Kerry-Sue's Scrap Share

Back to work on Monday....

2012-01-21T13:26:00.000+13:00

The holidays are drawing to a close (for the adults anyway) so I thought I would share some of our adventures. The weather has not been kind to us so we took advantage of the first sunny day & went for a hike up Rangitoto Island. It was a bit of a struggle, but we made it to the top. No time to look around, we had to run back down to catch the ferry home. It is amazing where you can find the energy when properly motivated.

We made it!

Man I was sore for the next couple of days, although not as bad as I was expecting or in places I was thinking either. Why were my arms sore?

The last week consisted of child chosen activities, I think it might have been cheaper to put them ina holiday programme & have week at home by myself....Monday we saw the new Chipmunks movie. Tuesday we went bowling with a friend each. Wednesday the cousins came for a swim.

Thursday we took the ferry to the CBD to have lunch with daddy. Friday was Mission Bay for lunch with Nana & Popa.

I also managed to read the whole Twighlight series "Mum can you stop reading, u r boring" I really enjoyed them (thanks Brenda) I have only seen the first 3 movies & so far they don't compare to the books. I am going to see the fourth movie on Monday.
My New Years Resolution was to do the Round the Bays this year, so we have been going for walks (hence Rangitio)
I have also been working on 2 OTP projects, but no scrapping.

Happy New Year!!!!

2011-12-31T16:42:00.000+13:00

I see I have some new followers...WELCOME!!! & sorry I have been so quiet lately, it's cos I have been so busy!
In the past few months we have had some possibly life altering decisions to make for our son; which Intermediate he should go to. It has been very stressful. After many hours of research, discussions, to-&-fro, & ballots we have decided on Farm Cove Digital area. He is very excited as this means he will be going to Nana's school like he wanted, but not with his best friend. It also means he will be 80% on a laptop. We are hoping this will encourage & motivate him to do his school work more. Part of the deal is we have to supply him with a laptop, so guess what he got for Xmas? He can't wait until school starts & wants to go & get his uniform & stationery ASAP. We have a carpool/bus system organised as it is to far to walk.

Obviously Daniel finished Primary school this year. The school had a lovely graduation assembly for all the Year Six students. He will miss some of his friends (including girlfriend) for the next 2 years. They will all be back together at College soon.....
Daniel moved up to Sea Scouts at the beginning of term 4. He wasn't sure about it at first, but now loves the sailing. Apparently capsizing is "Epically EPIC!!!!"
Nicola shall be moving up to the middle school, but has been separated from her best friend for her own good. I got very frustrated with the school & even contemplated moving her. They don't start till the 7th of Feb!!!! NO holiday programmes run that last week cos ALL the other schools have gone back. I got a really rude email from secretary when I asked about who I should direct my complaint to, I am thinking of contacting the BOT. I wonder how many kids will turn up a week early cos their parents didn't notice the date in tiny print on the newsletter, or people who are new to the area. I was absolutely fuming, but don't deal well with conflict.....
Nicola was in the Howick Santa Parade again this year with Nicola & her Brownie Troupe. She loves it.
Then see went to Brownie Regional camp with Elizabeth & Shona. She had a fantastic time (no problems sleeping) & can't wait till the next camp. She made lots of new friends :)
I have been having problems with dealing with someone from a certain somewhere where a woman's opinion means nothing.....makes working life very difficult. He keeps ringing my boss to check everything I say. After 5 years of working with this guy, my boss finally said that, yes THAT was the problem....sigh.....not like I can change!!
Scott started a new job in December. They sent him to Oz for a training course & he won an Xbox!! The kids were very excited as our PS3 has been broken for ages. However we may have to ban it in the early morning as it sounds like a herd of elephants jumping upstairs!!! The Kinex games are great fun, but hard work!!!
Christmas was odd this year. We didn't really feel very Christmasy. But I felt it sort of snuck up on us. We were all involved in the RWC, then the elections & then suddenly it was Christmas! It definitely felt low key, but the kids are happy & that's all that matters. My home computer finally died so I got a new one, it is so quiet I can hear the hard drive spinning!!!!! Nicola got an iPod touch from Santa & now I get nagged by text "Mum, can I have a glass of water....MUM....." Scott is building a firewall cos she is getting text bullied by a friend...sigh.....I am talking to her about how friends shouldn't make her so unhappy....Daniel took over iPod for awhile to try to get through to this kid what sh was doing to Nicola....sigh....
Because of Scott's new job the whole family has a couple of weeks on holiday together for the first time in years. However we didn't know about it till to late to organise anything so we are planning some day trips. The weather is disgusting! We went to visit friends up north on the best day weather wise, but still not nice enough to go sailing.
I have not done much scrapping since camp in October, don't know why. However since I haven't posted for so long it looks like I have done heaps!!
I did this one for the Halloween challenge at camp & won!!!!!!!!! (Those of you who know me will know how surprised I was) I got a new trimmer! I nicked the plastic spiders from the weekends decorations (I asked Debbie first), hehe. It is difficult to see in this pic, but the fence has bats in it, thanks Bev for letting me borrow the punch it is no longer available.

I got the photos from our family trip to South Africa in 1987 scanned & printed & took them to camp to work on. I love this photo of our family in the back of the van at the Kruger Game Reserve.

I am really happy with this school one, quiet different from some of the others I have done.

This is the LO I did from Louise's class at camp. Love the combination of clustered embellishments & white space.

This is another South Africa LO which I did for the October challenge at NZ Paper Chase blog

These two cuties are actually my hubby & his big bro when they were little. I started this LO ages ago & am happy to finally finish it.

I have been giving Nicola fancy mini jewelled boxes each Christmas since she was born. I thought it would be nice to collect something pretty for her that she can still play with. I have been getting annoyed that we can't always find them so I bought printers tray thing to display them in, yay for Trademe. Obviously we had to decorate it.....I did cause a problem for myself. Nicola wanted a red roof & I don't like red & pink together so I said she could have any colour of the rainbow..."I want rainbow!" Oops! I did that to myself! So here it is complete with pink walls, a cat, fence, glass, flowers AND a rainbow roof. I think it came out pretty well. Now we just need to hang it up & find all her boxes to put in it.

Lets start the new year with a giggle. I was given the link to this website & it had me laughing so hard I cried so thought I would share with you....

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/spiders-are-scary-its-okay-to-be-afraid.html

Shhhh.....secret.......

2011-09-30T23:40:00.001+13:00

I read the Challenge Me Happy post for the month & couldn't think of anything; then in the middle of the night 2 days ago sudden inspiration hit me. The theme was Book Of Me - Fun/Funny. I thought about a funny, little known fact about me & I knew the photo I needed that I had even printed the day before. Confession time.....I am a closet Goth, hehe. I am not into the whole skulls, bats, being depressed, etc; but I love Goth fashion, makeup etc. I love the heavy eye makeup, black nail polish, little tutu skirts, huge shoes, over the knee socks........you get the point. I do believe that you have to go all out or not at all & therefore I do not dress-up often (don't think I could pull it off full time like Abby from NCIS) So here is my Goth LO.

The papers are DCWV. The metal is the inside of a coke can wither through my Dymo (journalling) or Cuttlebug (wings & crown). The stamp is Sweat Pea (I think, I bought it at SENZ). The metal frame is Making Memories, then embossed & inked. The fabric is from my fav skirt that I made years ago, but can't bare to throw away even though it no longer fits. I must mention those are not my shoes (although I am trying to find them to buy them), they are my friends. Also I had to get my lovely husband to take the photos for me as my point & shoot couldn't cope with the reflections off the metal at night.

RWC 2011 & some layouts

2011-09-18T14:03:00.002+12:00

Last weekend was the start of the Rugby World Cup. Now up until then I was not really very excited about it. However going on the ferry to the CBD to see the biggest fireworks display ever in Auckland did sound like fun. So Nicola, & her best friend & her dad & I went straight from school to the ferry at Half Moon Bay. The girls were so excited about going on the ferry at night. We stopped at the supermarket on the way for supplies cos we figured it would be expensive to buy the girls food in town & arrived at the ferry just before 4. At around 4:30 we were informed that the ferries were being stopped because the waterfront was full!!!! The girls were not impressed so we had to bribe them with a picnic dinner at the beach. (We met some Americans on the way back to the car & they couldn't believe that the ferry's were stopped & venues full at 4 :30 when the show didn't start till 8) So we decided to try our luck at driving to Devonport to watch the fireworks. The motorway was empty, but the rods to Devonport were full, so we turned around & went to Mission Bay. We got a park right at the beach in the main car park!!! & went to the Fishpot cafe for dinner, which the girls loved. Then they played in the playground with all the hundreds of other children (in the dark) before we drove around to Okahu Bay to watch the fireworks. The girls played in the sand & sea (it's freezing! well it is September & 8 at night!) After the awesome light show we went to the Garrison Pub in Sylvia Park to watch the game. The girls almost made it to the end of the match before they were over come with tiredness. All in all it was a fun night :)

At Brownies Nicola was doing her Heritage Badge so asked me to look for my old Brownie/Guides stuff. I found this photo of me when I was 8 in my BROWN Brownies uniform (the Brownie uniform is currently pink) I couldn't find most of my badges which is not like me, so I googled it & bought some from the UK!!! You got to love the Internet! The girls in Nicolas troupe loved seeing the pic & badges :)

Shona & I went to the Scrapaholics Crop night on Friday. I did these two LO's. I am trying to use my stash, but ended up buying a new punch & the cute little knife, fork & spoon, along with a few other bits & pieces. We had a fun night.

Scott & I had a date night last night. We went to see 'Friends with BEnifits' at the movies then went to the RWC Fan Zone. The movie was ok, very predictable. The RWC fan zone was interesting, not surprising it was full lst weekend, it isn't that big (can only hold 12,000 people) We went to O'hagans Irish pub to watch Oz verses the Irish. The Irish won!!!!!! It was fun to be in a Irish pub when that happened :) Everybody went crazy, hehe.

It's been awhile....

2011-08-28T15:51:00.021+12:00

It was the Book Week Parade at the kids school the other day. This this Harry Potter & Thea Stilton, don't hey look good :) Daniel wanted his hair black so we bought some coloured hairspray, but it didn't work so I PAINTED it! I had seen it done on NZ Next Top Model so thought it would just wash out like theirs did...but no. I have had to cut it & spend hours fine combing his hair.

This is the photo (finally) of the LO we did at SENZ in the Artfull Crafts class.

After all those sketches I did some double LO's. Believe it or not I actually got the idea for my mosaic from one of them. The flowers & tag are Kaiser, everything else is just stuff from my stash. I am trying to use it up, but it is not going well, still buying more than using. Oh well :) I have had these felt fish (Queens Co) for years too. Paper is Bo Bunny (I think) I used the paper that came off the back of the self adhesive fish as a mask for some inking. The brackets are a Pink Paislee magazine give away. Green Glitter letters are also Pink Paislee, the blue letters are Scenic Route.

I have been playing with some of that shrink plastic that I bought at SENZ. It is heaps of fun, but does take some experimentation (hence I just bought some more at the NZS sale) These are those stamps I bought there, I probably should have started with something similar......I discovered paint does not work, it bubbles & lifts. The colours get HEAPS stronger, so if it looks good before u shrink it is probably to much. Even tho the instructions tell u to use Brilliance ink I don't think this is a good idea. The shimmer is almost to much. Also you do need to use Stazon if u want to colour stamped image, other inks don't dry enough, but do stain plastic. I can guarantee I shall be playing some more.

I used my best fairy on the page below. I also used a Cosmo Cricket Gluber to make the flower. the paper is DCWV Ciao Bella that I got on sale at the Warehouse, isn't it pretty? The letters are Basic Grey that I coloured.

I had fun making this Websters style LO inspired by the LO Louise Williams taught us at the retreat last year. It is also DCWV paper.

Finally a sneak peak of two OTP projects I am currently working on.

Paper Chase July Sketch Challenge

2011-08-01T19:24:00.008+12:00

Another sketch!! Shocking I know! Here is the sketch from July on the Paper Chase blog.

I have to credit my lovely husband for coming up wtih the titile for the is LO & isn't it cool? It's not often that the title is the first thing I do & everything else has to fit around it. I had fun making the little Jack-in-the-box men, they really move (not stuck down to page)

Challenge Me Happy Sketch #3

2011-07-28T14:51:00.005+12:00

I am still working on my aquarium, (no u can't see it yet),but I decided to take a bit of a break & do some scrapping. I have gotten half way through a few LO's & decided they just weren't working, so when I saw the current sketch on Challenge Me Happy I thought it might be just what I needed. However I 'finished' it but felt it was till missing something. I do find sketches hard as some people's interpretation seem to me to be nothing like it, whereas I take them literally. So here is my literal LO from the sketch. One other thing I found difficult was purposely sewing non straight lines! This went against the grain of who I am! (but I love the effect) You probably wont be able to read the jouranling as it is so small, but this is me at 18 with my first car.

