Just a few bubbles of my life

Moving

2008-04-06T20:39:00.002+12:00

I've made the move you can find me:

here

please change your bloglines list.

I've made a start.

2008-04-03T20:07:00.003+13:00

On Jessi's 'All About Me' album like Nic Howard is doing.

I'm using an 8x8 album which I picked up for $1.50 and had sitting here waiting to be used.

The inside cover page - I decided to save my four fingers photo for the next page. I don't have a fancy Fiskars border punch like Nic but love that look so I've used my Stampin' Up corner rounder to make the scallops and my Fiskars hole punch to make the holes. The 'for you with love' is a Stampin' Up stamp, as is the French swirl background stamp you see in the um ... background.

This was a challenge - getting Jessi to write her name and age. She does the J fine and then gets frustrated when her e and s go wonky and gives up in disgust. I haven't been too concerned about name writing - I figure she'll do it when she's ready. So I've helped her out a little here and written the tricky letters myself. She was really proud of her tunnels (n's) though!

The swirly border stamp is a Stampin Up wheel.

Jessi has already embraced 'her' book - she's calling it her profile book. I guess it is pretty similar to her Kindy book.

So - speaking of Stampin Up... I went to Kelly's place last night. She has the cutest house with 'triangle' windows upstairs - my dh insists they are actually gables. Anyway we got to order from the new Stampin Up catalogue - can't wait for that scalloped circle punch to arrive! There is lots of cool stuff in the catalogue but the coolest thing (which I didn't buy ... yet) is the Fiskars trimmer. It's sleek and styley and best of all ... it's measurements are in cm's and inches. So if you're looking for a new trimmer ... I highly recommend this one!

Right, I guess I could go make page number three in Jessi's book - as I was tucking her in tonight she asked if I was going to go and finish her book now ... I don't think there is much chance of this project going unfinished!

Believe

2008-03-30T20:42:00.002+13:00

I try not to double up on challenges but this layout fits two.

Over at Salt the challenge was to create something to do with believe or had the verse Jeremiah 29:11-13. And as I was creating this layout I read Hannah's Friday Night Challenge at Scrapbook Essentials.

I'd already picked the colours - they kinda fit, I was already using 1 journalling spot - just had to add a couple more and already had the paint around the edge of the photo. Done.

Ok - off to create some more.

Take one Canvas...

2008-03-29T21:31:00.003+13:00

... and some paint.

This morning I visited Donna Downey's blog and was inspired to get creative.

I had a friends birthday present to make. The 'She' layout I mentioned yesterday - just wasn't making me happy. So I started over, with a fresh canvas and some blue paint. I was kinda pushed for time and wished I could work as fast as Donna Downey did in her video.

This friend is my personal weight watchers coach - well, I like to think so seeing as that's what she does for a job. But she's struggling with her weight too - she was at goal, then had a baby and well, the wobbly bits just took over... as they do.

So I wanted to used a photo of her at goal weight with some inspiring words so she could look at it every day and be reminded of her goal and what she is working towards.

The photo isn't a particularly stunning one but I think it says a lot about how happy she was, enjoying life with friends and looking good. (She's the one in blue on the right.) I know how much she wants to lose this weight. As a weight watchers leader it's kinda important that she does. But I also know how hard it is, to continually be careful about what you eat and to keep up the exercise when life is busy. I'm hoping that we will both get there this year.

Look what arrived today.

2008-03-28T21:02:00.003+13:00

The Rak I won from Maya Rd. Seriously cool stuff! Sheer albums, office sheers, clear stamp, rubons, seriously pretty flowers, chipboard, ribbons - those cool see through ones too... This lot will keep me busy for a long time!

This is the Rally craft for the next two Rally nights. We split the group into boys and girls. The boys were banging nails into wood. The girls are designing and stitching their own felt toy. Last night we cut them out and sewed on buttons. Next time they get to stitch and stuff. I had to keep my example nice and simple - I'm dying to embellish it some more - but will wait otherwise I'll have the girls all wanting theirs to be dressed up more too.

And I finally caught Jessi in a good mood and colour coordinated clothes so I snapped the 'four' photo for her album like Nic Howards ones.

We had a wee discussion about her favourite body parts and so far all she's come up with is the soft parts on her ears - I think she'd like earings...

And while I'm recording Jessi likes - her favourite song of the moment is Hot Hot Hot - you know the one that goes olay olay olay olay ...

And I did a 'She' layout today for my friend's birthday present it doesn't have a photo on it yet though - so I haven't got a pic to show you yet.

Yay it's Friday already - short weeks are great once you figure out what day of the week it is! Happy weekend everyone.

Colour Me Happy

2008-03-28T15:42:00.006+13:00

Well, here it is - my Colour Me Happy circle journal made by my friends at Scrapbook Essentials.

Cover - the front bit of chipboard and the binding ring things were from a bought album and I made my own pages out of bazzill - each colour cut slightly bigger than the one before.

Intro and instructions - I planned to take out this little instructions flap once the album was completed.

The rest of the instructions - hoping madly that people wouldn't be freaked out by having to go monochromatic!

White - my own pages which I really wasn't happy with and planned to re-do once it came back to me - I don't think I will now.

Brown - Louise. Gotta love that face!

Red - Janine. I want some Dorothy shoes too!

Orange - Vicki. Check out that stunning photo.

Yellow - Debbie. Lemons and Sunflowers - definitely happy things for me too.

Green - Julie. That pic of Fiona really makes me smile!

Teal - Donna. This was the only colour left when the journal got to Donna. I'm glad she had lots of teal inspiration around her. Even her kids wear teal - how cool is that!

Blue - Kelly. Yep that blue sky does it for me too.

Purple - Alice. Love the purple facts included.

Pink - Tanya. Check out the collection of pink stuff Tanya has! (And is that big furry flower a prima one? Alice used a purple one on her page. I need some flowers like that!)

Black - Michele. Classic, timeless, simple - and it makes you look slimmer!

The sign in pages.

And the tags they created.

The end!

Thank you to everyone who completed a page. I love how it turned out!

I'm on the Team!

2008-03-26T17:08:00.002+13:00

Great News - I've joined the Scrap of Faith Head Quarters Team.

It's a little different from other design team positions. There's a blog, a forum, a gallery, cyber crops but no shop or business trying to earn a living from scrapbooking. Just a bunch of talented individuals who love scrapbooking and want to share the love ... and the faith.

And while I was busy putting my design team application together and doing Easter stuff time has passed by and I find myself out of time to do the latest NZ Dares challenge.

I really wanted to do this one - I love the list of 'She' things by Kobi Yamada. It really captured my imagination. I was having trouble choosing which one to use of course. Maybe I'll take the list and create a whole album, that would be fun.

I'll add that to the list of albums I plan to complete. Also on that list is a beautiful people one as suggested by Haylee. And a four year old one about Jessi that Nic Howard is working through on her blog.

The lack of pretty pictures on this post can only mean two things.
1. I took lots of photos over the weekend and my camera batteries are now having a much needed charge.
2. I haven't done enough scrapping lately and have nothing to show.

Tonight I will stay away from the computer and scrap something!

More Blue Skies...

2008-03-24T21:40:00.003+13:00

...and family fun.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T23:15:00.002+13:00

The chocolate.

The bunny thing.

Mmmmmm!

He is not here. He has Risen! Luke 24:6

Good Friday

2008-03-21T19:40:00.002+13:00

When you think King, do you think...

or

They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. Matthew 27:28-30

I've borrowed those crowns from here. I'd encourage you to take the time to read Missy's post if you are interested in these things, she makes some good points.

Easter cake:

Is there such a thing as Easter cake? Probably not, but I had some banana's that needed cooking and one little passionfruit that made yummy icing and then I thought I'd try out the glitter icing we recently got from England. It looks kinda pretty and Eastery to me!

We also decorated eggs today.

Jessi kept asking when she could eat hers - it was all she was interesting in doing!

She also got up this morning and wanted to know when we were going. She'd picked up that today was an Easter holiday and so had assumed we would be going away somewhere ... specifically to Invercargill Grandma's so she could play with that cousin who is her friend... I think she meant Luka.

Unfortunately getting 5 people to Invercargill doesn't come cheap and can't be done just any old time we please.

Easter Time

2008-03-20T22:10:00.002+13:00

I just noticed that my counter thingy says I've had visitors from 50 different countries. How cool is that. Another reminder that there are more people out there reading this than just you faithful few who comment.

Today has been a bitsy day. I've done bits of this, bits of that and have not much to show for it. I finished a layout. Wrote up a couple of supplies lists and sent off a layout and a card to Up2Scrap. Got some other paperwork done and posted. Got some photos printed of yesterdays school trip with Alexander. Stocked up on easter eggs for the weekend. And of course a bunch of Mum/housewifey stuff too.

Nobody could be bothered cooking tonight so we picked up KFC and ate it with this view:

The kids wanted a picnic, they asked to go to a big park - not a playground, but a big open green space - is how they put it. This place is actually not far from our house, (as in, just around the corner) we should come here more often. Unfortunately the sun was going down behind the hills and the air had a definite autumn feel to it.

Love how they lined up to get their photo taken - in height order. It reminds me of photos of me as a kid, lined up with my brother and sister and often cousins too.

And some Jessi photography - just to prove I was there too.

2008-03-18T22:25:00.003+13:00

And the good things keep on coming!

Today it was the arrival of my Stampin' Up order. Two big background stamps and a corner rounder... and some other stuff ...

And a mag acceptance - wahoo!

And a RAK win from Maya Rd - yippeee!

And an ipod nano - cause my husband's cool. Help - what songs are essential to have on it? I don't know what I like, so tell me what you like and that'll be a good start.

And I remembered I like taking photos - almost as much as scrapping them. Even if it means we are a little bit late for kindy because I stopped to capture the moment.

It's 10:50pm and this little girl is still up and talking non stop. I have no idea why she's not asleep or where this energy has come from. I'm trying very hard not to laugh and encourage her chattering but she's saying some cute stuff.

More cool stuff:

This time a whole etsy shop of cool stuff. I'm looking at woollen jumpers with new eyes! The kids don't actually need woollen jumpers for winter do they?

Good Things

2008-03-17T21:13:00.003+13:00

Lots of good things to be thankful for today.

1. The kids happy to get themselves dressed this morning (in green clothes for St Pat's day)
2. Having no food in the house - meant the kids got to buy their lunches and I didn't have to make sandwiches.
3. Fun easter basket crafts at playgroup with glitter and shredded paper and fluffy yellow chickens and chocolate eggs.
4. The smell of hotcross buns.
5. Coffee with Janine and Kelly (without Jessi), good conversation and yummy coffee and cake.
6. Sending Jessi off to kindy with a plate of green biscuits to share.
7. Eating lunch in peace while browsing my bloglines list.
8. Eating an entire chocolate easter egg for lunch!
9. Full cupboards - I got the grocery shopping done.
10. Replacing the soggy cucumber with a fresh new one.
11. Filling the fruit bowl.
12. Sweet, clean, smelling kids fresh from the shower.
13. Escaping the chaos of dinner/bedtime and taking a walk before sunset. (The consequence of numbers 5 and 8!)
14. Finding a new, very cool blog to add to bloglines.

Life is good!

Where did the week go?

2008-03-15T10:53:00.002+13:00

Lots of extra stuff happened this week. The Spotlight demonstrations went well. It was a Rally week so I spent a bit of time preparing an Easter themed craft and sewing up their bags from the week before. Jessi and I visited morning kindy and found lots of friends we don't get to see anymore. I'm sure I did more stuff but I can't think of what that was right now!

Check out this ribbon storage idea.

This is how Donna Downey stores her ribbon. I think it's a brilliant idea and might just solve my current messy nest of ribbon problem I currently have. Anyone know where I can find one of these wire thingys?

There was a cyber crop at Scrapbook Essentials last night. Lots of fun and a few challenges given out. This layout was done in 1 hour.

The photo's not the best cos it was taken at night but I couldn't be bothered taking a new pic today. We had to use three papers/cardstock, two photos and two embellishments. Yay for double-sided papers that give you more patterns to choose from!

