HAVE A NICE DAY!!!

It's been a year.... Anyone still out there?????

2009-03-21T20:12:00.007+13:00

Hello Strangers!!
Yup it has been pretty much a year since I updated this cursed thing I bet you all have vanished into the cyber ether in frustration with me.

It was a busy year, I spent most of it Nannaing with my mates Liz and Chele as we spun and knitted, crotched and quilted 2008 away - I even occasionally scrapped.

My babies had a great year at school, Aislinn just turned 6, Quinny is now an annoying 7 yo and we have brought our first house. I have broken my camera so am lacking in pics of late will try and post some on here, finally have broadband so uploading isn't as much of a pain.

Wot have I been up to? Have just finished my return to nursing course and am waiting for the paperwork from the nursing council to tell me i am allowed to practice as an RN. I have a job 2 afternoons a fortnight at Palliser in Greytown, and will pick up more shifts at Glenwood in Masterton until I decide what nursing I want to do.
I am keen on doing some palliative papers in the near future, I enjoy that side of it, that and wounds really.

Peter is still working for the lovely Ray (note dripping sarcasm!) he is dying to get outta dairy farming. He has sat his HT liscences but nobody wants to hire an inexperienced driver especially in a recession so god knows when he will get his wish and give up 4am starts.

Quinny has moved up a class this year, he is slowly adapting being in the bigger kids class. He is into hockey this year in a huge way, good to see him finally enjoying an extracurricular activity. He has packed in Keas,was bored with just doing crafts, this kids needs to burn off steam!!

Beany had a good first year at school, despite breaking her arm again a year to the day since the last one!! Luckily it was just a minor break and no hospital stays. She has packed in Ballet and Pippins and wants to do swimming, am yet to get around to booking her in must get onto that tomorrow.

But the greatest thing to happen to us this year has been buying our first house. All these years of living in cruddy farm workers houses we have a place of our own! We decided we couldn't hack another winter in the old place and Ray has been trying to force Peter out of his job so with the help of Peter's wonderful mum we started looking at buying a house. We found this one on the first day. We went to a place around the corner and had time to kill before the next open home, saw this place had an open home on and decided to check it out. Fell in love with it, it is 3 bedrooms, has a conservatory, a freestanding lod fire so we will be warm for once!, an avairy and the kids fave.... a pool!!! It is low maintenence and has lots of storage so we made an offer and a month later we moved in!! And we still love it, the kids had a blast in the pool over summer and I am loving having my own house no-one can tell me what to do in. Even Peter seems more relaxed living off the farm.

Well I am off to watch Dancing with the stars and finish bean's sock. I will endeavour to update this again soon.

Balloon Fiesta

2008-03-28T18:04:00.034+13:00

Well now you all have to put up with lotsa hot air ballon pics LOL! I have taken about 500 pics of hot air balloons this week and still have the night glow tomorrow night. I have gotten a few good shots so had to share them with you all.

It started on Tuesday morning when I looked out my lounge window to see 18 hot air balloons heading towards me...

Got some good pics as they got closer and closer...

This is across the road from our place...

This is the star attraction of the fiesta the Nightmare House, the guy has brought it out all the way from Brazil, tiz huge and a big hit with all the kids.

Took this one on the way to school, this is candyfloss which is Aislinn's second fave balloon. No idea why!! LOL

This is also on the way to school, loved how the cows were all milling round the basket being nosey.

Love this shot of the balloon flying over the maize...

Wednesday night we went to the 2nd annual Baskets and Burners parade down the main street of Carterton, got some primo flame shots...

and this....

Yesterday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to CLareville for the mass take off, 24 balloons hitting the skies - awesome sights....

and inflating the haunted house - we were right under it when it took off...

Love the light in this shot, these balloons are carterton based...

and this one....

Mummy looking out the window of haunted house...

Off she goes....

All of them in the air...

Then we decided to race home before school and put out a bog paper cross in the paddock after being told they will land on them...

Dropped the kids off to school and as I came over the bridge I saw this over my house that is our barn and house in the bottom of the pic.

Do you know it takes forever to get in the drive, turn off the car, undo the seatbelt and sprint across the paddock, it was already down by the time I got there...

I was so stoked that they landed in our paddock, it was the last balloon we had seen take off before we left, I knew a couple of the passengers on board too so that was cool.

As I headed into the paddock ,Liz and Anita on their way to kindy saw it and pulled over, so they climbed the fence ot check it out, here it is going down.

Got some primo shots of it being pulled down...

and this is looking through the top as the nice warm air was coming out...

and closer, you can see everyone pushing the air out...

Looking back at our house, last window on left is my scraproom...

Then they squish it into a small bag...

We put Anita in the basket, she was too short to see out so....

This was her solution...

Lunchtime yesterday a balloon pilot went to school to talk to the kids about ballooning, we got Brian Bollard who is American, lives half the year here in Hamilton and half in Vermont, he makes his own balloons (in a library book at school he is called the king of the homemade balloon) fascinating to listen to.

The kids got to help lay out his balloon...

It was a one man balloon, here he is heading over the school...

Well that's it (thank god you all say!!) stay tuned for night glow pics after Saturday....

Airshows, hot air balloons and easter...

2008-03-25T14:01:00.022+13:00

Have been rather busy lately. Time just flies when you are having fun! Last weekend I took the kids over to Ohakea for the airshow, was great fun.

Took me back to my childhood, it has been a long time since I have been on base, amazing how much it has changed inside the hangars - Tracey you wouldn't recognise it! The kids loved it, Quinn's fave was the Huey (Iriquois helicopter) dropping a car from the sky and resulting big boom,

he also loved the RAAF F1-11 and its big fuel dump resulting in a 30ft flame out the rear.

I love the old planes, the Vampire,Corsair, Harvard. Was disappointed that the Skyhawk and Strikemaster weren't flying, they are the planes I grew up around. I also love the Hueys,
when we were in Singapore Dad worked on them. I have a pic of Shaun when he was Aislinn's age cleaning one. I have always loved the whump whump of a huey and the way they take off ( like the Charlie Sheen movie which title escapes me)

any way I got some awesome shots of the planes, never saw why Dad had to take so many pics of planes, mind you I was going for a photography perspective rather than a plane lovers. LOL.

Easter feels weird being earlier than usual, kids of course got overloaded with Chocolate. The Easter bunny brought them these candy coated choc eggs that they could paint which dragged out the eating for a bit longer. Easter bunny forgot to bring me the glod Lindt bunny I requested *sob*. Saturday Peter and I left the kids with Gran and had a morning to ourselves wandering Masterton, stopped at 10CC for a coffee and I got to try the best Hot x Bun in NZ - truly is the nicest I have ever had so if you are in Masterton over easter in future stop in and get you some, they are expenny but if you only have 1pkt over easter totally worth it. Makes the supermarket jobs look like sh*t.

Sunday we headed over to Dad's so I could tutu with some photos for him in Photoshop, got to take some cool pics of the kids and spend some time with my nephews and neices.

My little step nephew Jatin is a shy wee man and he seems to be warming up to me this past weekend, he is a dear little boy (I sound like my nanna) with the most amazing eyelashes. Seems funny to think I have a Stepbrother and Stepsister now, I don't know them very well and only see them occasionally, weird to think now that our parents have married we are related. The kids have all bonded instantly which is really cool.

What else is happening in our world?? Only 4 more weeks till my baby bro comes home from Afghanistan, can't come soon enough for Sharon and the kids I am sure. will be good to seem him again feels like he has been gone forever. While he has been gone we have seen alot of Sharon and the kids and it is great to see the kids playing with their cousins, now that Greer is walking it is taking on another dimension too.

I started Linedancing classes today - don't laff!!! My friend Liz is a linedancing teacher and she is teaching a beginners course so I decided to give it a go. Isn't as easy as it looks on the telly you know!! My legs are killing me. Was fun and burned off some calories. We are getting a bit sick of walking lately so it is good to find another way to get some exercise in. Weight loss is still on the damn plateau. Loving pilates and am gonna miss it while my instructer is away in the UK for 7 weeks. Will have to make sure I get my DVD out and do it.

This is what appears outside my back door every morning, kids love it, have been getting some pics. If you are at a loose end this weekend head to Carterton for the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival tis fab.

Have been scrapping, stash is shrinking. Have been using alot of old product up. Have some LOs to share.

This is my fave from this weekend, I got the flowers from the Warehouse and they triggered the whole LO, love this pic of Aislinn and Greer too cute.

This is an old all tiem fave pic of Quinny, love how this page turned out.

This is a scraplift which I loved the paper combo of. Took the pic of Aislinn yesterday morning while she was sitting in the doorway of the back door. Love the pic, she did the journalling for the page - awww!!

This is an older one from the bottom of my handsewing pile, not in love with this page, had no idea what I was doing. This was one ofthe first pics I took with my camera when i got it.

Another page from the bottom of the handsewing pile! Quinn and his mate Huntah at the playcentre xmas party feeding each other jelly - they were really good, better than the teenagers.

Couldn't be bothered sewing this one!! LOL. A scraplift which I loved the original 81/2 by 11 page this is my fat boy.

Another old one of Aislinn, don't often do handcut titles anymore - oh to have a cricut!!

Well that is about me gotta go do some housework. Cya Lata.

A very loooonnnnggg post

2008-03-13T16:48:00.025+13:00

Bear with me I have alot of pics to post on here. My puter died a couple of weeks ago and I have a new one up and running so now i can update this and show some new photos and some new layouts to share too.

We have had a busy few weeks with Miss Aislinn turning 5, she had the big party the saturday before her actual birthday with a Tea Party theme, I had grand plans to have it all outside in a decorated gazebo with butterflies, lanterns and crepe paper roses. Unfortunately I was thwarted by the wind, the gazebo collapsed just after I decorated it beautifully so I had to start again and decorate the inside of the house. Thankfully I got it all done before all the guests arrived. She got thoroughly spoilt and had a great party.

The cake was a scrapping masterpiece. She was supposed to have a tea pot cake but at the last minute decided she wanted a pink number 5. I thought to myself "what the hell am I gonna decorate it with??" I had a flash of scrap inspiration and decided to pipe with white icing wee doodles all over it, and the piece de resistance I got the butterfly template from the last issue of FK and piped white chocolate over it and made freestanding butterflies - doesn't it look cool??

They are my new fave thing. I reckon they'd look awesome on a chocolate wedding cake - anyone getting married wants me to make em a butterfly cake??? I liked them so much I made them for the cake for the bbq for her actual birthday.

On her birthday we had a bbq, which Peter's family and my mum were there for and she had a blast. I am going to make her a mini album of her party at some point.

These are the divine tiny cupcakes I made for the party, my other fave thing to make.

More food...everything was pink.

All the girls in their finery...

They had a sugar lump relay race...

The big school girl on her first full day of school. She really loves school, she is trying desperately to be friends with the bigger girls in her class but they aren't keen so I will be glad when Anita starts school next term.

They had swimming sports on her birthday and the kids enjoyed it, it was stinking hot and there was alot of mucking around but I took the opportunity to take heaps of photos.

Onto scrapping, my lovely friend Bronny went to scrap camp in Queenstown this past weekend, i decided to spend the weekend scrapping as well. I did a mini album for Cameron's birthday, an awesome one for Anita and a few LOs I also caught up on some handsewing too so have a few layouts to share.

I did this one a few weeks back, about my favourite place at the moment, Fensham Reserve. Liz and I walk here about 4 times a week it is so gorgeous and serene.

I did this one before xmas and it has sat in my handsewing box for soooo long. This is an old pic of Quinn at about 3 finally scrapped it.

This is another pre xmas page, Aislinn shaking her butt at the sea, I beaded all the way around the black scalloped cs.

Peter and Aislinn at the park in Carterton in November using up some scraps here couldn't be bothered sewing this one. LOL

I did this one this weekend. Quinny pretending to be asleep in a hammock. See Bronny I stamped the title and used vellum on this page. The flourish on the lower left corner is from the latest FK I traced it in vellum and it looks quite cool methinks.

This is another one for you Bronny - paint!!!! I did this one on Saturday, painted the background pp before adding the rest. Tried my hand at a pleated frame too, bottom flourish is all beaded with handmade glass beads I have had in my stash since I started scrapping. The gorgeous and girly things are off a present Aislinn got - raided all the packaging ;)

I did this one just after xmas, pretty simple really.

This one I love, did it a month or so ago, My baby - awww!! The wee bird is from the packaging from a Littlest Petshop set she got for xmas.

This one is Quinny about to kick the soccer ball while playing with my brother. the boy in the cap embie is off an old shirt of Quinn's finally used it in a LO.

Finally a photo of Aislinn I haven't known how to scrap for ages. At last it is scrapped, poor wee mite fell in a manky old pond the first week we moved to Apiti.

Well that is me better get off here, will post over the weekend with more pics and mini albums too. Laters.

Yeah yeah I know

2008-02-17T09:43:00.009+13:00

Still haven't improved my blogging at all. Am still getting none so gentle reminders that I haven't updated it in ages. I keep thinking I will shut it down cos I never seem to be bothered doing it when I am on here but will keep it up for now, highly probable that it won't be updated frequently and that you have all given up on me LOL.

Well another year is almost 2 months over already, last time I blogged Quinn had just had his party and I am getting ready for Aislinn's 5th birthday party next weekend. Feeling a bit sad that my baby isn't a baby anymore but a big school girl. She had a couple of school visits last week, has 2 this coming week before starting full time the week of her birthday. She is having a tea party for her party, seems to be morphing slightly away from the theme at the moment but what the hell she will be happy with what she has chosen and that is all that matters.

Quinn has settled into school well this year, his teacher from last term was supposed to be leaving but is back this term which I am thrilled about, my kids love her and she is the old fashioned kind of teacher that I like, alot like Mary at Apiti so it is quite familiar for them.

We have started back at the after school activities this week, Aislinn back at ballet, Quinny is going to Keas while she is there which saves him being bored at ballet. Then they both have gymnastics on wednesday so only 2 days of rushing about but that is more than enough.

I am still plodding along on WW trying to get over a 3 month plateau, have lost almost 25kg. Liz and I have been walking most nights up in Fensham reserve which is a bushwalk with losts of hills!! I have even been running - me!! who couldn't hardly walk down her driveway in Apiti!! Am still planning on doing the round the vines in a few weeks and heading up to Apiti for the gutbuster on the 5th of April. Hopefully it won't kill me. The girls tried to talk me into it last year but there was no way I could have managed it then. Pretty sure I can now.

Haven't been doing alot of scrapping so far this year, I did a bit over the holidays but still alot of them are awaiting handsewing still, I think I have some i can add in here. I entered a few pages in the Masterton A&P show and got 1st for the one below of Aislinn and Anita at ballet, 2nd and 3rd prizes as well - he he!! Got a few prizes in the photography section as well, couple of firsts, seconds and thirds in that too. Was quite chuffed with myself. Took the kids to the show yesterday which cost a fortune but they had a great time. I have photos but they are still in the camera,need to clear some memory on this thing before I can download them.

Haven't even been taking many pics of late, last time was when we took the kids down to Welly to the zoo. Have to get back into it before my course starts. Found out yesterday that I won't be doing the wedding in a couple of weeks which I am pissed about not that they decided to go with a pro but that my friend couldn't ring me herself and tell me. Ah well I seem to get that alot.

What else? Has been bloody hot summer here, very dry. Thank god for the pool key for the school pool. I survived the holidays without going bonkers or killing the kids so hopefully that means I can cope with the next lot LOL.

Nothing much else to report really will see what pics I can chuck on here for you.

The motorbike Quinn got for xmas from my dad which he crashed just after I took this pic and hasn't been on it since.

The diet xmas lunch I made with nothing high in points was bloody yummy too!!

LO I did as guest designer for SO in December.

and this one...

Love this pic...

At lollipops with Bean stealing my milkshake...

another SO one....

Lastly....

Well that's about me cya in another 3 or 4 months ROFL!!

WWB (World's Worst Blogger!)

2007-11-27T10:57:00.000+13:00

God I am terrible at updating this, no I haven't died or been abducted by aliens. Life is just so darn busy that I am lucky to spend an hour a week on the puter these days. What has been happening?? Erm scratching brain trying to remember....

Quinny turned 6! Where the heck did 6 years go?? one minute he was my beautiful baby and now he's this big skinny kid who loves to armpit fart!! That wasn't what I ordered I am sure. He had a party here which was a success entirely due to my amazing friend Liz who is extremely excellent at party games and made a giant sponge bob for pin the tail on sponge bob and a giant patrick for the kids to throw water balloons at (huge hit btw) She even rescued me from great cake disaster when my first attempt at icing sponge bob looked like my 1yo neice had iced it after my piping bag broke 1/4 the way through icing it. Liz came round the next morning and reiced him for me and he looked rather cool.

Quinn's fave thing was I had arranged with Chonny for Dad to bring Huntah down for the party and to stay the night and Chonny and Adam picked him up the next day. They were so excited to see each other. Definately need to go up to Apiti for a trip over the xmas holidays - mid Jan girls I will be coming up.

What else? Finally Aislinn has her cast off and wires out, she has a gnarly scar but is very happy to no longer be the centre of attention when out and about. She is getting better range of motion in it all the time and when we went to see the surgeon last week he was very pleased with how it is going. She has had to flag ballet this term but is keen to go back next year. She is still enjoying kindy and soon will be starting school visits.

My MIL turned 70 a few days before Quinn's birthday so our birthday week was very hectic attending her various functions. I had an awesome birthday, simple but the best way to spend the day. Dad & Sylvia came over and my friend Mim & her fiance Vince came for drinkies so I was drinking all day sitting out in the sun yakking and eating birthday cake - just fab!

I had a paying photography job, I took photos for my BIL Bruce's mum's 70th party, got well paid too - definatley need to get into this as a job! I am now enrolled for a photography course next year at UCOL, only 1 day a week for 3 or 4 months can't wait for it to start. I have been putting together a portfolio and need to get a website up and running too (yeah when I get time! Can't even keep this updated)

This month has been pretty quiet. Am walking 6kms every night with Liz and getting fitter, I am planning on doing the round the vines in Martinborough in March and heading up to Apiti for the gutbuster in April. I have lost 21kg now and am trying to be stricter on myself to get 10kg off before Mim's wedding on 1st march (which I am photographer for Argh!) Life just seems to be picking up and dropping off kids and walking. I have been scrapping this month though.

I had a blast doing the LOs for SO guest designer of the month, will put those up next month but I do have a few to share. My problem is I do this handsewing on my pages, looks fab, takes forever and I wonder each time why the hell I started doing it, but now it is kinda my thing. So I always have a pile to work through before I can photograph em and put them up. I think there are 12 in the box waiting to be sewn - gulp!

This one is Aislinn and Anita at ballet. The day she broke her arm!!

Aislinn and her pet lamb from last year.

Quinny's first day at Apiti School - seems forever ago now.

Aislinn in her flowergirl dress after the wedding pics.

These 2 are scarily alike!!!

Quinny doing his speech on the last day at Apiti School, I stuck his original to the back.
What else? Oh I have changed Quinn's school last week. As I said last post he was miserable at Greytown. I finally had enough of waiting for things to improve so rang the Principal at Dalefield School about sending him there. Went to check the school out the next morning and decided on the spot to enrol him startin last monday. Went to his school to pick him up at 2pm to take him to see it and informed his teacher that the next day (friday) would be his last day. Well did she bollock me! Telling me he was trying to manipulate me, he was perfectly happy there and my fave make sure I tell the principal it wasn't her fault so he didn't think she was a crap teacher. Sort of reinforced to me that I had made the right decision. The next day when i picked him up she was nice as pie, took me to get his report signed by the principal, no "sorry you feel the need to pull your son out of my school, what could we have done??" so I am pleased I have done the right thing. Quinn has been at his new school since last monday and is loving it. It is only 60 kids as opposed to 310 and is very similar to Apiti School, very family and child oriented and I think he is feeling more secure. He has Liz's son Dylan whom he is great mates there and there have been no tears at all since going there.

