How are the holidays treating you??

Are you all going nuts yet or are your kids being surprisingly (or not so) good? Mine haven't been too bad since they discovered the huge mound of dirt in the paddock which has kept them entertained since monday afternoon.

Unfortunately it is raining here today, took the kidlets to town so we could all have haircuts - mine was in total desperation for one and I at last look more human again. Quinn wanted his hair spiky and was looking dismayed while she was cutting it but once the gel went in he lit up like a xmas tree, Bean just had her fringe done and she shouted with glee "I can see I can see!!" sheesh twasn't that long!!

Met up with Jo in For Keeps and dropped off my latest LO for her, I have to redo another one in brighter colours but cannot find anyone who stocks SR to match the xmas chipboard (brighton maybe??) - if you know please let me know cos I only have a week to get it done.

What else?? Not alot has been very quiet here. Man came to spray for bugs this morning, just as well I covered up my canvases as his spray has ruined the photos above my desk - thankfully I can reprint those. I have my box of tissues ready for tomorrow nights 20/20 - Terri Irwin is going to be on it and I was bawling at the short promo for it so there is no hope for dry eyes watching that one.

Ok here is another old fave LO, this one I was really arty (for the time) and printed a copy of the pic onto vellum. I still like this one mainly cos it was the first time I used a big photo. Aislinn when she was about a week old when we started the bad habit of letting her go to sleep on us!

And because you are so good at not laffing too hard here is another...

I still really like this, this is as collage as I got really. Quinn painted his own face at playcentre and this quote was rather apt - back in the days before I was into journalling in a very frequent way. I think this is the first LO I inked on too. Terrible stitching job on this one.

Ah well better get off here and do something useful. Happy hump day!! Sleep in for me tomorrow!! YAY!!

Another LO from the archives....

This one is really old too - another double page but I still like this one. Even more surprisingly it features my good self in a wetsuit no less!!!
This is me doing one of the things on my list to do before I die, I always wanted to swim with dolphins and as an early birthday present Peter let me swim with the 2 dolphins at marineland in Napier.


I thought I was pretty clever when I did this LO to layer the bazzill to look like water, not to mention the mixed media title. I would totally do it differently now LOL - more cohesive and less floaty bits. And the blue page pebbles keep getting an oxidising thing on them.

On other fronts, I scrapped a great page with the latest Tarisota on Saturday which I was gonna show you but can't now as Up2 have nabbed it - I am having a good run this upcoming issue with 3 LOs and a card phew!!

I am in love with the new BG Lily Kate range and can't wait to get it (when I pay Megan for my layby LOL) it is so yummily girly and fab for spring pages. Got some of the new cosmo cricket in the Tarisota pack which is nicer than it looked on their website. I will have to have a spend up before scrap camp in Nov - good to have new stuff to play with.

Today is one month till Quinn turns 5 - I am wondering if he will make it till then as it is day one of the holidays and I was looking for a boarding school for him this morning!! Luckily they are spending the afternoon in a Persil Ad by playing on a dirt hill in the paddock and that disgusting mud/poo around the trough - UGH!! Ah well has kept them outta my hair!!

Not much planned for the hols, Peter has a job interview on friday at Gladstone which is just outta Masterton - please cross everything that he gets it. Although major panic will set in cos we'll only have about 2 weeks to pack up and get out!!! It would also be fab to get one of the first jobs he applies for instead of the usual massive piles of CVs and interviews we have to go through. We also really wanna go back home to the Wairarapa and I know the kids would love it back closer to Lizzy's kids, Gran and the Farleys.

The kids and I are headed into town on wednesday so I can get a long overdue haircut - I mean it has been months! And I am catching up with Jo for a coffee as well.

Well that's about all folks!!

Let me take you back to where it all began...

I am bored with not showing you what I have been scrapping so I decided to take you back in time by showing you my first LO ever and a few of my faves since then. Brace yourself the first one is scary ROFL!!

Let me take you back to May 2003....


I am probably the only scrapper in the country who didn't get started with a CM party. I can't remember what got me started, I remember googling scrapbooking and then finding Scrapbook.com and closely followed by a copy of CK and then I ordered what I wanted to make this LO from Kiwiscraps. It took me weeks to actually start this LO. I look at it now and could knock it up in 15 minutes but it took me hours LOL. A double LO no less!!! All it needs is a few circular pics really.

Stay tuned for more steps back in time and even some more recent faves....

Quinn's Last day of Kindy

Today was Quinn's last day officially at Makino Kindergarten (he is going on a kindy trip on friday to a marae. He had his big farewell when they move from kindy to school. He had to make himself a birthday crown and decorate a big 5 to wear round his neck.

Here he is in his gloriousness! (he is as I am typing this weraing nothing but his 5 and crown!!)