The journalling reads:
"Will she be horse mad? Just one of the thoughts that went through my mind as I stood and watched you ride. I wondered how much riding lessons would cost - more that competition gym? It was priceless to see you this totally happy."

I actually have more horse riding photos I want to scrap. I came upon a sketch this week that would be perfect but I can't for the life of me find it again. It was for a double layout and had a large circle on the left and then a line of photos going off to the right. Does anyone out there know the one I mean?

Not sure if I will get the other challenges done for the cyber crop - they are due Sunday night but I have a couple of other layouts I wanted to work on this weekend.

Right now my kids need a bit of attention, but before I go ... I received this Totally Fabulous award from Kelly.

Thanks Kelly, I think you are fabulous too - specially since you came out to Spotlight to see my Fiskars demonstration!

And I'd like to pass it across the ditch to my friend Karen who takes time to comment on my blog. She has some pretty amazing layouts on her blog - go take a look!

Catch Up on Comments

2008-03-10T23:14:00.004+13:00

As we all know, one of the limitations of blogger is the inability to reply to comments. Maybe one day I'll switch over but for now I'll comment on a few comments here.

First of all thanks Trina for suggesting I submit the handbag card to basic grey. Acting on your suggestion, I did, and it's now in their gallery.

Next Jenny - your comment about the Fiskars demonstrating being in the middle of a working week. As we discussed today I'm sure there are many people who would rather it be on a weekend so I'll keep that in mind for next time. Thanks for pointing it out.

And Trace, I'm glad you won't be at my Spotlight with all your helpful questions. Thank you very much!

And Debbie - the basic grey paper in the last post is Two Scoops - Spumoni and the pink is Strawberry Smoothie.

And yes, Caroline from Maya Road called into my blog - but that's cause I took part in a challenge on her blog and left her a message to come see what I did. How nice of her to take the time to leave a message though!

OK that's enough for now, it's getting late. I'll leave you with a close up of the layout I did for the Scrapbook Essentials Friday night challenge.

The papers are Cloud 9 - Chocolate Chalet and should be available at your LSS (I saw them at mine) and also maybe at Warehouse Stationery but I'll have to check that.

Edited to add: I've taken out the link to the full layout cos this one has been accepted for publication - yay!

Friday night play time.

2008-03-08T16:00:00.004+13:00

I had fun last night playing with a Maya Rd chipboard keychain. Another one of those things I've been hoarding for a while now.

I dressed up the pieces using my current favourite basic grey paper of course and a little bit of older MR ribbon, some lace, buttons and bling.

I've made these for my sister who turns a year older next week.

And just so they're not completely pretty but pointless - I added some Bible verses on the back about beauty.

And if you're looking for inspiration, fun and maybe even free stuff this weekend pop over to the Fiskars blog. It's International Women's day and they are celebrating Fiskars style.

Speaking of Fiskars - I popped into Spotlight today and there at the door was a huge poster announcing that I would be demonstrating in store Thursday this week. My kids thought it was pretty neat seeing my name on a poster. So if you are in Porirua between 11am and 2pm next Thursday, pop in to Spotlight and say hi. Or otherwise you could come see me at the Wellington Spotlight on Wednesday.

My new favourite product.

2008-03-07T16:16:00.005+13:00

This stuff:

Strano ribbon stiff. I know I'm a little behind the game plan on this one - there was lots of talk about it last year. But it's new to me. I ordered a bottle here and it arrived just yesterday.

It's designed to be used with ribbon to make the ends not fray when you cut it and can be used as an adhesive to add ribbon to your page. (No more fraying ribbons on the girls pretty dresses and hair accessories.)

I painted some on a piece of fabric (it's a bit like p.v.a. glue) and when it dried I was able to cut out these letters just like the fabric was paper - only easier cause it was still flexible and didn't rip. And I could even draw on them with my black ink pen without it bleeding into the fabric. Magic!!!

And cause the fabric was a bit like paper I could even fold it and the folds stayed in place - I couldn't even do that with the iron when I tried the night before. This was a really floppy, fine fabric before it was ribbon stiffed.

It says on the bottle that you can use punches on the ribbon too. I'm not sure if that would extend to cutting in a cricut - I don't have one to try. But I'm going to try using my Fiskars ShapeXpress that should be fun.

And a layout to share.

Because I bought a couple (lots) of new Making Memories papers yesterday and then discovered my stash of beautiful papers I already had. So I thought I'd better use some instead of collecting them like a magpie. ;o)

The circle journal journey is complete ...

2008-03-05T21:01:00.003+13:00

...almost. (Just waiting on mine to come home.)

I handed over both Kelly's and Janine's journals this afternoon. Janine was happy for me to take my time doing her 'Pamper' journal but I wanted to have it finished so that she had the option to take it to camp if she wanted. It weighs a ton though - so not sure if it'll fit in her luggage allowance! Here's a little sneak peak - you see Cloud 9 Chocolate Chalet papers there - yummy!

Wish I was going to camp too - it would be fun to see all the completed c.j's.

Thanks for your comments on the card - Julie I'll do up an instruction sheet for you - and anyone else that wants one. Maybe I could do my very first blog tutorial thing!

I have to figure out how to teach others to make it anyway because I've now made another one in a set of three cards for a class I'm planning.

Card for Lois

2008-03-05T11:12:00.002+13:00

So this is the card I made for Lois. The front folds down and the insert is folded so that it explodes out to a larger size. On it's way to Canada now.

I'm busy circle journalling at the moment. I finished Kelly's passions one yesterday and am now working on Janine's Pamper Me one. It seems some people expect it finished so that she can take it to camp to show off - the pressure!

Jessi has a rather disgusting cold at the moment. Snotty noses are so gross! It's taking a lot of clever parenting (bribery) to get her to blow and not wipe it all over her face and arm and everywhere else.

Right - about that Pamper cj...

Make a difference.

2008-03-02T21:54:00.004+13:00

You know the ad - where one person smiles and it gets passed around and has an influence on lots of other people. Same concept with one small card, or one 6x6 layout...

I've just signed up to make a card and send it to Lois who has cancer. Read about it here at Wilna's blog.

At first I thought I'd join in 'cause they are wanting cards from all over the world and then I thought wouldn't it be neat if they got not just one card from little old me in NZ but lots of cards from scrappers and cardmakers all over NZ. So - make a card, send it over and spread a little cheer throughout the world.

And then there's the Southern Cross Kids Camp 6x6 layouts that Nic and Trina are co-ordinating from the NZ side of things. I know a lot of you have already done heaps of these. I wrote a bit about why I support this project over at the Fiskars blog . And have you kept up with the Fiskars blog today? There has been like a million posts go up to celebrate Children's Day and the SCKC project. And there is even a RAK on offer - but you gotta be in before midnight Aus time.

And in a moment of domestic goddessness ... I made cupcakes!

Not sure what kind of difference that made to the world...

Things to Share...

2008-03-01T21:05:00.006+13:00

Remember this...

and this....

and this one too...

which I already showed you around the middle of the month.

Well - check out Scrapbook Outlets latest Ezine.

There you will find this:

and this...

and even some words I wrote about using letter stickers. Go check it out, it's very cool - not just cause my stuff is in it but it's got lots of very cool inspiration and stuff from some very talented scrappers. And it's also really clever how you can flip the pages over and it's just like a real mag - only better - I don't have to fit this one on my bookshelf and it's free too!

So did you go see it yet?

I made it!

2008-02-29T19:03:00.005+13:00

Day 29 and I've fulfilled two goals. To take a photo every day and to blog daily too.

So today's photo:

We were discussing on the SE forum about how we all came by our user names. Some have very interesting tales to tell, for some it's not rocket science, for me it's a fishy tale ...

Back in the day's when I was a student I had a thing for fish. Cute fish not slimy, smelly bait and rod sorts. When I got married it seemed that people knew this - we got lots of fishy gifts, including this cookie canister thing from my sister. (Photo 29)

Anyway, when it came to thinking up a forum name it had to be something fishy. Fish blow bubbles and bubbles starts with B just like Beverley (that's the phonetical teacher in me) and in a past life I was a bubbly person. (Now I'm all grown up and sensible and far too tired to be bubbly.) So that's it - probably not an interesting tale but a fishy one atleast.

And a little look at something I've been working on this week:

I was hoping some magazine might want to publish this one - of course if they don't, I can use it here to make my blog look pretty.

Have a good weekend everyone. I'm off to 'ladies night' with the Church ladies - I think we are painting our fingernails... and I'm taking my camera cause I need photos for Janine's pamper me circle journal which should be here any day now.

Oh and Christi - the cupcake holder - it still cost way more than my modest budget would generally allow - but I'm getting good at serving up rice and peas creatively so that the grocery money can be redistributed to other ... things. (My dh reads this so I'm not telling exactly how much!)

Look what I got.

2008-02-28T21:33:00.002+13:00

Ever since seeing this on Ilka's blog I wanted one. Well, no, actually I wanted a cupcake holder before then - from the whole cupcake revival of the SOF girls. But once I saw Ilka's I wanted one like her's and she even told me where to go.

So I was in Spotlight today (yep I go there a lot) and by chance I happened to wander through the clearance area. And I found it - on special even! Well, I couldn't leave it there now could I? So I pick up the box and Rebekah says "What you're getting it? It's not fair adults get everything they want!" So out of fairness I told her I would put it on the top of the fridge till I've 'earned' it. (Just like the kids do when they desperately want something.) Only, the thing is - the top of the fridge is the only place it will fit anyway - so it will live there... except when I get it down on Sunday when I make cupcakes for afternoon tea!

2008-02-27T20:40:00.004+13:00

Todays photo:

How to apply lipstick. It's the latest fashion ... honest!

Busy day and I have a layout on the go so trying not to spend too much time here at the computer.

Funny thing about Penny.

She got lost!

I spent ages searching the house. Finally found her in Jessi's drawer - next to her t-shirts! I don't think she was hiding her on purpose. More a blonde moment - like when I put the hairbrush in the freezer...

Playdough

2008-02-26T21:01:00.004+13:00

2 cups Flour
1 cup Salt
4 tsps Cream of Tartar
2 tablespoons Oil
2 cups Water
Food Colouring

Put all the ingredients in a pot. Heat gently and turn slowly until it is cooked. (It may go lumpy at first but evens out later and leaves the sides of the saucepan when ready.)

Thanks for your comments on the homework issue. Alexander came home with a new concept in 'homework' today. Meet Penny.

The kids in his class have turns taking Penny home for the night. They have to write a story in the book to record Penny's adventures.

Of course Alexander didn't see this as homework and completed it mostly all by himself. But it gave me a good insight as to where he is at in terms of composing a story, spelling the tricky words and forming his letters - gotta work on those capital L's that pop up in the middle of words!

Now that's homework worth doing.

Homework

2008-02-25T21:38:00.003+13:00

OK so I'm lacking inspiration for my photo today - just as well I signed up for a short month!

This is the first time Alexander has brought home a homework sheet. I wasn't expecting it, and I'm not ready for it. I was happy with the reading book and a few little spelling words. Not sure I'm going to manage any more than that. Not sure he will manage any more - he comes home from school grumpy and tired the last thing I want to do is make him do homework!

Maybe I'm over-reacting - his is the loose sheet, there isn't really a lot on it. Not compared to Rebekah's which is the sheet stuck in the book. I think it is more to satisfy the year three kids in Alexander's class. Most of the year three's are getting Rebekah's homework sheet.

I know it's been discussed on other blogs but tell me here:

Does your child get homework, what do they have to do?
How do you manage it?
Do you think it's worth it? I mean are they actually learning something or just keeping busy?
And if you don't have kids - lucky you! No - I mean lucky you don't have the homework issue...

She Scraps.

2008-02-24T20:54:00.004+13:00

Well ... if you can call one layout in a weekend scrapping! I think it was the combination of the heat and not feeling well that made it rather hard to stand at my table and do anything useful.

I have a layout that I really need to get done - but have no inspiration for. It's bothering me. So I figured I'd have a go at the SE Friday night challenge just to get me going and then I'd be right.