SENZ & some Layouts

2011-06-25T16:13:00.003+12:00

Yesterday I took the day off work to go to SENZ with my BFF. It was great because we didn't have the kids either! I might have gone just a little bit crazy, but could have bought more! I got some glue, alchol ink, liquid pearls, Cosmo Cricket Glubers, Co-ordinates card stock, 4 stamps, flowers, polyshrink paper, bling, flower soft, Cricut blades & some other bits & pieces, hehe. We did a class with Artfullcrafts from Timaru which I shall share once finished, it was a very fast paced class! This is my first attempt at colouing in 2 Sweatpeas stamps I bought from Pitcher Stamps. The lovely lady said she colours her with watercolour pencils!!!! I love them, but hadn't thought about using them for the stamps as the currant rage is to use markers (which I don't like because you need special paper & need so many different colours), pencils I have been using all my life! I also painted them with my Twinkling H2O's to give them shimmer. I have learned that you do not need to use Stazon ink even though you are wetting them with the watercolur pen, but I think I do need to get a superfine ink pad as it was difficult to get a really clear image with my normal inks. I also found the images stamped better using a normal acrylic block rather than my wonderful Fiscar Stamp-press. She also told me I could use double sided tape to attach stamp to block if i don't have any of the proper sticky stuff! I had fun doing these but don't think it will be something I do regularly, although Nicola wants a LO with the pink one on it. I have done a bit of scrapping lately. When I saw this 'old school' telephone (Cosmo Cricket) the these dicuts (DCWV) I knew which photos I needed to use with them. The papers are Kaiser & DCWV
I finally finished this LO of Nicola being a Diva (she says she is not & doesn't like the LO)

Who is that lovely young couple? And why does he have so much hair? hehe. 1994 seems such a long time ago now! I used one of the SCAL files I downloaded to do this frame.On a slightly different note, I did get a bit annoyed when I read the submission guidelines/hints in a magazine. They said you are more likely to get accepted if you use the same brand on your LO. I don't like this! I like the idea of mxing it all up, if you only use 1 brand you are limiting your creativity. All my LO's are mixed up! So maybe that is why I don't get published.....they can't sell advertising space next to my LO's. (grumble over)

Queens Birthday Weekend

2011-06-07T14:57:00.007+12:00

Nicola went to a birthday party at Extreme Edge Rock Climbing on Saturday. She made it to the top of two of them, & wanted me to take pics of her on each wall, hehe. She had heaps of fun & didn't want to go home.....ever!
Scott took Daniel to the Pokemon National Championship. He was very excited, if he won he got a trip to the USA. He didn't win but had a great day & did get some prizes including this ULTRA RARE card Scrappin' Patch had a blind scrap challenge over Queens Birthday weekend. I haven't done one before, it was quiet hard, but fun. They give you a specific list of items you must use, only allowed to add ink, glue, distressing, etc to list. So the list was : 1-12"x12" cardstock; 1-4"x6" photo; 5 different patterned papers cut to these sizes - 9.5"x5.5",1"x11.5", 4.5"x7", 0.5"x11", 2"x2.5"; a diecut shape; 3 circles; 3 tags; 3 stars; stamped image; 1 piece of ribbon; 3 stickers; 2 staples; 2 different colour alphas for the title; journaling; & doodling. This is what I finally came up with.Don't ask me what most of the papers are, they are out of my scraps, the main flower paper is Kaiser & the graph paper is Cosmo Cricket. The blue alpha's are Scenic Route, the red alpha's are Making Memories Foil Love Notes. The bird stickers are also the circles from Cristina Re Paper Chic. I inked some cool decorative staples I got from Warehouse Stationery awhile ago. It was definitely out of my comfort zone to use so many different patterned papers on 1 page, but I think it came up ok. I think it got my mojo back, cos now I want to try some other LO's using same list of ingredients, but I have to finish sewing for Daniel first. Here is my duvet I have been working on for ages too. I haven't managed to get Nicola to stand still long enough for a photo of the party dress I made for her.

Our first Fejoa's

2011-05-16T20:34:00.002+12:00

This horrible wind blew our first fejoa's off the tree before they really had a chance, but we were told it wouldn't fruit for a few more years so this is still exciting.

Opps, it's been awhile.....

2011-05-08T18:01:00.011+12:00

I have been busy lately, but have got a little bit of scrapping lately.

I finally did a LO of my first BFF, Lenny. It is using Basic Grey Marrakech paper, stickers & letters, & Kaiser Penny Royale paper & flowers. I used my new favourite Stamin' Up! brad maker to make matching flower centres.

Nicola helped me paint the background of this LO. I wanted the paper to look like Daniel's Moko, so the plain black Bazzil is painted white over the Crafter's Workshop Cosmic Swirl stencil.

This was a very fast LO of Nicola using daddy's laptop. It is a pre-printed sheet from DCWV Generation Tech with a few die cuts added.

I finally took a pic of the LO we did at camp last year in Louise's class. There was a lot of discussion at the time of who my dad looks like, the majority vote was for either Austin Powers (after he gets his teeth done), or one of the Flight of the Concord guys. I gave it to mum & dad for Xmas.I have been doing a bit of sewing lately instead of scrapping. I had to mend Daniels school pants, he wasn't pleased, apparently he liked them that way, hehe. I added a frill to the bottom of Nicolas favourite dress-up dress. It reminded me of my childhood, the dresses mum used to make longer for me as I grew, I loved those dresses. Then I made myself a top & started on the new duvet cover. I am now sick of sewing, but I know if I don't finish it now, it wont get done. I did take a break to make a Mothers Day card & a baby card for a friend.

This Saturday was the kids first hockey games for the year, Nicola's first ever! Both the kids did very well & it even stopped raining. Daniel was awake & concentrating for the whole game. Nicola scored her teams first goal! They enjoyed themselves so much that neither of them would take off their uniforms, in fact Nicola even slept in hers....with her stick! Time to get back to the sewing......

Scrapbooking & Lindt Easter eggs

2011-04-14T14:45:00.005+12:00

Last weekend I went away with 4 of my scrapbooking friends for 2 1/2 days of uninterrupted craft! No kids, no tidying, no hubby's (missed him tho), no bed time We each had to prepare only 1 meal each over the weekend.....bliss. I got 5 Lo's done & some work on my mini album. One of the girls brought some Lindt Easter Eggs....OMG!! I was in heaven! Yummiest things ever! & the wrappers were so pretty I used them to make these frames for these cute pics of Daniel. I need to find out when they were taken, but he was about 5. They worked so well I used the Cookies & Cream wrappers on this LO of Nicola. (Can't remember if the dark blue were milk or dark chocolate.) mmmmm......yummmy.... Yes that is more Bo Bunny Peacock Lane paper.One of each of the kids & then one of me! I bought this paper years ago to use on some of my photos, don't you love orange/yellow & brown? The brackets are actually a Bo Bunny frame cut in half & the arrow points to me (surprising I know). The brad I made using my Build-a-brad from Stampin' Up! The tags (thanks Annelie) are Cuttlebugged & stamped using my new fav stamps & then on the other side I have the kids names (as many as mum wrote down) I can't believe how many I could actually remember anyway & a few of them are now Facebook friends. I love my baby & my baby loves me, see I have proof....she is so cute.I saw this Kaiser wooden frame in my stash & knew it would be perfect for this school pic of Nicola. I inked & clear embossed it, but for some reason one bit was a different colour, I guess cos it is wood, so I added the flower to cover it. So all in all a great weekend!

Daddy's Home!!!

2011-04-05T16:10:00.003+12:00

Daddy went to Waiheke fishing over night (a really loooonnnnng time, not) But Nicola missed him. Can't say you don't feel loved when this is the greeting you get when you get home :) So adorable

More Bo Bunny LO's

2011-04-05T15:00:00.004+12:00

So when Shona & I went to the Bo Bunny day the other weekend, they gave us 2 range packs, including paper, brads, stickers, rub-ons & brads, free, very cool!! We got Peacock Lane & Petal Pushers collections. I love Peacock lane & already had some of the matching flowers & paper. I also used the BoBunny Chunky Charms Swirls & Brackets Chipboard stickers they gave us for the class. They were brown so I UTEE'd (Pipe Dream Ink in Macquarine & Lilly Pilly)& them stamped them. The stamp didn't come out to well cos I was scared (I used my new Stampin' Up! En Francais background stamp) I must thank my mum for the inspiration for his LO. I looked at the 12 x12 diecut flower & thought "What am I gonna do with that?" Mum suggested cutting it asymmetrically & away I went. My emporium ribbons & sequins matched perfectly :) The pattern paper behind the chipboard letters is DCWV Madly in Love range that I got for a bargain awhile ago, beautiful paper. The sparklely strips are actually tinsel, hehe.

Bo Bunny Blast Off

2011-03-28T16:46:00.006+13:00

My BFF & I went to the Kays Company Bo Bunny & Glitz day on Saturday. The first class started at 8am!!!!!!! on a Satuday!!!!! I have a hard enough time getting to work on time, but expecting me to be somewhere at 8am is s bit of an effort, but we made it :) Then to my immense annoyance we found out the first class went from 8 till 10, then the next 2 till 4!!!! What were we supposed to do between them? They could have made it 9 till 11 & I could have got an extra hours sleep!! hehe. So Shona & I went for a drive out to Scotties to look at the new Prima bling & some may have accidentally ended up coming home with me......These are the LO's from the afternoon Bo Bunny Blast Off! class. The puzzle pieces are a cool double sided actual puzzle. I just love the colours in this range, so bright & fun. Lovely boy paper :)We did the morning Bo Bunny class too. I will share once they are completed.

.......sigh.........

2011-03-28T15:22:00.003+13:00

....shower leaking into new study ceiling........guess we should ring the builder..........but I don't want them taking over the house again.............but we do have a guarantee..........

"Why are you so beautiful?"

2011-03-25T21:15:00.003+13:00

Awhile ago a friend of mine said I was training Nicola up to be a Princess. Nicola asked me why I scrapbooked this page cos we say it all the time to each other. I said cos one day it will stop & I want to remember it. When I arrived at work the other day I had to drive thru a tree to get to my park. Now I park there everyday, why the tree suddenly decided to hang down like this I do not know. It wasn't broken, but is a rubber tree, so maybe that is it?

Grass!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-21T15:59:00.007+13:00

We spent most of last weekend digging & clearing the front lawn. Scott hired a rotary hoe & my job was to collect all the stones, concrete & other rubbish that was in the front yard. At some stage in the distant past there was a pond under what is now a deck; it collects water (obviously) & breeds mozzies. So that is where I was putting all the lumps of concrete. Yes those are my feet. I did not meet any bugs or critters under there :) Look!!!! Grass!!! So exciting!!!!Nicola's class went to Omana reserve to study the 'Rocky Shore' & I went as a parent helper. They had park rangers talk to the kids about all the animals, etc. It was cool. My finger is pointing to a blue crab we found. That other thing is a 'Feathery Sea Hare' I had never seen one of those before. It was sort of like a mix between a jelly fish & a rock!?! It retracted when you touched it, but looked solid, very weird. Nicola & her friend Gabby like playing wheelbarrow.
Exciting new tires.......
And finally a lazy pic of Zak, he likes to sleep on the path (or stairs) by the front door so he can keep track of us ;)

Another LO!!!!

2011-03-13T15:04:00.003+13:00

I wanted to have a go at the new technique Liz demostrated at our Stampi' Up! party. It doesn't look at all like hers, but is kinda cool anyway. Lots more stamoing than I usually do. I even made a mask on the Cricut to stamp the title & of'course I used my new fav stamp set 'Extreme Elements'.

