Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Decorations

Well, our house is slowly getting more festive looking.

The tree is no longer naked, standing in a bucket of water and leaning up against the wall. It now has lights and decorations up to about the height of Rebekah. We even have some pretty Christmas looking lights outside. It's a start!

I've been playing with patterned paper decorations. As seen at Scrapbook Essentials in my gallery folder.



The big star and the ball are basic grey designs. The little star is folded using strips of paper. This link may help if you want to give it a go. I think it would look great in Cosmo Cricket paper or the double sided Basic Grey.

Gotta go finish sorting the teacher's gifts ready for the last day of school tomorrow. Hope your Christmas is looking more organised than mine!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

On the twelfth day of Christmas...

...My true love gave to me

Twelve piupius swinging
Eleven haka lessons
Ten juicy fish heads
Nine sacks of pipis
Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five - big - fat - pigs !

Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!


And so with this post the 12 days are over, just one day late too. I thought I needed a page about Christmas crafts - a big part of my Christmas. I've used 12 of the little decoration thingys down the side of the page for my 'use 12' quota.

I won't say I'm finished - cause my album has four more pages and a cover left to do. But I have done the 12 challenges that Janine has given out. I have taken notes from the huge list of prompts she gave for day 12 and I'm sure I will find another 4 to complete a page with. I liked the boxing day idea - I immediately thought of boxing day sales - so may wait till then and take a photo.

Thanks for leading us through the twelve days of Christmas, Janine. I'm very pleased to have a Christmas Album to show for it!





Tuesday, December 12, 2006

It's looking a lot like Christmas.

Well, I've had a lot of fun playing with the December Kit from Scrapbook Essentials. (In between completing Janine's 12 day's of Christmas challenges.)

Loved the Cosmo Cricket Papers and the Basic Grey is yum too! Full pics of what I've been up to will be in the SE gallery on Friday, until then...

Monday, December 11, 2006

On the tenth and eleventh day of Christmas...

...

On the eleventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me

Eleven haka lessons
Ten juicy fish heads
Nine sacks of pipis
Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling

Five - big - fat - pigs !
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!

So I'm playing catch up cause I missed a day - should have done it on Saturday! This time Janine's prompts were about Christmas Day afternoon and Christmas Eve.

Nice photo there of my brother watching a 3D barbie movie with the kids!

In other news - I went to a wedding yesterday. Our friend Murray found himself a wife. Had a fantastic time meeting up with people we haven't seen in ages. (Got a bit sick of reciting the names and ages of our kids though!) Murray is generally a fairly happy guy but yesterday he was positively beaming - he just couldn't stop grinning.

Right, I've got more stuff to get done - better go do it!


Saturday, December 09, 2006

On the ninth day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me

Nine sacks of pipis
Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five - big - fat - pigs !
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!

Well keeping in touch seemed like a perfectly suitable title for this little page. I didn't want to cut the photo down so I had to put a tag in behind to write on.

Friday, December 08, 2006

On the eighth day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me
eight plants of puhu
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five big fat pigs
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumera
and a pukeko in a ponga tree!

So family:

These are the cousins from my side of the family. The boys live in Dunedin. Joshua (the biggest one) turned eight today. Happy Birthday Josh!

The cousins from the other side were in yesterday's post. Wearing those gorgeous Christmas outfits.

I've really gotta make time for a longer blog post. I have heaps to share - haven't forgotten about my c.j which needs sharing. And also have some sneak peaks coming for Scrapbook Essentials.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

On the seventh day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me
Seven eels a swimming

Six pois a twirling

Five- big-fat –pigs
Four huhu grubs

Three flax kits
Two kumara

And a pukeko in a ponga tree


Summertime:




Wednesday, December 06, 2006

On the sixth day of Christmas...

... My true love gave to me

Six pois a twirling

Five- big-fat –pigs

Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumara
And a pukeko in a ponga tree

Christmas Carols - well, I kinda did this one yesterday although I don't really have a favourite.

Carols by candle light is always fun (not the Wellington Stadium affair though - Carols by glow stick with very loud music, some christmassy some not, but all loud!) There is something magical about lots of people singing Christmas carols while holding real candles. I always discover that I actually only know the first verse and chorus of most of them - it pays to have the words handy if I aim to sing the whole song!

