOOO many wonderful and creative gifts you can make for every member of your family, for teachers, neighbors - everyone. For further details take a look here... You wont be disappointed!! We Elves are already busy helping Kim put this spectacular together and we are SOOO excited. I just know you will be too.