Scrap the Boys

2011-03-07T18:53:00.007+13:00

This is the LO I did for the Scrap The Boys March Challenge; Freeze a moment in time. As soon as I read the challenge I knew which photos I wanted to do. 4:40 is not a good time for me. We are late almost every week & we get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home. This seems to be the only time the kids regularly fight & argue too.; but at least they are both in the same class so I don't have to go there twice a week! The paper is Bo Bunny Pospicle Pina Colada which I love!!!! Beautiful bright, happy, sunny colours. The numbers are whitw Bazzil cut out wth my Cricut, the small letters are Basic Grey micro mono stickers. And lots of dimensional magic :)

Valentines Day Surprise

2011-02-24T15:06:00.007+13:00

Valentines Day this year was our 19th 'together' anniversary. I was so excited by the present I had bought Scott & few months ago & had been waiting impatiently to give it to him. I got him the personalised plates he has been pining over for ages on the web. The tricky part was the money as all of our accounts are joint how was I gonna withdraw $900 without him knowing? The solution came from the kids bank accounts, I got permission from Daniel to use his money (as long as I pay him back) they are bank accounts we set up ages ago & have been depositing regularly but seldom look at statements, so I was counting on that & Daniel not saying anything when he checked h is balance as he was in on it with me. The actual plates have finally arrived!!! (I hope he isn't expecting anything for our anniversary cos now we are broke! hehe)

Daniel's Sea Cubs in having a great term this term. The other week they went fishing at Half Moon Bay Marina & he caught at least 12 baby snapper & pipers. He threw them all back, he is very much into catch & release. He did so well he even let some kids who weren't doing so well reel in some of his fish. (insert proud mummy icon here).Then they went to Mechanics Bay to visit the Sea Police & the Rescue Helicopter. I went with & it was very interesting. (I even went on the Police Launch!!!! I hate boats but talked myself into it as a once in a lifetime experience)

I had a Stampin' Up! party in the weekend. It was really cool, Nicola helped me & mum ;) I bought heaps!!!! & got even more free!!!! As soon as I got them I had to play. I am pleased with my first grungy LO. Daniel doesn't like it, it is too messy for him, he likes straight & clean like me. I went with 'Spunky' cos that is what I call Scott IRL.

February already!

2011-02-05T15:39:00.011+13:00

As you may have noticed I have not been going to well with the photo a day thingy. I have been taking more ordinary photos than usual trying to catch some normal things that we do. I was really upset when they demolished a local landmark building so now I have no reminder of the many hours I spent there as a child, you don't think of buildings changing when you are a kid. So I took a pic of my messy desk at work (must take one of building too). For those of you who saw the pic of the fence fallen over & have voiced their concern, here it is after Scott fixed it. Good as new :)

Anyway school is finally back!! The kids are happy with their new classes & teachers. I bought Nicola the new school uniform dress today, she is very excited & didn't want to take it off. It was expensive but all the rest of her uniform as been hand-me-downs (except the new polar fleece) so overall she has been cheap. I just couldn't stand the state of some of her tops anyone, I hated sending my beautiful baby to school looking like that..... Daniel decided he wanted to be more organised this year, so we made 'mini' pencil cases to fit inside his big pencil case. Red for red pens, blue for blue pens, etc.... Hopefully it works for him, he was very pleased with our results.

The second week of Youth Town went really well too. Nicola made a new best friend & Daniel traded Pokemon on his Nintendo with some of the other kids. The had Laser strike & a trip to West Wave pools also.

Nicola has decided she doesn't want go to Pippins this year, she wants to wait until she is 7 & go straight to Brownies with her friends. Pippins is the same time as the Hip hop dance lessons she wants to go to. I don't mind her skipping Pippins, our one is pretty lame, they only play for an hour a week, no badges or anything.

I went to the Mega Crop at NZScrapbook last weekend. I am making a mini album of our alterations while it is still fresh in my mind & people are still interested in it. I met Louise & her mum there & we had a lovely time with not alot of scrapping done ;) I found a cool new OTP project too, cos I need more UFO's!!! LOL! Here it is coated in gesso & ready to go....

Talking about unfinished projects & the house.....with all the crap weather the other week our house has developed a leak. It is downstairs in the old bit, not the new. The new mdf skirtings have swelled & the new carpet in our bedroom & wardrobe got rather damp (stinky being wool). One of the tiles in the en suite had water coming up through the mortar joints when you stood on it :( So where is all the water coming from?????? Today Scott dug up part of the garden outside the wardrobe. There seems to be no waterproofing or drainage, the dirt is hard up against the bricks. Bricks are not water proof so this could easily be tracking dampness inside, however the dirt that Scott was digging was surprisingly dry for all the rain we have had lately. So we have come to the conclusion that this would cause dampness, but not the amount of water we had coming inside. So now what? Guess we wait till the next down pour & see if we can see anything then. We should still dig down the bricks & fix that, but it is not a nice job, it has to be done by hand, & it is too hot today.

Our Fisherman

2011-01-20T21:21:00.003+13:00

Today at the kids holiday programme, Youth Town, they went to Waiheke on a fishing trip. The kids were so excited. It was funny, but when I waved them off on the bus this morning I actually had a lump in my throat, they looked so little compared to the other kids. They had a great time, the weather was fantastic after all the crap we have been having this week I was worried. Nicola didn't catch any fish but she had a great time anyway. Daniel caught 2 snapper, 1 had to go back, but the other......... guess what they had for dinner??

Look what I made last night :)

2011-01-16T12:14:00.005+13:00

I went to Scrapaholics to look for some chipboard albums, but fell in love with the new "Once Upon a Princess" Cricut Cartridge.

I HAD to make the castle straight away. I wasn't sure how well it would work so I didn't use flash paper. It requires 7 sheets of 12x12 (max size 208mm). I have aleady made modifications to the original, it isn't very stable, so I made another floor in the bottom. Now I need to figure out how to modify it in Design Studio or SCAL cos it needs a few more mods (see the floor going thru the windows over the door?) Nicola thinks it is very cool, but not big enough for even her mini barbies, so guess what I will be doing next?

Sights of Summer...

2011-01-10T22:02:00.007+13:00

Day 6 Progress so far on my trellis. Who's idea was this? Oh yeah it was mine. It looks great, but is very time consuming. Day 7. Kids 'helping' paint. Nicola was such a good helper, handing us brushes, getting us drinks, & actually painting, Daniel.....(it was more for the photo, he didn't want to be left out.

Day 8. Nicola reading the Weekend Newspaper by the pool. I was wondering where she had got to & when I found her I asked her what she was doing "I'm reading the paper"....ok.....ask a obvious question....get the obvious answer.....

Day 9 this is what summer is about...kids in the pool with their friends :) Day 10. The L&P truck giving out free drinks at Eastern Beach

Geocaching

2011-01-09T15:43:00.008+13:00

Daniel has been nagging us for awhile to get a GPS so he can go Geocaching. They did it at Cubs last term, so now Mum & Dad knew a bit more about what he was talking about. For those of you who do not know Geocaching is basically modern orienteering, however they use a hand held GPS instead of compass (not the type you have in your car, it has co-ordinates, minutes, degrees, altitude, distance to target, distance traveled, etc). So we got him one for Christmas (thanks Craig). Anyway there are Geocach points all over the world, so we found one we thought looked interesting to give a try last Tuesday. It was south of Kawakawa Bay at a beach you could only get to by foot at low tide by climbing around the rocks. I knew Scott would love the drive out there in his new car (RX-8), lots of windy roads. Low tide was at 2pm, so the 4 of us drove out to the end of the road for a picnic lunch, then off we trekked. Getting around the first set of rocks was easy enough. Nicola & I couldn't keep up with the boys, but they waited on the beach for us. The next bit was more tricky. It was getting very hot & sticky so Nicola & I took a break in a shady cave which had a rock pool in it. We spent ages watching the (at least) 13 starfish, they move remarkably fast, & some shrimp (can you see him in the bottom pic?).By this point the boys were miles ahead, we could no longer see them. It took ages to pluck up the courage for Nicola & I to climb the next bit (her legs are short & I was scared) I thought that the next beach was just over that next climb....but no! So we abandoned all hope of catching up with the boys & decided to go back to the beach & wait for them to come back. Of course that was easier said than done. The really tricky bit we had just climbed looked like a shear cliff when it was time to go back down. Nicola was happy enough, but I got major vertigo at the top. I couldn't watch her go down & she kept looking at me for reassurance (I thought I was gonna have to get rescued) I kept having visions of Nicola slipping, luckily there were allot of people fishing near us & some kayaks, but still.....Eventually I just had to have a go & it didn't look so bad when u were down there. So we made it back to the beach & found a set of stairs going up the hill....hmmmm I wonder......but the website says only access around rocks at low tide........So I sat in the shade & Nicola went paddling in the sea while we waited....and waited....Being a typical worry-wort my mind started going full speed at all the things that could have happened to them. It was an hour past low tide, but people were still fishing off the rocks. They had the cell phone, water, GPS & car keys (I had camera) So I was half expecting a Westpac helicopter to come swooping down with them on board any minute, but they came down the stairs behind me (the website obviously hasn't been updated), THANKGOODNESS!!!!! The boys were fine of course, but the ironic thing is the never found the actual cach, they got to the co-ordinates, but couldn't find it :( So off we all went back to the car & Kawakawa Bay for a well deserved ice-cream & drink, then home for a swim.

My Girl.....

2011-01-09T14:51:00.004+13:00

Look I made my own bling words!! (using Kaiser Rhinestone strips). The paper is from DCWV Madly in Love paper stack I got from the Warehouse the other day. The frame is co-ordinates card that has been Cricut & then cuttlebugged & sanded. The butterflies are from the Stampin' Up! Embosslits Beautiful Wings (aren't they cute!)Nicola asked me to add the word 'little' to the title because she has grown a lot since then :)

Day 2 & 3

2011-01-03T21:13:00.003+13:00

Our Happy (not) Hot (not) boy (2 Jan)Our little fish (3 Jan)

Welcome 2011

2011-01-02T16:19:00.006+13:00

We went up to a friends bach for New Years at Snells Beach. They had a black Labrador puppy staying & Nicola got over her fear of dogs so much that now she wants one! They had lots of fun taking him for walks etc. This is a pic taken on Scott new iphone of the 2 kids playing on their own island, hehe. We also saw other frinds of ours that live up there. They took the kids kayaking & sailing. Nicola even said she enjoyed the 'bumpy bits' (waves, as the wind picked up alot.) She was pretty good at kayaking to. Daniel showed us what he learnt at Cubs kayaking the other week. I got burnt :( the first time I can remember ever getting burnt. We ate & drank to much & spent alot of time just lazing around the house :)

I was thinking about doing the 365 scrapping challenge. It is to take a pic a day for a year. See pic number 1 above for yesterday.Just took pic of sunburn for today will upload later ......

Just a quick one...

2010-12-29T12:50:00.003+13:00

This is the first LO I have done for ages!!! I have been so busy at work I couldn't scrap at home, my brain was too full :( I used my markers to make the 'fire' on the letters, I like how they came out :)

Finally finished our Advent Calander...

2010-12-04T11:34:00.003+13:00

...only a few days late. The kids have been eating the lollies anyway. It is the Kaisercraft Advent Calender with mostly Kaiser Xmas papers. The reindeer & sleigh I made from the Paper Doll Cricut cartridge & ended up being a bit fragile hence the transparency infront of them so no one can touch them.Do you like Santa's boots? They were more tricky than I thought to find. They are actually from a Halloween decoration from the $2 shop.

U2 rock!!!!!!

2010-11-29T15:53:00.015+13:00

It as been a really busy month, so busy I didn't have time to blog! Where to start.......think this post will not be in chronological order, sorry. Also very high in photos & video :)

Do you like my hickie? Thursday was finally THE day!!! The first Auckland U2 concert!!!! I had the kids all sorted, but got a call from school at lunch time saying Nicola was sick....NOOO!!!! my lovely bosses wife looked after her until my mum could get there. Scott, Pete & I queued from 2:30 pm, we had GA tickets, but the first 3000 (ish) people through the gate get into the INNER CIRCLE!!! This is the area Scott got into last time, but I didn't. The hickie is how the security knows you are one of the chosen few ;-P They only let us into the stadium at 4:30. Anyway while we were waiting we saw my brother, his wife & her family getting the grand tour around the set. Michael's wife's brother is a roadie for U2. He came & found us & upgraded us to the RED ZONE. I was 1 person back from the barrier to the walkway. It was amazing!!! I could have touched them (except for the security guards who would have removed your arms if you tried) These photos were taken on my little cannon so you can see how close we were. The set list for Thurs night is here. We were on our feet basically from 2:30pm till 12:30am so we had very sore feet (not that i am complaining) It was soooo awesome. Scott & I sang & danced until the end! The stage was amazing, the screen went up & down, very cool. So what do you do the night after the best concert ever? Take the kids of course!!!!! They were so excited. Nicola & I had a nap in the afternoon so that we would be able to stay awake. You should have seen the look on her face when they walked on the stage - joy, adoration, elation- it was amazing. There were quite a few kids there. We got the cheap seats behind the stage cos we weren't sure how the kids would cope, it was VERY loud. So we figured we saw it the night before so if they wanted to go home we would. Daniel made it to "Crazy" before he fell asleep, how do you fall asleep at a rock concert? It was the 14th song, about 10:45 so not bad. He still really enjoyed it (he was dancing on the inside) & had a great time :) The full set list is here, it was not exactly the same as Thursday night.
Nicola made it to the first encore before deciding she was tired & wanted to go home, that was about 11pm. Here is a video I took of Nicola dancing during Vertigo. She was so amazing. All the people around us we watching her instead of the show. Unfortunately she did change a bit when I got the camera out, but you can still see how much she was enjoying it. She wants to be Bono when she grows up, hehe.