Gotta go try that other layout now.

And the photo of the day - self saucing chocolate pudding.

Not the most eye pleasing pud but tastes good!

Just Another Lazy Saturday

2008-02-23T20:10:00.002+13:00

A little bit of newspaper reading. Pikelets and jam for lunch. An afternoon nap - still not feeling 100% well...

Polly Pocket Goes to the Zoo

2008-02-22T17:52:00.002+13:00

I've heard it said ... that when kids have friends over it's easier cause they entertain themselves.

Not for me!

I'm constantly trying to get Jessi to leave them alone and end up spending my time playing Jessi games. Today it was Polly Pocket and the animals. Maybe it will be better when she's a bit older...

I made some cards this week which I've put up on the Fiskars Blog. That has been pretty much all of my creative efforts this week - this cold has really taken a lot out of me. I even had to sit down and have a rest after each card!

Have some layouts coming together in my head though, so hopefully will get them done over the weekend.

Look what I did today!

2008-02-21T21:37:00.003+13:00

I've been wanting to do this for ages. The post on Scrapscene this week helped to get me thinking about how it would work at my place. Then I got the latest Spotlight flier in the post and saw 40% off. So I was there at 9am this morning and came home with two of my very own rails.

It took all morning, and I had to go down to the garage for the man tools - my girly tool set just didn't cut it. But I got them up and I reckon they look pretty darn good with my layouts hanging off them.

I really need to tidy up the rest of the corner now! I guess I'm thinking people will look up to my layouts and miss seeing the mess on my table and surrounding areas.

Almost Forgot

2008-02-20T22:33:00.002+13:00

After 19 days of daily blogging I almost forgot to post today. As I said when I started Janine's photo a day challenge - the photo part was easy it's the blogging part I've really had to focus on. I'm feeling a little frustrated that in 19 days there has been no layouts to share - what little I have done in the last few weeks can't be shared here yet. I've really got to find some more scrapping time.

Today's photo - my toothless six year old and his toothfairy windfall.

And some photos for Mich from the pirate party of 2006:

The cake.

The treasure chest.

Can't remember the name of this game but the kids had to steal the keys and the kid with his eyes closed had to guess who did it.

Parent Helper

2008-02-19T22:27:00.003+13:00

Rebekah's class went on a trip to the beach today. They spent the whole day learning about surf and sun safety, playing on the beach and doing a little boogie boarding.

As a parent helper I had to be prepared to go in the water. I'm glad the sky looked like this for the whole day:

The cool southerly breeze wasn't so great, but it made for some fun waves atleast. I think I would have enjoyed myself if I didn't have a nasty little cold.

Ruled by the Clock

2008-02-18T20:13:00.002+13:00

Today was one of those days - the sort when I had a constant stream of drop offs and pick ups to do. All with awkward gaps of time in between - not long enough to go home but I needed to do something.

So I picked up a copy of Up2Scrap and managed to grab moments here and there to browse through and build up my inspiration stores. I wonder if it would be worth setting up a portable scrap desk in the back of the car....

Fun Run

2008-02-17T19:58:00.004+13:00

OK so I actually walked! 7km's in 70mins - I think. Will know for sure tomorrow when they publish the results in the paper...

Saturday

2008-02-16T20:36:00.003+13:00

We went to the fair at Petone today. Crowds of people and stalls for miles. Didn't actually find much there but did stop at those clown thingys with the open mouths. We each had a turn feeding it a ball and ended up with this as a prize.

Day Fifteen

2008-02-15T20:06:00.002+13:00

A tissue paper flower.

Girls and Boys Rally started again last night. Given that I had procrastinated so much and we didn't have a leaders meeting beforehand I had to organise the whole night myself.

I based it around Valentines Day - which of course you would do given that it was the 14th of Feb and all. So we played rob the nest with those heart shaped message lollies. We had a treasure hunt for red jellybeans and cardboard hearts cut out with my fiskars shape cutter thingy.

The cardboard hearts had a memory verse which they had to figure out. Then I talked a little about how God is Love and how they can show love to others by being kind and thoughtful etc.

Then we made these tissue paper flowers. On the leaves (cut from the fiskars shape thingy again) they wrote out the memory verse so they can learn it at home. Some had trouble with the scrunch and turn technique but we got there in the end. Everyone had a perfectly unique flower to take home. (Some more unique than others!)

For supper I made heart shaped biscuits of course with a choice of pink or chocolate icing.

Might just organise that leaders meeting now so that I don't have to do it all myself next time!

And I've been doing real scrapping this week too.

I can only show you sneak peeks at the moment, unfortunately.

But I've been having fun and loving the process.

Today was a great scrapping day. I had no other pressing things to do. Jessi played happily behind me with a family of pretend butterflies. I scrapped all morning with her happily chatting non stop about everything. Every so often I would have to stop and cut a bit of sellotape for her or pat her pet dinosaur. It's the times like this I'll miss when she goes to school next year. I plan to make the most of this year!

Oooops.

2008-02-15T09:46:00.002+13:00

I've had a couple of 'duh' moments this morning.

The first was this:

Kelly awarded this to me a few days ago and I'd temporarily forgotten about it. Hey - it's been a busy week, I've had stuff on my mind... So anyway apparently this is a funky blog - thanks Kelly!

I've gotta admit, now that I've developed a daily blogging habit I'm enjoying writing stuff here - and it doesn't take half as long to write as it used to. I still have the slight problem of having a brilliant blog post composed in my head but when I actually sit here to type it up - the words all seem to get lost somewhere between my head and my fingers.

Anyway - because the funky blog thing is a tag, I need to pass it on. Which brings me to the second 'duh' moment of the day.

Yvette - I award the funky blog thing to you. Yvette has recently changed over to wordpress. I knew that but somehow didn't update my bloglines list. So I've been missing out on reading her funky blog for a week - duh me! Anyway, it's fixed now and I'll be checking out her funky blog regularly again.

Valentines Day

2008-02-14T22:14:00.002+13:00

You know that the photo a day thing is taking over when ....

You take a photo of breakfast before sitting down to eat!

Or maybe that's just a sign of a dedicated scrapper wanting to remember another moment in time...

Finally a (small) creative share!

2008-02-13T17:47:00.003+13:00

A card.

Made for NZ dares - use a photo on a valentines day card.

And my random photo for today...

This is what the dining room table looked like at 2pm today. Laptop, mail, kindy notices, lucky bookclub things, an abandoned barbie doll, shells and pinecones from kindy artwork and the new jk catalogue.

I love the inspiration that's in these kinds of kids clothing things. Check out the owl:

The colour combinations and embellishment ideas all go into my head for later scrapbooking use. Loving that colour they're calling dark teal too.

An apple a day ...

2008-02-12T20:32:00.000+13:00

...well, an apple for day 12 atleast.

It's always very exciting when the first royal gala apples of the season hit the shops. For weeks now, I've been putting up with those nasty, floury versions. But this week the 'crunch' is back!

The books.

2008-02-11T20:45:00.000+13:00

I was going to take a pic of the huge pile of curled white paper backing from the coverseal but I guess the actual books are more interesting.

We went for the clear stuff this year - purely from a cost point of view. The kids got to choose a pack of stickers and then they went through my rather large pile of scrap papers to add a little colour.

I tried really, really hard to keep it simple and not spend too much time on them - I have 'real' scrapping to do!

Thanks for all your comments on the birthday thing. I have considered creating birthday parties for a job but in all reality I go to all that trouble for my kids cause they are mine and I love them. Not sure if the same craziness would take over if I didn't know the kid.

For now I'm happy trying to keep up with my few scrapbooking commitments... speaking of which - gotta go scrap something!

The Birthday Report

2008-02-10T19:49:00.001+13:00

Jessi had a great day yesterday. Thanks for all your birthday wishes. She is now well and truly four and looking forward to the day she will be 8.

So the details:

The cake.

I was going for a butterfly theme but then I remembered I'd already done the pretty butterfly cake when she turned two. So I made a flower cake and added the three butterflies I found at the garden centre where we had coffee on Thursday.

Not the best cake ever - had issues with the dark chocolate cake crumbs getting in the yellow icing. Jessi loved it though, yellow is her favourite colour and she is a lolly monster from way back.

The cupcakes.

I had great plans for amazing cupcakes since before Christmas when the Scrap of Faith girls had the big cupcake revival. But time only allows for so much creativity and I ran out. And I also couldn't find any suitable cupcake papers, the shops always have cupcake papers - just not when I need them for Jessi's birthday.

So anyway I used Mum's old icing set so that made them look fancy without any real effort.

They iced butterfly biscuits like I gave out at kindy too.

Note the blue eye makeup she's wearing - I can thank Charlize's mummy for that!

The party bags.

Not sure what made me decide to sew 6 of these, but I did. I made a couple of larger versions using funky teatowels for Christmas presents. See instructions here.

They are a lined bag - and I guess reversible actually. Nice and easy to make if you can remember how to put the inside and outside together and include the straps at the right places.

They looked pretty cool all lined up around my scrap space waiting for the glitter on the butterflies to dry. But I forgot to take a photo then so I took these of Jessi's one today.

The wings.

Really quick and simple with bits of elastic sewn in the middle and ends for the arms. The girls loved them and they looked especially cool when they were dancing around for the 'freeze' game.

So, that's probably all the creative parts of the party covered. Imagine how over the top it would become if I spent more than two days preparing!

And now, my scrap space is calling ... but first I have a million school books to cover.

My baby is four!

2008-02-09T22:42:00.000+13:00

Just a little busy today...

2008-02-08T16:28:00.000+13:00

Butterfly biscuits for kindy. Not exactly professional looking but that's what you get when you have a nearly four year old helping and not much time and my hands were getting sore from squeezing the icing out of the tubes. The icing was great though. Angela sent it over from England, it's called writing icing.

They went down well at kindy - I don't think the kids really noticed they were wonky before stuffing them into their little mouths.

These flowers looked so pretty at the supermarket I brought them home for Jessi. They were a real hit she loved them. She kept saying 'For me?' 'My flowlers' and she danced around the room with them.

Have you seen the fiskars blog today? The love letters I made for Karen's wedding are there today. Go see!

Right off to do some more sewing/baking party prep.

Schools Back!

2008-02-07T20:11:00.001+13:00

And I didn't even think of getting a pic of the scrubbed faces, short haircuts and new bags.

Actually only one kid has had a haircut - Alexander needs one but I haven't managed to get it done yet, only one has a new bag - no sense in replacing a perfectly good bag just cause it's the start of a new year and they probably both had breakfast on their faces cause I don't remember making them wash them!

But I was pretty darn proud that I was super organised this morning, even had time to put a load of washing on and walk them to school.

It was rather nice to then meet up with Kelly and Janine for coffee and a c.j handover (will be even better when Jessi gets to morning kindy).

Made a quick visit to Spotlight today when Jessi was at kindy.

So tonight I'm going to whip up 5 pairs of butterfly wings and 5 little take home bags. Yep - I'm one of 'those' parents. Maybe a little over the top but I like birthday parties and she'll only turn 4 once.

Clean

2008-02-06T16:35:00.000+13:00

My Space

2008-02-05T19:34:00.001+13:00

This is a corner of a photo I took for Tanya Leigh's circle journal. She wanted to see my scrap space - actually she wanted to see me in it too!

You don't get to see me here but you do see - the horrible orangey curtains in my lounge, the layouts I currently have on display, the basket I got for Christmas - haven't decided what exactly I want to keep in there yet.

I did a quick tidy up before taking the photo but it still looks messy. I think I might need to invest in some matching storage containers - something a little more classy than the matching pizza boxes I currently have stacked up beside me!

And another yummy paper range I've found - this one from the fiskars blog. Cloud 9 Chocolate Chalet. Really sounds good enough to eat!

Speaking of the fiskars blog, you probably already know, but incase you didn't, they currently have a chance to win a rak. And did you see Donna's valentines canvas? Totally loving her style - so beautiful.

By the way - the fun colourful stuff in the last post is by Glitz Design.

It's a Monday thing.

