Before and After A Haircut

Before and After A Haircut, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (December Moments Week 1, Template 4) by Crystal Livesay and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Eighteen Mini by Vicki Stegall and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall. Font is Century Gothic.
Journalling reads: Why is it that you always seem to look like a different person when your hair has been cut. Your eyes look bigger and are a different shade of blue, your cheeks look rounder and your ears seem to stick out more. I have always said that you are so much more handsome when your hair is cut short, but I think maybe it’s just that when your hair is longer and thicker you look more grown up and I don’t like it I prefer to see my cheeky little monkey!

Enabling: Template is now retired sorry, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Eighteen Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here and here.

New Mummy Moment

New Mummy Moment, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Copycat Challenge 0110) by Wendy W and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Sixteen Mini by Vicki Stegall and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall. Font is Century Gothic.
Journalling reads: From the very first time that I saw those 2 lines on a pregnancy test, I was waiting for this moment. Holding my newborn baby in my arms basking in the glow of being a new mother. Only it never happened, Lukas was whisked away from us because he was not breathing, I didn’t even get to look at him until he was a few hours old, was a full week before I could touch him. I got to hold Leo very briefly when he was born but the air of total panic surrounding his birth made any special moment between us impossible. Then there was you, placed straight on to my chest in the ambulance, cuddled the entire way to the hospital and then handed to me for photographs and more snuggles in the hospital. Thank you for finally giving me the new mummy moment I had so desperately craved during all 4 of my other pregnancies.

Enabling: Template was available as part of this challenge at Oscraps, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Sixteen Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here and here.

Logan The Elf

Logan The Elf, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Simply Quick 32) by Sue Cummings, 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Twelve Mini by Vicki Stegall and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall..
Fonts are Bookman Old Style and Orator Std.
Journalling reads: When you are travelling on a train with two kids, sometimes a 30 minute journey can feel more like a 30 hour trip. It’s a mummy’s job to get a little creative when it comes to ways of stopping the endless questions of “are we there yet?”, “how much longer?” and “where are we now?” or try to avoid the inevitable “Mummy, I’m boooooorrrrreeeedddd”. I am lucky that my two are used to travelling and are fairly well behaved, but on this trip home from London, Lukas was tired and Logan was fed up of Lukas being in his face. So we played a game where we dressed Logan in a Santa hat we had bought as part of a bib and hat combo (which ended up being a little small) and handed Lukas the phone to take pictures. They both seemed to enjoy it or at least Logan preferred this to Lukas’s previous methods of annoying him. He kind of looks like a tiny little grumpy elf,so does that make him, a mummy’s little helper?

Enabling: 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Simply Quick 32 Template, Week Twelve Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here, here and here.

Photographing The Flowers

Photographing The Flowers, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Simply Quick 31) by Sue Cummings and and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Ten Mini by Vicki Stegall. Fonts are Pea Times New Camileon by Amanda Bottoms (Fonts For Peas) and Park Avenue BT.
Journalling at the top reads: I used to drive Mark insane whenever we took Lukas to feed the ducks, I would stop every time I saw a pretty flower and take photos. He could never understand what the purpose was of any of these photos. I could never find the words to explain to him that I simply appreciated the beauty of them and I felt compelled to capture all that beauty forever in a photograph., it just made me happy to be able to see it whenever I wanted to. Cutteslowe Park, 1st July 2006.
Verse in the centre reads: Many times I wander, Afraid of things to come Seeing things that aren’t really love; Like the things that I have done. Then I see a single flower, Simple bright and alive, And if it grows for a reason; Then maybe so do I. What gives life to the flower, What makes each petal bloom and grow. Is it God that gives the power, For me to really want to know. How I wish I was a flower, Living in life, the life he gave for free Maybe I one of His flower, Because I care the same for me, poem written by Levitha Flowers.

52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Simply Quick 31 Template, Week Ten Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here, here and here.

Petting The Lamb

Petting The Lamb, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Simply Quick 30) and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Eleven Mini both by Sue Cummings. Font is Pea Annalee by Amanda Bottoms (Fonts For Peas).
Journalling reads: When we went to the school fete you were fascinated by the petting zoo. You liked the baby chicks and the bunnies and even the cute little Shetland pony, but your favourite by far was this baby lamb. You petted it and stroked it and you were really sad when we said it was time for us to leave and try some other things. 7th July 2007

52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Simply Quick 30 Template and Week Eleven Mini and you can do that here and here.