He is also finally in the age of toothlessness and loved having the tooth fairy leave him $$. His Gran pulled em out for him which he delights in telling the squeamish. And the tooth fairy knowing he has a scrapbooking mother even left notes.

We went to the Carterton Xmas Parade last week, the kids loved it, came home with free Maccas caps and pockets full of Lollies - Quinn's verdict "This is better than Xmas Mum" we are off to the Masterton one this weekend and next month are going to a free xmas concert at Tauherinikau.

Took me a while to work out this is a smoke alarm!

Car that drove both ways - very cool & Quinn's fave!

Has been so hot here this past week or so. We have been swimming in the river every day and even went to Liz's to swim on Thursday, bean is fearless and a water baby Quinn is more chicken until he remembers he learnt to swim last year!

I caught Quinn "making beer" on Sunday morning - they ended up looking like ther had been a student party with all the empties on the lawn!!
Well that's about me till next time....

Well seeing as you have been nagging for it....

2007-10-07T18:08:00.000+13:00

Here at long last is an update!!!! I know I have almost been as slack as the lovely Rach at updating this and it has been soooooooo long that you are all missing the inanities of my life (chortles behind hand). My big problem is remembering what the hell I have been doing with my life - not a darn lot I can tell ya.

We had the wedding of the year for which i was cheif cake maker, photographer and provider of gorgeous wee attendants. The cake turned out pretty good for a first wedding cake (one guest declared it the best cake he'd ever had and he looked like he had been to a few weddings in his day.

My gorgeous wee nephew Cameron was dying to have it since he clapped eyes on it "Grandad's birthday cake" he ended up helping Dad & Sylvia cut it. Didn't get his seal of approval he only ate the icing!!

I was really pleased with how the photos came out seeing it was an evening wedding with a dark venue. Here are some fave shots.

It was a lovely wedding and Dad & Sylvia are very happy together.

Aislinn loved being a flowergirl and really came out of her shell alot that night. Poor old Quinn was sick and not very well at all, I couldn't keep him at home cos he was soo looking forward to it. I didn't get any nice pics of him and ended up dressing them both up in their finery a few weeks later to get some nice piccies.

The next day I went round to my brother's place to take some family pics of them as he is off to Afghanistan in a week for 6 months. Kids were tired and not very co-operative. I so need to do a photography course so I can get better shots. There was only one niceish one of the 4 of them.

Apart from that we haven't been up to alot in our day to day lives. Have had alot of difficulties with Quinnie's behaviour recently. He has taken to howling everytime i take him to school & I ended up persuading one of the other mum's to walk him from kindy round to his class. I don't like my chances of it not occuring when he starts again this week as he has done it a few times in the holidays, once when i left him at Gran's and again last week when we were at the library for a clown thing, he didn't want to join in just clung to me bawling. We are trying to sort him out but tis a slow process - he is a stubborn wee soul - lord knows where he gets that from??? ;)

Poor old bean has been doing well until the monday before the holidays, she has a new friend and is really enjoying kindy and ballet. that monday I had my friend Liz and her kids Anita & Dylan (who are my kids new mates) here for a coffee after ballet. The kids were all playing nicely outside when we heard a blood curdling scream. Rushed out there to find Aislinn holding her arm sobbing. Sat on the back step with her and as soon as I saw the arm I knew she had broken it. There was a bone poking out at her elbow where there shouldn't have been. Of course all my nursing training flew out the door and I hit panic mode - thank god for Liz who helped me figure out what to do and took Q to her place for the night.
Off to A&E we trotted it was indeed broken, she broke the ends off her humerus and dislocated her tib & fib. Ended up in surgery and in hospital for the night. Masterton Hospital were awesome to us. She is going in on Tuesday to have the cast off and back in 3 weeks for day surgery to remove the wires. Poor wee thing has been miserable and is missing her newly discovered swinging ability.

What else?? Have been scrapping, need to finish sewing LOs so I can show you. HAve even mananged a few original ones too. Will get to it. Exciting month for me I have a guest designer spot on Scrapbook Outlet this month and am looking forward to working with Andrea and the girls on that. Am very sad not to be going to the Pohongina scrap camp this month *sobbing onto keyboard* I hope they don't miss me too much, but funds are extremely low and we have a dearth of birthdays this month.

Quinny had his first school disco a few weeks back, he had a blast and I have to scrap this dag of a pic of him dancing?? He also had a wearable arts show that the whole school was involved in.The 5 year olds made hats and bags and here he is looking all adorable in his. He has now moved up a class and has a great teacher, I do worry that he doesn't have as many friends as he used to and wonder if something is bothering him at school, he misses Apiti School dreadfully and especially his mate Huntah.

I am still plodding along with WW, have hit the 20kg off mark and am having a small hiccup in sticking to it at the moment (too much wine and chocolate!) Onwards and downwards.

Aislinn had a powhiri at kindy and had her pic in the paper (not this pic) she was a cute wee maori princess.

Am getting RSI typing this here are a few more pics of the kids looking gorgeous..

Cemetary Lurking etc

2007-07-26T14:13:00.000+12:00

Afternoon all!

I have a few pics and a few LOs to share so will try and get em all uploaded before I have to shoot off and pick up the boy from school.

Haven't scrapped the past week and a bit. Here are some I did a few weeks ago. In no particular order....

This one is a scraplift, Bean after she helped me make cupcakes - waaay back in my short cupcake obsession phase. They had to be pink and had to have sprinkles. She looks so happy in the pic cos she knows she is about to eat em all!!

This next one is a crappy pic. I made this one for my dad, I had made him an album for his 60th this year - which I still haven't shown you all any of the pages on here. Anyway I had this pic of Q and Dad at Aislinn's Christening. I like how it looks like they are deep in serious man talk. Could have scanned it but it takes me hours to find anything once I scan it and well I cannae be arsed looking for it.

I love this one. My grumpy girl and her "angry face" This was back at the beginning of the year when I first had her hair cut short. She was getting sick of me taking pics. She gave me the feathers from playcentre "for your scrapbooking mummy!"

He he this is one I could get arrested for these days LOL. This was back when we first moved to Apiti and Q kept escaping and roaming up the road and down the back of the farm - was quite dangerous and I had difficulties finding the wee sod. SO i threatened him if he did it again I would tie him to the clothesline - AND I BLOODY WELL DID IT TOO!!! Don't worry I was a few feet away strictly supervising him so he didn't get off or hurt himself. I even fed him a chocolate muffin for morning tea. and the moral of the story - HE DIDN'T DO IT AGAIN!!!

Another Scraplift. Dh decided I should use this pic of miss Bean modelling her "princess dress" - love the wet hair too!

I still dunno if I like this one, tis another scraplift. I think it is too orange for my liking. Ah well never mind. I wanted to do a LO about using cloth nappies with my babies - I am a huge fan of cloth nappies and still can't part with mine even though they are no longer in use.

Scraplifting still.... This is Sentosa Island near Singapore, we used to go there alot when we lived there. Not my own pic, I downloaded it off a website ;) Wishing I could still go to places like that!!

Ok what else do I have for you? We haven't been up to a hell of alot really, life is back into the school rhythm and I am back to walking after I drop the rugrats off in the mornings. Weekend before last we took the kids to the park in Greytown which I didn't like as it was too shady and a cold day. Kids weren't keen on being photographed either.

This one is Quinny listening to Daddy on this thing that has
another one over the other side of the park - don't think they really work though.

This is Bean playing peekaboo. See not many pics that day!!

I have made a new friend this past week, Her name is Mim and we met through the WW website, she lives in Carterton and is Canadian - I am starting to think I must have been Canadian in a former life as I seem to find them everywhere!! LOL She is lovely and we hook up for walking and going to WW meetings oh and of course the obligitory shopping and coffee after ;)

We now have 3 pigs -all girls which we only own one the other 2 are Lizzie's so we wander over once a day and watch the spectacle of feeding time *yawn* things we do to entertain small people!!

This past weekend we went to Masterton so I could get Harry Potter and took the kids to Queen Elizabeth Park. We went over the swing bridge to feed the deer. got a good pic of Q feeding this stag.

Then wandered over to the avaries to see the birds and then over to the old cemetary. I have long had a fascination with very old headstones so I took some pics to practice my photography. Here are some faves...

I like the ones with the wee angels on. This one is Little Roy's Grave, he was 8 when he died.

This one was a missed photo op. Quinn found the head of this angel on the ground - shoulda taken a pic of it cradled in his hands. We put the head back on for her.

Then I turned around and saw these unusual headstones...

and...

They learnt a bit about death and what happens to your body afterwards.

Then they got to play at kids own.
I finished Harry Potter on Tuesday - very good read - made me cry.

Mr Puniverse!!!

I did a photo shoot with them yesterday and snapped these....

and...

and...

and...

Bean in lippy...

Brush your teeth with bubblegum...

Phew pushing my time a bit CIAO!!

Justifiable Homicide???!!

2007-07-13T15:46:00.000+12:00

It had to happen eventually, but couldn't it have waited 5 weeks???!!! What am I on about. Last night a small boy was found in the bath with his sister and a pair of scissors.....

And this was the result!!! Half her hair is gone!!

I like my new haircut mummy! (at least I remained calm enough to grab the camera)

Then it started to dry - erk it looked worse!! What you can't see and i only discovered at the hairdressers is that he cut the black patch on the top of her head to her scalp!! Grrr!!

Would you let this child near scissors???!!! Me neither - the wee shite actually climbed on the vanity and got them off the shelf in the cupboard behind the mirror!! He normally has no access to scissors as he cannae be trusted!!

She then proceeded to tell me how naughty Quinn was but when I told her she shouldn't have let him she replied "I didn't!!" ??????

So this morning an urgent call round the hairdressers to repair the damage visions of flowergirl Aislinn looking more like a boy in drag at next month's wedding *cringe* so off wee trekked and the hairdresser was able to salvage more than I thought she would and she almost looks cute (bad pic - she didn't want me to take a photo) Aislinn doesn't like it so I reminded her this is why we don't let brother's cut our hair!!

Side view of the good side. It looks not too bad if I brush the longer hair at the back over the really short bits. Not terribly girly must dress her in pink at all times so people know she is a girl. ROFL

So the question ladies and gentlemen of the jury is... If i murdered the perpertrater (sp) would it in fact be a justifiable homicide or am I better to just take away tv priveledges for a few days. Vote now!! ROFL!!

I have been scrapping... weeeelllll scraplifting but what the hey it is getting some pics outta the way. Must buy printer ink so I can print some new pics to scrap. In no particular order we have.....

An old pic of Aislinn at playcentre on the Barney swing. All the kids love this swing but when the guys built our new playground there wasn't enough room to have Barney anymore. Used my MM flower stamps for the 2nd time in 2 years *blush*

This is my darling son (yip I still love him a bit LOL)being a wally in Peter's shades after the lenses fell out.

Love this one have been trying to scrap it for 18months now. gotta have bling ;)

My boy when he was young and innocent and didn't know how to use scissors!! Awww I miss him then. Love the Crate Paper zoom.

I loved this quote when i saw it on a LO of Nic Finno's - had to use glitter!! My baby xmas 2004 in all her bling that santa brought.

Love this pic of Aislinn and Tess our old farm dog. Just went simple with this one and cracked out the SR Metropolis.

More SR metropolis different dog LOL Q and Tazzy last december.

This one I did last night and it nearly brought me to tears... look at her hair!!! Ahhh well twill grow at least...eventually!!

Well my MIL is here for tea so I had better go be sociable. Ciao!!

Phew survived a week of the holidays....

2007-07-05T15:14:00.000+12:00

More to the point the kids have too!! ROFL!! It hasn't been too bad actually. I have been able to drop them around at Farley's so I can escape for my walks and I am throwing them outside at every opportunity. I have pics and LOs to share today. First the pics. My poor camera thinks I no longer love it as I have taken eff all photos since we moved down here. I tried to rectify that by taking some pics of the kids goofing on the tramp on tuesday afternoon.

We are budgie sitting for the holidays, we have bluey the kindy budgie here mainly because I didn't wanna do kindy clean up - no wine involved unlike playcentre ;) I am actually using it as a trial pet. I have wanted a budgie for years since my last budgie Lunch died, but we always had cats and I never did get one. Now we only have Tazzy, I am revisiting the idea. I figure budgie sitting was the perfect trial run. I am actually loving having him and will miss him when he goes back to kindy. Will have to save my pennies for a budgie methinks.

Here is a mugshot of yours truly sporting my new specs. Quinny took the pic. I took a few days to get used to them, they are heavier than I am used to and I kept thinking I had my sunnies on LOL. I am still doing well at weightwatchers, I lost 2.9kg my first week and 1.6 this week, I have now lost 13.2kg all up and am hoping to hit 20kg by the time Dad's wedding rolls around next month. I have been walking at least 3 times a week and am enjoying it and really noticing a difference, it also helps that I am not sitting on my butt as much as I was in Apiti.

I have been scrapping a bit, alot of scraplifting - the amount of pics I have mounting up to scrap it is sometimes easier to scraplift IKWIM?

This first one is Quinny all dressed in his uniform on the forst day at Greytown school. Loving the new SR papers I got a few weeks ago (thanks Megan)

Then i scraplifted my lovely friend Jo Burney (Hi Jo *waving*) I loved her version of this LO when I saw her doing it at scrapcamp and whenever I looked at this paper I couldn't see past the arrow LOL. This is Quinny and his mate Huntah a few days before we left Apiti.

Another scraplift this time from the April CK which for some reason I have just gotten this week. I wanted to do a journalling focussed page and this design worked so well. Bling came from PaknSave LOL!!

There was a challenge last week to do a baby page on a MSN group I just joined. I went and bought these chipboard accents and then had the hard job of creating something that co-ordinated with them and find a pic of Aislinn that was scrappable at that age (no ink in printer so had to use old pic) This pic used to hang on our lounge wall. It actually came together better than i thought it was going to while i was working on it.

This is a scraplift of the amazingly talented Kathie Link. My nephew Cameron when he was teeny. I usually scrap the pics of them and give them to them but decided to do this one for our family album - awwwwww!!!

This one is a pic I took ages ago and wanted to scrap but didn't know what to do with it. don'tchya love it when you finally come up with an idea??!! Loving the felt flower :)

I did this one yesterday, pic is a little out of focus but she looks like such a farm kid I had to scrap it. Gotta love that SR Laurel!

Finally my fave LO of recent times. A complete scraplift of a LO in the last FK. Love love love this page!! Was wondering what to do with the darn bird paper and this is perfect. I love the pic of Aislinn and WSM that I took at the rugby a while back, Aislinn was being silly and throwing herself at Sylvia. Yip still loving it!!

Here are some pics of the kids horsing about on the tramp. Aislinn was such a dag, I was off taking a pic of Quinn when she yelled out "mummy why aren't you watching Amazing Aislinn??" gotta love it, I feel a LO coming on!

Actually that one is quite cute!

Quinny talking to Sylvia on the phone last night.

Hope you are all surviving the holidays - only one more week to get through!!

Greetings from the wonderful Wairarapa!

2007-06-17T08:37:00.000+12:00

Yeehah!! We have been in our new house for a week now and it is time I came out of the pile of boxes and updated this thing for you all. That is if you are still reading despite the fact I hardly ever update it.

I am enjoying this being a 2 minute drive from town lark - sooo fab!! It literally takes me 2 minutes to drive the kids to school and kindy, 5 minutes to get to the centre of Carterton and 10 minutes to get to the edge of Masterton - soooo cool!! Mind you it is hurtin the old wallet ROFL!!

The house is actually bigger than it initially looked and the only thing that didn't fit in was my huge big TV cabinet (well it would have fitted but blocked out a few windows), I am slowly getting everything straight - man it is a mission! I know i don't need to panic about it but I wanna have a nice tidy house without it being cluttered up with boxes. Mind you half of the boxes I wanted to find (photos in frames and ornamental stuff) is all in my dad's garage. It is a cold house though, no carpet on any of the bedroom floors but ours and the fire certainly doesn't heat up the bedrooms, but it will be lovely come the warmer weather. We got l;ucky on moving day and it was gorgeous here with not a cloud in the sky - and it has rained everyday since LOL I think we brought the Apiti weather with us.

Quinn started school on Monday, he was a bit nervous at first but by the time I picked him up at the end of the day he was fine. He seems to be enjoying it and his teacher Mrs King is quite nice. He says he has made some friends - Nick and a boy in a black shirt LOL. He was so good he got to bring home the class toy puppy for the weekend - I am just hoping he will give it back. He looks so cute in his uniform and it makes life easier that he has one I tell ya.

Peter started work on monday too. He has been fencing on the run off (where we live) and getting firewood in. I guess he is enjoying it, he seems happy to be on his own unsupervised.

Aislinn started kindy on Thursday, she was really unsure about it all. She has a male teacher Dylan which is a rarity these days, he seems really nice and great with the kids. She was taken under the wings of Charlotte and Georgiana a set of twins who are totally full on and loud, which I think overwhelmed her a bit. She wouldn't let me leave the first day which I found so boring and cold, trying to keep away from her so she could find her feet. I told her on friday I would leave at mat time and she was happy for me to do that. Dylan said she went well and seemed to settle in ok. She told me she sat on her own cos nobody would play with her. I told her she need to go up and introduce herself and ask if she can play with them. It will be interesting to see how she goes this week. Here she is all ready for kindy.

I have a few pics from our last week in Apiti to share. First up is the kids and Quinn's mate Huntah palying on the tramp.

Quinn and Huntah together...

Aislinn and her new toy Pinkiepie the talking baby pony - soo the perfect toy for her!!

This week I made some creatures, the No8 wired NZ dares blog dare was to make cute critters and this is my fave of the ones I made for the kids. Quinn drew a monster and I made him out of felt. I called it Crocketty Lemon. I may have to make one for me LOL.

Man this broadband thing is fab! Makes uploading pics onto here a snap! Here are some embarrassing ones from camp.

This is Lou my own personal stalker! I think she could be my number one fan and a lovely lady to boot. She is modelling our "I just finished a page" wear which if you are wearing when the buzzer goes you win a prize.

This one is Jeanette in the same fetching outfit. Jeanette is the lady who organises our camps and without her they would be very quiet affairs as we are all shy and reserved and she is most of all ROFL!!

This one is Anthea and her friend (who I apologise I have forgotten the name of) dressed up for our black and white themed evening on Saturday night - they of course won! In the middle is the very talented Ruth. I must scrap this pic ;)

Right must go unpack something!! Will have to update again when I have finished sorting out this scraproom and can get some work done!

Oh what a night....

2007-05-19T07:40:00.000+12:00

Oh I had a blast last night. I have the hangover to prove it ROFL!! I am so gonna miss all these cool ladies here in Apiti - obviously not enuf to stay though!! Isn't it funny how you can live somewhere for a few years and it is not until you are about to leave that you realise how cool some people are and you wish you'd hung out much more often. I decided last night that I will have to do a couple of day trips out here in the xmas holidays :)

Ok onto more layouts from camp....

Another SR laurel one - told ya it is my new fave. This is a terrible pic of the kids - pre digital and pre SLR days (why oh why did I not discover these things before I had kids) so I used the ring to hide the terrible background! It is kinda sweet though Quinn is about 20months old and Aislinn would be about 4 months - I forget, you think you never will but ya do.

My other fave thing of the weekend was glitter! In fact I am still finding it on myself a week later! I bought the cool new Making Memories double sided stickers and pack of glitter - tre easy to use and looks so fab! This is the first page I did with it. I hand cut the Urban Lily papers and hand doodled my journalling circle, bit of glitter and a touch of bling. Quinn took this pic of Bean and me at the beach this year.

This is a pic I tried to scrap at camp last time and had no luck - I even had this piece of pp out to go with it. I am quite pleased I actually got a LO done this time ;) Took forever to hand stitch around it though! I need to buy myself this chicken wire stamp too.