2008-02-04T18:46:00.001+13:00

This is something that happens every Monday at my house.

I have decided not to go back to weight watchers this year. I still intend on losing weight but I'll do in at my own pace and in my own way - eat less - exercise more! I don't need to pay $20 a week to sit round discussing this ideal - I need to just do it. Maybe I should pay $20 into my scrapping fund for each week I lose weight - and take out $20 for gaining - ouch now that would hurt!

And some more yummy product that has caught my eye recently...

It's party time.

2008-02-03T19:55:00.000+13:00

This is actually two photos in one.

1. This little miss will be four on Saturday. I literally whipped up these invites in 5 minutes so I could take them to kindy on Friday. I put the words onto the photo and took them in to be printed then added the felt butterfly - which actually has a little peg on the back and the heart which I cut from my fiskars template using the shapeXpress. Super fast and easy.

2. The little bag which is covering up our address on the invite has a story of it's own. Alexander came downstairs with it this morning. With big wide eyes he says "Mummy look what I found in my room, I think the tooth fairy left it here!" So cute!

Speaking of fairies - they were introduced to the house fairy yesterday. I think it may just work but I need to sort out their toys and storage issues first. I'm on a mission to declutter this house. The house is not too small - we just have too much stuff!

Day Two

2008-02-02T21:51:00.001+13:00

Check this out:

Totally marshmallow. You should've seen the kids eyes when they opened these! Thanks Tim, Angela and Gracie.

Two posts ...

2008-02-01T21:19:00.000+13:00

in one day. How is that possible?

Well, it's all in honour of Janine and her 29 Nights challenge.

I don't know if I can possibly keep up with taking a photo a day for a whole month ... who am I kidding that part is easy! We all know I take way too many photos - just ask my kids! What I don't know is if I can post one photo a day on my blog. That would be like blogging daily. I don't know if the world is ready for that! Anyway I've decided to give it a try.

So to start off - tonights photo:

The new haircut.

Happy February!

2008-02-01T10:46:00.000+13:00

I can't believe it's already February, where has the time gone?

I guess a lot of it has been spent with me sitting here behind the laptop while the kids happily entertain themselves. Jessi has been back at kindy for a week. I was parent helper yesterday - which was rather relaxing really with only 16 kids there, that's not so many bits of fruit to cut and not many paintings to put away. Rebekah and Alexander were happy to spend an afternoon at kindy digging in the sandpit with the little kids.

Some things I've spotted while spending time here at the computer:

Prima papers.

Making memories notebook. I love my noteworthy one.

Scenic Route rubons.

Well, I should really be doing some housework. Lots of washing to be done. Gotta clean up my scrap area. And Rebekah wants all this hair cut off.

A busy weekend.

2008-01-28T19:06:00.000+13:00

Lots of creating happened on Thursday/Friday - mostly Friday night actually. I'm a last minute person.

This card I made for Mum and Dad to give at the wedding.

This one I used to adorn our present which was enclosed very stylishly in a brown pizza box and wrapped with a wide white ribbon.

This one is an extra - done for the impromptu SE cyber crop on Friday night. I figured while I had my card making supplies out it would be fairly simple to put together a card using the sketch provided. It's just as well I had till midnight to complete it cos it took that long to get the scanner to work once I realised the batteries were flat in my camera.

The new chat room at SE is very fun - lots of cool noises to play with, they even have a bubbles noise just for me!

Here's my new necklace. I wanted a nice bright colour to go with the black I wear a lot of. I usually wear a little bit of red so this is a nice change. I also made a matching bracelet - cos I had some beads left over.

And the horse shoe - actually harder than I anticipated - but still I wasn't going to cave in and buy one!

I also made this pooh bear one cos she used to like pooh bear a lot.

It turns out she got a couple of other ones as well.

The happy couple - Karen and Malcolm.

They have asked me to put their wedding photos into an album. I've said yes but I have no idea what they are actually wanting or how much to charge - I guess it will all be worked out. I haven't even done my own wedding photos yet - in my mind they fall into the same category as birthday party photos - kinda hard to scrap. On the up side it will be fun to scrap photos taken by a professional photographer.

OK so I have more scrapping to do and I'm also watching shrek 3 - the kids have watched it lots of times and I've seen bits of it but not the whole thing - so tonight I'm watching all of it.

Stuff

2008-01-23T09:32:00.000+13:00

These albums are part of the new releases by American Crafts. I really need to buy some more albums to get my layouts out of pizza boxes and in a position to be viewed. Check out some more of their stuff here.

New scrappy stuff is always so exciting. I just get a little frustrated at the time it takes to actually arrive here in NZ. I do think the scrapping world is a little crazy in the way they keep coming up with new stuff - so much more than one could actually hope to keep up with.

Is it necessary to always be using new stuff? When does old stuff become officially old? I wonder if the industry can actually keep up the pace of releasing new stuff at this rate for much longer?

I guess as long as companies keep producing the stuff, I'll go on seeing it and wanting it.

Speaking of new stuff - I've spent the week wondering why my desk still has an orange look to it - the orange layout of the weekend has been put away and all scraps filed but still when I look over at my desk I get an 'orange' impression.

It's my new fiskars trimmer.

I'm enjoying using it - specially the sharpness of it ... a sharp trimmer makes a whole lot of difference to my scrapping.

I will hopefully have some more creative stuff to put on here by the weekend. My cousin is getting married on Saturday and I have a gift to make, cards to make and also a horse shoe - cause I couldn't bring myself to pay $25 for something I could make better myself! Oh and I also plan on making myself a new necklace to wear.

So I guess I'll be busy for the next few days...

I scrapped!

2008-01-21T08:45:00.000+13:00

Yep, I scrapped again.

I looked around for a suitable challenge to attempt, just to get me going again. Megan's Friday night challenge seemed just perfect. A good number of 'conditions' and a fairly short deadline - so I didn't have ages to fuss around with it.

So the 'rules' - Use either blue/orange or pink/orange as the main colour scheme. Use the title Summer Days and use some stickers that are at least a year old.

Fortunately I had some gorgeous heidi grace papers with a touch of orange in them and a piece of orange bling bazzill to get me started.

I'm not sure if I really like the finished result - maybe it's the orange... but anyway I loved playing with all the yummy heidi grace bits that co-ordinated so perfectly - even though I've actually used bits from two different h.g. lines. There's rub-on's and stickers and chipboard and plastic see through flower thingys and that little stripe of blue at the bottom is a silky fabric sticker.

I made the scalloped edge at the top using the edge of a fiskars template and the ultra shape-xpress. And I also added some orange rain dots by Cloud 9 cause they seemed to fit perfectly with the water photo and the orange theme.

Oh and the stickers that were atleast a year old - are the round epoxy things in the center of the flowers made by autumn leaves.

It feels good to be creating again ... only now I have a messy desk to tidy up!

Home

2008-01-18T16:29:00.000+13:00

I can't believe a whole month has past since I last blogged. We've been to the end of the earth and back - o.k so the signpost at bluff probably isn't exactly the end of the earth but close enough.

27 days, 942 photos, 53 one way bridges, many hours driving, 6 nights in a tent, beautiful dry summer weather and a million family memories made.

There are an unbelievable amount of e-mails, blogs and forum posts to catch up on - if anything really important has happened you'd better let me know!

Sorry if you live somewhere near where I visited and we didn't catch up. Plenty of excuses to give - ranging from no cell phone coverage, to timing etc... but basically I was too chicken and I figured you'd all be busy having a good time with your own families.

Here's a quick overview of what I've been up to:

Christmas with the cousins - spot the kid who didn't want his photo taken.

Becka riding the neighbor's horse - no our back lawn is not big enough for one of her own!

The butterfly place in Dunedin - really worth going to if you live anywhere near.

Our accommodation in Cromwell. Crazy place where the temperatures were in the mid 30's yet there was snow on the hills. The lake was just beautiful and much time was spent close to the water.

The blue pools somewhere on the way to Haast. The water was icy cold.

West coast beaches in the evenings were stunning...

although the waves were a bit aggressive at times.

The famous glaciers.

I have done absolutely no scrap booking for what seems like ages, even the smallish bag of scrap supplies we dragged around the south island didn't come out of the car. Of course I've made up for that in photos and memories that are now bursting to be scrapped - lets hope I haven't forgotten how.

Going on Holiday

2007-12-19T22:37:00.000+13:00

Well - this is it.

Christmas is just around the corner and it is now time for us to begin our journey south. The car is (mostly) packed, the presents half wrapped (well, half bought), and we are ready for a big old kiwi holiday.

If you live somewhere south of here (ie. Invercargill) it would be nice to catch up maybe...?

Christmas wishes to you all and may you be blessed abundantly with good things!

The Wedding - in Pictures.

2007-12-16T20:39:00.000+13:00

And maybe a few words too:

I met Hannah. She really is real and just as I imagined - only a little taller.

It was a picnic wedding - lots of very cool picnic baskets with yummy food inside.

The weather was great ... and so hot! The juice box was frozen to keep things cool.

My favourite part - chocolate and strawberries.

Oh and did I mention it was hot!

That Christmas Magic

2007-12-14T14:53:00.000+13:00

I caught a glimpse of Christmas Magic at my house last night. I guess it was really a 'had to be there' moment cause I certainly couldn't take a picture of it, although I tried.

You see I've been reading blogs and getting pictures in my mind of beautifully decorated houses, halls decked in all the Christmas trimmings etc. Well, at my house we have kept it low key - there just didn't seem like much point when we are going away next week. I've put up a small tree, kinda in the corner and out of the way. It has a couple of presents under it - my secret santa ones from my Scrapbook Essentials Secret Santa and a couple from our neighbour across the street.

Anyway - last night as I turned out the lights to go to bed I found the Christmas Tree lights were on so I bent down to unplug them and caught a glimpse of Christmas Magic under the tree. I guess it was just the way the lights were shining and the presents were glowing under the tree - it just looked magical and reminded me of that Christmas Wonder feeling I had as a kid.

Jessi and I made these today for her Kindy Christmas party. It was so cute when we started decorating them and she said 'Hey Mummy those red lollies look just like cherries!' Well isn't that a good thing! Inspired from the girls at Scrap of Faith of course. They were very well received at Kindy but unfortunately the left over ones that I had saved for tomorrow have all mysteriously had their 'cherries' removed.

Needing more hours...

2007-12-13T15:51:00.001+13:00

in the day. I was up till 1 last night making a Christmas gift for a friend.
This was for Tara who looks after Jessi on Thursday mornings for an hour while I teach RE. Inside the bag is a pocket for the notebook and a matching pen. Not my best sewing effort but I know what to change for next time if I should ever make another one.

The RE team met for breakfast this morning. It was nice to sit and chat and I only ate fruit and yoghurt - the greasy sausage, bacon and eggs didn't even tempt me!

I've also sewed up three swimming bags for three little girl cousins - just gotta figure out how to make them different so they can tell them apart.

Oh and the fiskars news... I'm officially a Fiskars ambassador for NZ! Sounds flash aye. Still a little surreal that my name is in a list with some very cool NZ scrappers:

Andrea Senn

Beverley Warwick

Donna Meuli

Evana Willis

Jo Burney

Lesley Cooper

Lianne Gray

Thanks for asking me Trina. I get to play with Fiskars stuff at home and occasionally at Spotlight too - I think it's called demonstrating but doing something I love with tools that I love has gotta be more like playing than work right?

Jessi just looked outside and said "Hey I can't see out there it's all silvery" ... thats a pretty good description of fog I'd say! Might need to scrap a page about the Wellington fog we live in.

Cards

2007-12-11T22:36:00.000+13:00

Feeling rather pleased with myself cos today I mailed out 20 handmade cards. Usually I think about making cards but never get around to it and end up sending nothing.

The design is not mine - I was lacking in inspiration until I found these cards by Zina Wright. The first five were a little different and then I settled into a production routine and they ended up looking like this:

Each one a messy, doodley, handmade original - just the way I've been feeling lately. No time for straight lines and perfect measuring. Which is probably why I haven't done any real scrapbooking lately. Which also means I totally missed the Up2Scrap submission deadline - nevermind, there's always next time.