One In A Million To Me

One In A Million To Me, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Book Of Me, The First Ten Pages, Page 2) by Crystal Livesay and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Eight Mini by Vicki Stegall and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall. Font is Pea Times New Camileon by Amanda Bottoms (Fonts For Peas).
Journalling reads: You think you’re one of millions but you’re one in a million to me, When you wonder if you matter, baby look into my eyes and tell me, can’t you see you’re everything to me. The World – Brad Paisley

Enabling: Template is now retired sorry, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Eight Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here and here.

Love Sweet Love

Love Sweet Love, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Photocentric 2, Template 11) by Crystal Livesay and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Seven Mini by Sue Cummings and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall.

Enabling: Template is now retired sorry, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Seven Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here and here.

Looking For The Positives

Looking For The Positives, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Tens List Templates, Template 2) by Molly Weight (Biograffiti) and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Nine Mini by Sue Cummings. Font is DJB Coffeeshop Espresso by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: Being sick all the time makes it really easy to see the negative things in my life. But I have started to realise that most of the things I view as negative are the things that I can’t do anything about, like the medical issues and the money troubles. They are things we have just have to learn to live with, sure we can have hope that they will eventually change but right now we have no way of forcing them to change. So I decided to start concentrating on the things that I could influence and change and I realised that the first and most important thing I needed to change was my own attitude about life. I thought making a list of all the good things I have in my life was a great place to start. It was a hard lesson to learn that I could have easily listed 10 things that I hated or were negative about my life but yet I struggled to find 10 things I loved or were good about it. It’s going to be a long road, but here’s to making my very first step.
Top Ten List reads: My two amazing little boys, a wonderful loving husband, a lovely great grandmother, a great online best friend, a rented 3 bedroom house, 5 amazing creative teams, super fast internet access, photoshop creative suite 5, lots of comfortable clothes and a desktop and a laptop.

Enabling: Template is available as part of the Tens List Templates Set by Biograffiti here, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Nine Mini you can do that here.

Ambrose

Ambrose, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Press Plate No 20, Left Hand Side Template) by Liz Tamanaha (Paislee Press), 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Six Mini by Vicki Stegall and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall. Fonts are DJB Kenna Script and DJB Amber both by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: The other night as I was writing my belated blog post to Gaiebraille, I started thinking about a lot of things I was typing it and my thoughts wondered to you. Sometimes I feel like you got a pretty raw deal of it. When I found out that I was pregnant with you, I was already so hurt, so damaged, an emotional train wreck really. I laid all of my hopes and dreams on you, even though my brain screamed at me to be cautious and not get too attached to you, my heart is still an idiot and foolishly I allowed myself to indulge in my fantasies of a happy ever after with you. But I was never truly naive enough to do more than vaguely hope that it would all work out, so when it went wrong I admit it, I was almost relieved that it was over. It was never because I didn’t love you as much, I was just too scared to love someone so much again and risk having my heart re broken. Gaiebraille was my first, that cut was deep and slow to heal, frequently reopening and having to begin healing all over again. Leo was more like a cannon ball, shattering my heart into a million tiny pieces. I didn’t know where to start in the rebuilding process, my attempts were clumsy and everything frequently fell to pieces again. But you, well you were kind of like the universes equivalent of kicking a dog when it’s down. Cruel and unnecessary, but also kind of irrelevant, when something is already in so much pain and anguish what harm can one more blow cause? I was kind of numb to it all back then, unable to process all of the emotions that accompanied losing yet another baby. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am that I acted like you were just another lost baby, you were unique and special and you deserved so much more than I was able to give at the time. The problem to me was very simple, I knew I loved all of you equally so I couldn’t understand why I was incapable of grieving for you just as equally. I couldn’t comprehend just simply being too broken emotionally to process any of what I was feeling. I will never be able to find the words to express how guilty I feel for that, so I will just keep it simple, with 1 kiss and hug for each year since I lost you, I love you my sweet angel baby and I always will.

Enabling: Press Plate 20 by Paislee Press is available here, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Six Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here and here.

Cuddle Time

Cuddle Time, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Photocentric 2, Template 20) by Emily Powers (RETIRED) and 52 Inspirations 2011 Week Five Mini by Sue Cummings and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics by Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall. Font is 4990810.

Enabling: Template is now retired sorry, 52 Inspirations is a subscription based product by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings available exclusively at Oscraps here but if you want to pick up just the Week Five Mini and 52 Inspirations 2011 The Basics you can do that here and here.