This is my second fave LO of the weekend. I struggled so much finding a paper to go with this pic, I knew I wanted to scrap it and knew the title I wanted to use. Someone left this paper on my desk and even though the pic was taken at the beach in summer it went so well. More glitter and the search for what else to do was on LOL found these gorgeous MM rub ons and then the fab foofala journalling spot rub ons. Rose helped me alot with this page, she suggested a snowflake made of this plastic stuff (kinda like the maya road sheer alphas) she had a sheet of it and kindly let me use some to make the snowflake. She also designed the swirl for another LO and I did it on this one too - thanks Rose you rock!

Now for some BG - Helen was selling hers for $1 a sheet, I grabbed some colour me silly - you may remember I thought I would never use this range - too bright allegedly ROFL! I love this pic of Q and stinky. Loving the new SR chipboard thingys with the words on, star and circle came in our pack we get at camp.

Ok this is Aislinn's fave. Very simple just a pic, a rub on and tonnes of glittery flowers - I am thinking of doing a canvas for her room like this. Oh of course the glitter wasn't enuf so I added some bling LOL

More BG colour me silly. Another pic I have had around for at least 2 years waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. Yet more circles and some BG chipboard alphas.

I was gonna upload some more LOs and photos but this blogger is taking waaaay to long to upload anything this mornin - roll on broadband I say!!

One time when I was at Scrap Camp.....

2007-05-18T14:21:00.000+12:00

Hey Everyone! I have finally finished handsewing all the layouts I did at scrap camp this past weekend. So now I get to share - might take a few posts cos I ended up doing 15 pages and a mini album!!!!! Gasp!

I think this camp was the best out of the three I have been to. We decided to get more scrapping in by starting on thursday night and going through till sunday and it made it more relaxed and less stressy on sunday IMO. I had a blast and have some truly embarrassing photos to share - if you have any I'd like to see do email me. But first we will share LOs :)

I finally got my hot little hands on some of the new SR Laurel - my total new fave!! I started off with this mini album using a Maya Road 4x4 album. I wanted to make an album about all the little things we say in our family. I ran out of ideas but since thought of a few more so need to buy more - darn it all ;) Here is the cover.

I will spare you and only show you one inner page. Used up nearly an entire pack of these MM wee stickers too :(

So much was I loving the laurel pps that I finally after 4 years of scrapping decided to scrap an actual birthday pic of one of my kids LOL!! Also finally got my hands on a HS daisy mask - thanks Helen! This was also the start of my circle obsession throughout the weekend- I owe Monica a box of chocolate fish for letting me use her CM circle cutters all weekend. Rub ons are Urban Lily.

This next one is a scraplift of a Kerrin Quall page I found in an old FK. Love this pic of Quinn and Peter - especially the huge dribble!! PP is Junkitz, rub on is fab new velvet HS ones I bought at camp.

This one is my adorable neice Greer, I love how this page turned out. I won the chipboard circle from the fine box :) The 'girl' in the title was using the cricut - I so need one. But I only used the one at camp once! DOH!! I stamped the background with a script stamp which I now need to go and buy LOL. PP is chatterbox, I also need to get these swirly stamps that I borrowed off Jo hehe;)

Now for my darling children - don't they look so innocent in this pic?? This was taken at easter last year. I couldn't have done this page without the generosity of my new friend Sandra - she kindly gave me the Heidi grace paper and the HG chipboard hearts too - thanks soooo much Sandra :)

This next one was for the black and white challenge - not strictly black and white but as close as I get. First time I have ever used Urban Lily papers. I have had this pic for over 2 years in my to be scrapped pile. My baby being styley :)

This is my fave page from the weekend. I saw Lou (my personal stalker) doing a cool page using this doodling technique and wanted to try it, she pointed me to Krislyn who had done one too - apparently it was from an online class taught by the fab Chris Millar on SO - thanks Chris loving this!! Anyhoo, I spent hours looking for the right papers before Kris came to my rescue with this blue that perfectly matches Q's eyes - onya Kris! Stars are cut out from a Laurel pp, sizzix title - love love love this :)

Ok enuf LOs for now, my brilliance will overwhlem you all ROFL!!

Today we had Quinn's cross country at Waituna west school. He did so well he came 8th and he managed to beat 4 or 5 other boys - I was so hoping he'd beat someone cos he kept asking me why he kept coming last in parctice. He cracked everyone up with his unique running stlye - he runs with his hands up under his chin -soooo funny!! Here is a pic of him during the race. They had to run a long way (900m I think) and he ran the whole thing and I am one proud mummy I tell ya :)

I think I forgot to mention on here that we are moving.... back home to Greytown!! WOOHOOO!!! We move on the 9th of June - getting closer! We went down on Tuesday to check out the house and the school and kindy. I was disappointed in the house cos it is darn small inside - I am not sure my dining suite will fit and can't quite figure out where the fridge will go. Here is a pic of the kids outside the house.

Quinn will be in for a culture shock when he starts school, there are only 24 kids at Apiti school, and 310 at Greytown school!! he has to wear a uniform so we have bought that - he wants to wear it to school to show the kids.

They are however psyched about this.....

Aunty Jo and Uncle Bruce have built a new deck on their place and it has a hot tub - my kids LURVE swimmin in the hot tub!! They had to try it out while we visited!

Well better go shower and change I am off to get pished at mine and Kelly's farewell bash at the Kim Cafe

Gasp a month since I blogged!!

2007-05-04T20:54:00.000+12:00

I have been getting nagged, harrassed and bullied about updating my blog by a certain SIET if she isn't happy now i will post the pic of her she just emailed me mwah hahaha!! Have been soooo busy this past month so have to break it all up into 2 posts.

Mostly I have been busy with the SBO survivor comp. I have made it through to the top 5 (shockingly) along with Trina McClune, Vicky Gibson, Delys Cram and Ilka Adam, hugely talented ladies and i dunno how I got in there!! ROFL Anyway it seems we can now put our LOs onto our blogs now that we are no longer anonymous.

First up are my entries that got me into the top 10......

This one is a bit of a departure but I like how it leaps out at you. I wanted it to look like a comic book cell.

Next up is miss bean at ballet. I uhhmmmed and ahhed about entering this, but I love it.

And my BTP - I suck at BTP! Can never think of an idea. But luckily I was playing with an old wine gift thingy and thought this would make a good holder for all Aislinn's fairy wands (completely unaware that she has lost em all somewhere LOL) so I made this and then whipped up a wand to go in it. I love it and so does she.

Ok so week one we had to do our favourite place. I chose Mt Egmont, I love this mountain, it is my spiritual home if you like - when i die some poor sucker has to climb to the top and scatter me off. Love this LO, it is my fave so far.

Week 2 was a recipie, I never normally scrap recipies and was stumped for awhile and then decided to scrap the hot cross buns I made for easter. Got all arty and used the x on the buns as part of my title. I like how this came out though.

Week 3 was monochromatic which I found very hard firstly cos i have nothing that fits the theme but luckily Andrea saved the day and sent me some papers that arrived in time. Secondly cos I wanted to enter this page.

Now i love this more than the one i actually entered BUT because I had posted this pic on here I couldn't use it and keep to the anonymous thing so I entered this one of my darling friend in Edinburgh's wee son Sonny. I have loved this pic for so long so i am happy with it mind you I was certain I would get voted off for it LOL

Onto week 4 which was cards - I hate cards LOL so this pushed me and I was again certain I would get voted off for these.

Week 4 they got sneaky and threw us a mid week challenge which the theme was a number and we had to use that number 6 ways. I chose 4 - see if you can pic the 6 ways I used it. I came last and the very lucky Ilka got immunity- not that she needed it.

This week we had to do a canvas - I am rapt with mine, it is for my friend Louise, it is her little boy Alec and I hope she will love it. You can check it out tomorrow night on SBO.

The same nagging SIET wants to see some LOs she hasn't seen before -shall I or shan't I??? hmmmmm.....

Here it is drum roll please.......

This one is for my BOM - shock horror!!! This is from 1979 ish and was taken when we lived in Singapore (military brat) this is me and my friend Caroline Wilson (who I liked cos she had a 2 storey barbie house) and our pet toads - deprived children LOL!! Went very simple with this one - well it is only for my BOM LOL!!

Are ya happy now SIET???? Keep looking over the weekend for the masses of photos I have to show ya. Tis late and I need to go blob and watch Rove.

Chocolate overload!!!

2007-04-11T17:37:00.000+12:00

Man the problem with easter is the vast amount of chocolate given to small children which is far too tempting to a starving mother!!! ROFL Even though I was supposed to only eat one marshmallow egg, I blew it and ate this too....

By joves it was good but. Kids generously kept giving me bits of their eggs too ;) I have pics of masses of chocolate, eggs in hiding and eggs being found. Even a few LOs to share as I am scrapping like a fiend which has one major downside, my stash is rapidly depleting! ARGH!! I need a shopping splurge AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!(Dh's wallet)

We decided to give the kids their eggs from us on sat nite, mainly cos their grandparents were descending on 2 days bringing loadsa chocolate with them, and just as well we did. These eggs were a decent size - well Quinn cleaned his up in less than 10 minutes!!! Faster than i coulda managed it I tell ya!

Sunday afternoon Dad and WSM came out and brought the kids the hugest eggs - do you think Q was pleased??? Love the look on his face.

We did the easter egg hunt in the garden too.

Made me laugh, I snuck out to hide the eggs with Roxy following me, well when the kids went out to find them she showed them where they were all hidden! They were very pleased the easter bunny had been so generous.

Monday, Peter's mum and his brother Michael came up laden with more chocolate - funny that! Michael kindly fixed the cursed rattle on my car - he had some new apprentice mechanics.

Onto scrapping.... I scanned a whole pile of pics of the kids as babies and decided to start scrapping them. This is Q aged 2 days in the NNU. He was born breathing snuffly and they wisked him off there, he ended up having a hole in his heart and a narrowing of his aorta which thankfully he grew out of. Anyway the Dr's named him the Mighty Quinn and i have been meaning to scrap a LO about it for ages. Here it is, not very babyish but kinda works.

Another Q page, this is more recent. Q has really gotten so confident in the pool this summer and these are my fave pics.

Next for a change of pace a bit of a vintage one. This pic is Peter and his brothers and sister many millenia ago - MIL can't remember wot year. L to R Michael, Brian, Josephine and Peter and their assorted calves at the Masterton A&P Show circa 1971. PP Cosmo cricket.

I did well at JC yesterday, another 800g off totalling 4.8kg in 3 weeks! Just need to get walking more.

Well that's about all from us. We are having a quiet rest of the week. DH has an interview on Sunday, please cross everything for him.

Happy holidays!!

2 posts in one day

2007-04-07T15:45:00.000+12:00

For those not in the know there is a new blog in town which gives a scrapper to scrap lift or jack and one can win prizes! The first one to be jacked is the lovely Erica so today I did my version of her LO and here it is...

Also a couple of LOs I did yesterday, first up is one of Aislinn looking very attentive. PP is my new BG Phoebe which I bought just for the blobby things and wasn't too sure if I'd ever use the other papers. I like how this came out but dh reckons it needs doodling - my dh who has no interest in scrapping apart from the effect on his wallet! I am even shocked he knows about doodling ROFL!

And this one is of Aislinn helping my WSM blow out the candles on her bday cake. More BG phoebe and lil davis chipboard alphas.

I added it up and i have scrapped around 80 pages in the last year - phew! wonder if I can manage to hit 100 this year??

The waiting is on for the SO survivors, poor Andrea has had probs with her internet and as a result the LOs won't go up for voting till 8pm tonight. Forum members with 100 votes get to vote for us and one of us gets voted off (fingers crossed it isn't me) voting closes at 8pm tomorrow and we will know shorlty after what our next challenge is.

till next time HAPTY EASTER!!!

Happy Easter

2007-04-07T09:00:00.000+12:00

About time I updated this again. Not that I have been up to alot at all. I have been scrapping and have a few pages to share and a few still to photograph. We have been busy with all the end of term stuff for playcentre and school as well, we have no plans for the entire holidays except town once a week for JC.

Lemme see what's new, did well at JC last week, lost 1.6kg which is 3.8kg in 2 weeks not bad really. Struggling to motivate myself to go for walks - really is dead boring to walk out here. Have been walking up to Kelly's and back every night this week to feed their animals while they are on holiday. They kindly left their hot tub on for us to use and the kids and I are loving taking advantage of it too!! LOL Here are three ratbags in a tub.

Wednesday Quinn had a rugby thingy at Kimbolton with all the local schools, 4 Hurricanes came to talk to the kids and get them a bit more mad on it than they already are LOL. So we got to meet Hayden Triggs, Tim Fairbrother, Cory Janes and Jason Eaton - none of whom I had heard of seeing as we don't follow rugby in this house - sacrelidge I know! Hayden actually used to work with my brother last year - small claim to fame LOL
Here is Q and Jason Eaton - all I wanted to ask him was "Why a Mullet??"

He was pretty stoked to get a poster and an autographed Hurricanes book and I have to keep reading the players names out, they think Piri Weepu has a funny name "Pooey Wee Poo - that's sgusting!!"

Then they had a game of Rippa rugby so here is my boy in his first ever game, Jason passed him the ball....

But he didn't know about passing the ball!

Here is the Canes, some Manawatu boys and the kids from Apiti School (Q up the front). They all declared it awesome.

Onto scrapping, last week I did this LO of Q riding his bike, got the idea from a Ali Edwards LO with three small pics placed like this and the button thingy, came out quite good methinks.

Another CK scraplift of Beanie at the beach at Napier - dunno if I like it but it is done anyway.

This one I started a few weeks ago but struggled to finish it. The black paisley things were the best I could come up with again dunno if I am happy with it. Sheesh the colour on these pics is bad.

What I am happy with is my entry for the first challenge for the SO Survivor, which I can't show you but you can head over there (link up over there >) click on gallery and then Design Team 07 (can you tell I haven't learnt to link on here yet??) and try and guess mine - anyone who knows me really well will be able to guess. I am dying to see them all and to find out what the next challenge is.

Well that's about all we have been doing, the kids are off to work this afternoon woohoo!! Here is my wee farm girl LOL

Celebrating this week!!

2007-03-29T17:28:00.000+12:00

This has been a good week so far, firstly on Monday at JC I lost 2.6kg! Go me! So pleased it is working. I am still in the groove with this programme long may it continue.

Then Tuesday I got an email from Andrea at SO informing me I am one of the top 10 finalists for the SO Survivor Design team comp!! Soooo stoked and yet shocked they picked me, i keep thinking I am gonna get an email saying nope we were wrong you suck! LOL. The standard of entries was so high I honestly never expected I would get anywhere near the top 10.

Huge congrats to the rest of the 10 : Trina McClune, Kelly Rotherham, Janine Worthington, Lis Cassey, Tammy Milburn, Vicky Gibson, Monique Darge, Natasha Kirk and Ilka Adam, these ladies are hugely talented and i am thrilled to be amongst them. Roll on sunday when we find out our first challenge - it works like survivor where we get voted off until 2 remain and they are part of the 2007 design team. As long as I don't have to eat a cockroach I should be ok.

Ok almost bigger than that news is the achievement of my boy, at last after nearly a year of trying to persuade him he has finally learnt to ride his bike without training wheels GO QUINNY!!! He had his bike at school since monday and Kelly dropped it off for him yesterday, one of his training wheels was smashed and both were quite buckled and Kelly said that the kids at school reckoned he was riding without them on the ground anyway. So I took them off and told him they were stuffed and he'd have to practice without them. Tried to get him to practice on the concrete pad but i think the fear of falling and thinking too much about no training wheels made him give up.

Half an hour later I was watching TV and he was on the lawn with the bike, I told him to ride it there and he did - a few feet before crashing. So I went out and helped him and he did so well. I had to practice with him again after school which involved me running behind him trying to get him to keep his back straight and head up. He is improving he can go around things and further without falling off. Hopefully by saturday he will be right. I am so proud of my boy.

Here is a LO I did a few weeks ago, a total scraplift of one in CK, I loved this pic of Dad and bean at the bach when we were down in Foxton and it looks fab in this LO. I did a couple of LOs today but it is too dark now to take pics.

I was going to put some pics on but they aren't uploading cursed blog!! Will try to do that over the weekend.

Catch ya all later.

I've been busy scrapping this week...

2007-03-24T18:21:00.000+12:00

I was only saying to Bronny last weekend that I had decided not to enter any more DT comps after the last round sucked up all my mojo for almost 6 months!! I was bored the other day and was reading blogs and checking out forums which I have been particularly slack at doing lately and discovered SO is running SO Survivor to chose 2 new DT members.

You guessed it I decided to enter, so flagged the housework and scrapped for the past 4 days instead LOL. I have uploaded my 2 LO's to the gallery in SO (shoot over there and check them out) and it was a tough decision picking 2, dunno if I am totally happy with my choice but dh was no help. Will have to photograph my altered item tomorrow and upload it. There is some fab work being entered and it will be exciting to see who goes through to the next round.

Here for your viewing pleasure are the LOs that didn't get picked. In no particular order....

First up is one that was originally meant to be a pic of my lovely friend Tammy on her own, the next thing I knew I had added the heart and the pic of her and her hubby Mike suited it better. I have known Tammy for about 6 years now and we have never met, she lives in Toronto Canada. This pic was taken at Mike's graduation, he has just qualified as a CPA - Woohoo!! This has been a long time coming for him so HUGE congrats Mike. Used Crate Paper and lotsa doodling on this one.

Next up is my lovely Dh acting silly to entertain the kids at the beach by "surfing" on Quinn's boogie board in about an inch of surf! My new fave brand Scenic Route and a bit more doodling.

From DT entries now that I have my mojo back I decided to head over to No8 Wired and do a dare, they have a scraplift a freestyler dare on at the mo so I came up with these.

First up is a scraplift of Wendy Redshaw-Bruhns. I went with my xmas card pics. I love how this one turned out. Paper is MOD from the Scrapbook Essentials Feb kit. K&Co rub ons and some 7gypsies stickers. I painted the Heidi Swapp chipboard and coated with glitter glaze.

I then scraplifted Tia Bennett and did this page of Aislinn at about 1 the first time I found her nappyless in her cot - a start of a nudist streak in her. I had fun with this one and will have to do more dares in the future instead of thinking about it and leaving it too late to enter.

Lastly here is one I did of Roxy a few weeks ago and hadn't photographed. Loving the Cherry Arte chipboard shapes at the mo.

I will update with some pics this week. I have some of Aislinn at ballet and Q all dressed up to go into theatre.

Q had his adenoids and grommets done last week, it went really well. Stinky even had a paper hat and wristband. Q was so good going under, he was really brave and it went really smoothly. He wasn't very happy when he came out of anaesthetic so they put me in a lazyboy so I could cuddle him. Once he was in the kids ward he picked up really well and was eating icecream and jelly all afternoon. We had to wait 4 hours and went to stay at dad's at 7.30pm he ate tea and crashed for the night. He slept all night and has had no pain relief since he left hospital. He was well enough to go back to school on tuesday and you'd never know he'd had an op.

I took the plunge and joined up Jenny Craig on monday. It worked really well for me 10 years ago and i figured it is probably my best bet at getting all this weight off now. It has been interesting rediscovering the food and how it all works. I am hanging out for chocolate though LOL. fingers crossed that monday will be a positive result.

Right that's it from me. Thanks to those who left comments - nice to know you guys are reading this drivel LOL "Hi Peta!!"

Have a good weekend everyone :)

Warning! Extremely long post...

2007-03-11T15:22:00.000+13:00

Well I thought only Bronny was reading this so haven't been bothered updating it in ages. But apparently there are others out there too (Hi Wendy!!) So I had better keep on top of blogging this year. Consequently have tonnes of pics and a few LOs to upload, bear with me. Can't believe it is almost mid march. We have been a bit busy over feb with Q starting back at school and Aislinn going to kindy and ballet on mondays.

Aislinn has been doing morning kindy on a monday and is really coming out of herself since she started, she does ballet in the afternoon and loves it and is too cute all dressed up in her uniform. She turned 4 on the 27th feb, dunno where my baby has gone, she is looking so grown up these days. We did the cake and junk food thing at playcentre, she had a pool cake and as you can't get blue jelly here, the water was red - looks kinda gross! Then we headed to Foxton beach for our holiday.