In other news.....

Both the kids were in the Howick Santa Parade on Saturday morning. Nicola with Pippins & Daniel with Cubs. They both had a great time :) I was asked to walk with them, but said no cos I don't think I could, hehe. Then on Sunday we had lunch with my Cousin Emma & her man from Perth. It was nice to see them again :)

Now going back in time....
I have finally finished one of my advent calender for my friend, which is good cos she will need it on Wednesday. I haven't finished mine yet, but I am working on it.

Nicola had a friends party to go to a few weeks ago, so we decided to make her present. this is Her first OTF project. She painted & chose paper, I glued it all together & then she decorated it.

No-labour weekend

2010-10-25T20:54:00.004+13:00

What a glorious long weekend we have had! Beautiful weather :)

It started well with dinner at the mall with our friends. Then the daddy's took all four kids home & the 'mummys' went shopping!!!! & then to the movies. We saw "Life as we know it" with Katherine Heigl. It was sooooooo funny.

On Saturday Scott took Daniel & a friend to the Armageddon expo, Daniel was very excited. The 'girls' we to see 'Despicable me' & then went to Pumpkin Patch :) Nicola was so cute, she was posing in front of the mirrors in each outfit & basically chose everything herself. Mum deiced she needed shorts under the dress she chose tho cos it was so short (even tho it was a size 7) so off to Farmers we went. She was a perfect angel, the only thing is she wouldn't let me look at anything for me ;P

On Sunday Scott went fishing with a mate. Nicola & I did some tidying & sorting in her room, clothes, books etc. & I did heaps of washing, it was perfect weather for it. Then Nicola went to my brothers with nana & papa to look after her cousins while they were busy building a deck. I painted some more scrapbooking shelves.

Today Nicola went back to my brothers, she loves her cousins & being the 'big' one. We have had a nice mix of working & relaxing, it has been good.

House update.....we failed our final last friday cos the extreior wasn't painted, which was annoying cos the builder told us not to paint it!!! So Scott spent last weekend painting in the rain & we passed our final on Tuesday!!!!! The valuer has been so it is all looking good & we might finally be finished with builders. We still need to get all the rubbish out of the front lawn & plant grass, but hey, the end is in sight :)

Trademe rocks :)

2010-10-17T20:23:00.004+13:00

But first things first...

House update. Bathroom is finished & looks really nice, just some minor paint touch ups needed to be done now.

We did the Trellis fence last weekend, so thought we were pretty much done. However we failed our final inspection because the exterior wasn't painted!! The builder told us not to paint so that the inspector could see all the sealant. So guess what we did this weekend?Picked up the shelf I bought off trademe for $1 from out west, it is perfect for my paint & stuff. I also got these awesome bins to put my ribbons & flowers in. So pretty i was just looking at them & feeling inspired last night, but i can't see my desk yet. So I am going to do some more sorting & tidying now.....

boxes?

2010-10-06T21:37:00.004+13:00

The kids had been doing really well sharing a room during the renovations, but it was starting to get to everyone. So we moved Daniel into his new room last weekend, put his bunkbed back up, etc; the funny thing is he hasn't slept in his bed once! Scott got a new toy & Daniel has been playing & sleeping in the box ever since! Not to feel left out of anything Nicola had to have a box too. Tonight is their 4th night in a row.......

In other news...we have finished the wardrobe system & it is installed, yippe!! No more getting half dressed upstairs & half downstairs. We haven't seen the builder for a few days, but we think that is because he hasn't got the new iron for our carport roof yet. Scott has taken a few more days off to finish the ensuite, then we need to do some work outside. So we are almost done :)

busy bees....

2010-09-28T20:58:00.003+13:00

Since I last blogged we have been very busy, to busy to blog infact.
I had the weekend off at Megan's Scrapbooking retreat which was awesome!! It was so lovely to have some time out with friends. I did about 5 LO's that all need journalling. Louise's class was great, I am thinking of giving it to mum & dad for Xmas as I did a LO of them. Lianne's class was cool too, learnt a new technique which shall be used over & over again :) I unpacked into the new study, sort of, it is all stacked in the corner so I can't show yet.

While I was away Scott wallpapered our bedroom & half of the wardrobe; & he tiled half the ensuite floor. He also finished painting all the skirtings & architraves. I don't think he slept at all!
We finished wallpapering downstairs last night & it looks good.

They FINALLY laid our drivway on Monday. Our lovely neighbour was home for the day & took photos for me.

Today the carpet arrived! He finished the bedroom, hall & wardrobe, but not the stairs. He is coming back tomorrow to do them. Scott & I are so excited we just finished moving our bed down there. we are going to sleep in our new room tonight!More drama, but I don't feel like talking about it right now. Night all xx

one room complete!

2010-09-22T21:53:00.008+12:00

This is the study/laundry on Sunday. Builders finished, it's our turn now! The cost of vinyl for the floor was astronomical & the stupid guy was having a fit about the ramp, I would think it was easy in lino, but no. So we decided to do it ourselves with that laminate floating floor, it was heaps cheaper!
Here it is all finished on Tuesday with the laundry tub installed.

And what is that? Wallpaper???? Isn't it awesome!!!!

We stayed up until 1am Wednesday morning finishing it, but it looks fantastic! Even put my new desk up in it on Wed afternoon, woohoo!!! What's that through the window? The builders starting on the carport! The driveway was supposed to be laid today but the weather was to crappy :(

crisis number 3 & 4

2010-09-18T10:00:00.003+12:00

......sigh......I hate building! I know what you are thinking, why are you in the building industry if you hate building? Because I love drawing houses, but actually making them real is a nightmare! So the latest is.....

Crisis Number 3: The inspector came to look at the retaining wall post (this is dude #3 on our job) & he decided he didn't like some of the stuff that has been signed off by dude #1. So he is making us redo it! Can they do that? they both work for the same place! Apparently they can :( Dude #3 explained & I agree with him, so why was it signed off by dude #1 a few weeks ago? And who is gonna pay for the drain layer to come back & replace the cesspit?

Crisis number 4: The builder promised he would have the interior finished by last Wednesday, that was moved to yesterday, but I looked at it & thought that there is not enough hours in the day to do everything, but they kept saying they would do it. So Scott has taken Monday & Tuesday off work to do the painting & flooring, but guess what? they haven't finished! Scott is really mad. We have the paint & flooring ready to go, but the builders are still down there.

...sigh...

We have plaster

2010-09-16T22:32:00.003+12:00

The rain was a bit of a pain today, but they still managed to get the concrete into the retaining wall holes. The inside is coming along nicely, only 3 days behind schedule. The carpet is booked for next Tuesday & this weekend we have to paint the ceilings, skirting, architraves, ensuite walls, doors, lay the tiles in the ensuite, lay the timber floor in the laundry & foyer & wallpaper. So we wont be seeing much of the kids or our beds for the next few days...

My little white boy :)

2010-09-14T20:24:00.005+12:00

Tonight Daniel's school Kapa Haka (Maori) group performed at the Howick Maori Spring Festival. This is the first stage of making him Maori, hehe.He really enjoys it as you can see, I think it is hilarious, but also think it is great. Kids these days are so much more confident than we ever were. No way I would have volunteered to do that at 10. (this is my fav pic) I dunno why they are so different, but think it is great. He also has a wonderful reading voice. He was reading all the information signs at Kelly Tarltons to us in the weekend. He put such expression into his voice, reads so confidently & doesn't loose his place like I used to.

I am so proud of him. He is already more than I ever was. I wonder what he shall achieve in life. I can't wait to see.

It was Daniel's last game of hockey last weekend & prize giving. His Team got the 8 a side Team of the year for our club :) Very cool :)

What do we have here......

2010-09-12T20:15:00.002+12:00

Yes that is Gib Board & a WINDOW!!!! It is finally looking like rooms. & what's this???? an internal door????? So exciting! Nothing has happened outside of a few days because of the weather, but hopefully tomorrow it will be all go again.

We have a Ranchslider!

2010-09-08T20:24:00.006+12:00

It is difficult to take a photo of a ranchslider, so here is one of the digger through the ranchslider. The rest of our driveway was ripped up today & lowered, now the base of the existing green retaining wall is showing so they are gonna have to fix that too. They passed the preline inspection this morning so we have some new gib board up! It is very exicting having a newdouble glazed ranchslider, it is definately quieter & warmer than the garage door.At school tonight Daniel did a performance in his Kapa Haka group. It was really good seeing him up on stage & he really enjoys it.

1 step forward, 2 steps back....

2010-09-07T22:00:00.003+12:00

....well it's more like 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Failed our pre-lining inspection this morning. The inspector is making us cut out panels of building paper & fix between each existing nog & stud to keep the insulation out of the cavity. So why did they not ask for that when it was in for consent? I must say I was surprised at how easily we got consent, but it would have been easier to do changes then rather than now. So the builders have pulled all the insulation back out of the walls......

Did someone say insulation?

2010-09-06T20:21:00.003+12:00

Sorry I can't hear you! hehe. It is quieter & warmer already & we don't even have windows yet. Isn't it pretty? Personally I would have preferred pink, but this was cheaper so yellow is fine with me. The front lawn a mud bath but we passed our drainage inspection today, yay! Our private drainage was not actually hooked up to the public line so they had to fix that too. In other news....Nicola has lost 2 bottom teeth (need another pic of the other one missing too). And my cousin Amye in Oz, got married over the weekend in a beautiful Burgundy dress.

Man with digger....

2010-09-04T14:44:00.004+12:00

Yay our horrible driveway is being ripped up!!!!! It was really interesting watching him using the laws of physics to break the concrete, well I thought so. See where the old garage door is lying down, that is our new courtyard where the spa is being moved to. Man with digger now scraping earth off for new carport & driveway. we found a garden gnome in the dirt. Also my hateful mound of dirt is finally gone along with the last of the Camellia's.

concrete!!!!!!!!

2010-08-31T19:32:00.007+12:00

Yay!!! The concrete was laid today!!!!
So here it is waiting for the concrete guys to arrive at 7:30am!!! Yes 7:30!!! So I was up & dressed so we could watch. They still hadn't arrived when we left for school & work.

But they arrived just after we got home so we could still watch. The kids just about died when they saw the fake tarantilas on the side of the concrete truck, they thought they were real, hehe. This is the first barrow load of concrete!!!!

Nicola, the builder & I watched the concrete men at work. It was quiet amazing how acurate they were & how level & smooth it was. Unskilled labour - my ass!

Almost finished, but they ran out of concrete so they hand mixed the extra barrow, or 2, that they needed.
Then they came back at 7:30pm to do another smooth thingy (& remove cats foot prints) Dunno how we are gonna keep the cat off it tonight......

I did some scrapping!!

2010-08-27T16:23:00.003+12:00

Are you as excited as I am? Prima & Making Memories paper, Prima Vines, handmade roses from the Kaiser blog, handmade dahlias from Kaiser blog, ribbon, Heidi Grace rubons, bling, diamond dust, glitter, dimensional magic, silk flowers from the warhorse (I am so classy) .......the list goes on. It was fun learning how to make the flowers :)

Day 4

2010-08-26T19:13:00.005+12:00

Plumber has been!!!!! We had to move the plumbing wastes from the upstairs bathroom to the other wall so we could cut out our new door. before.......

After......We came home yesterday from school/work to a house full of dust. It was hanging in the air & every surface is covered in it. The reason for the dust? our new study/laundry door was being cut out. Before.......

After......Hiccup number 1........There is supposed to be a 50mm step between the new & old floors (like in this pic of bedroom doorway) However as pic above, there is no step in laundry/study door. This is cos the original garage slab is not flat :( So the builder & I have been trying to figure out what we can do. The council wanted us to rip the whole floor out & relay it!!!!!!! We are already over budget!!!! That would add at least $5k & put us back at least a week. So we have a solution, it in not ideal, but is ok. We are going to have 50mm step/ramp up into new laundry. This will keep everyone happy & not cost us any more.

Day 1 of Renovations......

2010-08-23T20:53:00.007+12:00

We finished clearing out he garage & moved Daniel up stairs over the weekend. The kids are now sharing a room (this should be interesting) We bought our carpet at the Hills flooring sale over the weekend, which was good. we still need lino, tile & a vanity, but we still have time for them. This is the last night my car spent in the Chinese laundry/garage.