I have a few more handmade gifts to make for Christmas - some scrapping related like finishing off mini album type things, a clipboard etc and some sewing related - not telling what those are!

I tried taking photos of our tree today - might have to try again sometime as this was the only decent photo!

Weekend Fun.

2007-12-08T20:11:00.000+13:00

Teddies in bed. I got this idea off the SOF forum. Just the perfect thing for Charlize's birthday party today. I knew she had asked for a pink teddy cake so I thought these would match well. The SOF girls are great at these kinds of ideas. The current cupcake ideas are very cool too.

And here are three of the girls at today's party. Charlize is on the right - a big four year old now. Jessi (in the middle) has an unfortunate scratch right under her nose - makes for an interesting look in photos. Maya - on the left has 2 1/2 year old twin sisters. They were so cute and both the same and I had lots of fun taking their photos.

And this one is from this morning at the Sunday School breakup. Is it an unwritten rule that when dressing up as a Bible character one must always wear a tea towel on the head? Anyway - the two girls looked cute together.

And it was confirmed that Alexander is very much like his father in yet another way... The youth group did this very powerful drama this morning and a little after the knife and the fake blood I noticed that Alexander was very white and he leaned over to say he was going to be sick. It turns out he thought it was real and was very concerned for Amanda who played the part of the girl. I had to get Amanda to show him her arms afterwards before the colour returned to his face.

Oh and I found this on Melissa Goodsell's blog, thought it would be fun to do - and interesting to see everyone's answers.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Um both! If I'm using a gift bag it's for a very special present and it will usually be wrapped as well. I just bought some very cool red, white and silver striped paper.
2. Real tree or artificial? Depends on what we are doing for Christmas. This year it's just a little fake one cos we are going away. Last year it was a nice big real one complete with that fresh Christmas tree smell.
3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime before Christmas day. I was real early this year - I had it up on Tuesday. (4th Dec)
4. When do you take the tree down? When we get around to it sometime after new years. This year I suppose it will still be up when we get back from our holiday in mid January.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A doll that cries and sucks it's thumb.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yep - a couple actually. The characters keep moving around this year...
8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother
9. Easiest person to buy for? Myself...or maybe my sister and my kids.
10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? I'm sure I've been given a few odd things over the years but I like them all anyway because I appreciate the people that gave them.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Definitely mail - can't email a handmade card.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Polar Express
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I try to put a few things away during the year but start for real sometime in December after all the breakups/end of year activities that I'm involved in organising.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Um - sometimes maybe a box of chocolates that I don't want to eat. And this year we were just given a bottle of wine and cause we don't generally drink wine I will probably wrap it up and give it to someone who will enjoy it more.
15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? The sweet stuff! White Christmas, Chocolate balls, Pavlova ...
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Depends on the tree - this year it's coloured flower shaped ones.
17. Favorite Christmas song? The Servant King or maybe Mary's Boy Child.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Traveling this year, last year we stayed at home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph. Of course I can - I know how to use google!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Usually a star but it's just been replaced by the peg angel Rebekah made at Rally on Thursday.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. When I was growing up we had to wait for Dad to finish milking the cows and then have a wash and then have his breakfast. Now we just have to do breakfast first.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Maybe not annoying but more sad ... that Christmas has become so commercialised and people don't stop to think about the real reason behind Christmas.
23. What is the “silliest” family tradition you do, or miss doing? I guess that would be the one wedge of pavlova that is left without cream cause my brother doesn't do cream.
24. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented? Can't think of one actually.
25. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees? I love the look of a theme tree, I probably don't have the patience to decorate one and given that the kids decorated ours this year - it's very homey looking. They pulled out all their favourite decorations which happened to be all the things they've made at playgroup over the years.
26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies? Sugar Cookies.
27. Do you like Fruitcake? Not particularly - but I'll eat it anyway.

And two scrappy things you may be interested in if you find you have an abundance of time leading up to Christmas and all ...

Prima has put out a design team call and they had the word 'internationals' in there.

And fiskars has a competition on at the moment with an amazingly generous prize. All this:

Grand prize winner will receive the complete Heidi Grace Designs "Jolly & Bright" collection, complete Cloud9 Design "Christmas is..." collection, a Fiskars Portable Rotary Trimmer, Fingertip Craft Knife, Compact Stamp Press, "Tis The Season" Clear Stamps, Tool Taxi, "Don't Leave me Hanging" Extra Large Squeeze Punch and 1/4" "Round the Corner" Squeeze Punch.

Three honorable mention winners will receive a Squeeze Punch of their choice of design and size.

... for making a holiday card and uploading it to their gallery. That's gotta be worth entering!

Since I last wrote...

2007-12-06T11:41:00.000+13:00

Jessi's ballet concerts went well. Before the third one on Sunday afternoon she got the grizzles and I wasn't even sure she'd go on stage but she did, and she did well and even did the cutest little curtsy at the end. She was in the youngest pre-school group and when they came out in their little animal costumes there was a ripple of ohhhh's throughout the audience - they were so cute!

I was playing with my camera during the concert - trying out the different settings, challenging myself to get in focus photos not using the flash from my seat near the back of the theatre ... until a rather annoyed voice said 'no camera's please!' So I put it away until Jessi came out then I sneaked another few photos. I have lots of dressing room photos - spot the scrapbooking Mum!

She's the one in the middle with both arms in the air. And after the last concert - while we waited for a ride home Jessi practiced her photography skills.

Pretty good for a three year old - atleast I'm in focus!

On Monday at playgroup we had a visit from Old McDonalds farm. Another 'spot the scrapbooking Mum' moment....

Not so much crafty stuff happening this week. Apart from a few Christmas cards, tree decorations for playgroup, gift boxes for CRE, peg angels for Rally ... stuff that just happens without me remembering to take a photo.

Creating stuff.

2007-12-01T20:42:00.000+13:00

Well, life seems to have returned to a more normal pace this week - maybe I'm just more relaxed and just taking it as it comes.

I've even had time to be a little creative - Christmas presents in mind. I got the sewing machine out yesterday. I even changed the needle cos it was blunt from only sewing paper for the last year or so. Needed to get the iron out too - had to blow the dust off it! And as a really telling sign of how often it comes out ... Jessi came along and said "Mummy what are you doing?" Then I had to answer a million questions about the 'ironer.'

I've been playing a bit over at Scrapbook Outlet with their Christmas Gala festivities. I love how challenges create deadlines to get stuff done by, then I can tick them off my list of things I was meaning to get done at some point anyway.

This is my little box I wrote the instructions for in the SE kit a couple of months ago. Just used Christmas paper this time and jazzed up the bow a bit and added glitter cause Lara's challenge was to use two types of things that sparkle.

These little gift bags were for one of Trina's challenges. I opened up my Queen and Co fontastics purse to get the template - and yes, I bought the fontastics because of the cute packaging - the letters were just a bonus!

So now I have three little packages ready to fill with something small and yummy for teachers/coaches gifts.

And my friend and I have been playing with jewelry a bit. Mostly for Chrissie presents but maybe to sell as well. She has lots of these black cord necklaces and I've been coming up with ideas to make them look cool. Just wish I had more time to play around with some more ideas.

Love getting stuff done and being creative at the same time. Speaking of which - the kids are in bed, I've gotta go make something...

Woooooosh!

2007-11-26T15:58:00.000+13:00

That would be the sound of life going past at an alarming rate.

The last two weeks have been crazy.

There are playgroup Christmas Craft activities to plan and prepare. Last week we did calendars with handprints. I gave them a choice of poems to put on them this is my favourite:

This isn't just a butterfly
As you can plainly see
I made it with my hand
Which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love
just so you can recall
exactly how my fingers looked
when I was very small.

And today we made Christmas trees. The mums and dads had to help a bit but they all seemed pleased with the results.

Next week I will have come up with a tree decoration using some really funky felt shapes I ordered, or maybe a card would be cool. And we have gift boxes to decorate with glitter and other such messy stuff.

Rally crafts and end of year events to organise. We just had our prizegiving service/ shared dinner yesterday - which went really well but took a lot of preparing. I had to be organised and order stuff like badges ahead of time so that they could be posted to me. And getting cups/trophies engraved takes a bit of planning. And then working out who earned what badge when I lost the bit of paper with those details on.... And then there was the small matter of making sure everyone had a uniform to wear - totally forgot about my own kids uniform which was still sitting in the wash pile!

Only one more rally night this year. We have a bouncy castle booked and I have a kit to make little peg angels to hang on the Christmas Tree. I suppose a special supper would also be nice. Oh and I used photos from the recent Rally camp in Stacey Julian's finishing line class at CC so I had to have that album finished for the parents to see yesterday. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph it - so there's no pretty picture for you to see.

RE (religious education) lessons continue each week and take a bit of preparation time too. Starting on the Christmas lessons this week - more opportunity for Christmas crafts - planning for this takes a bit of thought as I have 35 kids and only 30 mins.

And then there was the crazy idea of teaching the ladies group from Church a scrapbooking related project at Kiwiscraps. They made one of these:

That was on Friday night. It was fun but a bit different teaching people I know - they made sarcastic comments if I was too bossy! Lots of them bought extra supplies so they could make another one at home - some Christmas present planning going on I think. We are getting together tomorrow night too for a fancy dinner and have to do the Christmas prezzie swap thing - so I'm making a quick gift for that.

This week seems a little less busy. Jessi has her ballet concert on the weekend. Actually she has to do three concerts over the weekend and practices leading up to it.

Alexander has a couple of birthday parties to attend.

Rebekah has a school trip tomorrow and I'm parent helping - gotta bring my togs apparently!

Oh and I heard that I need to post off the Christmas presents to England this week if they are to get there in time. I found the perfect present for Grace last week when I was out shopping with Mum. I have Angela's present planned but not made and no idea what to get Tim.

OK gotta make the family some dinner before I go out to weight watchers. It will be interesting to see what affect a busy week has on weightloss. I've been too busy to exercise lots but also too busy to eat too much...

2007-11-21T18:12:00.001+13:00

Well, the Santa parade went well. Rebekah sat and waved and behaved like royalty. I snuck out of Nic's class to take some photos at the start of the parade - so there are now loads of photos to remember the occasion by.

Crafting Connection was lots of fun. Staying in the hotel was so convenient and luxurious - not so sure about that glass wall in the bathroom - what were they thinking?

Thanks for being a great room mate Ali.

The classes were fun - even the 'chaos 101' class that I TA'd for Nic. It's amazing how much mess can be made when a bunch of ladies are scrapping as fast as they can. I'll have to take pics of the projects I did and give them a post of their own.

It was great to meet up with on-line friends and chat in real life.

It's taken me all week to recover - not sure why I'm so tired but I was kinda greatful for Louise's challenge deadline to help me unpack my scrapping bag and get scrapping again. This one is a lift from a layout by Dallas. Among other things I lifted, I really wanted to use a one word title like she had. So I spent a good part of today looking for a word that was a suitable length, described Jessi and used each letter only once. (My pack of alphas only had one of each letter in it.)

Simple - but it works I think.

Best of luck to those of you who applied for the new SE design team. The waiting part is always the hardest.

Exciting Stuff

2007-11-16T14:23:00.000+13:00

Crafting Connection starts today. I'm staying in at the hotel, doing lots of classes and a little bit of helping out. Should be fun!

In other exciting news - Rebekah just won for herself a ride on Santa's float at the Wellington Christmas Parade this Sunday, and a new bed and $200 to spend at Farmers on bedding! How'd she win?

Well ... for some strange reason we were watching Studio Two (after school kids t.v) and they had a comp. running where the kids had to create a Christmas Stocking and send it in. The timing was tight - had to be posted to Auckland and all, but I figured it was worth a shot. So with Lara's gumboot entry to Up2Scrap last year in mind, I gave Rebekah an old Spiderman gumboot, some black gesso paint and a few Christmassy (not too precious) scrapbooking supplies. She came up with a pretty respectable boot so I wrapped it up and posted it off. (without taking a photo!)