We didn't have very good weather, was cloudy and a cold wind for most of the time so we did more fishing than time on the beach - caught nothing though! Here are some pics from the holiday. We left early on the friday as we had gotten sick of the weather and had to go to taupo to pick up our new puppy on saturday.

Quinn took this one of Aislinn and I on the hammock.

So I decided to get a new puppy, her name is Roxy and she is a Blue Merle (aussie cattle dog) she has been with us a week and hopefully is beggining to settle in. Taz doesn't like her and growls and snaps whenever she goes near him. She is a lovely little girl and into everything - Aislinn reckons she is her puppy.

Peter and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last sunday - dunno where 7 years went, can't believe it is nearly a decade. He reckons you get less time for murder - obviously it wasn't his romantic side I married him for!

Quinn went off on his first school camp this week, Apiti school all went to Kapiti Island for 2 nights, his first time in a tent. he had a blast even caught 2 fish. I just hope they took some pics for us. He is going into hospital to have his grommets and adenoids done on Thursday - I am a little nervous but thinking how lovely it will be to have no ear infections this winter.

Today we have been over to my brother's to celebrate my nephew Cameron's 3rd birthday, it was so cool to see Aislinn and him playing really well together. I finally got a photo of all 4 grandkids together so my mum and nanna will be pleased to get a copy of this one.

On the scrapping front, I have only done about 6 pages so far this year and a majority of those are scraplifted as my brain has no ideas in it at the moment.

First up is a scraplift of the lovely Rachel Hoskings, I love how she uses SR. Hope you don't mind Rach ;)

Next is one of Aislinn at not quite 2 playing peeka boo at Kids Own in Masterton, love the new crate paper and the lil davis glitter alphas oh and my new fave heidi swapp bling.

More new crate paper, Quinny at his school final assembly looking all small and overwhelmed - another scrap lift of a Rach LO.

This one is original, this is Roxy and her sisters and brother, I liked the star thing on the last one and did it again on this LO.

I have 2 more to photograph yet, need to find a lime green button to finish on though.

Not much news on the job front, Peter is applying for a farm managers job within the Hopkins group, which is near Opiki just out of Palmy which would be fab. there isn't alot being advertised at the moment, so i am hoping he will be in the running for this one, would be nice to know where we are going before May.

Well that is about me, will try and update this next weekend. Have a good week all.

Oh My it has been awhile!

2007-01-28T15:13:00.000+13:00

I have been so not interested in being on the puter in the last few months, dunno why but I haven't been interested in blogs, forums and scrapping - overloaded maybe?? I was even getting worried that I might be over the whole scrapping thing entirely. But nope the mojo is back and I have been busy scrapping over the past few weeks. Like alot of other scrappers I have been pressuring myself too much to be more creative on each page than the last and to create something publishable each time I scrap, add to that my overload on applying for Design Teams and my new role in scrapping to a deadline and I was not enjoying it at all. So I have decided to just scrap for fun again and not to worry how it looks more to get the memory down IKWIM. Which has been a weight off the old shoulders and has allowed my mojo to rear its wee head and so I have a few pages to share. Some are old ones I hadn't finished or photographed but some new ones too.

First up is one I actually did before I went to scrap camp! I hadn't finished sewing it and it has been waiting to be photographed for a few months now. Aislinn and Tazzy in the woolshed. Good old scenic route and a bit of handsewing (am over that at the moment too!!)

This next one is my gorgeous wee neice Greer on the day she was born. I did this one at scrap camp and have had to pull it to bits and redo the photo after a drip of something ruined it. Isn't she gorgeous?? Love the MM pp totally not what I envisioned was supposed to be all pink and cream LOL.

Ok this is my fave of late, I just love this pic of Quinn and Peter off to work. It was raining a little so Q decided he needed to wear his goggles to keep the rain outta his eyes - such a crack up!

This is the first time I have used one of those new bazzill with the fancy edges, all about how my baby talks with an american accent - I kid you not! For something different I journalled in coloured pencil and inked the back of the ghost alphas. Even put the title on the photo! The pic was actually taken last march while she was gabbing away.

Last friday we took the kids over to Napier to the aquarium and on the way home I persuaded dh to stop at Scrapbooking 2DMax in Waipukurau and bought this fab CI pp, unusual for me to scrap using the paper as a jump off point rather than the pic. I really like how this came out even though I wasted a whole sheet of bazzill to make one ring! Borders running horizontally are the new crate paper.

Onto todays scrapping, this is Quinn at his school atheletics (prob the last post I did on here LOL) scraplifted from the sketch in the latest SC. Simple and gets the story down.

This one is a total scraplift out of the same issue of SC, I knew I wanted to use the colour me silly with this pic and loved how this LO looked in the mag - this version is pretty good too LOL, I think she had punched out the black circles I cut em outta black paper and stuck em on. This is Quinn and his 2 mates at school that I call the terrible 3, the teacher even resorts to seperating them on occasion as they are so easily distracted by each other.

Lastly for the pages, I whipped this one up, Miss Bean and her new look - finally got her hair all chopped off after getting sick of the howling everytime I brushed it. Sooo cute adn grown up looking. Acrylic letters are Heidi Grace - check out what i did to them in the next Up2Scrap.

Here is a birthday card I did recently for my WSM.

Woohoo only 10 days till the end of the holidays - can you tell I am sick of a certain 5 year old asking me every morning "Am I going to school today mum?" who invented summer holidays?? Cruel and unusual punishment to parents!! The kids are off to my mum's tomorrow for a couple of days which will be nice for them and me!!.

I will try and get on here while they are away and put some pic from the holidays on here, better go and chase the bull off my front lawn!

Run Quinny Run!!

2006-12-08T18:16:00.000+13:00

Today was the inter school athletics, between all the local schools here, Apiti, Kimbolton, Cheltenhem, Waituna West and Rangiwahia. Off to Feilding we headed to watch our first school activity for Quinn. Made you laugh watching these 5 year olds who hadn't yet got the concept of how races are run.

Here are the terrible three, Tom, Quinn and Cole waiting to run in the sprints.

Quinny not realising everyone else has started running cos he is watching the spectators LOL!

The tongue I think is supposed to help him run faster but seemed to actually slow him down (either that or he has his mother's atheletic ability)

Onto the throwing or kids version of shot put, he did ok at this, coming in the middle of the pack - the tongue must be better for throwing!

Now over to the long distance running, I felt so sad for him cos he was last by a mile, I remember being the one who was always last and it broke my heart to see him so far behind.Thankfully it didn't bother him and he was happy to run it again as a fun run.

Lastly we had the long jump, it rained so hard that it was all called off and we only missed doing the high jump and quoits. He enjoyed himself and it will be interesting to see whether he gets the concept next year.

We were rather cold and wet, there was a howling gale and showers before the rain set in so we decided we need to invest in some golf umbrellas if we are gonna be spending any time on the sportsfield watching the kids.

Well better go and eat my pizza - am getting told off for being on the puter LOL.

Have a good weekend all :)

Scrap camp LOs

2006-11-23T18:51:00.000+13:00

Decided not to sew on these ones after all. Only have one to sew on but will get to that yet.

First LO is Quinny in a shot i have been meaning to scrap since the last camp. Rach kindly gave me the pp. Finally got to try a CM circle cutter for this - thanks Jo :)

Next up is his nibs when he was almost one, I bought a roll of b&w film and this is one of my fave pics from that film. Love the SR with this and again the circle cutter. Used a HS ghost clock and a Ikandee tie for the hands. I think this is my fave LO at the mo.

Right onto Aislinn, this one is an Elsie scraplift of sorts, I got to look at Rach's Elsie book and was hugely inspired, this was soo easy to do and i lifted the quote from another LO in the book. I think this would be the only ideas book I'd wanna buy.

Lastly this is another bean LO, I took this pic at Lollipops when we were there with Lizzy and the kids for Q's bday. Love this shot. THis LO was nearly in the bin after I stuffed up the doodling and instead of the tiny zigzags had big huge ones (told ya my brain was on holiday at scrap camp!) after trying undu with no success had to cut around it and attach it to another bit of CS. I am happy with it though.

Now a couple of pics from this afternoon. Took the kids up to Kelly and Marty's to see the girls new pony. Well I say new but he is 30 years old and almost ready for the knackers yard. Aislinn had 2 rides on him - she is so horse mad, I can see we will have to buy her one eventually *gasp*

Aislinn on Prancer

And now for NZ's next idol drumroll please for Quinn Mortensen!!!

Well that's about us. have a good weekend all!

Photoshoot yet more pics (and lots of em!)

2006-11-21T17:10:00.000+13:00

Yeah I know i still haven't sewn my LOs from scrap camp and posted em on here, but dear readers I have had a photo shoot with the kidlets this afternoon and have some nice piccys of my angelic looking ratbags to share ;)

This one is soo my fave of the whole memory card I filled - yep Bron all 146 pics!! Well some of em were of the helicopter bucketing the paddocks but won't bore you with that. Don't they look gorgeous in this pic?? Love love love it!

Next up is aptly titled Doggy Slobber - whenever you kiss Q he goes "ewww doggy slobber!" onya Tazzy!!

Love this one too, have printed it off for a LO. Love the light on the back of her head.

THis is my silly boy being well you get the picture....

Aislinn and i found an abandoned birds nest complete with 2 very cold eggs in it. Couldn't get a shot of the nest with the big lens on will have to go out when i get off here and use the little lens and grab a pic, here is bean with the eggs though.

I reckon in this one Q looks suddenly bigger or something.

Lastly a very cool pic of a bee - do you realise it is Quite hard to catch a bee like this they move darn fast about the flowers.

Nothing really happening here, Peter has a job interview on Friday in Carterton - wish us luck, we might yet get outta Apiti before xmas!!

laters

Gotta love scrap camp!!

2006-11-13T16:43:00.000+13:00

I had the best weekend!! Got home yesterday afternoon after a weekend scrapping in Pahongina at Scrap camp. for those of you unfortunate enough not to have been to it, it is a weekend of scrapping at the Highland Christian camp and is run by the lovely Jo Burney and the lovely Jeanette Wieringa. Totally huge fun, loads of shopping (well for Pauline! My dh made me leave the money at home - cursed man!!)
I completely forgot to pack my mojo and was having a total brain fart all weekend. I was able to pick out a pic and that was about it, I had to keep pestering poor Jo, Margo and Rach for a kickstart all weekend (I am sure I was being a bit of a pineapple and they must have been getting sick of me indeed) but I hugely appreciate all their help or I would have got nothing done - like Lou perhaps??

In the end I scrapped 5 LOs, did my wooden word for my scraproom and a door hanger for bean for xmas so did well despite being braindead.

Ok haven't done the sewing on the LOs so will get them on here tis week some time, I do have the BTP stuff for ya though.

Here is my wooden word - I know create is so original isn't it??? For those not in the know you can get these wooden words or single letters from the fab Dave the Letterman at 0800 162 848. I got mine through Up2Scrap at SENZ. Luckily Jo had some 3bugs for sale that were perfect for the job and it looks amazing on my wall.

Next is my door hanger, I decided to make some for the kids for xmas. This is Bean's, I think it looks quite cute. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do to Q's so will get onto that this week.

Speaking of Up2Scrap it is out this week, the Sharee Mortensen issue as I have so much in it this time - including my xmas card on the cover - go me go me!! Will have to frame that one methinks!! I have 2 single LOs, my double from the dt entry and my card so am hogging the issue ROFL!!I have news too, as you know I didn't make it onto the design team - unsurprising considering the amazing ladies who did. But they have kindly appointed me as a junior designer and they want me to focus on card making so I will be working with the lovely Charlotte Whitta and hopefully making some cool cards.

There is some fab work in this issue, I love Rach's LOs - need to get more SR! And after seeing them IRL this weekend I am more inspired to get into more bright LOs. Loved Yolande's xmas boxes and cool cards. And check out Lara's fab altered xmas gummie - can see a pair of those on the hearth.

Well my brain is still trying to go to sleep so will leave it there, had a blast, always good to catch up with the girls and meet all the new faces. Here we all are in all our lovelyness - see how many people you know.

Pineapple anyone??

Last DT LOs to share

2006-11-06T21:25:00.000+13:00

The FK elite team has been announced - congrats ladies! Most especially to the lovely Erica GLover - woohoo! Goes to show a mum of 6 can still get an entry together with a newborn!

So consequently I am gonna share my entry with y'all. (if I can remember what I sent in LOL) Can't wait to get em all back either roll on January!

This is the first one I did. didn't think I would ever end up using the BG colour me silly but it went so well with this pic of Q, lots of digital brushes on the pic, Zina inspired title. Not girly at all methinks.

number 2 was created with my first Tarisota pack, you can't see it very well but there is a fishing line strung across the page. It is probably my least fave of the LOs but I do love the pic - you'd think he'd actually been fishing for longer than it took to take the pic!

I just love this next one, many many hours of handstitching and beading on this. I wanted to reflect the rays of the sun and the BG fusion went so well with this pic of Aislinn at sunset at the beach. Huge flower is Prima.

Another fave, Q dressed up as a pirate, I stitched lots of shapes onto this one and more zina inspired journalling.

I can't find the 5th, must have mailed it off without scanning it which is unusual for me!

3 more sleeps till scrap camp - woohoo!!!

More LOs for ya..

2006-11-01T12:24:00.000+13:00

Had technical probs the other day so couldn't put em all on here - try again today.

First up is my single LO for Scrapbook Essentials, which had to reflect me as a scrapper. I went on a tangent and did it about my being a messy scrapper - no surprises there LOL. My first poppet doll too - very scary!!

Now for the double LO, I just love this. I took the pics of Aislinn a few weeks back and when these new crate paper pp arrived in the october Tarisota I knew they were just what I needed for these pics. Loving the paisley chipboard too.

This is my BTP, this is probably the only good idea I will ever get - I so suck at BTP! I couldn't find a birdhouse for love nor money and ended up getting Dad to build me one (Q supervised LOL)It is intended for Aislinn's room when I have a shelf high enuf that the kids won't wreck it!

Another LO I knocked up the other day, Bronny introduced me to Daisy d's for my birthday - loving it! As Quinn had his proper cake the day before, I made a trifle with the left over cake after carving up a snake. So popped the candles in it for him to blow out. (Did the same thing with a pink lamington for Aislinn's birthday LOL)

Our trip to Palmy on Sat was a blast, the kids loved seeing Payton and Hunter and they had a blast at Lollipops (but man is that place expensive!) It was great to see Lizzie again too. After lunch at Maccas we went to Shaun's to meet my new neice, aww she is soo gorgeous - and no I didn't get clucky! By the time we got groceries it was a long day. I took lotsa pics which I must resize to put on here.

More huge congrats from me firstly to my darlin friend CarrieAnne and her partner John on the arrival of a wee girl on Sunday - she was nameless last I heard. I am hanging out for pics - HINT!! Also to the lovely Jo Burney who was one of the lucky ones who made it onto the Scrapbook Essentials DT (and the other girls of course!)

Some random pics for ya now, firstly the Aislinn dressed up in Quinny's dressup's that we gave him for his birthday - unfortunately they are a little snug! Ahoy there!!

How the west was won??

Payton and Hunter in the balls at Lollipops - my fave pic of the day.

Lastly my ratbags caught in the linen cupboard after trashing it 3 times in one afternoon - can you say sh*tty mummy??

HAve a good hump day!

At last Layouts to share!!

2006-10-30T06:59:00.000+13:00

Now that I have officially missed all the DT's I entered I can start sharing my LOs with you all again.

This is one I did before Steve Irwin died, about Aislinn's love for him. I entered it into the Up2 DT call and then when it missed out on that entered it in the Scrapbooking byDesign call.

This next one was also an entry for SBD, the pic is our family portrait taken a few months back.

Ok this was my 3rd LO for the SBD call, I love this pic of Q and I from around when Aislinn was born.

Oh and here are the altered letters I did for the kids - reminds me I still have to get my wooden word from Up2. Very originally I am having CREATE for my scrap space. It is hard to think of something original really.

Here is a card I made ages ago for just in case Shaun and Sharon's baby was a girl - lucky it was LOL. My first attempt at cardmaking in a serious effort - have only made xmas cards before.

That will do you for today!! I will put my BTP's and other LOs up later this week and a few more LOs I have yet to photograph.

Onto other news, I finally got to see my gorgeous wee neice this weekend, she is so tiny and adorable. Didn't get clucky at all- phew!!
And to round off all the babies this past week, my darlin friend CarrieAnne and her partner John welcomed the speedy (1 hour labour!!) arrival of a wee girl who is as yet nameless yesterday - HUGE CONGRATS!!

Better get the boy off to school.

Babies, birthdays, snakes and scrapping

2006-10-24T17:20:00.000+13:00

I know I have been slack at updating this week. I have been frantically getting my entry for the Scrapbook Essentials DT finished and finally it is done - phew! Just have to put it all together in an email and send it in. Good luck to everyone else who is entering- Megan sure is gonna have a hard time deciding, lots of awesomely talented scrappers entering.

Ok onto the babies... Firstly I am an Aunty again :) HUGE CONGRATS to My baby bro Shaun and Sharon on the arrival of Greer Amy this morning. I can't wait to go and see my new neice tomorrow. Also MaryAnne and Ben welcomed wee Johnny over the weekend. Baby shoppin here I come!!LOL

I survived my bday on Saturday, dad and WSM came out for tea and brought my new fridge out with them - amazing how a new fridge can improve the look of a hodie kitchen.
Tea was a disaster, decided I had to have a leg o mutton for tea, well put it in the oven at 2 and it still wasn't cooked through at 7!! Veges weren't cooked either Harumph!

Sat up last night rolling out marshmallows for Quinny's snake cake, looked pretty cool too.

Today was Quinn's party at playcentre which worked out pretty good as it was teachers only day at school so there were heaps of kids there. He thinks it was a proper party so that's all that matters. His actual birthday is tomorrow and he starts school full time WOOHOO!!! So it will be pretty quiet really. Saturday Lisa and the kids are meeting us in Palmy at Lollipops and Maccas.

That's all folks!!

Ears, fridges,ipods and multibirthdays

2006-10-19T17:06:00.000+13:00

Hello dear readers (assuming anyone is readin this drivel LOL) Have had a busy week and I wanna lie down! Saturday was a big trip to Palmy and we left the kids with Dad and WSM and went fridge shopping - ours died months ago and was gonna cost nearly $500 to fix so we decided to get a new one. Managed to talk Peter into letting me get an ipod for my bday on saturday as well. Also got some much needed walking shoes so I can get back into walking, bought the Eskimo's bday present and picked up the kids xmas presents off layby (remember the mad shopping trip to Kmart??)

Anyway I am now the happy owner of a shiny new stainless steel fridge which is arriving on saturday, a cool hot pink ipod nano and have a kitchen full of healthy food for my new lifestyle change. Had huge dramas with said ipod after spending 5 hours downloading the itunes program discovered at midnight that it isn't compatable with ME so had to spend another small fortune to upgrade to XP. Spent all day yesterday on the puter burning everything on to disc and installing XP. But the ipod is now up and running - sooo need more cds tho. I bludged some off Kelly and discovered I quite like Gwen Stefani and the Black Eyed Peas - go figure! Need to start buying cds as mine are sooooo old and outdated.

Tuesday I had to take Q to the dr as he had an ear infection again, number 7 this winter I believe. I asked the gp to refer him to the specialist but he wanted to wait till he has an infection in the summer. After multiple ear infections each winter i wasn't having it so rang the specialist yesterday and he went to see him this morning. So the upshot is he needs grommets and his adenoids out so is on the list and hopefully in 4-6 months he won't have all these problems. So I am glad I decided to get proactive and do something about it myself.