Anyway, here's my page for today:


And for those wanting to know details. It's a Maya Rd Lunch Break Chipboard Book. (Actually the Ali Edwards 'Today You' class kit from CC06 that I wasn't going to get around to using) And I still haven't done the cover - which is very unlike me - I always start with the cover! I am trying to keep the pages flat so that they still sit nicely, which is a change cause I like my lumpy bumpy embellishments! I'm using the Basic Grey fruitcake papers and Basic Grey rubons and Hero Arts Alphabet Stamps. I think that's it - keeping it simple and loving it!




Tuesday, December 05, 2006

On the fifth day of Christmas

...my true love gave to me

Five- big-fat –pigs

Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumara

And a pukeko in a ponga tree

What does Christmas mean to me? Well, a bit more than five big fat pigs! Although I'm sure my brother could eat that much in Christmas ham!

Yep, it's all about that very first Christmas a long time ago. I love all the tinsel and festivities that this time of year is all about but without Jesus it would have no meaning for me.

Oh and I've just filled in another space on yesterday's calendar - another birthday would you believe. What is it with people needing birthday presents when I should be shopping for Christmas presents?!



Monday, December 04, 2006

On the fourth day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me

Four huhu grubs

Three flax kits
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!

I've got loads of empty days - I'm obviously not that busy after-all! I'm guessing those days will be filled up with all the things I've forgotten to write down or things not yet planned for a specific date - like Christmas shopping.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

On the third day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to me three flax kits,
two kumera
and a pukeko in a ponga tree


I had lots of photos for this - so I had to be a bit more creative. Then I had a space in behind the photos - so Rebekah wrote a note to Santa. (I wonder if Santa shops out of the same Dick Smiths Junk Mail as she used for making her list!)















Check out the blue sky we had in Wellington yesterday. The first day in how long? We've just had a full on weekend. Gymnastics lesson, Christmas Parade, Gymnastics Show/Prize giving, Tutoring a Birthday Party at KiwiScraps, Carols By Candelight - took the kids on the train, Church/ Sunday School nativity play practise, Charlize's birthday party while Michael took the older two to work with him and I've organised most of the Christmas Party for Rally on Thursday, and lined up babysitting for R.E on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. And so it's another busy week ahead for me!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

On the second day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to me two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree.

And the second day is done!

Please excuse the quality of the scan - my camera is in the car and it's cold and dark and I didn't want to go outside to get it!

This is Christmas dinner on the farm in Invercargill (a few years ago, but things haven't changed much, except that I'm 50kgs lighter!) Note how we dress up the table but we didn't bother to get dressed up ourselves. Love how the table can look all flash but we are sitting on all available chairs - the computer chair, the piano stool ... Do you remember sitting on the piano stool for Christmas dinner? That must be a tradition all of it's own in our family!

So I'm ready for day number three Janine!

Friday, December 01, 2006

On the first day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me
a pukeko in a ponga tree.

Well I've started Janine's twelve day's of Christmas thing. Got myself a plan, tried to keep it simple and I think I'll manage it!



However - simple doesn't mean quick! This page has nothing much to it, but it still took me half the night. But then I did paint the whole album too. I'm using a maya rd chipboard book. Figured this way once I start - I will want to finish and will just have to keep up. And at the end I'll have a nice little mini album about Christmas as we see it in our family.

Thanks for having such a brilliant idea Janine, you're such an angel!

It's been a while!

Yes, I'm still around - been busy that's all.

I went to a 10 hr relax and scrap at KiwiScraps last Saturday. (Can't believe that was almost a week ago) Organised by Wendy and Kirsty cause they're both leaving. Will have to look out for on-line classes with Wendy cause she's always coming up with cool altered stuff to make. Anyway I had a very productive day - 2 layouts and a noodle box - yes a noodle box!
I put 'A Friendly Face' in the layout of the day competition and won a Making Memories Crafting Apron! Thanks Wendy, Kirsty and KiwiScraps! And I got my c.j. back from Ali - will take pics and post them later.

The end of the month is always busy for scrappy deadlines - I met a few yesterday but there are way more challenges than I can keep up with.

A nice easy one I just had to do was for the daring cardmakers. Doodling on a card - Left overs from recent layouts. And their extra dare was to use a star - got that one covered too. (Another 3 year old birthday to attend on the weekend.)


I've done a couple of other layouts this week which I can't share here - yet! And I've been playing with my yummo box of goodies from Scrapbook Essentials. Hey it's the 1st today - so if you ordered a monthly kit it should be on its way! Then you too can play.

In amongst all that scrapping stuff I've been planning a Sunday School Nativity Play, a Christmas Party for Rally, packaging gifts for my RE class, preparing craft activities for playgroup ...