So I got a phone call yesterday while I was driving home from Levin to make sure Rebekah was watching t.v cause they were announcing the winners and then today we got a courier package with the beautiful dress she has to wear in the parade.

Pretty exciting stuff for an 8 year old!

The gallery is up at Scrapbook Essentials. This one was the most fun to do. I'm thankful for lots of things but these were my top 10 the other night when I was working on this.

Enjoy your weekends - I plan to!

The gallery goes up today....

2007-11-15T08:03:00.000+13:00

... so there's not much point in sneak peeks.

But I like these two so I thought I'd share them.

This one won't be in the gallery straight away, there are a couple of finishing things I want to do first.

Keep your eye on the Scrapbook Essentials gallery for the rest.

And another Grace Layout!

2007-11-14T19:17:00.000+13:00

This one is for Louise's sketch challenge. I think you can still see the sketch in there somewhere - the papers kinda had a mind of their own. The little gold butterflies came in one of my birthday raks - thanks Julie. And the ribbon with the zigzag stitch - part of my b.day present from England - only fitting that it should be used on a layout of Grace. Oh and the papers - Urban Lily - 50cents a sheet on clearance at Spotlight.

Up 2 Scrap

2007-11-13T11:39:00.000+13:00

Well, I've seen it with my own eyes - it's out and I'm really in it!

So I thought I'd share here too. Matching card and tag - guess which SE kit I had on my table at the time!

My off the page thingy. I started with a NZ recipe book but didn't like the way it was working out. And then Rebekah came home with her Kapa Haka uniform to be washed and the idea grew from there.

It was fun taking photos of the kids performing. Love the way Joseph posed for his Moko photo. And check out those mini poi - white plastic bags from KiwiScraps come in useful for lots of things!

And the layout.

I took the mag to weight watchers last night to show them this. The weird thing is that when I flicked through the mag at the shop - I saw the 'fat' pic of me and thought 'how embarrassing I'm in the mag' but then I realised that's not what I look like anymore. I look like the other photo and I'm not embarrassed about that.

Well, I'm madly working on my layouts for the November SE kit. I'm not sure if it's cause the papers are so beautiful, or cause I know it's my last kit - but I don't want to cut them up! Gotta get over that so I can make beautiful layouts instead.

Three more sleeps till Crafting Connection ....

So Excited!

2007-11-09T21:00:00.000+13:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I checked in at NZ Dare's today and found my blue and green layout there, along with my name saying I'd won a Tarisota kit!

For the longest time I have watched the kits come and go at Tarisota. I have heard others rave about their beautifulness. I have followed the Tarisota design team girls like a silent groupy - they would be one of my biggest sources of inspiration. I have dreamed. I have planned. Yet still have not had the pleasure of seeing one of these kits arrive at my door. Lets just say ... I'm so excited to have won!

And tomorrow I turn 34 - I wonder what surprises I'll find tomorrow. (Lot's of giggles and whispers behind closed doors at bedtime tonight.)

Two colours only.

2007-11-07T16:39:00.001+13:00

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last updated this thing. Not sure why the time goes faster at this time of year ... I guess life is kinda busy.

I've had a great scrapping day today. I got almost 2hrs without Jessi while she played at a friends, then they came here and played together - nicely, so I kept on scrapping!

So first up is my NZ Dare's layout. Use two colours only. I've used green and blue - yay for blue ink pads which help cover any white in the papers. That's my beautiful wee niece Grace walking in the English countryside somewhere far away. It's actually really hard doing layouts of other peoples kids - cos I never know what to journal about. If I was more organised I could have asked Angela to e-mail me some journaling. It's a pity when it's 2pm here it's 2am over there!

The next layout also happens to be about Grace. I have no idea what that thing is she's standing beside - I just really liked the wall behind her - the colour, the wiggly pipes, the writing.

This one is for Louise's challenge on her blog. She said no patterned paper! Well ... you could make your own - just not use any real stuff. Now, me using less than three patterned papers on a layout doesn't happen often. So I got busy and made a variety of papers to use.

The first is the base cardstock one - I dipped a piece of string in black paint and dropped it on the card. (Thanks kindy for teaching me that one!) Then I found a bead necklace lying on the floor and tried dipping that too! I made a mask by punching swirls in some paper and used my pink paint dabber to make the swirls. I added words to follow the lines and then just a touch of kindy glitz to make it sparkle.
The blue is just paint wiped on with a sponge.
The dark pink - I used sandpaper to rub over the paper while it was sitting on my script stamp - so the white bits are the pattern of the stamp.
The light pink has silver paint and silver stitching in wiggly lines.

Thanks for the challenge Louise - it was fun to think outside the 'patterned paper box' for a change.

Black and White

2007-10-31T17:08:00.000+13:00

Well - when life gets hard - I scrap ... and keep busy.

Just had to scrap on Sunday after I found out about Grandad. Thought I'd do Louise's warm up challenge - only I didn't read the bit in the rules about grey tones, so this probably doesn't count but I thought I'd show you anyway.

It's amazing how many supplies I have in black and white - I guess I am a sensible shopper and always buy black or white ... after all they go with anything!

Thanks for your condolences by the way. The funeral was a quiet family affair. My sister and I did a bible reading (without crying), everyone placed a flower on the coffin and I added some star glitter as my final goodbye. Afterwards there was time to catch up with relatives we haven't seen in ages. Nana and Grandad were always big on family so I guess being together like that was something they would have wanted.

Oh and for future reference - when the kids go quiet and stop fighting in the back of the car it means they are about to be sick! We had two car sick kids on the way there - thank you to whoever invented baby wipes, managed to clean up the car and their clothes and still make it to the funeral on time.

I've also been keeping busy by helping pack class kits for the Stacey Julian and friends Crafting Connection. Let me tell you ... I have seen some very yummy stuff go into those kits! Totally can't wait to do the classes it is going to be sooooo fun. If you haven't registered yet there is still time - I am very tempted to add a couple more classes to my timetable - don't want to miss out on all the goodies. And if you are registered - see you there!

The end of an era...

2007-10-28T18:24:00.000+13:00

as they say.

It is very hard to believe that a whole year has gone past since I got a phone call from Miss Meg asking me to be on the Scrapbook Essentials Design Team. I think the first thing I said was 'Me? Are you sure?' Thinking surely it can't be true - she must have the wrong person.

But it was me, and I have had a fantastic time working with some gorgeous kits, alongside some super talented chicks for an awesome Scrapbooking Company. I guess over the year I have become a whole lot more confident in my ability and a lot less worried about what people will think of me and my work.

So, anyway, with the end of my year on the team it means there is another design call out. Details here. I highly encourage all you scrapbookers to have a go. Give Meg something to think about - all your talent will astound her and she will have a hard time picking just a few for the new team. It's definitely an experience not to be missed so give it your best shot and who knows, it might be you saying 'Me? Are you sure?'

Here's a layout that you won't have seen yet. I did this for the September Kit but didn't like it, so never got around to taking a pic. I was tiding up a bit yesterday (procrastinating) and found it. I decided it wasn't so bad and besides, that's me jumping off a really high bridge - a bit like how I felt a year ago when I began my term on the design team.

So ... moral of the story ... if I can do it ... you can too!

On a sadder note: It was the end of another era yesterday. My Grandad passed away. He has been sick for sometime now (old age does that) so it was expected that he would die soon. I had hoped he would hang on till his birthday - just two weeks away. Instead he chose Nana's birthday to leave this world. (Nana died 8 and a half years ago.) The funeral is Tuesday so a trip to Wanganui will need to be taken.

I need more

2007-10-23T14:06:00.000+13:00

long weekends. Three days is just the right length for a good weekend, especially when the sun is shining.

Didn't end up getting a lot of scrapping done. But did finish this one for the kiwi jack of the month. The original very cool layout belongs to Delys. I loved the black and whiteness of it and just had to jack the dots only I used sequins.

The photos aren't the best quality - scanned from the originals. This is my Grandma and Grandad and four of the five boys they had. (Dad is second from the right in the top photo.)

And a few photos from our visit to Percy's Reserve on Sunday afternoon:

Jessi running - anyone know how to photoshop out those horrible tattoos she plastered on her arms? Grrrrrrr.

The kids - (we swapped Rebekah for Amelia on the right - just for the afternoon)

Jessi being cute.

Feeding the ducks and baby ducklings.

Feeding Jessi!

Is it just my kids or do all kids eat the bread you brought for the ducks?

The bandanna's by the way are from Canteen. We have a kid at church who had leukemia when he was younger. It has become tradition to buy a new bandanna every year when they come out. With three kids we are getting quite a collection now.

OK, better go do something useful.

Another one to cross off the list.

2007-10-21T16:42:00.000+13:00

I started this week with a long list of scrapbooking challenges to complete. This is not a must do list but rather a great list of suggestions. So that when I get time to scrap I have already got a place to start - some of the options are already thought out for me.

I'd been flicking through my pile of already printed photos for the last week thinking 'scrap a mood' (NZ Dares challenge) nothing had really jumped out at me until I looked again at a photo of Alexander with me in the background. So I had the photo - had the mood - and then Megan put up the Friday night challenge - so I had the ingredients. And then it was just a matter of putting it all together.

I love it when it all comes together so easily. And there is still plenty of 'suggestions' on my list in case I should get more scrapping time this weekend.

And the winner is ...

2007-10-19T16:28:00.000+13:00

... Donna aka Deebee. I have your address on the back of the cj parcel you posted so I'll get a little something off to you in the next few days.

SALT
Yet another challenge blog that I follow. I won't say 'keep up with' cause I don't do very well at keeping up with any of them - what's that saying about the deadline whooshing past? Anyway - I have managed to do my first SALT challenge. The topic was creation, and from the moment I read it I had this song floating around in my head:

I am a new creation
No more in condemnation
Here in the grace of God I stand
My heart is overflowing
My love just keeps on growing
Here in the grace of God I stand

And I will praise You Lord
Yes, I will praise You Lord
And I will sing of all that You have done

A joy that knows no limit
A lightness in my spirit
Here in the grace of God I stand

©1983 Kingsway's Thankyou Music
Words and Music by Dave Bilgrough

So this is what I came up with. Both not very flattering photos of me but I guess they get the point across. I've decided to make a faith book in the 12x 6 size - it's fun doing something a little different from the normal 12x 12 square.

This layout is also based on one of the Becky Fleck sketches from the latest Basic Grey newsletter. So it came together nice and quickly for me.

October Kit Gallery
The kit layouts by the design team at SE have gone up in the gallery this week. So I can share those too.

OK so I would share the rest but blogger is not playing nicely. But you can go here and see more. And that way you also get to see what the other DT members have done too.

Feeling a little tired.

2007-10-15T14:39:00.000+13:00

While I wanted to be away at SENZ this weekend, it wasn't to be and instead I was at Rally camp. Rally is similar to Guides/Scouts and I've been a somewhat reluctant leader this year (due to lack of time mostly). Despite my disorganised state we managed to take 18 kids from our Rally and joined with others from the district - about 100 kids in total. We had a fantastic time. Junk food, lots of mud and talking till late at night.

I guess the best thing for me was the realisation that I could keep up with the kids. We took them on a long walk up a hill and down the other side and back along the Hutt river. I was the leader at the front - keeping up with the kids running ahead. Keeping up! This is big - in the past I would have been the leader at the back, puffing and red faced and struggling to keep up. O.K - so I was still puffing and red faced at times but only cause I ran. And I played a game of basketball - and kept up - even with ugg boots on! It's amazing what a difference 60kgs less can make ... and lots of cups of coffee, coke zero and the occasional panadol tablet.

On the scrapping front... I have been working hard with the October SE kit. (Layouts to be seen soon.) And I did my first 6 x 12 layout for Scrap of Faith's birthday competition.
Might just have to do some more this size to match.

Oh and it was my first 'blogiversary' last week. Can't believe I've been doing this for a whole year. I'm feeling kinda generous right now, so how about everyone leaves me a comment on this post and I will draw a name sometime later in the week and send out a little rakking goodness. (This is the time for all you lurkers to come out of hiding and let me know you're reading - please.)