He also had to make his own birthday cake, his was in the shape of a bunny and he had to ice it, he of course chose yellow and did completely ice it himself. Rather clever methinks! He can make his own pirate ship birthday cake!

This is a pic of himself and his whanau group teacher Loralei who he adores, he is always telling me he is going to tell Loralei this and that. I think he will miss her the most about kindy.

Next is the big birthday party where he gets to sit on a lovely mosaiced birthday chair and everyone sings and claps etc. And voila he is officially a school kid. Phew!!

Other news, I took him to get his hearing tested today after 5 ear infections this winter and a hell of alot of "what??" he can officially hear normally - phew!! I would still like to get him into the ENT to see about stopping the ear infections.

I have found my mojo hiding in my contributers copy of SC - look out for my LO in the latest issue out in NZ soon - a full page might I add!! Wonder what will be hiding in my next copy?? I managed to finish a LO I started a fortnight ago and scrapped one of the family pics as well - can't show you those they are gonna be in a DT entry (only 2 to go and then maybe I can start showing off some pages!!)

I am eagerly awaiting my box from Tarisota, this months pack looks divine and I can't wait to get playing - lets hope it arrives tomorrow so I can play! I dunno if Q is sposed to be at school tomorrow or not as allegedly they have assembly tomorrow afternoon.

I had to take pics of the playcentre kids and their siblings for our fundraising calenders and discovered it is not easy to take pics of more than 2 kids - trying to get them all looking at the lens and smiling is hard work and I didn't manage it with a few of the kids. I am printing the pics off at the moment so hopefully there will only be one or 2 redos. My own frequently photographed kids wouldn't oblige!!

Nothing much else is going on Peter is beginning to apply for new jobs, with the distance from town and the cost of petrol we just can't manage and hope moving closer to town - preferably back home in masterton will make life easier. I decided not to send Bean to kindy next term, I don't think she needs it and really what is she gonna get out of one afternoon a week?? Hopefully by next year we'll be close enough to town that she can go to morning kindy 5 mornings a week.

Well that is about me, catch you all later.

Anyone have my mojo???

Ok who has it and can you please kick it's butt back home??? I wanna scrap and my mojo has gone away :( I have one more DT entry to do and I want to get this months entry for SO's big new comp underway. Not to mention i just got the latest SR Hampton PP and I haven't played with it yet - heck I haven't played with most of the stuff I got at SENZ!!

Speaking of SENZ - humungous thanks to Jo, Steph and the girls for the fab box of goodies I recieved for helping out at SENZ. I was pleasently surprised and thrilled to recieve it.

So I have not scrapped a thing for a week. I did spend this morning tidying my scrap area (for those that don't know, my scrap space is in the corner of my bedroom) it looked like someone had set off a nuclear warhead in my stash!! LOL I did hope to find my mojo hiding in there but no such luck! I do now have a space bigger than 12x12 to work in though and I found a few things I forgot i had. I so need to invest in more storage, and I desperately need to get some embroidery cotton thingys to wind my ribbon onto cos it is in such a mess I can find nothing! Really all I have in my space is an old dining table for a desk, a cool metal filing cabinet thingy with wee drawers that holds my embellishments, an old bedside table under the big table and some of those $10 bookshelves to store CS &PP. My biggest problem is that I am waaaayyyy to mingy to pay for storage when I could buy more supplies!!LOL

What else?? Ohh that's right, on wednesday I got the family photos we got taken as part of a kindy fundraiser - basically you pay $10 which gets you a 10x13 pic and then they sell you the rest of the pics a week or so later.... can you guess who bought them all?? Tisn't hard ROFL!!

So this is the 4 of us. I love this pic, Q is doing his "I'm so cute"pose - but I look not to bad so I like it.

This one is the ratbags looking oh so grown up, love this shot they look so gorgeous.

And lastly these two scary people , dunno how that got in there LOL! I actually thought this pic would be crap, Peter was sitting on a stool and I had to lean awkwardly over him but whaddya know?? The nicest pic of us together since our wedding pics!!

Q is doing well at school and loving it. He in one week has gone from being able to count to 5 (and getting lost on the way to 10) to counting to 10 easily and starting to learn to count backwards. He is now going on the bus on monday morning and home on the bus on thursday after school.

For an early birthday treat he got to go on the steam train with Grandma and stay overnight at her place. He is now vowing to drive trains when he is a grown up LOL. I will put the pic up when I resize it ;)

For some reason this blog is playing up and the pics aren't coming down the page - lets hope they are actually on the page LOL

Well I am freezing my butt off sitting here so will go move closer to the heater (we have run outta wood) catch ya later!

School days, Steven , Dora & Diego..

Didn't get time to blog last night was too busy reading them to post on mine.