So today started fine with the kids & me being ready for work/school early. However when I went to take them to school the garage door spring broke; broke, not came off or anything fixable. The kids walked to school in the rain, but I was stuck! I waited for the builder to come & help me. He had to break the rest of the door to get my car out & I was late for work, but at least I was out We were very lucky that it was today & not last week or anything. The builder wasn't gonna take it off today, but sometime this week, so no biggie. But then I slammed my little finger in the car door, oooooowwwww!!!!! It really hurts. So not really a good start to the day/week.

At the end of day 1 the builders have ripped up the old carpet, taken the garage door off & taken some of the bricks down. Its really exciting!!

busy weekend

2010-08-15T20:22:00.003+12:00

Daniel got player of the day on Saturday! They let him keep his raincoat on cos it is team colours & he was goalie, which is his preferred position. He deflected every attempt at goal. I think he got POTD cos they were so shocked compared to last weeks performance (he was sent home 3/4 way through game cos he was just standing there, hehe)

The builder turned up to finish the shower & some subbies came past to give him quotes.

Daniel had his (very late) birthday sleep over with 4 of his best friends. They were pretty good really, played very nicely together. We did have to separate them around midnight cos they talk so loudly we weren't getting any sleep.

We have finished tidying out the garage & laundry, ready for the builder. We also replaced the ensuite shower door & ripped out the old vanity. When we took the vanity out we found that the gib board does not go all the way to the floor & there was a pile of rubble under it, sigh, Tony strikes again. We bought the network cables & bedside lights today. We have been looking at tiles too. It is all getting exciting now......

Time flys when u r having fun :)

2010-08-09T18:38:00.004+12:00

Wow a year ago tomorrow we were in hospital waiting for Scott's surgery. We were not allowed to go out for our anniversary & they kicked me out at 9pm :( He is all good now. He has lost heaps of weight & has never been fitter or healthier. 14 years ago we were excited about getting married tomorrow. Wow 14 years! So because last year was a bit of a bust we thought we might do something this year. So he got me just what I wanted, something sparkly & shiny......he got himself, I mean I got him, a new computer monitor.

My Pizza LO got declined from UP2 Scrap so I thought I would share it with you instead. The kids love turning the pizza to reveal the pic & remembering that funny day.

Been at bit stressed lately

2010-08-08T17:02:00.006+12:00

whole lot of stuff going on... but the good news is that we have our permit for our alterations & the builder is starting in a few weeks! We have been tidying & sorting. Daniel & Nicola will be sharing a room while they are being done, then the big swapping will begin. We can't wait!!! Nicola & I have even started stripping wallpaper down stairs :)

We found this baby Pixi Pic of Daniel in a box while we were tidying. Yes that is a Prima flower, but I made the pearl swirl thingy myself cos I wanted them that colour. Both of the frame papers are Xmas paper, I am trying to use them in non Xmas ways.

This frame is a SCAL that I made from a scanned pic. It can out really well I think. But I feel like the LO needs something else, if you have any suggestions please tell me. This photo is from Pipins, the girls all made flowers for mothers day :)

Daniel helped me choose the colours for this LO. It is SCAL file from SVG cuts.com, Memory Garden. I bought them awhile ago but hadn't had time to use them. When it was finished Daniel said he likes my LO even better than the original I was copying from :) I have trained him well.

Yes that is me! It was taken in '88 when we went on a family holiday to Surfers paradise in Oz. I was so excited when I got this pic taken. I am proud of myself for making the boarder star SCAL myself from individual stars.

mmmmmmmmm............contented sigh...........

2010-07-21T19:14:00.002+12:00

I feel good.......I just got back from seeing Sex & the City 2 at the movies. I was the only one in the whole theatre!!!! I had a bit of cabin fever after being stuck at home with the sick kids. I wanted to be with them, but they drove me crazy at the same time. Nicola is a much easier patient than Daniel. He gets 'man-flu' he groans & moans & has to sit on my lap & have me stroke his forehead, etc. Where as Nicola takes her medicine & goes to bed! So Scott got home early today & I went to the movies all by myself! It was great, I feel so much better having just sat there for over 2 hours watching these ridiculous women on the screen. The fashion was insane, I mean mega high heel in the desert or to sit in your apartment & watch TV?? Some of the outfits were great others hideous, but that is to be expected. I really related to the drunken chat the two mothers had :) I have the best husband in the world!!! ....contented sigh.......

As requested.....

2010-07-17T17:10:00.004+12:00

Whilst on holiday in New Plymouth Shona & I managed to get quite a bit of scrapping done. However I didn't take heaps so I got alot of LO's half done. I have done the titles, journalling etc now.

Yes I know he just turned 10, I am only 2 years behind, hehe.Pete & Shona helped me get the font for the title on this LO of my Cabbage Patch Kid when I was about 10.They had things that we had sold out of in the big smoke so I had fun. This LO is mostly from a $5 pack of Christina Re from Warehouse Stationary. Another LO from a $5 Christina Re pack. I really like how this one has come out, it's a bit different for me.

Holiday Time!!!

2010-07-07T18:30:00.003+12:00

For those of you that are interested the eyes are good. They still get a little tired & scratchy late in the evenings, but otherwise ok. I have gotten used to not looking for them in the morning, but still often go to take them off at night.

I am very stressed about the new guy at work. He has addmitted to lying about how much experience he has. He doesn't know the latest version of Vector Works like he said he did. Sigh.......It will be interesting to hear how he coped this week without me.

But I don't care I am on holiday!!!!!!

We have come down to New Plymouth to visit Pete, Shona & kids for the first week of the holidays. The kids are all getting on really well (most of the time). Daniel did the holiday programme at the local zoo, Poukai, being a zoo keeper for a day. He really enjoyed it. They got to feed the monkeys & sit in the Tiger Den while the tigers were right outside the gate. His favourite bit was holding the Blue Tongued lizard. They took heaps of photos which I shall upload when we get home.

Nicola & Elizabeth did a mosaic class at Fairy's Britches today. They enjoyed that & made heaps of craft.

Ok, off to have dinner now.....

yesterday

2010-06-23T09:22:00.001+12:00

Excitement at work

2010-06-22T19:07:00.003+12:00

Had another check up for my eyes this morning at the Eye Institute. It was all good & now I can just go to my normal optometrist for the rest of them. I have vouchers for $200 off if any body wants them just tell me. The lines on the photo of my eyeball are a stamp to help the computer line up the flap properly when they put it back down.

Nicola had her Jazz Medal test today. It's a bit annoying that they are during the week, but that's life. So she got her silver medal this year & is keen to continue onto the Christmas show. Mummy & Daddy aren't to pleased about that, I am NOT a dancing mother, but Bronte's mum helps & as long as Nicola is enjoying it she can keep going. So I got to work at 10:30 ish to see everyone standing in the driveway, I thought they were very annoying. It turns out the armed defenders squad had just turned up at a house across the road. I was lucky to get to work before they blocked off the road. They blocked the road at the Plaza & at the Panmure side of the bridge. There were at least 8 cop cars, police dogs, armed scary black ninja men (hehe). It was all rather exciting. That was until the gun fire started. There was about 6 shots & a very unhappy sounding dog yelping. But we decided he was complaining about being held back as he come out of house fine later (the dog that is). Another 2 shots were fired and it was all over. The armed defender's all came out of the house & drove away. An ambulance never arrived & 'normal' cops went into the house. So we were able to leave to pick up the kids from school, but still don't really know what happened. We think the shots were tear gas, they were very loud. I am so annoyed it was the one day I forgot my camera!

New me!!!!!

2010-06-19T18:36:00.008+12:00

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could see the moment the procedure was finished!!!!!!!!!!!!! It took all of 15 minutes for both eyes & didn't hurt at all. The eye drops that they put in before hand did sting a bit. It is a bit like the dentist when the injection is the worst part. This is me & my surgeon before the op. Yes my eyes do look at bit odd, they put iodine drops in them. I was amazed that they left me have photos but very happy. This is the most exciting thing that has happened to ME in ages! How many scrapbook pages do you think I can make out of it?This is the first machine which makes bubbles between the layers of your eye so that they can cut & lift the flap. You just have to look into 2 circles of lights (looks like a UFO, hehe) & then suddenly everything goes darkish & blurry. That is when they are gonna actually cut the flap thing. Then they move you over to another machine (can see like 'normal' then). I could see them lift & fold over the flap which was a bit weird & then my vision went blurry again. BTW it is not my teddy, they give him to you so you have something to hold onto so you don't try to touch anything.Don't know when this was taken, but I am pretty sure it is my right eye. Maybe I should ask at my next appointment. The second machine is the laser that does the correction. They don't hold your eye ball still, you just have to look at the red flashing light & the computer tracks your eye movement. They take ages doing something until the actual laser starts. It does not hurt but is quiet a loud tapping noise. Then they irrigate your eye which is probably the most uncomfortable bit, put the flap back over & you are done!!!!!!!!Don't I look sexy?? This is how you get to go home. This is about 20-30 mins after & I already have vision good enough to be able to drive!! They don't let you though because they have given you a sleeping tablet, hehe. Home to bed for the rest of the day. My eyes haven't hurt at all, the feel a bit clogged up with tears, drops, etc on my lashes & the corners of my eyes. I had to sleep with these shields on so that you don't rub your eyes accidentally. But they are off first thing in the morning. Still haven't had any pain, but they are a bit tired feeling. When I woke up I looked for my glasses out of habit even though I could see, LOL. Having a shower was funny too, I didn't know there were so many dents in our stainless steel shower tray, hehe.

Went for my check up this morning & we are all good. I have a little bit of blood in each eye, which is noramal & will go away in a few days. I feel a bit odd without my glasses tho. Now I can go & buy sunglasses that I like & I know what they look like before I pay for them! I am in shock at how well it has worked, it is fr**king amazing!!!!! Totally worth the money.

This is the me I see....

2010-06-17T15:14:00.004+12:00

This is what I see (more or less) when I look in the mirror. My eyes are -6 myopic with an astigmatism, until tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!! I will be "normal" for the first time in 25 years. It will be very interesting to see how my life will change. I can't concentrate on anything else, hehe.

In other news...I finally finished this LO I started on our girls weekend away. I shall have to do some research as to when the pic was taken. I know it was at Uncle David's house when papa was staying there because he was sick, but I can't remember when that was. I think about 2003.

A Heritage LO

2010-06-08T15:52:00.003+12:00

Used Kaiser paper to make this LO of Scott's parents engagement. This is heritage for me, hehe.

I am so excited!!!

2010-06-07T21:37:00.004+12:00

I keep jumping up & down!!!!!! I am getting my eyes lasered in 11 sleeps!!!!!!!!!! woohooo!!!!!! I have not been able to do it before because my eyes have not been stable until now. I am gonna be able to read the shampoo bottle in the shower!!!! I wont have to get my kids to find my glasses for me when i can't see them. I am wondering what life will be like, I mean I expect to be able see everything clearly.So I have been interviewing Scott on what he can & can't see. Buying sunglasses is gonna be exciting too cos for the first time ever I will be able to see what I look like in them before I buy them!I want to take a photo of what I can see now in case I forget how blind i was. but I am not sure how I will do that. I do feel a bit like a traitor to Daniel who has only just got his glasses, but not enough of one not to do it, hehe. No more foggy glasses, no more tricks being played on me cos I can't see.......I am so excited!!

Just a quick note...

2010-06-06T15:02:00.003+12:00

I made cards!!!!! So who fainted in shock when they saw this? hehe. I actually made 5, but I don't like the other 1, (the 3 year old boy it is for hopefully will) They are good for using up paper scraps, I am cheap tho they are all white on the inside, hehe. Do you like the present I made for my Sister-in-law? It is their engagement photo. But it is her & her 2 kids birthdays tomorrow so I wanted to give her something special too. Arent they cute? To my scrapping friends out there this frame was from spotlight, but once again not full 30x30, the outside of frame is, so I had to cut LO down :(

Fire Station, Birthday Party & Shopping!!

2010-05-30T11:25:00.013+12:00

Nicola's Pippins went to the Fire Station on Tuesday. It was really interesting, I have never been to one before either. She was a bit shy, climbing on me, etc & wouldn't try on the helmet like other kids did, but she still had fun playing with her friends. I learnt some interesting information too, like the fact that we have two of the calender boys at our local station (January & March) We didn't have any shortage of parent helpers either, almost as many adults as kids, hehe. Our local station does not have a pole being a one storey building, however one of the Firemen used to work in another station that did have a pole..... I said DID, OSH came in & deemed it unsafe & made them remove it!!! LOL!!!!!!!