A busy few days ahead, I have finished my BTP for the last DT I am entering and have just got to get the LOs done so hope to have them done this weekend. I am having dad and WSM out for tea on sat night for my birthday and they are bringing my new fridge out (saves $100 odd for delivery!), monday I have to make Q's snake bday cake ready for his party at playcentre on tuesday and he starts school officially on Wednesday WOOHOO!! When i will have time to finish this scrappin I dunno, I have 2 Cjs to get done too ARGH!

Never mind it will soon be scrap camp and I will have a whole weekend to get lotsa scrappin done!! So much to work on too and no new supplies which is a bummer.

I was gonna show you my latest pics of the kids but the toolbar where you add pics is missing from this blog - who has it?? give it back!!

We are awaiting a couple of babies at the mo, my SIL Sharon is due shortly and MaryAnne at playcentre is overdue, wonder if my new nephew or neice will add to the Oct birthdays in our family? Somehow we managed to fit in mine, MIL is monday and Q is on wednesday, I am picking this bubs will arrive at either end LOL

Ahh well spose i had better go cook some tea. Hopefully will find out what happened to the pic function on here and add some more photos.

School tomorrow!!! WOOHOO!!!

2006-10-08T16:57:00.000+13:00

Can you tell I am glad the holidays are over?? What gave it away?? I survived - just!! And only by the skin of my teeth I reckon. I don't actually know if the boy is sposed to be at school tomorrow as he doesn't officially start till the 25th and is still doing school visits but he is damn well going!! Only 2 and a bit weeks till he will be there every lovely day - say it with me.... Ahhhhh bliss!!

Well it has been awhile since I blogged and what have we been doing?? Last weekend we shot down home to Masterton for a couple of job interviews, the first was a bit iffy with a not so good house - I sh*t you not the world's smallest kitchen I could stand there and touch all 4 walls!! All it had going for it was a bath and an indoor laundry.
Second job wasn't a bad job but no house so we'd have to move to town and find a house in the right area (cursed zoning) and lord knows how long that'd take. So we decided this week we'd turn them both down - we aren't desperately needing to leave here (well I am) but we can be a bit choosy for now. Not that it matters cos we haven't heard back from either of them LOL.

Stayed at Dad & WSM's fri night cos they were taking us out to tea on Sat. Peter and I left the kids with them and went window shopping - nearly killed my old hips and knees. Then after lunch we all took the kids to the Esplanade and they had a blast. THey just loved all the baby ducks in the lake and spent ages lying on the platforms watching them - do you think I could get a pic with an actaul duckling in it?? Nooo!!

The next fave of the day was the slides - they decided they had to slide down together all the time so would sit up there and wait (causing a blockage of kids) for the other one to arrive. See the wee girl in the pink hat - she sat there not moving for over 1/2 an hour lord knows where her mother was.

Ya gotta love the face on the Bean dontcha?? Pure joy.

Ok then she dragged Daddy up for a slide - he wasn't keen but again the look on her face was worth is effort.

I like this one of Quinny spying on the oldies sitting down for a rest (read me and Dad & WSM)

Ok what else scrapping wise I did get the redo done so watch for that in the next Up2. HUGE CONGRATS to Lara, Rach, Trina, Lianne and Donna for getting on the ET - see not me LOL. I was starting to panic about the last DT entry I have to do which I haven't started and have to do by the 26th - the whole BTP thing had me worried. for the record I SUCK AT BTP!!! It is what lost me the last DT entry and I want to be able to come up with something for this one. I finally had an idea yesterday which should work, I just have to see if I can get one - cross everything!! Then I only need to do a single and double LO (all in 18 days gulp)

I have been scrapping a few things but again nothing I can show you. I beleive the FK comp winners may have been notified (not me again) so I should be able to show that off soon unless I get a phone call ;) hahaha very likely NOT!!

So that's about all I have been doing extremely boring. Back to the usual routine tomorrow. Lets hope the weather improves as it has been cra*p over the holidays.
Well that's goodbye from me and goodbye from him... till next time........

How are the holidays treating you??

2006-09-27T14:42:00.000+12:00

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....

2006-09-25T15:58:00.000+12:00

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...

2006-09-22T15:58:00.000+12:00

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

2006-09-20T16:34:00.000+12:00

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???

2006-09-12T15:15:00.000+12:00

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..

2006-09-05T17:03:00.001+12:00

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

2006-09-03T16:32:00.000+12:00

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!!

My wish came true....

2006-08-31T16:16:00.000+12:00

Quinn is starting school on monday!!! WOOHOOO!!! I am really excited for him even though it means I am now the mother of a school kid. I am also really excited for me cos it means that life will be a bit easier without the constant fighting which serenades me day and night. He will be going Monday mornings and thursday afternoons for the next few weeks until the holidays - doin a happy dance!!! I have named his pencil case and sharpened his pencils but cannae for the life of me find the name tapes to sew in his clothes! Never mind he could go like this!!...... He happily posed for this when I asked him if I can take a pic for his 21st MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Other good news - Miss Bean will be a big kindy girl next term! Q's kindy teacher asked me yesterday if I wanted to send her 1or 2 afternoons a week next term - uh yesssssssss! So she will go on a tues or thurs afternoon - yay!! Tis a bummer there are no other kids from Apiti doing the afternoon kindy thing but tis only for one term, I might be able to send her in the mornings next year if I can find someone else going in.

I am off to SENZ this weekend - if you are there say Hi! I have 22 swap pins to get rid of so do come and ask for one! I apologise in advance for them as I have never made one before let alone seen one LOL. I am so blonde I even put my blog addy wrong LOL. Here they are anyway.

I am helping out at SENZ tomorrow by working on the Up2 stand - hope tis nothing too complex LOL and helping Yolande, Charlotte and Ngaire Bartlam set up and tidy up their classes. Saturday I am doing Ngaire's classes which will involve scrapping me - ugh! Should be fun even if the subject is me LOL. My scrappin bag is packed and ready to go!

What else has been happening this last week? Sent off my entry for Up2 - I was the first LOL! And also my entry for the FK which I am really proud of and can't wait to get back ROFL. It was so much easier this time around and I didn't have to stress out Evana and Bron by emailing them 20 LOs to pic from!!! I just sent out the first 5 I did. Mind you it was just as well cos E was busy having a baby and Bron has been offline for weeks since she moved to the bottom of the world. So I owe them both huge apologies for doing that to them last year - sorry guys!

I am hoping my mojo is gonna come back after this weekend as I have none and all the stuff I have been scrapping I can't show off. I just need to do 3 LOs for the last DT I am entering and then I can start showing off my work again - phew!! Hopefully the end of October I will be able to show you the FK stuff - dunno when Up2 is decided.This week I have been baking cakes for a circle journal- I made a chocolate cloud cake on tuesday and this is the result....well 2 nekkid choc coated kidlets and a cake that was too rich even for dh - nigella must have cast iron taste buds!!

Kids have been their usual selves, we have been into town twice on the kindy run now Di is working again. Bean and I got to do parent help at kindy yesterday which was tres exciting for me, but I got to see that despite Q telling me he does nothing at kindy he is pretty busy the whole time. Shot off to the toy library and this week we have this......

yep last time the lion was a hit, so Aislinn chose a turtle suit and awww cute but not as popular cos turtles can't roar! She is yet to pose for me in it though. Also had to take back the best toy ever - a fisher price loving family dollshouse which the kids played with for a solid fortnight! I am after one now anyone have one they don't want?? Thank god for Trade Me I say!! This time we have a pirate ship and Dora Lego - more tiny pieces to search the house for!!

Erm what else?? has been pretty quiet really. I am off to my first ever tupperware party tonight at Kelly's. I have no denero and no desire to buy anything (far too overpriced for me) but free booze and food count me in!! Just as long as dh tapes McLeods!

OMG my evil fat b*stard cat just clawed me on the butt to get me to open the door for him!!

Ooohhh little kids are soo funny, a butt nekkid bean (is there anyother kind??) just goose stepped past me "marching marching marchiiing!" ROFL.

Well I will try to update this on monday so I can show you pics of Q ready for school and any SENZ pics (if I take the camera out of the bag!!)

Bonne weekend

Lion taming and scrapping brilliance!!

2006-08-18T17:54:00.000+12:00

On wednesday we went to the toy library, Aislinn chose a fisher price dolls house which they just love and have playedwith non stop (and faught over pretty much half of the time). Q chose a lion suit - as you do!! So this has provided us with lots of photo ops :)

Q makes a cute lion....the only problem is he likes to.......

ROAR!!!!

of course it is all the more fun to scare the bejeepers outta your sister!

He also is confused as to whether he is a lion or a tigger LOL I did get some cool action shots of him on the tramp.

Aislinn on the other hand tries to be a scary lion......

but just ends up looking like a snuggable huggable wee lion that you just gotta smother in kisses (not that she'd let ya!)

Still a household of sick kids - slowly drivin me batty!! Hopefully they will be well enuf for playcentre and kindy next week. We are off to town tomorrow to get a family pic taken (kindy fundraiser) I did plan on all of us wearing jeans but Q has a HUGE hole in his only pair of jeans GRR!! Also off to spotlight to look for something to alter for the Up2 DT call.

I have been busy scrappin today and the LO I did was well Brilliant!!! If I do say so myself, I love how this entering into DT pushes me and results in better scrappin and fab LOs, the only downside is I can't show you until I finalise which ones are going where. I am waiting on some pp from KS so I can scrap the lion pics - gonna try a double LO Jo ;) Also have some sneaky purchases on layby that I hope to slip past dh ;) shh don't tell him!!

Loving the latest FK, some great stuff in there. Also got the latest Up2 which just keeps getting better! Lotsa SO girls in there this time - Bronny's first published LO too!!

Well better get these tired kids to bed.

I will leave you of this pic of Aislinn asleep last night - don't ask me why??!!! I just take the pics LOL

Bonne weekend!

Photos galore and a baby or two...

2006-08-14T16:39:00.000+12:00

Firstly huge congratulations on the arrival of NZ scrappings most awaited babies..... To Trina McLune who had a gorgeous wee boy (all 11lbs of him) Daniel last week and to the lovely Evana Willis who finally this weekend had another equally gorgeous and not so wee boy (10lb1oz) Joel. They were both so worth the wait and you can see pics of them on their respective blogs. All these cute babies are making me clucky which is not a good thing! Lets hope that passes quickly. It doesn't help that I have been looking through the ratbags baby pics and going all awwww over my own divinely gorgeous babies.... one of which is featured in the latest Up2Scrap out now!!

Ok lets hope this thing is working properly cos I have lotsa pics of said ratbags to share....

This pic is Quinny at playcentre 2 weeks ago being a fireman in the sandpit - he loved it - still so fireman obsessed fer shure!

next up is miss Bean last week "surfin" the pink surfboard is the top of a barbie table and tazzy is a blue shark (hence the scarf) don't ask me I just take the pics for future embarrassment/blackmail purposes ;)

Inspired by Erica's gorgeous pics on her blog, I took the kids for a wander the other day down to the red hayshed on the farm to suss out some places for photo shoots, it was freezing cold but they humoured me and let me take a few pics. I will definately take them back in warmer weather for summer pics.

This one is Q behind the fence at the old woolshed, love the colour of the fence. There were some huge old tree stumps nearby too which made for good spots for pics.

Next up is another of Q taken on the ramp up to the woolshed (can you tell Ais wasn't keen on having her pic taken??) Another good spot with the diagonal railings. Kids were too scared to go in the woolshed - possums in there!!

After the photoshoot we headed down to the calf shed to check out the babies around here, it was the first time Q was brave enough to let one suck his finger which he thought was hysterically funny. They both kept chucking straw at the calves to "feed" them.

After we left the calf shed Aislinn wouldn't get back in the car and instead climbed up the loading ramp and began posing madly for pics! LOL she is a dag.

I just love this pic of her that I snapped last night while she was in the bathroom watching Peter shave - fab lighting on her. Sometimes she is so gorgeous she takes my breath away.

Lastly here are my reason for being which I took last night while Aislinn was trying to bust up Peter and Q having a hug - she's dlightful really!!

Nothing happenin here, Q has been sick all weekend and i am going stir crazy being at home for a whole 8 days - need to get out!! Roll on wed! It did snow here for an hour this morning, much to Quinn's disgust it wasn't enough to play in and was gone by lunchtime.

Have a good week.....8 weeks till Q goes to school - not that I am counting or anything!!

2006-08-09T17:19:00.000+12:00

Whaddya know it is working!! Ok before it decides not to anymore, I will tell you about these LOs.

*First up is a scraplift of the talented Nic Finno's LO in the latest SC. Love love love her stitching. Adored this LO and it gave me the opportunity to practice some stitches I haven't done since Adam was in short pants. Luckily she loved my version too :)

*This one is the first of my classes at Up2Scrap last saturday. My brain decided it had not only never heard of scrapbooking, but it could not possibly create a page. So basically Kelly Rotherham had to tell me where to put everything!! SO all i came up with on this LO is the photo corners and the tape at the bottom of the page - dunces cap for me!!

*After a few bourbons at lunch to loosen up my creativity ;) I got 2 LOs done. Whereas the first LO we had to come up with ourselves the next 2 are Kelly's design and we all did the same pages.I really love this - gotta love Foofala really! My butt nekkid kidlets playing cricket on the lawn with Peter.

*This next one is a bit different to anything I'd normally do - the gingham frame is a fabric covered frame. The title doesn't really go with the pics but I didn't have anything else on hand to suit. Tis alright though. I did have a blast at the classes dunno if it was the classes or catching up with the girls from scrap camp. Shopping was fab - got heaps of Heidi Swapp goodies!!

* On sunday after finishing off the class pages I did this LO of Quinn playing pirates at the beach, it wasn't until we saw the photo that he told us that is what he was doing. I like this LO alot.

*Today I did a double LO for the Up2 DT call - I need to do a double page LO with more than 3 pics per page - I rarely do double LOs so find it rather difficult to do anything that isn't fairly simple being a photo focus kinda girl. I can't show you but can tell ya tis very HS and uses tape instead of pp ;)

*ROFL in the background I can hear Aislinn and Quinn playing "follow the Steven"!! She is sooooo obsessed with him. She has even forsaken Bessie and refuses to take her anywhere anymore. She is a racist - when I asked her why she doesn't love Bessie anymore she replied "she is purple, I don't like purple only pink! My elephant is pink" poor Bessie unloved because of the colour of her fur!!

* Nothin else new, having seen Erica's new look blog I am planning a photo shoot of the kids over by the red barn across the road, camera could do with a work out!! LOL That is if it warms up a bit cos it tis blimmin freezin here! No snow yet though!

Well tea is about cooked. Only 2 LOs left to show you but the blog doesn't seem to want it on here - one is of Peter so could be his cunning plan to stop me showing it to you ;)

Fare thee well to the morrow....

HAPTY BIRFDAY LIZZY & GUS!!!

2006-08-08T16:04:00.000+12:00

Today is my best friend Lizzy and my baby bro's birthdays, they were even born in the same year - poor ancient 33 year olds! Happy birthday guys and I hope you haven't frozen solid up there in Waiouru Gus, tis forecast snow for here tonight and tomorrow so must be heaps up there.

I am soooo effed off with this effin blog!! It won't let me upload pics GRRR!!! Well I lie a fraction - it did let me upload 2 and was in the process of uploading another when i went to put some wood on the fire and kicked the multiboard and ended up pulling the plug from the all - must get decent puter desk!!! Must move from freezin cold sh*thole! grumble moan curse!! I have 7 LOs to share with you all too, but cursed blogger keeps coming up with "this page contains no data" - I'll give it no data in a minute!!

So nuthing to say really, All I wanted to do was upoad some pics before I go cook tea. Maybe tomorrow.

Still no news on the great kiwi scrappers baby race - will it be Evana or Trina to be the first with exciting news?? Cmon babies already!!

Till later.....

It's a lovely day today....

2006-08-01T16:09:00.000+12:00

and whatever you've got to do..... flag it and sit on the couch and veg!!! I am feeling decidedly weary it could be one of three things really.
1. The eskimo waking me up at 5 a flippin clock! that's am not pm!! And that is after he spent most of the night on the floor of our room - so gotta put a halt to this latest habit.
2. The walk I went on with Jo and Sara while the kids were at playcentre - I am thinking 4 kms is a bit much when one hasn't exercised for a month or so! I so need new walking shoes as my old faithfulls are now killing my feet.
3. I could very well be getting round 2 of this flu that none of us quite seems able to shake, I am feeling rather hot and have a scratchy throat and a poundin headache. Ahh joy :)

Not alot going on here. Went to town on Sat to get groceries (thank god dad and the WSM came to give me a hand - so cannot manage 2 kids and 2 trolleys on me own) and treated the kidlets to Maccas for being sort of well behaved in town (if you ignore the running on the road and not listening to their sainted mother good??) While we were there the Steam train that runs from Feilding to Ohakune was about to leave and we got to see it up close and personal. Luckily I had the camera as I had thought to myself I'd take it to town despite having no need to. Here is the train....

Man it was loud and the amount of steam coming off it was amazing too. Many many moons ago when i was in the bay of the islands on holiday with my friend Erica and her parents we went on a steam train but I don't remember getting close up to it. For those who are still awake, my great grandad Cunningham (the irish one from Oamaru - Bron) used to drive steam trains.

Had an unexpected trip to town again yesterday which was my own dopey fault for not clearing the answer machine, Di had rung on sunday to say she wasn't going in to kindy and well we turned up to her place, bean was still in her batsuit and I was in house cleanin clothes so we had to race home and get dressed and fed and race off again (in 7 min I tell ya) to get the small boy to kindy. Will teach me to check the answer phone before i go to bed. Of course I got home to a message to say that there is a playcentre trip to the pool and maccas on thurs and i also have my Up2Scrap classes on Sat and have 1/2 a tank of petrol and no denero - can one make petrol outta water and rice crackers i am wondering??

I have been scrapping but have nothing to show you... I did a LO using the tarisota which I am holding back till I know what I need to do to enter the Up2 DT call and I am working on a scraplift of one of Nic Finno's gorgeous LOs in the latest SC which took me 9 hours to embroider!! I just need to do the title and journalling and i will be able to put it on here, tis rather luffly if I do say so myself ;) Mojo is still on holiday, if you find it at your house give it a good kicking home!

Still awaiting some baby news, the lovely Evana is 5 days over due, my new guess is she will have bubs while I am scrappin on sat. Also Trina is due today, check out her gorgeous Scenic Route LO on her blog. The race is on to see which baby will put in an appearence first!!

Well I guess I should attempt to look like a slightly good wife and mother and cook some tea.

In the words of bean who has been singing this all day.....

Buenos Noches!!

Just for Bronny...

2006-07-27T15:37:00.000+12:00

Here you are SIET, just to make you totally jealous. Here is what came in the mail for me yesterday......

This is some of the ribbon, loving the aqua and yellow, very spring - needing some spring pics now!

This is my fave pp - I have about 6 pics that would be great with it but unfortunately they only send 4 pieces *sob*

This heidi grace pp is fab - textured even!! Dunno if you can see it but the polka dot one has flocked bits on it. Scrapping in pastels is gonna be a challenge but i have a baby LO in mind for Aislinn using these papers.

These are the embies that come with it, minus the alphabet stickers from MM which are still to come. Gotta love more chipboard and the wee brads are cool, some are jewels and some are wee stamps.
Doesn't it make ya drool??? Cmon Bron ya know ya want some!! They even send you a coffee and a chocolate and it is all beautifully packaged in tissue paper. So go order yourself some folks the link is in my blog>>> Tarisota, it is calling you.....

I also got Rach's recipie CJ which was worth the wait and totally fab - I wanna be able to scrap like her when I grow up!! Gotta get it done and in the mail by Sat.

What else is new?? I am looking forward to my classes with Kelly Rotherham at Up2 next weekend, and my scrappin fairy has been and paid for me to do 2 classes at SENZ so I am going to be doing Ngaire Bartlem's 2 classes on the saturday (thanks scrappin fairy you are a darlin).

