Questions post #5

Ok back onto some FAQ’s for the rest of the week : )

1.Do you have a ‘Family Fun’ ideas list? (i.e. ideas of fun things to do as a family on weekends etc). I have created one (attached) but would like to get some more ideas and thought you might have some, being in Perth as well.

Thanks so much for this great question Kath (and all of the others). I sure do have a family fun list and it is one we update every season at the moment being the start of winter we have a few outdoor things on our list but also lots of fun indoor things as well.

Before I post our list I thought I would chat about where to find these different ideas because I certainly cannot come up with them on my own !! Firstly for local Perth readers I get the free parenting newspapers and magazines we have here which are The parents paper, My child and the new magazine Offspring. These are all great resources available to us Mums and have calendars of events in them of what is happening in the coming month.

As well as these planned/paid for activities there are also lots of places to get great ideas for free things to do on a rainy day namely this month there are quite a few in the Family Fun magazine- one I regularly buy and love.

I would suggest breaking the list into seasons and only have a few things on there so you can add to it throughout the winter. I like to make mine A4 size and then I can pop them into a page protector and into our family album to keep. I also like to leave room at the bottom to write on extra ideas as we have them. It is great to refer to on weekends where we are stumped as to what to do over the weekend.

And so for winter here is our list so far. It changes and grows throughout the season, sometimes we don’t everything and other fun stuff gets in the way too : )

Conran Winter Family Fun List-

1. Plant a vegetable patch
2. Swimming at the indoor pool. .
3. Castle Dare miniature railways
4. Caversham Wildlife Park (to hold the Koalas)
5. Sleepover night in the family room on the pull out bed
6. Movie and popcorn nights
7. Landsdale animal farm
8. Baking with Flynn
9. Aviation museum
10. Scitech
11. Painting –handprints

I hope this gives you some ideas Kath : )

2. I have ordered the Becky Higgins sweet baby kit – will this be just a simple overview of my son’s 1st year or would it be big enough to do quite a comprehensive year with lots of photos etc? (I’m wondering if I still need to do a separate scrapbook of his year in addition to the Becky Higgins one)

I would personally have another album as you really only have the space to do 1-2 layouts per month for the first year and depending on how many photos you take each month (if you are anything like me it is thousands in the first year) you may need more space. I would maybe do the kit first and then if you have lots more photos and stories to tell add to the kit from there with more albums.

3. When do you find time to do scrapbooking and Project Life? Do you do it at night instead of watching TV? Or does your husband look after the boys on the weekend during the day so you can get stuff done? I just can’t seem to find the time and am falling way behind!

I do it all at night. I rarely watch TV and when I do I am editing photos, blogging or scrapbooking at the same time. Nothing really interests me too much on TV and so I like to multi task and do other things at the same time. I rarely scrapbook on a weekend during the day but occasionally Simon will take Flynn for a walk to the park for an hour or so if I need a break or want to get something specials done like invites etc. And I am always behind !! I have a MASSIVE stack of photos on my desk to get through from Olivers birth to now and I am dying to dive right in but I am yet to find the time : ) And project life? Well I am also behind on that- about 3 weeks with the journaling at the moment.

So don’t stress you are totally normal : ) You will never be up to date with scrapbooking and it is much more important to live the moment than spend too much time documenting and scrapbooking it- then it becomes a chore instead of a hobby and night time relax.

Also another thing- I try not to obsess too much over the small stuff with Project Life and scrapbooking : ) If I did I would never get anything done.

Speaking of Project Life here are a few of my recent pages-

4. What kind of colour printer do you have? Your tags etc look so good.

Why thanks : ) I use the Brother MFC 990 CW at home and a larger version but the same brand at work. It is a great little machine to print off especially as I print so much colour. I would also recommend getting an Ultra white and higher GSM (paper thickness) paper from Officeworks or the like for when you are printing things like tags/ chart etc. The colours look a lot brighter and the extra thickness makes it look a lot more professional.