Q's first day at school was a success, doesn't he look all grown up in these pics?? He looked so big sitting on the mat with his arms crossed. His teacher said he did well, and was attentive and worked hard. He did some counting and writing and apparently even wrote a story (which is good for a boy who can only write his name!) He was even desperate to do his homework, which he has finished and wants to do more!!LOL doubt that will last!!







He got this PE gear too which they wear for sports and school trips - looks a dag with those skinny wee legs hanging out the bottom!!













No doubt you have all heard the sad news that Aislinn's idol Steven was killed by a stingray yesterday. Bit of a shocker - who knew that a stingray could kill you?? I feel sorry for his poor wee kids though. Even though he was a bit of a dork I will admit I kinda liked him. Had to explain to Aislinn this morning that Steven lives in Heaven with Pop now when she wanted to know why Steven wasn't on TV this morning. Luckily she is too young to get it.But Q made me laugh when he said he was "gonna go to heaven in a big rocket and give Steven a cuddle and a kiss. Oh and pop too" RIP Steven.

On the happy front look what the kids got after playcentre today!! Meet Dora (Aislinn's) and Diego (Q's). Must be mad to take on 2 lambs cos you just know who will end up feeding them and it won't be them!! They think it is cool though and well they wouldn't be farm kids without a pet lamb.















I spent yesterday working on a LO which is still not finished. But I will show you my fripperie which I just love and the kids like to look at themselves too.





That's all folks!! Have a happy hump day tomorrow and think of me feeding lambs in the dark tonight!

SENZ 06

What a weekend I have had - scrappers heaven!! LOL I hadn't been to SENZ before so had no idea what to expect. I was working for Up2Scrap on friday and taking 2 classes yesterday. But ohh the shopping!!!! I had a ball and not only maxed out the visa but hiked up the overdraft as well!!! LOL Probably not as much as some people however, I was amazed when I was working on the Up2 stand how much people were spending.

Some of my fave stands were Scrapbooking Fever from New Plymouth (I know now that if we ever move back to the Naki that I will be making that shop my second home!!), Craft spot for the cheap kids bargains and their yummy Wild Asparagus and Kaliedascope pp, I also spent a bit at the stand in the back corner by Montargna stamps that had all the SEI and Up2 got a bit of my $$ too when I saw the latest GinX and the cool wooden letters made by Dave the Letterman.

I treated myself to a K&Co frippery bracelet and went back and bought another one to make for a present, also got a lunchpail to make Q a school album. I even splurged on my first Queen and Co and got some sequin flowers. I so could have spent several thousand if I had it LOL.

I got to play with the new Cricut - man that thing is whizzy cool! I soooo want one but will have to wait till they are at least 1/2 the price they are now.

I gained a few swap pins. Unfortunately I lost one in the wind yesterday and have no idea whose it was. I have 9 left outta my 22 which is better than 20 LOL, if anyone is desparately wanting one lemme know and I will send you one. Well what else will I do with them?? Here is a pic of my haul.

Working was pretty good, had to get my head around using a till again but the eftpos was a bit beyond me!! Steph has a new line out called Out of The Closet which is all vintage ribbons and lace and bits and bobs - tis very gorgeous and each piece is unique - totally a must have even if you don't do heritage LOs. I would have bought more but dh would have divorced me. Between working on the stand I was cleaning up and setting up classes for Yolande, Charlotte Whitta and Ngaire Bartlam. These ladies are amazingly talented and I am so wishing I had done Charlotte's vintage doll class and Yolande's recipie book - I so need to save up for the next time SENZ is in Palmy.

I did do 2 of Ngaire's classes which were a total blast, Ngaire is the loveliest person and her classes were fun and they pushed my boundaries with creating a tag book using some cool rubber stamps (I only own alphabet stamps LOL). She also gave great advice on getting good pics of yourself - which I must have forgotten as this pic was taken!
Sorry that is a terrible pic of me! anyone know how to photoshop me a new smiling head?
I can't reccomend taking her classes highly enough should you get the opportunity. I will hopefully finish my LOs and tag book this week and will post them on here for you to see.

I have already altered the Q &A I bought - will have to leave showing those to you until I decide what I am entering for my final DT comp - they are looking very cool though.

I got to go to the SENZ awards dinner last night as a reward for volunteering , the charity auction raised quite a bit for Endometriosis. I was bidding on the desk set that Yolande made for the cover of the August Up2 cover but was outbidded. The Cricut people had put up a cricut which a lucky bidder got for about $450 (they are retailing for $649!)

Before I go and sort out the spuds for tea go check out Scrapbook Outlets new comp GET REAL
should be fun and some great prizes in the offering too - mind you I would like to win the big one LOL

Will update tomorrow after Q's first day at school - one more sleep!!