More Inspiration

2007-10-08T16:09:00.000+13:00

I've been trying out a few different techniques in my work recently. So I thought I'd share a few links to places where my inspiration has come from.

The first is Melissa Goodsell. I absolutely love her stuff - she's into more than just scrapbooking. Lots of stitching and check out those yummy little teacups she just whipped up. So, inspired by Melissa, I've had my sewing machine out lately - infact I left it out most of the weekend!

I've used it on layouts but also sewed up these book covers - if I owe you a P.I.F gift then you might just get to see one of these in real life sometime soon. ;o)

The next is another aussie Stephi Kemp. I'm not entirely sure how I stumbled across her blog but I love the artiness of her stuff. The collage stuff caught my eye and I also love the painted/stamped backgrounds which she actually describes how to do - very helpful for someone who wants to give it a go too. Must buy some twinkling h2o's cause I really, really like that look.

And some more arty inspiration comes from Marieke. I was rather taken with a fairy layout she did for Scrapgal called believe. It looks deliciously messy with paint and masking.

I was working on a layout over the weekend and thought I might try this masking game with the paint that comes with this months add on kit at Scrapbook Essentials. I was looking around for something to use as a mask and eventually decided to try using a wide piece of lace. Love how it turned out - just gotta master that 'simple' look cause by the time I'd finished the layout I'd covered most of it up! LOL

Anyway, on Marieke's blog she has put up a challenge for World Card Making Day. She said to use accetate and paint. And cause I had those things out for the layout I'd just finished - how could I not have a go!

So, for the first card I used the same lace as a mask and used the teal paint first, then moved it and used white paint. I've smeared kindy glitz and dimensional magic on the other side of the accetate which gives it a sparkle. Then added the bits of Scenic Route paper and the rubons. Trying very hard to keep it simple and not cover up all the paint!

It kinda looks messy it the pic - it's really hard to take a photo of an acetate card, (specially when you have a 3yr old helper) but it does look better in real life - honest! The paint has a lacey texture to it which looks kinda cool and there's way more sparkle too.

And cause I had a bit of acetate left - thought I might as well make another one. This time I painted in teal and then stamped the words in white. Added the circles and rubons and then discovered I could scrape the paint off again which is what I did around the top circle.

That's another two cards to add to my stash, so thanks for the challenge Marieke. :o)

Eye Candy

2007-10-04T14:11:00.001+13:00

I just found the most coolest shop ever!

It's a combination of all my favourite Etsy shops all grouped together and in real life! For those in Wellington it's in the Marsden Village shops in Karori and it's called Inky Pinky Inc.

I so wish I had my camera with me, cause the inspiration was amazing. They had an awesome display with the coolest cake plate in the middle - I mentioned to Alexander that he might want to show Daddy this shop sometime before my birthday!

There was handmade jewelry and acrylic letters (like wooden ones but see through and just asking to be altered) and felt stuff - oh the felt stuff! So much inspiration!

I found these very cool felt butterflies and some felt ribbon - which I just had to buy. I took note of some very neat felt brooches and cute felt bags.

Definitely worth another trip to Karori in the near future I think.

The cards in the pic above are some of last nights creations. I suddenly had a need for a few cards so had to visit the daring cardmakers to get some inspiration. Very simple - I pulled out some Tinkering Ink paper, some wiggly scissors and black rubons. One had to have a frame on it and the other a postage stamp.

Really pleased with the postage stamp idea. Grandma had given me these stamps some time ago - she's 93 and still saves all her stamps. I hadn't even thought of using them for creating with! So thanks for the idea daring cardmakers.

Happy birthday to Nan Jules in the deep south. Hope you are having a fab day. Expect some mail in a couple of days - just posted today from Karori!

Rats!

2007-10-03T22:59:00.000+13:00

Today I swapped my two girls for a couple of boys from church and took them and Alexander to see Ratatouille at the movies.

Not a smart move for someone scared of rodents!

Mostly they were furry and fake looking but when there was lots of them all running together ... and they had tails ... and they moved like real rats ... uuggghh.

Should've watched the superhero doggy one!

Oh and Mrs Frizz: Those hearts in the last layout were just cut by hand. Nothing fancy, just my trusty scissors and a craft knife for the insides. :o)

Daylight Savings

2007-09-30T18:56:00.000+13:00

Mostly I don't like daylight savings. I don't like change I guess. I resist changing the clocks until the Monday after, sometimes Sunday but never the night before!

So daylight savings is here - it's almost 7pm and still light outside. My problem with this is that the kids want to go to bed a little later - which means my 'scrapping' time starts a little later, and goes a little later. And then it's hard to get up a little earlier in the morning! I was having a hard enough time getting up in the mornings as it was.

But I just discovered a good thing about daylight saving that I hadn't considered before. More daylight in the evening means more opportunity to photograph layouts in the daylight. So - given the extended opportunity I was able to photograph my 'pink' layout from yesterday:

I spent yesterday at Kiwiscraps for scrap pink. It was fun - a little squishy but fun. (Thanks for squashing over for me Kirsty.) I worked on this one layout most of the day - too much fluffing about and talking I suppose. See the little birdie:

That was a technique that Kirsty showed us how to do. Using that thick melty, embossing powder type stuff - opals maybe? You put lots of layers on though and then stamp into it while it's still warm to give it that cool texture. Just had to make a bird to use on my layout.

The flowers, by the way, were made with some felt which I wet felted. I demonstrated this technique yesterday and had ladies making a good soapy mess - and some pretty coloured felt squares too. Not everyone's 'cup of tea' some found it a little too slimey! (Thanks for being enthusiastic Kelly!)

It was a fun day, anyway - thanks for the ride home Ali! Oooh and speaking of Ali - she won the page of the day comp. with a very cool 'bugaloo' page - apparently you gotta be old enough to know what that means. Anyway it was a very cool page and it was neat being able to watch her create.

I'm in sympathy with Mrs Frizz right now. I have a cold and my nose and eyes are running, my head feels stuffed up and just icky. Might just have to go off to bed early...

School Holidays

2007-09-28T10:35:00.000+12:00

Has anyone noticed it's school holiday time? That means my kids are not at school all day - they are at home.

This means two things to me:

We are not so rushed in the mornings. I can sleep in a little. The kids can watch t.v. in their p.j's without me constantly reminding them to get dressed.
They need a little attention throughout the day to keep them from trashing my house and ripping each other's limbs off.

So here's how week one went:

Monday - I had a few scrapping projects to work on. The kids created too - mostly a mess but it kept them happy and occupied.

Tuesday - I worked at Kiwiscraps. Teaching First Steps to Scrapbooking for kids and teens. My kids went to Nana Hardings for the day and I got to play with paper and glue with a bunch of other peoples kids.

Wednesday - We had good, clean, messy fun at home. First we did some wet felting with soap and water. Then we made slime.

Lux soap flakes, warm water and green food colouring. Kept them busy for a while and I now have a very clean roasting dish and table.

Thursday- I was back at Kiwiscraps. Nana Harding took the kids out for the day. My kids made crafty things at Capital E. And I made a mini book with lots of different crafty techniques - while helping a bunch of other people's kids make their own book.

And that brings us to Friday. Today the sun is shining. Rebekah is counting down the minutes till 11am when she has arranged to go to a friends house. I have a circle journal to drop off down the road. A layout to post to Scrapbooking Memories (yes!). And Jessi has a ballet lesson at 3pm.

Better go get some of those things done.

Kiwi Jack Me Up

2007-09-24T17:06:00.000+12:00

I finally managed to get this one finished.

Had this little guy sitting around for a while now. It was about time I used him. With the beads on top like that it makes it a pretty lumpy bumpy layout - but that's o.k cause I'll probably glue it to a board and call it wall art. It will make a good present for Charlize's mum.

The details: The lovely jackee was Ann and her layout can be found here. Thanks for allowing us to jack you Ann. Such a beautiful layout and lots of fun to Jack.

I've used the Basic Grey Periphery papers on this one. Beautiful papers for a beautiful little girl. I took this photo of Charlize at the zoo last time we went. Just through that window is a lion eating a leg of horse or cow or something!

Some Cool News

2007-09-23T16:07:00.000+12:00

Up2Scrap have announced their new Elite Design Team. And no, I didn't make it - but I did get a highly commended mention and my stuff will be in the November Issue!

Big Congratulations to my fellow Scrapbook Essentials DT member Megan - who made the team. And to the others too.

And also to Louise who got a highly commended mention too. Now there's one scrapper to keep an eye on. Louise made second place in the SE Ultimate Scrapbooker competition with some pretty amazing layouts!

Gotta admit I spent a fair amount of time planning and completing my entry - I tried really hard! (Well, as hard as I could while balancing a rather hectic lifestyle - including a trip to the snow. ) I even have another 'almost complete' off the page project here which I'd started but decided it really didn't have the 'wow' factor I was after - so I ditched it ... must finish it off sometime.

And 'cos all good blog posts need a picture - this is a layout for SE done with this months kit. More can be found here.

I'm still working with the kit - just got kinda distracted with a circle journal that's due to be posted on Monday. And a kiwi jack me up layout which is lying half finished on my table.

I've been saving up this quote for ages. Just knew it would be perfect for a layout on my 'real boy.'

A Bunch of Random Stuff.

2007-09-20T17:09:00.001+12:00

Has anyone seen my square hole punch? It's gone missing and I want it! I wanted it so bad I even tidied my desk - but I didn't find it, so I've used a round one instead.
I've been busy working with the September Scrapbook Essentials Kit. Basic Grey Recess papers and other bits Meg put in - she's so good at putting the kits together.

Check out today at my place:

Loving that spring weather. Should've gone for a walk this afternoon while Jessi was at kindy - only I'm so tired, not sure what my problem is but I'm all sleepy so I curled up in the sun and had a Nana nap instead.

Speaking of Nana's - actually Grandma. She wasn't too well this week so I've had a couple of trips up to the hospital to see her. She's doing pretty well for 93 - just a little confused.

Right - I need to go, Alexander has gone to get the washing in off the line - only I know he can't reach the pegs so I'm not sure just how those towels will be coming down. And then I've got a very important game of super hero memory to play before cooking dinner.

Feeling Good

2007-09-11T09:49:00.000+12:00

I can ski!

It seems that skiing is much like riding a bike - 15 years later and I could still do it. OK so I sat down a couple of times - but it was so fun.

The kids, on the other hand, hated it. The snow was cold and wet and they were tired and grumpy. I spent most of the morning trying to beat the grizzles and keep them happy. Fortunately there were a few big youth group kids that helped entertain them.

They had moments of 'this is fun' ... and now, three days later they seem to be remembering the fun times and not the grizzles.

Weightwatchers News:
I finally reached the magic 10% loss - that would be 10% of my joining weight. But add that to my own efforts before I officially joined ww and I have now officially lost 60kgs!!!!!!!

PIF:
Kris and Karen please p.m me on one of the forums with your addresses and I will send you something. Janine - I know where you live!

Going to the Snow

2007-09-07T15:16:00.000+12:00

In a moment of weakness - I seem to have agreed to take our three kids on the Youth Group Snow Camp.

It didn't seem like such a bad idea when I thought of the photos I could take - fun in the snow stuff. Next time there is a scrapbooking winter challenge - I'll be prepared!

But packing stuff for a weekend away at the snow is a bit more than I'd first anticipated. They need warm clothes, waterproof clothes, hats, jackets, sun screen and gloves ...

Why is it, that I've spent all winter finding random gloves lying around the house and putting them away and yet - when it comes to pack their bags I can only find one of each glove.

I have 1 pink one with snow flakes.
1 red one with numbers on the fingers.
1 spider man looking one.

But not two the same! O.K so kids - either you need to lose a hand each or build your snowman with one hand in your pocket!

I'm hoping that going with the youth group will mean lots of teenage babysitters for the kids and I can have a go at skiing - it's been something like 15 years since I last went up the mountain.

Gotta go get those bags packed.

Paying it Forward

2007-09-03T22:38:00.000+12:00

Yep, it's the latest 'thing' to do. But it's a really neat idea and I'm all for spreading a little love around.