We had Nicola's birthday party last night. It went really well apart from a few minor hic-ups. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We went to the kids favourite restaurant, Lone Star in Manukau. They love it because they have colouring in competitions while you are waiting for your food to arrive. Nicola keeps wining vouchers for free kids meals with her pictures, she gets very excited. She was easy to please this year, long may it last. She wanted dinner at Lone Star with her 3 best friends & a pink 'big' bike. She wanted her 'daycare' cake which is the easiest cake ever. We had fun dying marshmallows for the eyes oh her 'smile' cake. I am surprised at how well they dyed (you must use straight die tho, don't water it down)The kids stayed at mum & dad's on Friday night cos Scott had a work do on in town that I was invited to. I didn't have to be there until 9 so I went shopping all by myself. It was wonderful! No one nagging or being bored. I sent 2 hours trying on heaps of bra's & ended up finding one I liked, so I bought 2! The shops were really quiet which was a bit odd, but I had a lovely time, sigh.

Our baby is 6!!!!!

2010-05-24T16:35:00.007+12:00

Today is Nicola's 6th birthday. Wow my baby is growing up so fast. Apparently we are to call her Princess Pinkie-Pie Nicola, hehe. I finally finished her 5 year old party album & gave it to her today. She wanted to hold it for the photos.May has been a very busy month. Nicola got a bad cold & required 3 days off school. Then, of'course, mum & dad got sick but we had to keep going to work. Daniel had school camp the following week but seemed to not get sick. I figured he was to excited to get sick. I can't tell you anything about camp except that we got a call saying he was sick & did we want him to come home early. Scott talked to Daniel & he wanted to stay so he did. But when I picked him up from the bus he had no voice & had been sleeping with the parents/teachers & being dosed up on Pamol. The only thing he said was "It was ok, can we go home now?" He has said nothing else.

This past weekend I went away for the weekend, SCRAPBOOKNG!! It was only us 5 girls & we had a great time scraping, talking, & eating. I got heaps done including finishing Nicola's birthday album as above, the drawers for my second advent calender & the start of a couple of LO's. I will post them once they are finished.

National Scrapbooking Day

2010-05-02T15:20:00.003+12:00

was yesterday. I didn't get much scrapping done. I am still working on that LO that I had ideas for at work & it is coming along well, but slowly.

Nicola went on a class trip to Motat last week. She had such a great time & was telling me about this big black steam engine when I remembered these pics of Scott & I before we were married. So Nicola took them to school to show everyone how old Motat was! The world's fastest LO for National Scrapbooking day!

this one is for you.....

2010-04-19T20:56:00.005+12:00

...you know who you are.......or should I say me?
I have been so busy lately, but I dunno what I have been doing. Thankfully the school holidays are over, so life shall return to normal. I have been sewing & making jewellery & drawing house plans, none of which I have photos. I do however have these....

The kids went to Powerzone holiday programme last week. It is fantastic! It is run by Elim church & so well organised etc, the kids love it. This is what they looked like for "Wacky Hair Day" Nicola asked for spikes! this was the closest I could get. Had a case of "you get what you pay for" with the coloured hairspray, last time we got it from the $2 Shop, this time from the supermarket. It was 3 times the price, but a much brighter colour, didn't use the whole can & it didn't smell disgusting!!!

2 more LO's

2010-03-09T17:42:00.004+13:00

Another wedding LO off the list, cutting the cake. I used the PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) paper, co-ordinates & some bits & bobs on this page. It wasn't quick tho.

For this LO I used my SCAL software!!!!!! I had a little die cut house so I scanned it, increased the size & cut the words out of it. This is the page the printer didn't want to co-operate with, but Scott finally got it going 4 me.

Kaiser Christmas/School LO

2010-03-02T20:50:00.006+13:00

I did this LO of Nicola's pre-school visits using all Kaiser Xmas paper (Turtle Dove, Sleigh Ride, Kris Kringle & Merry Christmas). Why you ask, because the paper packs were sitting on my desk from the Spotlight sale (yes I am that messy). I stamped the background with alphabet stamps after I had stuck all the papers together, there was a strip I wanted to keep from the back of 1. I used my alphabet brads that I have had forever along the top. I know it's not that exciting, but an important moment in her life (& mine!)

Love Languages

2010-02-28T19:03:00.002+13:00

Some friends & I were having a discussion about Love Languages the other day. If you haven't heard about them , it is a book by Gary Chapman called 5 Love languages. They are: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Physical Touch, Quality Time, & Gifts. For more information see their web site here. Anyway it suddenly dawned on my (light bulb moment) that my daughters love language must be gifts. She always wants to take extra money on ice block day incase any of her friends have forgotten theirs, & she has taken to wrapping up & giving away her toys to her friends, just because she loves them. So since this L.B.M. (light bulb moment) I have tried to be more tolerant of her wanting to do this. I have to put restrictions on what she can give away, at the moment she is making cards for everyone! Daniel is touch, like his mum,hehe.

Happy Valentines Day :-)

2010-02-16T16:29:00.006+13:00

(yes I know I am late) Valentines day was Scott & my 18 year anniversary. As in the anniversary of our first date. We went on our first date to MacDonald's with a friends youth group. (Well we were only teenagers) It was quite ironic that he was here from England on Sunday cos we haven't seen them for years!

Weren't we cute?

It was a busy weekend with Nicola's first Jazz class for the year on Saturday morning, followed by looking at carports, then we were off to Hamilton for a friends wedding. The kids were sooooo good. We didn't realise they were going to be the only kids there, but they were angels (for a change) Daniel just had his ipod plugged in & Nicola stood around looking so pretty that everyone wanted pics of her, but she went all shy. The wedding was lovely & they even managed to not get rained on. It was in the Hamilton Gardens.

Then on Sunday we had a BBQ with friends visiting from England. It was lovely to see them as their twin boys are only 2 weeks older than Nicola. We had them married off at one stage, hehe.

Scott installed my new computer at work in the afternoon, which was very boring, but good. So I have been trying to get to grips with the new programme as well as actually working on the old one at the same time, it is very confusing!

Mum & I went to NZS Kaiser Q3 Product Preview on Wednesday night. It was nice to have some quality time with Mum.

Finally got my Christmas present...

2010-01-31T15:59:00.002+13:00

.....Sure Cuts A Lot!!!!! I have been dying to get this programme for ages as I am frustrated by the limitations on the Cricut Design Studio Software. I friend put me on to this amazing blog which I have been downloading files from for ages even tho I was unable to cut them yet. So I finally downloaded it the other day & cut this cool oval frame. I used my alcohol inks to give it that mottled effect. The photo is of me & my little bro & had an oval fade mark around it from years in a frame so I made my oval the same size. The felt bird & branch I bought ages ago & we so expensive I have had it sitting in my stash for ages!

Is school back yet? Please!

2010-01-28T15:44:00.007+13:00

Life's been a bit of a headache this week. I left it to the last minute to try & organise something for the kids this week. Our usual holiday programme isn't running for some reason. They are all so expensive, like $100 per day per child!!!! Some of them wouldn't take Nicola & others wouldn't take Daniel, because of their age differences, Daniel is now a Senior, whereas Nicola is still a Junior so requires a higher adult to child ratio. I finally got them into one that is only $25 per day per child.When I turned up on the Monday to drop them off, they told me I had talked to the wrong person & they were already fully booked!!!!!!!! So they could take Daniel for the whole week, but not Nicola. Thankfully Nad's came to the rescue & Nicola could go there. Next week isn't looking good either. A lot of programmes don't run cos some schools are back (like mums) but ours doesn't go back till Thursday.

I have finally finished making Nicolas new blinds & they are much better than her old curtains, easier behind the bunk. They are a beautiful pink taffeta with sequins along the bottom. A pic you ask? Well the rest of her room is a bomb site so no pic atm. They didn't end up the way I wanted them, but they are still nice.
We went for a walk along the beach last night. It was beautiful. Nicola swam, Daniel was grumpy, Scott got eaten by sea lice! But it was weird standing there in the sea, in the sunshine & on the horizon we could see & hear a thunder storm! Where we were there was hardly a breath of wind & no clouds in the sky, but I rushed home & got washing off line, but it never made it to us.

I have started working on Nicola's mini album for her 5th birthday again. Hopefully it will be done by the 6th!! I made this really cute shaker box.

Back to work again...

2010-01-16T18:01:00.014+13:00

It's been a busy week.

We went to New Plymouth to visit friends last weekend. The kids had both had sleep over on Thursday night so I thought they would sleep most of the the way, but Nicola only slept for about 20 minutes & Daniel read his book the whole way! We stopped in Te Kuiti for a stretch & Nicola saw Popa & Uncle Gary sitting on a bench having a stretch too. I can't believe she spotted them, it's not like we knew they would be there. They were on their way back from a motorcycle tour of the South Island. New Plymouth was cool, literally, much colder than Auckland. I felt bad I hadn't packed warmer clothes for the kids but they didn't seem to mind. We went up the mountain, looked at the lake, went to the local scrapbooking shop Jackies, went to the Light Festival in Pukekura Park, had dinner on the shore under the wind wand, went to Brooklands Zoo for lunch (it's free!!!), & lazed around. The kids loved rowing the boats in the lake at Pukekura Park with Uncle Peter while we waited for it to get dark, they even wanted to go out again later. The Lights were cool! The kids loved it, especially the way daddy shoe laces glowed in the black lights area (more pics on Scott's blog). Of course I had to go to the local scrapbooking shop & I even found things I NEEDED to buy, hehe. I got some paper & some alcohol ink mixatives (pearl & copper) which Crafty Tart is out of stock. The 'boys' (Scott & Pete) got rather involved with attempting to modify some 'Nerf' guns to remove the child safe parts & make them super-charged, then they spent the rest of the weekend target practising on flies! It was really good to catch up with Peter, Shona & the girls again.

We came hone on Sunday night (again the children didn't sleep for the 5 hour trip) We went to Miranda Hot Springs with Evan, Hanne, Gran & Grandad. They have done up the pools since the last time we have been there & it is quiet nice. Nicola learnt to swim without her floaties while we were there! We are so proud of her. She loves her Uncle Evan & spent the whole time with him, it was so cute.

Unfortunately I had to go back to work on Wednesday, but Scott was a home with the kids. He has started repainting the house, it's very exciting! It looks so nice. I don't know who names the colours the windows are 'Self Destruct', weatherboards ' half Norsewood', & door is 'Terrible Billy', lol!!!!

Evan & Hanne have gone back to Denmark on Thursday, Scott & the kids went to see them off at the airport while I was at work. It was really good seeing them again & we shall miss them.

In between all of this I got a few LO's done, sewed 3 kids handbags & made 1 for me.

This is a metal vanity case I bought ages ago thinking it would make a nice evening handbag, big enough for lipstick, money, cellphone, sunnies, etc, but not all the junk I normally carry around. I put Basic Grey & Kaiser rubons on it, then Kaiser & Zva Creative bling, black kindyglitz, satin & other ribbons. I Dimensional Magic the whole thing so that the rubons wouldn't rub off & so that things wouldn't stink to the sticky bits between the bling. I wrapped the metal handle with satin ribbon & tied bows at each end. I think it's cool, although a bit difficult to open in hurry.Nicola loves her soft toy animals, but not cats & dogs like other kids, she likes tigers, cheetahs, lions, giraffe, elephants, etc. I wanted to get her one of those animals in a bag for Christmas, but it wasn't quiet her thing so I set out to make her something. I could also see that a hand held bag would get put sown & lost so thought a satchel type bag would be better. This is what I came up with. I had to make one for her best friend also cos they are 'twins'. She is very happy with it & now one of her friends comes with us everywhere. i made another 1 as well thinking I would have them done in time for Xmas & sell it, what do u think?I finally used some of that lovely Bo Bunny paper I bought awhile ago, I love it!

It started with a BANG!

2010-01-03T19:57:00.003+13:00

2010 that is. Evan & Hanne came over for dinner then we put the kids to bed for a few hours. We woke them up at 11pm & went into the CBD to watch the fireworks off the Sky Tower at midnight. The kids really enjoyed being out that late at midnight, a very special treat for them. Mummy was a bit nervous about having them out with all the crazy people on New Year's Eve I was wondering what sights I might have to explain to them. Luckily we only encountered some bad language & people peeing in inappropriate places (they didn't notice that). Nicola had the time of her life being passed between her uncle & dad with her feet hardly touching the ground all night. Daniel just cuddled up on my lap trying to keep out of the breeze. I couldn't believe how many people were at the viaduct to welcome in the new year, it was amazing.

New Years day started with a sleep-in!!! What a great way to start the year!!! Then had a lazy day.