We had playcentre this morning and I gave my camera a workout, I haven't taken many pics for awhile so it was good to give it a good 70 pics. I even got some lovely shots of the kids. I have been asked to take the pics for fundraising calenders for playcentre and they are thinking of asking the school if they want me to take some of the school kids too. Q was a bit lonely today at playcentre without Tom who started school full time this week - I saw him walking to school and thought he looked so big and soon that will be Q (woohoo!!)

I have a playcentre workshop tonight which I may just flag as I am so damn tired after a week of Peter and Q coffing their lungs up all night in my bed *GRR* I need to sleep for a week but won't get a sleep in till next sunday.

Fingers crossed that the lovely Evana has baby Willis tomorrow afternoon round 2 ish as that is when I have bet he/she will arrive (my guess is a boy to round out their family), she is due today but I am thinking payday is a good day to be born. Good luck E and cmon bubs come outta there.

Well I had better get off of here and do some scrapping seeing it is an easy tea tonight.
laters...

I am obsessed...

2006-07-24T16:09:00.000+12:00

with cupcakes and vacumning??!!!! Obviously not together of course. Why cupcakes and vacumning you ask?? Weeelllll......

Last week my vacumn cleaner died after 6 years and I decided and informed Peter that I needed a new cleaner and gosh darn it, it needed to be a Dyson. thank the lord for Harvey Norman and their 2years interest free and 2 years deferred payment. I am now the happy little vegemite owner of an upright dyson complete with hepa filter for the kidlets asthma. here it tis...

So consequently i have become obsessed with vacumning now that I have seen how much crud is in my carpets - very very gross! I have started vacumning everyday which those of you who know me will in fact be shocked by, and I have a lovely tidy house to boot which was becoming a rarity I tell ya.

Onto cupcakes.... I was perusing Shani's blog the other day and she had a link to a blog for cupcake recipies anyway, I ended up here and then here and well now I am addicted! I have been printing off recipies and today the bean and I made these yummy vanilla cupcakes which had to of course be pink. Very yummy except the kids only lick off the icing and well they are hardly diet food.

And now to prove i am not the only obsessed individual in this household, here is bean with her newest obsession.... Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter!! ROFL. It is my own fault really, in desperation during the holidays when I was sick to death of Playhouse Disney I decided to switch over to Animal Planet and Aislinn met Steve and is in lurve with him. She then pinched this fridge magnet from dad's and has been carrying it everywhere, she calls it Steven (I am sure only his mother actually calls him steven) and goes all gooey at the sight of him.

What else has been happening? Not alot. here is a pic of the pots the kids made me while they were at Dad's for the weekend - ain't that a great pressie for a scrappin mummy?? They are on my kitchen windowsill so they will make me smile while i shine the darn sink!

Here is the bean again being a pineapple?? Ya gotta laff really.

No scrappin from me, the mojo is on holiday. i am hoping it will arrive in my first ever Tarisota pack which should hopefully arrive tomorrow, so I will be busy stalkin the mailman after playcentre.

Lastly here is my beautiful boy (see I do love him really) doing the sign for I love you. So if he does it to you, you know.

Laters

Woohoo no more holidays!!

2006-07-17T12:03:00.000+12:00

can you tell I am thrilled?? Not that Q has gone to kindy today, his cold was terrible this morning so we decided to stay home and sods law came into affect and he was miles better by 9am!

We had a very quiet week last week as we were all down with the flu. Of course the kids were driving me batty and I nearly gave Q away on Wednesday after he spat coke on the tv and then 10 minutes later peed on his beanbag - supernanny come to my house!! Thank god for grandparents after I had a child free weekend while the kids went to Dad & Sylvia's. I didn't miss them at all and within an hour of them being home i could feel my blood pressure rising.

They did bring us some lovely pressies home which I will get a pic of later and put on here next time, they decorated some plant pots with photos and stickers and planted polys in - just the kind of pressie a scrappy mum likes to get!

I have done a teensy bit of scrapping, nothing to show you all though. I have 2 for the FK comp possibly 3 if I decide I like my first attempt at freestyle yesterday - dunno if it is me really - i am just not that arty. I am alos gonna enter the Everyday moments comp if kiwis are allowed too which should be easier than my non attempt for the A-Z last year (well I thought you had to use lots of the requisite pp didn't I so gave up before I made one page). Check out my LO in FK 44 - very cool. Toots to Lara and Donna for their A-Z wins well done ladies.

I just got an email telling me Kelly Rotherham is coming to Palmy in August to teach classes for Up2Scrap - so wanna go but dunno how i am gonna talk Peter into letting me pay $90 for them *gulp* looks like i won't be taking any classes at SENZ bummer, would have loved to at least do the Junkitz one and one of Kerrin's.

I did take some pics of the kids last week, they were dressing up - well if you call a knitting needle in your undies a pirate costume dressing up LOL Bean was a princess in an old scarf of mine (suzanne clip days).

Well that is about all folks, better feed the kidlets some lunch. hope you are all having a sunny day too.

I must be insane?!!

2006-07-07T15:59:00.000+12:00

Would you believe that I, a previously normal and sane person of *mumble* years spent 2 hours of yesterday lunchtime in the layby queue in Kmart??!! I know stupid or what!?? I mean really the money I saved would be less than the sanity I lost!!
Dh had the day off so we decided to hit Kmart and get the small people some xmas pressies seeing as Kmart has no deposit layby we didn't even need to spend $$ - good plan um um um nuh!! We looked around with the kids to see what there was and then I said to dh "you take the kids out so they don't see what I am getting and I will catch up with you after I layby it" not realising that the queue extended back to the garden section and not only that but it was the worlds slowest queue too - these 2 poor women in the layby dept alone trying to get all these laybys processed, i fleetingly felt sorry for them.
I tell ya it nearly caused me to divorce one farmboy when after 2 hours there was no sign of him and i was thinking he's gone home without me, not to mention I was bloody starvin!! Anyhoo, a trolley full of toys was eventually put on layby - the things we do for our children I's tells ya!!

Then we went to lunch at dad's erm 45 min late! Followed by a trip to see Over the Hedge - not as good as I was expecting in fact out of the 2 Cars was my pick for better movie. Of course it was 5 when we got out of there and we decided to go to the Warehouse cos I wanted to get Princess Bride on DVD "my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father! Prepare to die!" one of my all time faves :) Ended up spending too much as usual and then headed off to get fush and chips.... let me tell ya the best F&C I have ever eaten!!
I have been hanging out for F&C for the past week and i was hoping not to be disappointed, I coulda driven back and gotten more! If you are ever in Palmy you need to get fish and chips from the place on the corner of Ferguson and Cook streets (across the road from the scrapbookin shop) I am a huge paua fritter fan and their gourmet paua fritter is to die for!!

Ok photos for you...

1. This is the photo frame I altered last weekish, it was a horrible dusky pink colour but it's redeemning feature was it is made from crumpled paper, coat of MM celery paint and some embies and much better!

2. This is my new baby, my dad bought it for me at the Kmart sale :) No more being teased for my teat buckets I tell ya!! Hurry up november so I can pack it for scrap camp!! Jealous yet Bron?

3. This one is my boy's "eyebarrow" after he was being a dork and slipped and cut it open on the coffee table - luckily no stitches this time. That'll teach him not to wear his sisters tights!

4. this is himself again being cheesy in dh's sunglasses that the kids broke the lenses out of - too cute ROFL!!

5. This one is the ratbags during their hour long bath this afternoon - sometimes they are just too cute for words.

Well that's all folks! Tis too blimmin cold sittin here on the puter my feet are frostbitten from the draft comin under the door!

Been busy scrappin...

2006-07-02T16:11:00.000+12:00

Friday night was the first SO online crop (and my first online crop ever) such fun!! Didn't get alot of scrapping done at the time though, it was great to chat to all the ladies instead. I did manage to knock up an entry for Rach's challenge to scrap and 8x8 LO about myself. Peter took these pics for me on Friday so I'd have a photo to use, they aren't bad for his terrible photography skills LOL!
here I am in my gorgeousness....

The next challenge I did was for Shani's challenge which had to use bazzill and be embellished with things from around the house. I used some of the wool from the scarf I am knitting, a tab off a coke tin (wool is going through it) and some shells from a necklace I bought in samoa. Pic is Q and Tazzy at the beach (sunset pic again) this feb....

Then today I did this one which I just LOVE!!! The major challenge from SO is todo a sketch and then scrap a winter pic and use 2 pieces of pp that they sell in the shop. This is mine using KI Memories chill out range. I wanted to make it crisp and wintry so I handstitched a border in krenik metallic blue thread which has clear beads, sequins and silver star sequins sewn in too. Went back to my childhood and made some snowflakes which the kids thought was cool, added some bling with all the jewel brads that came with my pack of petals, some spotlight jewels (cheaper than HS and you get more!) and oh some silver metallic card that Lou from scrap camp gave me (thanks Lou) - if I wasn't entering this in the comp for SO, I'd darn well save it to enter in the FK ET.

Fingers crossed I might win something - I'd love to win Rach's challenge for the pink bag full of Queen & Co goodies, but I am picking Yolande or Delys might win it. I did however win the weekly challenge last week with my sunset play LO and am scoring a kit for that (too exciting winning my first ever scrappin comp).

Also scrapped this one earlier in the week, which I also love, CBX pp, bg chipboard which I painted and stamped. This pic is my 2 and my best friend Lisa's kids last time we went to masterton.

Not much else is new, school holidays have started and we will be spending the entire 2 weeks at home *gasp*. Aislinn has finished swimming for this term and i think i will leave it till term 4 before starting her again, she has improved but needs to keep going once the flu season (and snow) have finished. I can't believe it is only a term until Q starts school - where the heck did all that time go? It seems like a year ago I was thinking it would take forever to come around.

Most exciting thing to happen to me this week.....Peter has agreed I can sign up for some Tarisota goodies WOOHOOO!!! I am getting the obsession and addiction packs - yummo!! hope it doesn't take long to get here from Oz, I am allowed 6 months if I am a good girl and don't buy scrappin supplies elsewhere (I sorta told him this would be all I'd need) I feel there will be some sneaky purchasing but SSHHH! Don't tell!

erm what else besides scrappin?? we took the kids to see Cars yesterday, I thought it would be too long for them but they loved it and it didn't drag on like I thought it might. I am thinking we will have to go see Over the Hedge next payday as the trailer for it was better than what they are showin on tv. Can reccomend Cars, I have a feeling it will be Q's new fave, he wanted to see it again 10 min after we walked out!

Well that's about all for this week. I need one of those remotes to fast forward the school holidays! Well it could snow and keep the kids entertained.

Finally feelin alive again...

2006-06-27T18:15:00.000+12:00

Amazing what an early night can do for ya! Peter told me off and sent me to bed at 8.30 last night and I died, didn't even hear the phone ring at 9.30 either. So I now feel more like a member of the human race.

So here are the canvases for you, won't give you the close up version of all of them though. I do think the one of me is an extremely good likeness ROFL!! These just turned out better than I could have imagined and I am so thrilled with them. Here they all are together on my nicely wallpapered bedroom wall.

And here is a close up of one of them.

Now for my clipboard, when I realised I had enough of this divine K&Co left I made myself a clipboard to put my scrap supplies list on next to my desk.

Now for all those in Scrapbook Outlets recipie cj swap here is a sneak peek of mine, this sneak pic photo is kinda fun - first time I have tried it LOL.

I have a pic of the birthday cake the kids decorated for Peter with some candles I had to buy just to rub it in!!

Oh and here is a pic of alot of us at scrap camp during our tiara's & trakkies evening, I didn't win a prize - Monica took that one out! I will let you figure out which one she is ROFL! Thanks to Anthea for emailing me this pic, I only took 2 pics all weekend.

Apparently the next FK is out in Oz - can't wait to get it and see my LO in it, will be thrilled if it is a big page like last issue. Hopefully they will send out my LOs soon, I always worry when they are off in someone elses hands.

Nothing else to report, off to watch shorty. have a good one wherever you are.

To tired to function

2006-06-26T16:43:00.000+12:00

Obviously I am too old to go to scrap camp and scrap into the wee smalls, come home stay up to watch dancing with the stars and then survive my weekly town trip. I am bone weary and can barely keep my eyes open. I just wanna go to bed and sleep for a month. I do however have a contingency plan for the Nov camp (you didn't think I'd not go did you??) I think I will volunteer Peter to have an extra day off on the monday just so I can sleep while he watches Aislinn - so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel!!

Ok here is round 2 of the layouts, gimme till tomorrow to be faffed uploading photos of my canvases. First up is one of my faves of all time, I just love the MM foam flower stamps on this. I got the idea from the latest issue of FK where someone (I would go look but am too tired) has done a LO using swirly stamps, stamped in pastel colours on brown paper and then cut out and adhered to a blue LO. I loved the idea and voila here is my version. Also one of my all time fave pics of the divine miss bean. The wee butterflies I won from the fine box while wearing my fake boobies and highlanders wig (details later), also features my first ever sizzix title LOL (again no pp Bron!)

Next up I figured I had better do a LO of my boy. I bought this pp off Jo and loved it but it was very bright so sanded the life out of it. This range is cool cos it has a sheet of pp which is basically the alphabet I used in the titles - like BG monograms but paper and cheaper! Glued to chipboard and DM'd, also dm'd the sizzix title bit and the chipboard stars. Dunno if it is my eyes or what but these LOs look insipid compared to real life.

This next one is my other fave of the weekend, not what I had planned for this GinX pp but the pic goes amazingly with it. I saw this wooden sun that Jo was selling and thought "nah would never have a use for that" but ended up buying it after struggling with the title I wanted to do. Circle punch a sticker and some DM and too cool, Jo also provided the swirly green bit at the top after she kindly let me trace round her framedango thingys. Painted that and the BG chipboard, slapped rub ons and a circle sticker on it and surprisingly more DM instant bought looking title.

Lastly while struggling for ideas yesterday morning I searched through the box of pp I had and found this crate paper at the bottom (loving crate paper) and realised I had intended to scrap beach pics with it. Partiall scraplifted the paper tearing idea from a LO in FK and used my all time fave photo from the beach and knocked this one up in time for lunch.

Now my confession of what a total moron I really am..... this morning I was going to see Barbara who was going to come to scrap camp but had to pull out and show her all my stuff and because I was half asleep and feeling weary I didn't bother to put my pages in protectors (well that and the fact I only own 2 spare ones.) and now the awful bit, it was mizzling here and I held them up to my chest and anyway my Surfs Up LO and Quinn's canvas the pics got ruined by teensy raindrops - I am sooo annoyed with myself, luckily they will be fixable, I just need to print out new photos and lift up some chipboard but GRRR!! So I will invest in some more page protectors or see if the warehouse still has some of those thingys you can carry pages around in.

Well i am too tired to write more will upload photos tomorrow afternoon I promise, goodnight jim bob, goodnight mary ellen....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm baaack!!!

2006-06-25T19:02:00.000+12:00

Oh my did I have an amazingly fun time!! Huge thanks to Jo and Jeanette for throwing us a fab weekend. I was quite nervous about going (I really am shy and retiring you know!) but everyone was lovely and in some cases baking obsessed. My mojo was in full swing and I managed 8 LOs, my 4 canvases and a matching clipboard for my scrap desk. Even I was impressed with how cool my canvases came out! I will put them on here tomorrow as I haven't uploaded them off the camera yet. (I know Bronny but I am tired! ROFL - patience)

Ok here is LO 1 which I did on friday night and it just came together perfectly and is one of my faves. Tazzy at the beach in Feb- awesome pic, gotta love sunset photos. I traced around my BG chipboard brackets and index tab to make my own, am totally addicted to dimensional magic now - they so need to bring out a fast drying version! Love love love the surfboard title which is a laser cut wooden one that a man sells on Trade Me- Jo had a pile of them for sale. If anyone has this man's email address can you let me know so I can get more.

Number 2 is a LO of Beanie in the snow on thursday - actually looks nicer IRL, scan is a bit dark and dull. I finally used a sheet of pink BG I have had in my stash for over a year on this. Loving the HS plastic letters, brings back memories of making model airplanes as a kid and they are fabulously adhesive!

Onto number 3... I was browsing some ideas books Krislyn was selling and saw a LO using sewn circles for a snow page and thought to myself "self you can do that" the thing self didn't realise was that my beastie sewing machine only has 2 speed - full tit and stop! SO consequently I promise here and now that I will never sew in a circle again!! Scan again is darker than IRL. Look Bron no PP!!!! A couple of RAKs on this one - Krislyn generously gave me a pack of junkitz token thingys (snow in title) for the use of the beast, and I bludged the snowflake brads off Jo (must remember to repay her for those and the use of her framedangoes)

Right last one for today, more tomorrow! This is one i have been planning for SOOOOOO long!! I saw a LO using a title like this ages ago dunno where and if it was yours thanks for the idea. When Aislinn got this bikini I knew I would do this LO. I have spent months trying to get a Heidi Swapp Hibiscus mask to do it, then I saw Maria had these silouettes instead in the boxx shop and thought they'd be cool. She kindly RAKked them to me (thanks Maria you are too kind). My only complaint is that they aren't adhesive and I think Heidi should she be reading (yeah good one!!), please Heidi, I love your stuff but please make these adhesive so I don't have to muck them up with vellum spray!

Right I am offski, I will put the rest up this week. I am off to my bed - some of us have been scrapping into the wee smalls you know!!

Snowmans!

2006-06-22T17:07:00.000+12:00

We are still here LOL Sh*t tis freezing though. I thought I'd put some more pics up of our "snowmans", we made one at lunchtime and then the power went off and we took daddy out to rebuild it after Q knocked it's head off.

Snowman mkI has a stylish scarf belonging to moi and also sports my hat, features include stone eyes and a plastic childs glass for a nose (couldn't find anything else in the garden LOL)

The kids thought he was very cool (geddit??!!)

Here are some ratbags making snow angels....

Snowman MkII was better prepared and sports a beautiful rainbow hat (mine), ski gloves (also mine) and a fetching carrot nose - very cute indeed.

I am fully prepared we will be snowed in and i won't make it to scrap camp, I won't even try till sat morning unless the snow has melted overnight tomorrow. Hurumph typical of my luck it will snow all day tomorrow - apparently that is the forecast anyway.

Well off to have some tea, fingers crossed the power stays on and it rains tomorrow afternoon. Keep warm everyone and cross everything that I get to scrap camp!

More snow!

2006-06-22T11:48:00.000+12:00

Yup it started this morning at 7.30 and has been snowing steadily all morning we have nearly 3 inches of the white stuff!! Thought I'd put some more pics on here before we head out again to make a snowman! I am panicking now that I won't get to scrap camp!

So here are the kids in the snow. First up is Miss Bean eating snow looking very cute indeed.
<<<
Then we have the snowball fiend who delights in bombarding his aged mother with snowballs - lucky he is a lousy shot!! Of course then the smaller one thinks it is a good idea too :)

Silly boy laffing at his mother when she got hit by Aislinn's snowball!

Lastly small boy wondering why the bike won't go in the snow!??

Brr tis freezin!!

2006-06-20T16:21:00.000+12:00

Yesterday would have to have been the coldest day ever that I have experienced, last night at the playcentre meeting the girls were saying it is the coldest it has been in Apiti for as long as they can remember - and some of them have been here 10 plus years! Tooo effin cold! The house didn't get very warm even with the fire going and I was dying for a bath - cursed shub!!