The lovely Jasmine, whom I know from Scrap of Faith will be sending me a little something and I'm out to Pay it Forward. Leave a comment on this post and I'll pay it forward by sending you a handmade 'something.' You in return will pay it forward by giving a little something to somebody else. You don't need your own blog to do this - just pay it forward to someone in your life who needs a little cheering up.

Now I'm not planning on making loads of gifts ... given that lots of you have already played this game I'm not expecting lots of comments ... but should it be necessary I will do the 'pick some names out of the box' thing.

So then, I'll leave it till the end of the week for you to express your interest and we'll go from there.

And finally she scraps!

2007-08-29T13:20:00.000+12:00

My poor scrap desk has been lonely lately - I even found dust on it! So I organised myself and found time to scrap.

And cause it wasn't much time the latest Kiwi Jack was the perfect thing - I didn't have to come up with an original idea, just borrow one from the amazing Christi.
And it was such a gorgeous layout to jack from. There's lots I've copied straight from her layout - including the title. I'd bought this gorgeous piece of Cherry Arte flower paper and the Urban Lily rubons a few weeks ago. It was one of those - "I have no reason to buy these but they are really cool and I want them" moments. So it's cool I actually did use them!

The photo is of Gracie in her English backyard. Obviously English grass grows as fast as Kiwi grass and my brother hasn't gotten any better at mowing it!

And then last night I went to put away the scraps from that layout and thought - 'scraps' that would be the NZ Dare for the fortnight. So I came up with this:

All scraps that I hadn't actually put away yet. I couldn't get the rubon's back in their packet anyway so it was kinda convenient to use them all up! LOL

In other news:

Rebekah now knows what a blood test feels like. I couldn't believe how calm she was when she sat in the seat and waited - then I realised that I hadn't actually explained to her that they were about to put a needle in her arm and it would hurt! She was brave though and now we wait for the results - to see if there's a medical reason for why she's tired and can't concentrate.

Alexander did his six year net test at school. (A test all kiwi six year olds do to assess reading and writing.) He jumped up a whole 12 reading levels! I knew he was really catching on to this whole reading business - he keeps knowing stuff he could only know if he had read it. Unfortunately his first year teacher hadn't kept up with his enthusiasm and had him reading books that were way to easy.

OK - Jessi is playing at Charlize's house and it's a beautiful, fine day ... I'm off for a walk.

Kelly's entry in my CJ ...

2007-08-25T19:09:00.000+12:00

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Maryanne Williamson, used by Nelson Mandela in his '94 inaugural speech.

I so needed to read that - in fact the same message has been coming at me from other sources too. You'd think I'd have 'got' it by now, yet still I find myself hiding that light, keeping it all to myself. I'll work on it ...

And cause all good blog posts need pics to look at:
I've been playing with old photos a bit lately. I scanned a few of Grandma's pics. Check out those cute kids! Especially the blond one that kinda looks like Jessi.

And here's Grandma with a different generation of cousins 30 years later - ie. 2 weeks ago!

The Quotes CJ

2007-08-22T13:15:00.001+12:00

Here it is - I think I worked out how to make a slide show!

I'm so pleased with it, each and every page is awesome. And such a neat keepsake created by my friends at Scrapbook Essentials ... and useful too - the quotes are great. So thanks everyone who completed a page - you are fantastic.

Another lot of candles puffed out.

2007-08-20T20:13:00.000+12:00

Well, I now have a six year old boy in the house.

Happy Birthday Alexander.

Not the best 'scrapworthy' shot of him but hey ... this is real, this is how it happened and this is how it will be remembered. Atleast I mananged to get him to change his shirt before the party. I hadn't planned on face painting being offered and the cake looks a bit weird - but it was what he wanted and he thought it was just perfect. (It's an omnitrix from Ben 10 - in case you didn't know!)

Thanks for all your comments about my kit work. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that other people might like my stuff. So often I look at it and see all the imperfections and 'should'ves' and if only's ... and then you lot say nice stuff and I think maybe it's o.k after all. I enjoy creating and if it looks good to others then that's great too. I should just relax and be more positive.

Kelly (memoryfairy) wrote the best quote for me in my circle journal. Will copy it out here when I next get a chance and you can all benefit from it's wisdom. Must take photos of it too ....

I need more hours in the day!

Beautiful Day

2007-08-15T16:29:00.000+12:00

The sun is shining here in Wellington and with the zoo offering $2 entry we've just spent the day at the zoo.

Kit Work
Our work is up at Scrapbook Essentials using the August kit. Lots of black and white and red. Out of one kit I've got four completely different looks, such a fun kit to work with.

A nice cheesy photo of Alexander and Me. Journaling is about how big he's getting. Angela sent me the glitter letters from Singapore last year - they've been waiting for this layout.

I really enjoyed using the tulle ribbon stuff - had to buy more actually. Here I've tied bits through some lace and then added lots of other shiny bits from the kit to make a border.

This is Angela and Grace at Pemberley - straight out of the pages of Pride and Prejudice - well, actually off the movie! Wish I was there too.

I haven't really done a lot of heritage type layouts, but the papers in the kit were just perfect for this. The photo is of my Grandma and her sister and friend. I love how in captures so much of who she was in just one single shot. The black script paper is Scenic Route I think.

This one was in the kit with instructions. I had to hide my journaling cause I didn't want it cluttering up the clean layout.

I loved these Jenni Bowlin frames but didn't quite get them on a layout, so I made them into frames which I can stand on my desk. Photos of my Nana and Grandad are very hard to come by, this one was taken at my parents wedding - they look a lot older now!

Alexander's party invites. These were a bit of a compromise really - I wanted to make something - he wanted to use the McD's fill in the gaps invite and also give his friends a picture he'd printed out. So I made these envelope thingys, wrapped the print out around the McD's invite and popped them in. He was happy, I was happy - done!

The week two layouts from the Ultimate Scrapbooker Comp are also up in the gallery. Some very amazing work there. I've just spent ages trying to pick out my favs - wish Meg would let me pick 52! The next challenge is to use no photo - should be interesting.

Broken

2007-08-11T20:47:00.000+12:00

I got an e-mail from my sister this week - "What's up with your blog? It doesn't seem to have been updated recently..." Ah yes, it must be broken!

Just like the dishwasher broke, and the washing machine broke and so did the overlocker. Isn't it weird how everything likes to break at the same time? Only my blog isn't really broken - just neglected. I've been busy - doing stuff. (And reading Harry Potter - I've finished it now though)

And life is busy but not exciting busy and I had no pics to show so it didn't seem like I had anything worth updating my blog with.

But then it occured to me that even though I can't show you the layouts I've just completed, I can put up sneak peeks. So these are a couple of little parts of what's been keeping me busy. And no, these are not sneak peeks of my August Kit work - they are still to come ... I'd better go get busy!

Are you Scrapbookings Ultimate Champion?

2007-07-24T16:06:00.000+12:00

There's a new comp up at Scrapbook Essentials. Fancy seeing yourself as an ultimate champion? Read up on the prizes/rules and other essential info here and then sign up here. There's already quite a list of names so it's shaping up to be an exciting competition.

Wish I could enter too - only I guess that wouldn't be fair seeing as I'm part of the judging team. :o) On that note all bribes of jellybeans will be accepted here! LOL

In other news ... did you notice how it was a beautiful blue sky, sun shiny day? Gotta love the sun, it makes life so much more enjoyable. For the first time in ages I managed to hang out a load of washing and it dried all by itself without needing the dryer at all! And I went for a big long walk in the sun while Jessi was at kindy.

It's been a good day.

Finally

2007-07-23T14:15:00.000+12:00

...after saving up my hard earned coins, I took home from the shop my very own copy of Nic Howard's book.

This was a momentous moment in my life yesterday. I took that baby home and planned to read it all -cover to cover- right away. I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat for maybe 15mins trying to take it all in and fend off the kids who wanted my attention, while instructing Michael on the proceedings for preparing dinner.

Then reality took over and I realised that if we wanted to eat dinner at a reasonable hour I'd better get in the kitchen and do something about it. So I cooked dinner, did the dishes - our dishwasher broke, pulled the curtains ... you know - did what had to be done.

Then I walk into the lounge and find this:

I think he was studying the dishwasher 101 layout, or maybe he was impressed with the size of Nic's letterbox - whatever it was, the book is obviously just as amazing as I knew it would be.

Now let me get a cup of coffee and enjoy it!

Just wanted to say ...

2007-07-21T21:04:00.000+12:00

...thanks - for all the comments left about the princess layout. :o)

And to share some photos from today.

All three of them looking at the camera at the same time!

It doesn't happen very often that the light is good and the kids are good too! Ok so Jessi was having a little grump there but she got over it.

This is a loaded layout.

2007-07-19T21:56:00.000+12:00

Lets see if I can remember everything:

Firstly this is my kiwi jack layout. A lift off the lovely Roo.

I had to use the crown thing, I cut round my photo and even scrounged up some note paper from the kids stuff - couldn't do much about the words at the top of the note paper - except choose the pink or the blue words ... just as well they both matched the layout!

Secondly I also did this layout because Tam over at Scrap of Faith issued a Sunday challenge to do a layout using three of her favourite things - the colour teal, a bird and hand stitching. The deadline was Monday evening - so it's thanks to that challenge that I got this completed so quickly. And hence the reason why the bird replaces the flower in the whole 'jack' scheme of things.

And thirdly this layout - being a layout of myself - is a rather late attempt at the whole 'scrap a layout of yourself with the word beautiful in the title' thing. Ann kindly cut the beautiful word for me using her cricut. I've had it sitting on my desk for ages - waiting for 'this' layout.

And the topic - the princess thing - it's a God thing. It's kind of a popular Christian topic at the moment. You can buy t-shirts that say 'I am a princess - my father's the King' Not sure if you can read the journaling - but it say's that I don't always feel like a princess - in fact right now I feel (and look) rather like a frumpy mummy but it's about knowing that I am because God says so.

Oh and a couple of other things - note the flowers on the pink background - lifted from one of Neens dt layouts, using the heidi swapp mask and the white ink. And I also borrowed an idea from Jo - inking the embossed Elsie paper so that the patterns stand out more.

When I took a photo of this layout on Monday to post in the scrap of faith gallery it looked slightly different. I decided after I'd taken the photo that I wasn't quite finished and it needed a bit more! So this is a slightly different version. There is one other little detail that I'd like to add - but I'll have to buy one first - and that is to add a tiny little crown to the 'e' in princess. Maybe a metal one like Meg had in one of the previous SE kits - or maybe a bling one ... I don't know ...

So there you have it - one very loaded layout!

Spare a thought for Reef

2007-07-17T13:50:00.000+12:00

You may have heard on the news over the weekend about this train crash. As it happens, the little girl who lost her parents was in Alexanders class at school.

Reef is such a sweet little girl and it's so sad to think she lost both her parents in such a horrible way. I didn't know them well. But I stood outside that classroom alongside her mother each day. We spoke briefly about the weather and stuff and shared the same look of motherly concern when our children were kept on the mat a little longer ... because they'd been talking too much.

It's another reminder that in an instant something could happen that will change life forever. Another reminder that life does not go on forever. The big plans we make now for our future may never happen. The small concerns of day to day living don't mean a lot when looked at from the big picture.

What will Reef remember of her parents? I hope she has lots of memories of quality time spent with them doing stuff that made her feel loved and accepted in this world.

What would my kids remember if I was to suddenly be taken from them? Would they remember the constant nagging to hurry up and get ready for school? Would they remember that I was too busy folding washing to play hide and seek today? Would they remember that I cooked a nutritionally balanced meal for dinner?

It kinda makes you question what is important in life. What good memories are my kids building about life? Where are my priorities? What do I spend the most time doing?

Just a few things I've been thinking about. As for Reef - I'm sure she could use a few kind thoughts and prayers right now.

Thanks also for all your kind comments about my recent layouts. It is really nice to receive positive comments. I still haven't taken a good picture of the kiwijack layout - it's a rather grey and dismal day in Wellington today. Right - gotta go do pilates before going back to kindy.