Yesterday Scott went fishing on his kayak in the morning & me & the kids hit the shops! I got some really good Xmas scrapbooking bargains from Spotlight; $56 worth of stuff for $14!!! I was looking for some stuff to finish making the bag I was supposed to have made for Nicola & Bronte for Xmas but didn't get around to it. Unfortunately they didn't have stuff I need at Spotlight or Warehouse & Specialty stores weren't open so we will have to wait till Tuesday :-( It's a bit annoying cos I have got sewing stuff everywhere but I don't wanna pack it away just to get it out again, but I might loose my enthusiasm before Tuesday, hehe.

Today was spent with Scott fishing again, this time in his friends tinnie. The kids & i went visiting & then came home for a swim. Had friends for take-aways for dinner & another swim. What an awesome summer!!

This is what summer is all about....

2009-12-30T16:49:00.006+13:00

Yay!!! the stress of Christmas is over & the holidays finally feel like they have begun. We have been swimming, having BBQ's, bouncing on the new trampoline, have friends over for a few drinks, etc. I have even finally got a sleep in this morning, which was nice. The top pic is Scott throwing Nicola, the lower is Daniel & Uncle Evan who is visiting from Denmark for Christmas this year.

I think I have found my mojo again too!!! Maybe it was hiding with this years Christmas Spirit? Nicola & I have just finished a LO of her at a friends birthday party with her face painted. It was her idea to put he heart in the middle of the flower & I think i t looks cool. What this space I think we have an up-and-coming junior scrapper on my hands

I think I have a hang over!

2009-12-29T15:23:00.002+13:00

hehe, this is blog worthy cos it's my first one ever! We were playing drinking games with friends the other night & it turns out they all started cheating on the shots except me! I felt fine yesterday, but this morning I feel like my head is floating 3 feet above my body, very weird. You will be pleased to know I am feeling better now (had some food & lots of water). And no I didn't get to sleep in, the kids were in bed with me saying 'shhh, mummy's sleeping' is very loud voices, hehe.

Merry Christmas to you all!

2009-12-26T13:29:00.010+13:00

Well here we are on the 'other side' of Christmas. The kids had a great day yesterday, but Santa did forget about us adults :-( Yesterday morning started bright & early with the kids ringing Nana & Popa at 6:30 to "hurry up" They did ok, but knew most of there presents cos they had helped us choose. Daniel was most excited about his 'Club Penguin' Igloo & Nicola was excited about getting her own real camera (now she doesn't have to borrow mums) They were also very excited when they saw that Santa bought them a trampoline!!! They both think they heard Santa & his elves building it on Christmas Eve. Then we were off to lunch at Craig & Mel's & more pressies. The highlights for me were the dress mum gave me (that we chose together on Christmas Eve) & the scrapbooking stuff Evan & Hanne brought from their holiday in Sweden, (how cool is that!) So after stuffing ourselves with 3 courses of lunch, we went to Nana & Popa's for 'dinner'!! We were so full but yet we still ate more, lol! My Lemon Meringue Pie went down well, but the kids weren't impressed & only ate strawberries & ice-cream all day.

Another early start this morning (third in a row!!!) & we were off to the boxing day sales for presents for mummy & daddy. The kids got to spend their Xmas money & dad got a new fishing rod, (guess where he is right now). I managed to squeeze in a quick stop at a jewelery store & got myself a half price dress ring, but still haven't found any togs I like :-(

No I still haven't finished the advent calander, it is looking good, but i am getting 'over it'. Yes I know the drawers are upside down. When we took the lollies out & counted that day I didn't know what to do with them so I just put them back in upside down so they didn't get lost or damaged. If I am lucky I might have it finished by next Xmas (don't mention the other 2 I bought for presents,ok). I found some tiny playing cards in a Christmas Cracker & have swiped them for my scrapbooking.

Anyone seen my mojo?

2009-12-11T14:29:00.002+13:00

I seem to have lost it. I have 1 advent calander to finish & another 2 I haven't even started (still in their wrapping) I just look at my desk & ......nothing. I have some presents to be made too, hmmmmm, think they will be birthday presents now.

Summer Hockey.....

2009-11-25T20:44:00.002+13:00

So have you noticed I have been rather quiet on this subject lately? Well....they have lost the last 2 games! The funny thing is I think the parents are more upset than the kids, lol. They don't seem to mind at all, but us parents are getting frustrated at how uncommitted & unenthusiastic they are. Daniel still want to play every week, but misses having a practise as well as a game. He saved 4 goals (playing goalie) this week, so that was good as we have always been a bit bad on defence. So I told him that Scott had to go to a dinner cos he was nominated for an award the other night & Daniel asked if he would get a medal if he won. I said no, probably nothing but a certificate & shake of the hand. i said the only time adults get medals is in the Olympics & he said that was ok cos he is gonna be in the Black Sticks! What an awesome life goal! I said "go for it!"

Update on Scott. He is back at work full time & has finally figured out the stupid blood machine to check his INR levels at home. He is getting alot more active, but still not really up to kayaking (although he wishes he was!) Thanks for everyone's thoughts and payers through our difficult time.

Homemade Smiley Pizza

2009-11-19T17:18:00.004+13:00

So my BFF is sick & went into hospital for surgery yesterday; so I looked after 2 of her kids so that her hubby could visit her. Their kids & ours are great friends, in fact Nicola & Jude are married (one of the older kids at school married them apparently) To keep them occupied & distracted we made home made pizza's for dinner. The kids had heaps of fun making the dough (thanks Shona for the recipe) & then decorating them. We made 2, one for the big kids & 1 for the little kids. Here are the little kids with their creation.And this is closeup of there smiley pizza. (Big kids didn't want a photo)

Another 1!

2009-11-11T15:05:00.002+13:00

Nicola just helped me finish this page that I started over the weekend. She does like to sleep in funny places!

Sketchbook Retreat

2009-11-11T13:46:00.004+13:00

The weekend was FABULOUS as usual!! Lianne's canvas class was really enjoyable, so much so I have started to make 3! I haven't finished with the photo transfers on the first one & the third only has its paint on it, but this is the second one. It is a pressie for my girlfriend (don't think she checks my blog) When she told me her son said this I just had to capture it for her (she is not a scrapbooker) I am sure everyone (except the kids) thought I was mad making them pose in the elevator at Borders, but I probably am! This Lo is from the Crafty Tart goodie bag. The paper is Bo Bunny & I LOVE Bo Bunny atm, it is so cute! I used some glass sprinkle thingies on the trees (thanks Heidi) Not a very exciting Lo, but hey,

I am at home with Nicola for the second day in a row, poor thing has a high temp & threw up in our bed this morning. She seems to be getting better as she has had lunch today. Scott is staying home tomorrow if she isn't well enough to go to school.

Sketchbook Retreat this weekend!!!!

2009-11-03T19:51:00.002+13:00

Hmm, when do you think I should start packing? I am thinking Friday afternoon? or do you think Thursday night? I have my costume organised, but that's about it. Poor Scott has a busy day on Sunday with the kids on Sunday, 2 parties to go to! (He is so excited)

Daniel had his third game of summer Hockey this afternoon & guess what? they won! Is this getting boring....NOPE!

Long weekend is over :-(

2009-10-27T14:34:00.010+13:00

We had a good weekend. On Saturday I slept in & then we went to Dress Mart & got Scott some new shoes. The kids really enjoyed being dragged around, NOT! They spent their pocket money on Friday night. Daniel got a Club Penguin thing & Nicola got a cute soft toy tiger which I have had to make a collar, lead & name badge for. I have been wanting a new pair of casual shoes & I didn't see anything I liked at Dress Mart so I spent Saturday night on the net researching, & look what I found! Aren't they cool? I got the black/silver ones. They are like Melissa's ones that I have been coveting. On Sunday we took the kids to the Botanical gardens in Manurewa, Nicola went there on her class trip on Friday so she wanted to show it to us. I got sun burnt!!!! Unfortunately the kids didn't feel like posing for photos so I still don't have 1 for the present I am making. Then we had friends over for the first BBQ of the season for dinner!!! Scott took Daniel to the annual geek fest (otherwise know as Armageddon) on Monday morning which Nicola & I watched Barbie movies from bed. Then we had MacDonald's Hot Cakes for breakfast & I didn't even make her get out of her PJ's (we drove through). Then the kids went to the park with Nana & Poppa in the afternoon. All round a great weekend, even the sun shone!

This is the LO I did over the weekend with one of my new Bo Bunny papers, Nicola 'helped'

Gingerbread Mans

2009-10-23T16:05:00.003+13:00

Nicola's class was studying Fairy Tales last term, so 1 day they made Gingerbread men. (Nicola calls them mans) The colours are a bit off in this photo, it is more purple & pink. The gingerbread stickers are cut from some Christmas embellishments I had. This is the school frame I have been working on. Sorry the photo was taken through the glass. It is to record the changes in the kids through primary & Intermediate using the little photos you get & never use from school. I have also made one for Nicola. Now I need to find Daniels Year 1 photo, it will be around somewhere.

I made a card!!!

2009-10-18T19:20:00.003+13:00

Those of you who know me know I don't do cards, hence I felt the need to post this 1. My girlfriends birthday is day after mine so we call each other 'almost twins'. I saw these stamps at Spotlight the other day & thought they were so cute. I so wish I looked like the 'stamp chick'! hehe

It's that time of the year again........

2009-10-09T16:51:00.007+13:00

My birthday!!!! hehe. Look at all the lovely paper I got from Scrapbook Outlet from my lovely husband. It is mostly Bo Bunny paper & a bit of Glitz paper, with some Prima Pearls & a stamp. I LOVE the Bo Bunny paper, I saw it on Raewyn's blog & knew I had to have some. We have a pool so have heaps of water pics in summer & these papers will be great. And a really cool 12 x 12 stencil which I am dying to try my glimermist with.

My boss gave me the day off today so I spent the day with mum. We went to Joe's Emporium in Howick to look for inspiration for my idea of what I want to make Nicola for Xmas. So now I have it planned & materials bought. Mum bought me a cuttlebug for my birthday/xmas present. I gave her the alphabet dies that came with it for her, cos I have the Cricut. Daniel gave me a lovely picture saying I am the best mum in the world! Nicola gave some flowers & lots of cuddles & kisses. The in-laws gave me some money which has already been spent on scrapbooking stuff. And my BF gave me chocolate!!! We are off to dinner with the kids at Lone Star now :-) It has been a great day!

It's blog updating day

2009-10-05T17:12:00.006+13:00

Everyone on facebook is updating their blogs so I thought I would too. It's sooo freezing today that huddling by the computer sounds like a great idea. It's supposed to be spring!! & it is only about 8 degrees.

Anyway.....these are the last two of my school LO's. I am now up-to-date!!!! I still have Daniel's hockey photo to do, but it can wait, I am sooo over these, they are very limiting. The silver didn't show up very well on this photo, some of the butterflies are silver foil. This is last years photo for Daniel, the card has all my gripes & complaints about how his year at school went, but is hidden because I don't really want it to be read by everybody, but I needed to say it.

In other news....we went to Nicola's friends place to watch the boxing on Saturday night, wow! what a match! Tua rocks!!!!! The kids were still up & playing nicely when we left at 11:30pm! They didn't even sleep in on Sunday morning, or have a nap (mummy & daddy did)

Grease is the word

2009-09-29T19:37:00.002+13:00

GREASE (the original movie)
Sunday 11 October
1 pm
SkyCity St Lukes Cinemas
$10 tickets
NOTE: It is allocated seating.
Please let me know before midday Friday 02 Oct if you will DEFINITELY be coming and I’ll make a block booking to get us all seated together)
So… who’s coming?!

More school layouts

2009-09-27T09:54:00.004+13:00

I am still working my way through the kids school photos.It is amazing to see how much they had grown, you don't notice when you see them everyday. So now I have decided I should make a frame for their photos to show their growth, (not that I have finished the LO's yet).

For the 2007 LO I used my alcohol inks to colour the frame & the numbers. Not sure if they were such a good purchase, they are really cool but I don't have many glossy things to use them on. Dora & friends were cut from stickers of Nicola's cos she loved Dora. For the 2006 LO I used the butterfly left over from the LO we did at the retreat. Theses daycare LO's are much more colourful than the school ones, so I thought I would go with that. Those are sequins around the main pic.

Hockey prize giving

2009-09-21T13:27:00.011+12:00

It was Daniel's hockey prize giving on Saturday. The whole team got a medal each & Daniel got a special award for his team spirit. It was so cute. Just a shame they had to give their uniforms back last week, would have been even cuter if they were all dressed alike rather than in mufti.

Finished Janine's LO

2009-09-18T17:56:00.004+12:00

Yes I know it doesn't look anything like Janine's original LO, but......I changed the papers to match my photo & used my new alchol inks to make the swirl on transperancy. The cool effect on the chipboard swirl was created by accident, this is the 'back' of it! I don't have a distressing tool so I sanded the background cardstock instead, looks good cos it has a white core.