Who was the idiot that invented the shub?? It would have to be the most useless bathroom thingy ever!! Pointless as a shower (and hard for children and old folk like myself to get their legs over) and too small to be of any use as a bath (believe me I have tried!!!). Must have been a man come up with that one methinks. I am a bath girl, I have been having huge withdrawls from my bath in the year we have been here. I like to soak my weary bones, with a glass of vino, chocolate and a trashy novel. I like it hot too, boiling hot - the kind of hot that makes you gasp when you first get in - ahhh bliss!! My dream is to own a spa bath one day, I once had a bath in one that massaged your back like lotsa little fingers - mmmmm.
On the subject of baths could someone email me a photo of their feet sticking up by the taps in their bath (high resolution please) I am itching to scrap a bath LO and of course cannae achieve the pic in a cursed tub!!! I won't reveal your identity if you don't want me too. (No rudie bits please this is a family blog ROFL)

I digress, what have we been doing since erm yesterday LOL. 2/3s of really. I cracked out the spinning wheel and finished plying the wool I was spinning on sunday that gave me RSI of the lower leg -who on earth gets RSI in their leg? I ask you!! Q decided he wanted a scarf after having to use my scarf in the snow. So I have knitted this for him using wool I have not only spun but grown the sheep for (well obviously I didn't have a blue sheep - now that would make a great LO) the brown is from my baby Caramello who was a darling and would eat out of my hand. For those who haven't known me longer than the last 4 years, I used to have my own flock of black sheep who were all named after chocolate (Latte, Top Deck, Hersey - you get the picture), I love them but we had to sell them when we lived in Hawera cos we couldn't get grazing easily. Caramello and my ram Shadow were my favourites. Must scan some pics and scrap em. Anyhoo this is Q's scarf and I am knitting him a matching hat but need to spin some more to finish it.

I am still procrastinating from finishing the kids jerseys (2 for Q and 1 for bean) and have been knitting everything but, I made this scarf on the weekend. I dunno if I like it, the wool was nicer on the ball methinks. Anyone want it if I decide I don't like it? Still no scrappin I have been good, $50 says my mojo goes on holiday on friday!!

I am starting to look forward to scrap camp, they are having a trakkies and tiaras theme on sat night with prizes for best get up, I am gonna shoot into the whare whero tomorrow and get myself a pink shirt and emblazon it with Queen of Apiti, should be good for a laff. I think i will forgo a tiara of beans and wear my wedding one as it is unlikely I will ever need it for anyhting else LOL.

More pics, can you believe I am putting all these pics on here and none of them are of the kids! Yes I do take pics of other things occasionally. First up was taken while it was snowing, this is the veiw from out by my car shed and no it wasn't taken with a zoom.

next up is one of some old flower heads with snow in them, they looked quite cool. The pic at the beginning of this post is the snow on the hills directly behind us at lunchtime today.

Oh I nearly forgot - my fave news of the day!! Quinn officially starts school on the 9th of October woohoo!!! I am so excited to have a date to count down to. he will go every second day until his birthday on the 25th. Funny though after I found that out this morning he has looked bigger and older.

Have a good evening and I hope you are all keeping warm wherever you are.

It's snowing!!!

2006-06-19T09:43:00.000+12:00

Well it was! Started snowing heavily at 7.30 this morning and we decided to flag today's town trip (yet again no swimmin class for bean - what a waste of money that was!!) We went out in the snow for 15min, but it was too heavy and my camera was getting wet *gasp*. Here are some pics for you.

It is now raining so the snow is wasted, so much for snowmen and snowball fights. Cross your fingers for more snow! We have lost sky but still have power and I am itching to scrap so may have to break my resolve to not scrap till the weekend. I am just hoping there will be no snow while i am away cos i am taking my camera with me!

Thanks to everyone who has been popping in and leaving comments, if you are not familiar with blogs you can click on the comments bit at the bottom of each post and say hi, it would be nice to know i am not just writing this for Bronny ROFL!!

Hope you are all keeping warm where you are :)

Welcome to the weekend!!

2006-06-17T16:08:00.000+12:00

And a quiet one I am having. Still no snow much to Quinn's disgust! It snowed a little on Tuesday afternoon so in a fit of paranoia, I shot into town to get groceries cos i am scared of getting snowed in with no food. The snow didn't settle and there has been none since. Quinn came into our room at 3am on Wed asking "Can I go outside and play in the no?" uh uh uh nuh!!

We haven't been up to alot, Quinn had kindy and we went to playcentre, face painting on tues - Quinn was spidey and beanie had to be a pink kitty - don't ask me why!! LOL Here is a pic of Quinn and one of Aislinn and Sarah. Thursday they made pizza which went down well.

We went over to palmy on thurs afternoon, Peter had to front up to the copshop to renew his gun liscence - Quinn cracked us up by stating when Peter came back out to the car "Daddy the policemens didn't shooted you!" ROFL Anyway we went and bought the Eskimo a heater for his bedroom as it is almost literally colder than an igloo! Wee sod keeps waking up in the wee smalls cold and getting in my bed so a heater was required. Shot into spotlight to get some wool to knit him a hat and me some for a scarf (am having a glut of scarf and mitten knitting at the mo) ended up with enough wool for 2 hats and knitted one for Cameron as Grandma couldn't knit the pattern with the wrong wool. Will post it out on monday as won't get back over there for a few weeks.

Had a lovely quiet day yesterday, Peter let me sleep in and dropped Q at Di's to go to kindy - luffly sleep in till 8am! Lazed around and knitted mostly and read the latest For Keeps which i am in!!! My LO looks so amazing at almost a whole page, will take a pic and put it on here next time I update. Roll on next month cos I am in that one too;)

Today has been quiet if you don't count rowdy children tearing about the place! I have spent the day in my jammies on the phone, talked to mum this morning to check on Jake the now toothless dog. After lunch was just about to phone canada when Bronny rang then I rang Tammy in canada and had a good 2 hour catch up which we must do more often. Kelly the bosses wife is off to canada for the holidays and funnily won't take me with her - anyone else wanna send me to Toronto?? Hey Tammy perhaps that can be my big reward when I lose all my weight??!!

For no reason here is a pic of my new addiction - mint green M&Ms tre yummo! and only a scrapper would spend 1/2 hour taking photos of them in various containers etc to get a pic for a LO!!! ROFL. Not too good points wise with 20 points ish per bag but what the hey.

I have been dithering with WW this past fortnight but jumped on the scales this morning and apparently have lost another kg !! Dunno how but cool!! So that is 5.5kg in 7 weeks and time to shop for my 5kg reward;)

This time next week I will be at scrap camp :) I am a terrible wifey and am abandoning my darling and kids to spend his 40th birthday scrapping all weekend and did I mention no kids and no hubby??!!! Looking forward to that and playing with my new goodies. So will have lotsa LOs to upload the following week I hope. I plan on at least getting my canvases for my bedroom done and hopefully a few LOs as well.

Well that is about all from me, one more pic of Aislinn and Sarah at playcentre - need to crack out the camera and take some more pics of the kids. Bonne Weekend to you and yours.

There won't be snow in Apiti....

2006-06-12T17:01:00.000+12:00

Today at least! We have had gale force winds and torrential rain - including the 2 or 3 litres that came in my dining room window whilst it was closed!!! A bit of sleet mid morning but not the snow the kids and I are praying for. I decided to flag taking Quinn to kindy and Aislinn to swimming today, I hate driving in the wind anyway and it was just too hairy for me to consider. So we hunkered down inside by the fire. Wind was so feirce it blew the roof off the bunny hutch, luckily the girls were huddled in the corner and Elliot hadn't found them. Hopefully the extra weight we put on it will protect them further.

I have broken my self imposed promise not to scrap until scrap camp and did this LO which is a scraplift of one in the latest CK, but I liked it and man hasn't Q grown!!

Good news on the publishing front Up2Scrap has accepted my Kau Mate and Godspeed LOs for the next issue, he he more scrappin $$$. Next issue is out in August I think.

More good news HUGE CONGRATS to BA & Tracey over in Oz on the arrival of their no3 son Charlie who looks just like his big brother Mitchell - brings back memories of when Mitchell was a baby - here is Mitchell and Charlie - AWWWW!!

Everyone seems to be having babies this year, I have 2 scrapping friends due shortly, and Sharon and Carrie-Ann both due in Oct and early Nov, Peter's cousin Shirleen is expecting twins around my birthday too.

As for my 2, Quinn was back at the dr on thursday afternoon with his 2nd ear infection in 10 days, after he had none last year I was hoping he would be free of them this winter. If he gets another one this month I will ask for him to be referred for grommits, he was just so miserable, he can't go all winter having multiple ear infections. Aislinn is ok, perfecting the art of being a drama queen mostly.

Not much else is new here, I have got my spinning wheel up and running again and spun a ball on Saturday which I was pleased with considering i haven't spun in 5 years - man my leg was sore but!! We had the 80s party on Sat night, scary really how many people had on the exact things I used to wear!! Party was a bit disappointing but I did take a couple of pics to make you laff. Hideous I know!!!

Of course then Q had to try on daddy's wig the next day...

I did it! I did it!!

2006-06-07T12:14:00.000+12:00

Woohoo!! Thanks to Bronny and Michelle for helping me :) I now have links over there>>> to some blogs and sites I hang out in (erm they are all scrapping related LOL) and lookie up there at my choice new banner :) Any guesses to where I took the pic? I love this pic I must frame it and put it on my wall somewhere.

Nowt else is new, the Eskimo is at kindy so the Bean and I are having a peaceful morning. I have been a good mummy and done colouring and dancing with her and even sorted out the rainy day box to see what I need to buy to restock it. Will have to go collect the boy shortly and peace will end.

Weight loss is going well, I lost 1.4kg this week bringing me to the grand total of 4.5kg in 5 weeks, I can even fit into my old jeans again!! can't move in them but at least they do up!! I did a 6km walk yesterday which was fab, Jo and I left the kids at Playcentre and headed off and I feel great - I have so missed the walks I used to go on everyday with Lisa when we lived down home.

I am trying to refrain from scrappin till scrap camp despite my mojo being in gear at the moment, I am knitting instead. I have 3 jerseys on the go for the kids that I need to get done this month especially considering how cold it is here - minus 8 yesterday and huge frost - there was 2 inches of ice in the bottom of the slide at playcentre and our water pipes were frozen here until lunchtime.

Well better go and get the bean and I some lunch before we go pick up Esk.

Hope it is sunny at your house.

I'm A Total Puter Moron!!

2006-06-05T22:16:00.000+12:00

Could someone please come to Apiti and show me how to add links to this dang blog?? And how to add my banner?? To quote Aislinn "I caaan't do it! It's too haarrd for meeee!!" How come I am the only blogger on the planet who can't work it out???

I made a banner, saved it to photobucket then tried to install it into the template and nope, I had lost the current one hence the colour change. After nearly murdering the puter I just came back thinking I had worked out how to add links to other blogs and sites and NOPE NOT ME - TOO HARD!!! ARGH!!

So I am doomed to a boring banner and no links, surely someone out there would love a trip to Apiti to help me?? There is lovely scenery if you can ignore how effin cold it is but when it isn't cold it is raining so what's not to love??? Anyone?? anyone??

Child free and loving it!!

2006-06-03T14:46:00.000+12:00

Woohoo no kids here this weekend !! Doing a happy dance!! The kids went to stay at Grandma's for the weekend yesterday and are coming back tomorrow yay!! It is lovely and quiet and shockingly tidy here at the moment. They of course are being little angels for her (sods law), I hate to say it but I am mot missing them yet. Peter and I had a date last night, we went and saw davinci code and went out for tea - so nice to have alone time.

I had a wonderful sleep in this morning with no small boy arriving at my door at 6am grunting for attention or small girl yelling out "MUUUUUUMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY! in the night for a juice - ahh bliss! I might be missing them by the time they get home.

My friend Tracey in Oz was to have a C Section yesterday for the arrival of another Cooper, I haven't heard any further details yet - cmon BA send us an email!! Everyone is having babies lately. Thank god it aint me I say!! Mind you with Sharon and a few friends having babies, it is a good excuse to venture back into the baby section to buy pressies ;)

Not alot happening here, the kids have been working on self improvement using wall charts and bribery. Quinn is taking to it well and this week has earnt himself 2 matchbox cars for keepin his pants clean and dry and for not having Peter sitting on the bed till he falls asleep. He is working on eating all his tea for a 3rd car. Aislinn is supposed to be working on keeping her pants on for a wee mermaid doll riding a seahorse - not much luck so far! She is a nudie at heart, usually as soon as visitors leave she whips off her strides to feel the wind on her butt (takes after her father not me!!)

She has a mermaid obsession at the moment, she said to me the other day "When I grow up I am gonna be a mermaid and you can knit me a pink sprkly tail" so if anyone has a pattern for a mermaid tail do send it to me so I can get started ROFL!!

Congrats to Bronny and Lionel who had to outdo my child free weekend by winning a weekend in Queenstown for being clever enough to know the crusaders would win the super 14 *GO THE HURRICANES!!*

Well better get off this puter and do something useful! Bonne Weekend all!

Time I updated this blog

2006-05-26T16:24:00.000+12:00

I know i am a slack tart, can never be bothered to update this thing. We haven't been up to alot. Quinn was sick last week so we spent the week at home which drove me round the twist. Thankfully he is better now and we are getting back to normal.

Last friday I took the kids to town ostensibly to buy more pamol, but decided to get Aislinn's hair cut. I was so sick of the hour long screaming session to brush her hair of late so off it came! It is now just below her shoulders and is much more manageable and alot of the damaged hair has gone too. She looks so much older too.
Back before

back after

Last weekend was pretty quiet, I did a bit of scrapping. Made a canvas for Mum for her birthday and did a couple of LOs.

This week has been pretty much off to kindy and playcentre with a playcentre workshop on tuesday night as well. Peter has today and tomorrow off and is busy stripping back the ceiling and he has just done the 2nd coat of sealer on that. Tomorrow we are off to town and then the kids and I are going to a birthday party for Olivia, my friend Fiona's little girl, which means Peter can put another coat on the ceiling while we are there.Aislinn playing in the leaves

We hope to wallpaper the bedroom next weekend while the kids are away at Mum's place for a few days. We are even going to go on a date which we rarely get the opportunity to do these days. The guy came to measure our room, hallway and Aislinn's room for new carpet which will be nice, shame it isn't the whole house though! So we will have a lovely new bedroom and I will feel a shopping spree for new nicies for it ;) We even managed to get the broken window in our room fixed today after a year!

Happy Mother's day

2006-05-14T17:52:00.000+12:00

I know I haven't been updating this much - I am even getting emails telling me to update it!! Not that we have been doing much mind you.

Quinn is doing well at kindy, he is less hassle at home so I am hoping that will continue. Aislinn has survived her second swimming lesson, she is no more keener to put her face in the water even with goggles on. Grandma took her this week while I was at the dr and she and Aislinn had a nice girls morning out.

I put my neck out on Saturday with Quinn and Payton hanging off it, monday it was so bad I couldn't get out of bed. Thankfully Di who takes Quinn to kindy, kindly drove us into kindy and then me over to palmy to the dr. Thankfully my neck is better now.

We took thursday off playcentre as Peter had the day off and went in to feilding for groceries, then we had to go back in on friday as we had to unexpectedly take Quinn to kindy. So Peter, the bean and I went over to palmy so I could use the pumpkin patch voucher I got and Aislinn picked out a nice pink "Polka spot" dress. We got chicken little on dvd for the kids which they are insisting on watching over and over again!! I would have thought it was a bit scary for them but nope.

I have done a few LO's this week, Bronny challenged me to scrap a LO using no patterned paper and I had to use stamps, I struggled with that concept - love my pp!! But eventually came up with this LO, pic is Aislinn dressed as a clown on tuesday at playcentre.

Last week I did this canvas as a baby gift for Fiona at playcentre, I took the photo last thursday at playcentre of her new baby Bianca and older daughter Olivia - I loved it when I uploaded it and had to scrap it so decided instead of buying something would make a canvas for her.

Oh I hadn't put these in that I made for Barbara a week or so ago, she neglected to tell me it was her 60th birthday so I made her these for her scraproom - not that they have made it there yet! They are really cute I may have to make some for my desk.

This afternoon I scrapped this one of my boy. I scraplifted this one from Kerrin Quall's "Kanky" LO in the latest FK. She has the amazing ability to use pp that one (well me) would never imagine could go together and look fab on one page. So I tried to do that with this LO, it isn't as out there as Kerrin's stuff but considering what is in my stash it isn't bad. I had scrapped it all apart from the title and journalling and had no idea what to put, in the end went with this as I wanted to remind myself that even though he drives me mad and pushes me to my limits that I really love this kid to bits.

Did I tell you? Can't remember but I got another LO accepted into Scrapbook creations, they actually wanted 2 but unfortunately for them the other LO is being published by FK next month. I can't wait to see my LOs in the next 2 issues of FK :)

We are off to the Baby Proms tomorrow, I hope I can take pics in there. That's all for my week.

Forever since I blogged!!

2006-05-07T17:57:00.000+12:00

Hello readers! (well I assume someone reads this thing) Life has been hectic around here with all the visitors at Easter and then we went down home to the Wairarapa for a few days at Jo & Bruce's place, of course last week was mad with Quinn starting kindy and we have been out every morning.

Ok can't remember what I last posted about so forgive me if I repeat myself. Easter was busy we had lots of visitors with Shirley (MIL) and Michael (BIL) on sunday and then the entire Farley clan plus Neisha and Cody as well on tuesday night. We headed down to Greytown on the thursday and I spent all day on Friday with Lisa and the kids, their house is looking great and Peter even took the 3 big kids to Jo's so Lisa and I could have some time to ourselves which we never get. Here is a pic of our 4 kids together.

Quinn has settled into kindy remarkably quickly, he only had a few tears on the second day after I left and was fine with Di taking him in on Friday. He is bloody tired and bloody cranky, wee sod keeps waking up at 5am!! So is short a few hours sleep a day. I am hoping he will get used to it all soonish.

The Bean started swimming classes on monday, she looked all grown up swimming without me. She got a bit freaked by having her face in the water and got tearful near the end, I bought her some goggles so hopefully she will be ok tomorrow. She reckons she isn't going swimming again I informed her she owes me the fees if she doesn't LOL!!

What else is new? I am on Weight Watchers and have just finished my first week and lost 1.5kg! GO ME!! Am going to start going to yoga in Kimbolton on a wednesday night so gives me a good excuse to stop watching LOST.

I am gonna be an aunty again, my brother and his wife are having baby number 2 in November or maybe to add to a bust birthday week it will arrive between the 21st and 25th of october LOL.

Haven't been scrapping much, have done a canvas for a girl at playcentre as a baby gift which I hope she will like, will upload a pic once have taken it off my camera. Have comitted to going to scrap camp next month which will be interesting indeed haven't slept in a bunk for years!!

Well that's about all really must try and update more often. C YA!

Nearly the end of a busy week.

2006-04-20T16:54:00.000+12:00

Erm I can't remember when I last updated this thing. We have had a busy easter really. We went over to Palmy on Saturday and got some more winter clothes for the kids. I treated myself to my first new perfume since we got married, I am now wearing Organza by Givenchy :) Mind you I also fell in love with Oriental Flowers by Kenzo so next time I am treating myself might get some of that ;) Had to buy new make up too after the kids got into mine - wow has that gotten expensive! I haven't brought any since my brother's wedding! Mind you I was feeling rather old to be getting Age defying foundation - I remember giving Mum hell for being so old as to need it- that is coming back to bite me on the bum!! ROFL

Went out to tea with Dad, Sylvia and Nanna which was lovely, wore me new sparkly black dress which was fine until I saw the pics and now am feeling the deep shame of realising how gross i am -am signed up for WW so that will soon be a thing of the past!!

Sunday my MIL and Michael (Peter's eldest brother) came for the day, which was nice. MIL bought the kids new bean bags which they are rapt about. The kids were all over Michael like a rash, I bet he was glad he doesn't have kids !!

Then Tuesday night the Farleys arrived to stay the night, Jo, Bruce, their 3 kids plus William's gf Neisha and Jennifer's bf Cody so it was a full house with 11 of us. They are all a good laugh though and it was great having them, we get to invade their place next week;)

Nothing much else new. I have signed up for WW again, this time I am gonna do it (yes I know I have said that before but this time I MEAN IT!!) Tis a matter of having to really.

Haven't done much scrapping, did this LO yesterday after the kids were telling each other secrets, their secret was "I Love You" too cute had to take a pic and scrap it immediately. PP is Wild Asparagus.