In other news....Daniel had his last game of hockey on saturday, they won!!! 7-2, that means they have been unbeaten all season! The prize giving is this weekend so that should be fun, then on to summer hockey.

Paper Symphony Spring Break

2009-09-15T16:30:00.010+12:00

Last weekend was the Paper Symphony Spring Break Scrapbooking Retreat. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go. It had been 4 1/2 weeks since Scotts operation & he had a wisdom tooth pulled out on Friday! He was in agony & ended up going to ED for some voltarin on top of his Codine & panadol. He felt much better after that & said I could still go away. Aint he lovely! I really needed the break. The retreat was in Waves Motel in Orewa. I was an hour or so late because we had to wait for the pharmacy to open so Scott could fill his perscription. It was a nice small group of only 8 ladies (including me) & the tables were set up so we could all talk & socialise.

First class was by Melissa on Saturday morning. Here is mine:

I love the ribbon frill & had my first go at using alchol inks on the flowers & butterfly. I also found my Marrakech stickers were the right colour too! We made up some glimmer mist from ink & perfect pearl to spray the Buzz & Bloom corners with. I love the alchol inks, so much fun! I had to get some!!!!!! The picture is of my 'Year 0" class. I drew a cirle with kindy glitz around me cos I don't know anything else about that school, I was not there for long.

I took all the kids school class photos I have lying around cos I have been a bit stumped on how to scrap them, so that was my goal for the weekend. So I didn't do Janines class on Sunday, but took kit home & will upload it when I am done. I am very pleased with getting the kids 2009 school photos done, 1 double LO for Nicola & a single for Daniel. I used my favourite Kaiser Bohemian paper (think I only have 1 or 2 sheets left :-(

Book Week Parade

2009-09-09T15:26:00.006+12:00

The kids had Book Week at school last week. On Friday they had to dress up as a character from a book. Daniel went as Aipom from Pokemon & Nicola wanted to go as a Princess cos her class is studying Fairy Tales. She was just gonna wear her party dress, the I got the guilt's about making Daniel's' costume & not hers so I decided to make her a dress. I already had some fabric, I love buying fabric from the specials bin a Spotlight. It took me 2 days to make!! I decided it might have been cheaper to buy her a Disney dress but they were $50-$60!!!!! I made the over skirt out of that cool shimmery fabric they used to make Barbie dresses out of, but I wont be sewing with it again!!!! I would sew a seam on the over locker & it would just pull apart! By the time she came home from school the hem was already pulled off, which was very upsetting to her & me! I also sewed her a new bookbag as hers broke.

Scott has been given the all clear to drive again, yay!!!! So now he has some independence back & is much happier, (so am I!). I am getting to go to the Paper Symphony Retreat this weekend afterall!!!!!!!!!!!! It's only for Saturday night. Dad is taking Scott & Daniel to hockey on Saturday (his last game). Nicola has her best friend Bronte's birthday party on Sunday morning; so the kids wont miss me at all!

I haven't done any scrapbooking for ages. I am still half way through week 3 of the inovations/crafty tart challenge & they have finished week 6! Mybe I will get it done this weekend.

Win some blog candy over at Paper Symphony

2009-08-26T15:50:00.005+12:00

Paper Symphony is giving away some nice Buzz & Bloom stuff on their website. I love Buzz & Bloom!! See it here

Well Scott's been home for a week now. There have been good times & not so good. He is still having difficulty getting comfortable for sleeping (I have been taking his sleeping pills!!) He did make it out to sit on the sideline for Daniel's hockey on Saturday, which was nice for Daniel. (of'course they won!) I went back to work on Monday, so poor Scott is home alone without transport bored out of his tree & it's still awhile before he can drive again. We are all much happier now that Daddy is home with us. The kids seem to be completely unaffected by it all.

Oh & Daniel came 13th in his school cross-country. He was very excited & disappointed. He bet the kids he wanted to beat, but missed out on going to inter-school competition by 1 place!

He's coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-18T09:48:00.006+12:00

He has been up & down alot in the last few days, even developing a new pain & irregular heart beat, but he has been cleared to come home lunchtime today!!!!!!!!!!! Now my hard work starts. I have missed him so much I have been neglecting myself & the kids to spend time with him in the hospital. Will keep you posted, right now I have to clean the house & then go to pick him up.

On another topic this is my week 2 entry for the latest Crafty Tart competition. I had to go & take special photos around the house for it, but I am happy with the result. I kept the white background (been a loooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnngggg time since I did a white page!), but my photos are colour. I love the way the colours pop out at you. I kept the journalling like the add & also put my title in the same sort of place. So basically i had used it as a sketch for my LO. It is so simple yet so effective. They are currently up to week 4, but I have not even had the chance to think about scrapbooking lately.

Happy Anniversary?

2009-08-13T15:34:00.008+12:00

Right now where was I up to?

Saturday. We picked Scott up from Middlemore & he came to watch Daniel's hockey game (they won again!) Then we went to the beach for lunch & some sun. Scott was tired by the time we got him back to the hospital.

Sunday The kids went to their friends houses to play, mum picked them up at 4. I spent the day keeping Scott company in hospital. It is so nice that the kids are happy at mums & I don't have to worry about them.

Monday Scott was supposed to be moved to Auckland Hospital at 10am so I went to work. At 12:30 he was still waiting!!! My boss tried to cheer me up by taking me to one of the building site I had drawn (I don't get to see many finished houses), that was cool. I went straight from work to Auckland hospital to see Scott (yes he finally got transferred). Unfortunately I missed seeing the surgeon. Scott was very upset when I got there & the nurses were worried about him. I could just see them postponing his surgery cos they were concerned about his mental state, so I had to find out what the problem was. It turned out that no-one has ever told us the results of the various tests they have been doing over the last few months, but the surgeon knew. Apparently his aorta was dilated meaning all the research Scott had been doing on mechanical valves was a waste of time cos his condition was now different to what we thought it was. So I told this to the nurse who explained the differences to us in lay mans terms. apparently the surgery is the same, so are the risks, it is just a valve with aortic extension the put in rather than just a valve. So we felt much better after that. They scheduled his surgery for 7:30 am on the Tuesday. But when they kicked me out at 9:30pm it still wasn't definite cos he needed a CT scan to measure the dilation before the surgery & he still hadn't had that. He did get the CT during the night. Oh & it was our wedding anniversary & he had to take his ring off.

Tuesday I went to work to keep my mind off things. They told us surgery was gonna be 4 hours, but it was 8. Apparently it is a bit complicated removing the homograph valve then putting in a new mechanical one. Scott parents & I finally got to see him about 6pm. When I first walked into ICU I was so relieved to see him still alive, we were both so scared, but the longer we were there the more obvious it was that something was wrong. He was still bleeding & they had tried all sorts of clotting agents so they decided to take him back into surgery to see if they could find the problem. It was so scary watching them all run around him not really having any idea what was going on & feeling so helpless. The surgeon sent us home saying he would ring & he did, they fixed it. Mum came home with me to help me put the kids to bed. Then she gave me a sleeping tablet after we got the call from the surgeon.

Wednesday. Mum came over to help get kids off to school, I was still half asleep with my sleeping tablet. Then she took me to hospital to see Scott, I didn't trust myself to drive. Wow! Scott was sitting up & off the ventilator. He was drugged to the eyeballs & kept coming & going from consciousness. He kept asking what day it was. I didn't tell him about the complications from night before, figured he didn't need to know that right now, he just needed to get better. the staff at the hospital were amazing! I was so shattered that I went home after lunch & his dad went to visit him. I picked up the kids from school like a normal day, Nicola & I watched Spongebob while Daniel played on the computer. Mum & dad brought us dinner.

Thursday Visiting hours are 11 till 1 so I went to work for a bit this morning, then went into the hospital. I can't believe how much better he looks, when I said that to him he gave me a filthy look & said he didn't believe me, I guess that was the lack of morphine talking! He is obviously uncomfortable, but in a ward bed & eating a little bit of food. He is still very sleepy. The kids have been asking to see him so I am gonna take them after hockey practice tonight, just for a few minutes.

It's been a long week.

2009-08-07T19:40:00.007+12:00

Monday was normal.

Tuesday was Nicola's first class trip, so I got the day off work to go with her as they needed a 1:4 ratio. We walked to the local supermarket bakery. The most exciting part was getting an iceblock! Kids, hehe. Because I had taken the whole day off I decided to spend the afternoon putting my scrapbooking in chronological order. To do this I had to take apart about 6 albums & spend them over lounge floor. I was still doing this when the kids came home from school, & when Scott came home from work & when Scott told me he wanted me to take him to the hospital! Turns out he was having chest pains. So I phoned mum & she came & picked up the kids & I drove him as fast as I could to the Middlemore ED. I dropped him at entrance & went to find a park. He was already in a bed, hooked up to machines by the time I got there. He had blood tests & was on monitors & oxygen & we waited & waited. Scott was feeling heaps better on the oxygen, but they needed to admit him overnight cos they needed to do more tests in 8 hours to compare results. We were so bored waiting we started pretending we were extras on Shortland Street & were guessing which nurses were sleeping with which Doctors etc. Scott was so bored he even let a student Dr ask him questions, etc, apparently Scott is very exciting to student Drs. So eventually I left at 10ish cos I was so exhausted & I still needed to pick up the kids & go home to bed. As soon as I left the ED I started crying, it was so horrible to leave him there. I rang my girlfriend & she calmed me down enough to make it to mu parents. I lost control completely when I saw mum, but felt much better after a good cry. I took the kids home to bed & was asleep myself the moment my head hit the pillow.

Wednesday I sent the kids off to school & then went to the hospital. he had been moved into the short stay department awaiting a ward bed not long after I had left the night before. I seem to be jinxed, when ever I go to the toilet or go for a walk; a dr arrives, he gets moved or something. So they have decided to admit him now until his surgery.

Thursday I went to work, spoke to kids teachers so they know what is going on. i took kids to see him in the evening so they would know daddy is ok. They will not be able to visit him in hospital after his surgery. Nicola thought it was great fun. She made daddy bed go up & down, spoke to the nurses & other patients & weighed herself on the weighing chair (17.6kg) Daniel was reading the Top Gear mag I got for Scott, so he was fine too.

Friday. Scott rang this morning, he hadn't had a good night with his room-mate dying. So I took day off work again to spend some time with him. I was even there when cardiologist visited (woohoo). Hopefully he will be having surgery on Tuesday, so will be moving to Auckland hospital on Monday. My girlfriend picked the kids up from school this afternoon & I had a nap.

Tomorrow they are letting him out of hospital for a couple of hours to watch Daniels hockey game, which will be so nice cos it is the last one he will be able to attend. It is funny little things I am noticing while he isn't here. Like I had to do rubbish this morning & I don't know how to pay the bills, etc.

So that is my week & I am exhausted.

Kaiser's Scrap your Summer competition

2009-08-03T15:33:00.007+12:00

There is a competition on the Kaiser blog to use your summer photos with either of their new summer paper collections, either 'Pina Colada' or 'Off Shore'. I used the 'Off Shore' collection & some dark blue rhinestones. I loved the way the orange brought out the colour in the kayak but still keeping a beach theme.

Crafty Tart's Innovation challenge 1

2009-08-01T18:00:00.005+12:00

It's that time again! these challenges are a bit different so the easiest way is probably to check out the site your self here. This is my take on the challenge. I looked through some old photos of me growing up (as I like to for a change from always doing the kids). Anyway I found these photos with pink in them with my 'PERM!!!!" so I thought that I could put them with the beautiful glitz paper for a contrast to how I wish I looked. The flowers are cut from Bo-Bunny paper & layered with foam tape. I used the parenthesis in my title & sideways below the journalling. I just loved the contradictions on this page "Beautiful Disaster" hehehehe

I already have some ideas for this weeks challenge,yay! bring them on!

On another topic.....Daniels game of hockey was very tense today! They ended up with a draw (unbeaten record remains intact) but wow it was close; the score kept going from them, to a draw, to us, to a draw............ All the parents for our team went home with very sore thoats from shouting. But everyone had fun!

Oops, I forgot to put up the Sewing technique Challenge LO. I did the page on the right ages ago, but had no ideas for the facing page. It all came together rather well with that Basic Grey Marrakech paper (that I said I didn't like, but was given). I have actually used it heaps, the stickers are awesome. These are photos of me when I was little 4-5years. My grandparents when they came to visit from South Africa & my Auntie Elaine. As for the sewing...well only used to tied buttons into flowers centres & ribbon on, but hey.