My best scrapping buddy is moving further down south ( couldn't persuade them to move to the NI) somewhere near blaclutha is a farm with a bright orange bench that was irresistable ROFL.
Stop reading this blog Bronny and get packing!! Don't envy them moving an entire farm worth of stuff.

Well that's me for today better go and cook the worker's some tea.

Happy Easter!

2006-04-14T18:13:00.000+12:00

Well it has been a busy week and here is a recap for you bored people reading this.

Tues we had Playcentre and the kids had a blast making bunny ears, easter baskets and having an egg hunt over at the school library. Here are their bunnynesses (is that a word??)

Tues afternoon I decided to scrap and it took me all afternoon to create this page - love that foofala pp :) Pic is Aislinn at the Apiti show on the bosses daughter's horse Tosca - don'tcha love the look on Aislinn's face?

Wed we headed into town to get groceries, headed into the red shed as they have a huge book sale on at the mo and scored 4 novels for $17!! can't beat that. Grabbed the kids a vid each for $7 too.

Yesterday was playcentre again and then last night the end of term clean up/piss up not that I was under the influence only drank half a bottle and that was mixed with Appletise. We decided the pajama party will now be a 80s party which will be damn scary having lived the 80s once already. God knows what I will wear.

Today was just gorgeous, took advantage and took some snaps for my planned canvas project. Also took some of the kids in the tops Grandma sent them for easter. We walked up to Kelly & Marty's to feed the animals and then I scrapped this LO using the fibonacci principle (not bad for someone who failed school c maths twice!!) I just love it and am gonna frame it or put it on a canvas. Quinny doing the haka - future All Black? Peter would prefer Black cap LOL.

Off to Palmy tomorrow to do some shopping, take the kids to Ice Age2 and visit Nanna who is down for the holiday. Bound to be a late one. Have a good easter and keep safe.

I'm a happy little scrapper

2006-04-10T21:56:00.001+12:00

Yep my huge order of scrap crap arrived today and it was better than christmas I tell you! Love love love the new BG ranges, love love love junkitz, love the new CBX. I was a little disappointed in the scenic route essex range which i thought was a bit softer in colour than it is IRL. Never mind. I got my first bottle of prima flowers which are so gorgeous I now want every possible colour! I could go on and on but instead I will show you what I did with it all today.

Ok I decided to revamp this crappy LO I did 2 years ago, never liked it and when I saw this BG frog pp decided to redo it. Apologies for exposing you all to this terribly bad scrapping...

Drum roll please for the reavmped version.................

This is using the new BG colour me silly range, KI Alphabet soup, HS ghost letters. I dunno if I like it, even though i am happy with how it came out... it is just ... so terribly BRIGHT!!

Next up is my fave LO for today, Miss Aislinn and her bunny Milly. I love the BG baby oh baby girl with this photo, also used HS ghost letters, flowers and a HS chipboard label holder, rub ons are HS too :)

Ok this one is Aislinn's My little ponies which are her fave toys at the mo, she likes to have them driving around in our shoes. PP is Junkitz Shabby Chic, used my new MM alpha stamps, prima flowers and yes I stuffed this one up - it is still pretty though.

Lastly here is my boy and his spiky hair, yet more BG - hang 10 this time. Lil Davis monograms, MM rubons, strano ribbon, HS tape, MM diamond stamp.

At the speed these LOs are uploading I am off to bed, playcentre in the morning and hopefully more scrappin in the aftrnoon. goodnight from me and goodnight from him.

I feel so much better

2006-04-06T21:39:00.000+12:00

now I have scrapped! I was trying to not do any scrappin until my big order arrives from Oz, but I just had to once I printed off these pics I took of Miss bean just before we left for town yesterday afternoon. Dont'cha love the hat - she is the cutest thing ever (how the heck did I make her??) Anyway I took these pics in like a minute and scrapped this LO in 10 - would have been 3 if I hadn't kept stuffing up the title! Must be the cheapest LO I have ever done, just a piece of cardstock and a few stickers and a pen.

We went and checked out the new kindy yesterday, looks ok - quite structured which the Eskimo definately needs. I am tossing up whether to send him in for the full 5 mornings or just 3 and still do Playcentre on a casual basis (ie pay for each session) on tues and thurs. Decisions decisions.

Also took the drier in to be fixed, thankfully it is now repaired and I don't need to buy a new one _ PHEW!!! Dunno when I am gonna get in to pick it up though.

Scored well at Playcentre today, the school is having a big clear out and I managed to score 2 old style desks and chairs as well as a huge freestanding blackboard which has a cabinet with drawers and shelves under it - need to go buy chalk now. It is double sided and they can both draw at the same time YAY. So need to remove the bed from the playroom to fit it in.

Here is my boy in his new Hurricanes sweatshirt courtesy of Grandad - we have to compete with cricket here LOL Only pic I managed to get without Stinky in a majority of it!!

Well that's about it, roll on the weekend!

Lots of pics today

2006-04-04T20:00:00.000+12:00

Finally I have got my HP image zone working so have pics for you all :) I have been madly printing off photos to scrap while burning pics onto CD. It is hard waiting for supplies and not scrapping! A huge pile of my order is on back order too which is a bummer (including your punch Bron).

We haven't been up to much, had a quiet day yesterday. The washing machine sprung a leak in the cold water hose, then the drier decided to die. I could smell what to me smelt like dak burning and I thought someone had set fire to their crop in the hills, went out to see where the smell was coming from but it was in my drier - no not actually dak! Stopped the drier and Peter turned it back on later to find it isn't tumbling. So I am down to drying loads of washing in front of the fire. Off to the electrician tomorrow.

Kindy is all go at this point, have had to pull Quinn out of playcentre because kindy wants all the funding, but will take him on a casual basis to keep him in with his friends. We are off to check out the new kindy tomorrow and officially enrol him. I have signed the bean up for swimming classes to give us something to do on the days we take him to kindy.

First pic is the kids all dressed up in their new winter town clothes to go to the pub last wednesday for plunket morning tea - very cheesy grins! Next pic is the Eskimo with his new spiky hair - He was watching me do my hair and had to have some product in his hair, looks quite cute so he has his hair spiked everyday now, need to get him some gel though as it falls down quickly.

The scary bloke in the bunny ears I had to put on here to embarrass, I have printed it out in black and white but the ears pink to scrap - *evil laugh*
Then we have the bean with her pet rock at playcentre today. All the other kids made one - not mine, they made a herd - be warned some of you will be getting pet rocks for presents!!

I love this one of Aislinn and her bunny Milly, I took this a couple of weeks ago when we went out to feed the bunnies and the sun was going down - gotta love sunset for awesome pics :) Also love this one of Bean and Bessie - too cute, I have a niceo ne of Q too with Stinky but can't seem to find it at the mo.

Well that's about it, I am off to watch House. G'night all.

Gorgeous Saturday

2006-04-01T16:00:00.000+12:00

Today has been such a beautiful day. Perfect autumn day, sunshine and crisp air. I am having a lazy day, sitting with a wine, listening to Jack and cookin blueberry relish. The week disappeared quickly, can't believe it is the first of April already!

Wednesday we had a plunket coffee morning at the pub, Joc's food was disappointing as that is why we go!! LOL caught up with Fiona who is huge and was due to have bubs on THurs.

Thursday was play centre again and I was almost brought to tears by my son who decided to be extremely aggressive and not only have a punch up with his friend Tom but he kicked Aislinn for which I put him on a chair for time out, one of the little girls came up to him and he tried to have a go at her too. I am totally at my wits end with him and could happily give him away. Any ideas on dealing with aggro small boys gratefully accepted.

Looks like kindy might be a go for him but I would have to pull him out of Playcentre because of funding issues, as much as I don't want to take him out of playcentre I think he needs the structure of kindy more. We are off to check out the kindy on Wed afternoon. Thankfully Di is keen to work something out with transport.

Yesterday we shocked the sh*t out of mum and went and visited her. Was a bit strained but better than I thought it would go. Anyone know where the playground at the Marton rugby grounds went? GOME!! Shot over to palmy to get the eskimo a bat suit, popped in to see dad and Quinn decided to perform for him so I have a witness - he can be a right sod!! ROFL

Still can't use my HP image programme to resize pic hence why we have none on here.

Have a groovy weekend.

Kid free day :)

2006-03-28T17:53:00.000+12:00

I have had such a good day today. I dropped the kidlets at playcentre and Sara took them back to her place for the afternoon. I went into town and got my hair done, colour/foils and new style. SHOCK HORROR it looks amazing!!! An absolute miracle knowing my hair! Mind you the real test will be if I can get it to look as nice when I try to do it myself! I will get Peter to take some pics later and try to resize them to put on here tomorrow. So I am a vision of lufflieness.

Then I got myself into grounds for divorce area by getting groceries at New World rather than Write Price - $120 dearer!!! Needless to say I won't be going there again. Which is a shame cos there is more room to drag 2 trollies around and it is so nice and clean and shiny looking compared to WP. Marathon effort to get it all unpacked by myself too. Going to town is such a mission when you have so much to get done. Got the kids easter eggs, and treated myself to the new Jack Johnson CD which I just LOVE!! such cool groovin on a sunday afternoon music -thanks Nic H for the idea!

I am still on a high from making my huge order on the boxx yesterday - biggest order I have ever made but I saved heaps with the 25% off sale, I can't wait to get my hands on all that yummy Basic Grey, scenic route,junkitz, strano ribbon and all the devine Heidi Swapp stuff *drool drool*. I also got an email frm my friend Evana telling me I am getting a RAK from her for being one of the first 3 accepted into the latest Up2Scrap! Stinky is gonna be famous!!LOL, by the end of the year both Stinky and Bess will be featured in LOs in mags.

This LO I did on sunday, Miss Aislinn's new thing if she doesn't like what you have to say ie : NO! she puts her hand up and blows a raspberry at you. This came out quite well, last of the black cardstock *sob* No more scrapping till I get my Boxx order.

Well better go and get the kidlets ready for bed. Night John Boy!

Lazy day

2006-03-25T16:25:00.000+12:00

Would you believe it is 4.30pm and i am still in my jammies?? I am having a lazy "it's cold so I am snuggling down" day today. After spending all day on the go cleaning the house I feel like blobbing out. All I have done is read and scrap. there is just something totally weekendish about lounging around in your jammies. I must admit I will die should anyone show up at the door, as as much as I love my new jammies - they don't exactly do me any favours!!ROFL!! But they are baggy, soft and cosy and cute too. So I am enjoyin being a lazyass today.

I finally managed to tune my radio into my beloved Radio Live (only took me 9 months to find the cord and tune it in!!) so have been dragging the radio around the house while I clean listening to talkback - I have my house work mojo back!! Thank god for Micheal Laws and Marty Devlin!! So I now have a clean and shiny house (if you don't look in my room!!LOL)

Dad & Sylvia came out with Fish and chips last night, Dad has put a lock on the carshed so we can keep the eskimo out of there after he tipped out about 10litres of petrol the errant farm boy had left on the floor of the carshed!! So it is now Quinn proof. For his punishment the farm boy had to clean out said carshed this morning so now we have a clean carshed and freshly swept concrete pad :) Now we just need to sort out the sleep out and anyone would think tidy people live here!!

I have found a wee bit of scrappin mojo, yesterday I did a course on doodling on Suzanne Quillen's blog and it has done wonders - not only can I do cool curliques but my handwritten titles are brill!! I did this one last night, pic is my fave of Peter and Aislinn. Bronny the flowers are those wee metal rimmed ones you gave me - I popped them out of the frames and they look cool. Look ma no journalling!! Must be the first in forever!!

Then today I knocked up this one of Nanna's pig, dad took the pic for me as I haven't been up since Tudy's funeral which must be a year very soon. Anyway Quinn a few weeks back was asking me where his Nanna lives and I told him, very far away by the tall mountain (Stratford) to which he replied "she has a piggy at her home", when I said "yes on the front step" I got told in no uncertain terms "NO! On the concrete!" - funny what kids remember.

Next LO is Miss Bean in the Jammies Sylvia made her out of the leftover material from mine. I reckon I look like a big pink marshmallow in mine, she tells me she is a little pink 'smarshfellow', pic was taken this morning :) More doodling, this time I used the doodling on the pp and extended it. Wee flower stickers and 'too cute' one on the pic I got from my lovely canadian friend Tammy, last week for which I still haven't gotten off my butt and emailed a thanks.
Roll on tuesday, Sara at playcentre has been after me to leave the kidlets with her one afternoon after playcentre which has been sposed to happen the last 2 weeks but the kids keep being sick on the day. So fingerscrossed this tuesday is the day - blimmin better be now I have booked myself in for a haircut and colour. This is the longest I have been without a colour - over 6 months!!!*shock horror!!*

Can you tell it is taking me an hour and a half to upload the LOs onto this page??Hence the technicolour paragraphs he he he!

Well have run out of scrappin ideas although have 10 pics I printed off today to scrap *gulp* so I guess it is time I blobbed on the couch with the latest James Patterson while the kids fight LOL. Have a groovy weekend All!

Forgive me father it has been a week since I blogged...

2006-03-23T15:51:00.000+12:00

Shocking yet I still have little to report! Kids have been sick all week, Aislinn had the vomiting bug on monday as did Peter so I left them at home and took Quinn to town to get ginger ale for the sickies and mags for me. Now we all have terrible colds and poor Quinn was up in the night last night with croup - looking forward to him out growing that!

After being stuck at home with them driving me mad decided to go to Playcentre despite sickies in preference to killin them LOL. Was ok, Aislinn was a bit whingy but.

What else is new, Aislinn is starting correspondance preschool, she has the same teacher as Quinn and should hopefully get her first posting tomorrow. I got 2 LOs accepted to Up2Scrap, first in awhile - do I win the RAK, e? One of them is one I entered in the FKET comp. Peter has applied for his dream job on a Hereford stud 5 min from Masterton - we might get to go home yet :) Please cross everything as it would be nice for him to have a job he loves.

Have done no scrappin for a good week, mentally am waiting till I get my huge order from the Boxx - god knows when that will be - can't come soon enough. Hmmm Basic Grey Urban Couture drool drool. Cmon April!!!

I can't even put any photos on here at the moment stupid pc is playing up with My Pictures and HP photo editing program - can't access the photos in March folder and printer program keeps freezing the whole puter up. Any techno whizzes out there know how to fix it??

Well better go stop the demon children from killin each other - dunno why I am, would be alot quieter!

Where'd the week go??

2006-03-16T19:09:00.000+13:00

Have had a long week yet it has gone quickly really. Tuesday was particularly long with the Eskimo waking me up at 4.30am chucking and continuing all day - soooo tired! Then yesterday I took advantage of him being well and we shot into town to get groceries. Stopped at the red shed and got Quinn some new sneakers - note to self don't buy shoes with flashing lights!! I tell you he slept in them last night and came into our room at 2.30am and we thought we were being invaded the damn lights on his shoes were so effing bright!! Mars Attacks!!

Had playcentre this morning which was quiet as hardly anyone showed up. Talked to Chonny about sending Q to kindy with Huntah and she was keen, is going to ask the kindy if they will take him when Huntah starts morning kindy. WOOHOO!! Helen had Quinn writing his name on the blackboard today he did really well I love this pic!
He was soo cute today, I suggested he do a picture for Nanna as I have some photos to send up to her, he did one for her and then one for Pop "going on a big ahplane to take it to Pop's house in heaven" too cute, luckily the pic is small enough to scrap into a LO :) Have started a star chart for his toileting, he went well this morning but not so good this afternoon, never mind tomorrow is another day.

Off to Palmy tomorrow to do some clothes shopping for the kids, now that am off to buy winter clothes the weather is nice and warm LOL.

Haven't scrapped much this week, finished the circle journal I had to do ready to post tomorrow, turned out very Elsie Flannigan - quite cool, I might do a big LO the same.

Right off to do some ironing *joy*

Erm another monday

2006-03-13T16:57:00.000+13:00

I started today with a hiss and a roar (well once i managed to get the bean dressed) and decided to spring clean in autumn. Made a list - so perfectionist of me! Peter commented that would have a tidier house if I made fewer lists and did more cleaning! Ya think!! LOL Anyhoo, I did clean Quinn's room, even managed to rearrange furniture, rehang a picture and fix the vacumn cleaner that wasn't suckin and now makes a noise like a tortured mouse BUT it sucks!! Then went on to sort our the playroom and start on the kitchen but then it was lunchtime and Dr Phil about OCD which I need to contract and Oprah about heart disease which I needed to know will kill one in two women so of all of you reading and me half of us will die from heart disease....

and that is your happy thought for today!!!

Needless to say my motivation for housework dried up and I haven't done much this afternoon, quickly catching up on the puter and soon dashing off for a shower before my meeting tonight. Grr do they not know Desperate Housewives is on tonight!!! But I have to go as it is a planning meeting about the Eskimo so I need to have my say about what I want done with him!

Happy Birthday to my adorable nephew Cameron who is 2 today. The kids and I went to his party yesterday. The kids had a blast and loved that Mr Whippy came and Shaun did a great job decorating the blues clues cake.

Got a shock today the sun is actually shining!!! Is blimmin cold but at least I could hang washing on the line for the first time in weeks. Wonder if it will be sunny tomorrow. Wasps nest is gone, Peter finally filled in the hole where the septic tank went in and decided to dig out the bush the nest was in - no more wasps YAY!!

Well better go and get showered ready for my roast tea. Bronny I saw your place in the farmers weekly - can we buy it for $20 a week?? I am sure it won't take more than several millenia to pay of that much! ;) Woohoo Q did number 2 in the right place now i have to give him the big lollipop :)

C ya later

Feels like sunday

2006-03-11T21:44:00.000+13:00

One of those days today where you feel like it is the next day. I have spent the whole day thinking it is only 2 days till playcentre and I have a spooky feeling I am on mother help this week *ugh*!

We have had a quiet day, The kids and I have started spending these cold mornings snuggled in my bed, the kids watching a DVD and I read and referree the fights. So we haven't been surfacing from under the duvet till 9ish which is a lovely respectable hour. It is lovely to have them happy to snuggle down instead of wanting to be up and me having to be up with them.

Still full of the lurgy, not looking promising for the birthday party tomorrow, doubt all the kids mummies will want our germs! I have deliberately kept the party idea quiet so that the kids won't be gutted if they aren't well enough to go.

I did the ironing while watching Bride & Predjudice on DVD, scarily I really love that bollywood kitcsh. Perhaps I was indian in a previous life LOL. First time I have seen Martin Henderson in anything since he was Stuart on Shorty way back at the start - weird however seeing kiwis with Yank accents!!

Managed to scrap this LO this evening. I love it :) My baby boy!! I haven't done many baby LOs as mostly my photos are sh*te, too much mess, red eyes and basically crappy non rebel camera (so should have gotten my camera before having the kids) But however I did scan this pic which was terrible with a yellow sheepskin, stretch and gro, gross carpet and deritus in the background. I changed it to B&W and cropped the grotty background and viola fab photo!! So I guess I will have to revisit the baby pics and tzuz them up a bit.

Peter has sprayed the wasps, cross everything that it kills the sods! No after affects to the small boy although he was weary about going outside but overcame that quickly.

Well I had better get mine bum to bed. Hope to scrap some more tomorrow while Peter watches whatever cricket is on.

Friday again

2006-03-10T19:10:00.000+13:00

The weeks are going fast. Have had a busy couple of days trippin over to the Dr yesterday,Peter has a suspected broken rib, which will remain suspect as there is no point getting an x ray as there is nowt one can do but let it heal. Kids aren't too good, d&v going round apiti. They are not terribly happy.

Managed to scrap a whole LO today, well scraplift it actually. I loved Nic Howard's LO using this layering of photos in the latest FK and decided I'd try it out and ended up unintentionally lifting the whole design! Looks fab though, I will have to layer photos more often.

Poor Quinn was attacked by wasps this afternoon, it now seems he saw where they were nesting and decided to attack it with the axe (don't ask where Peter left it!! Grrr) anyway they retaliated and I heard him screaming blue murder and raced out to find him beating himself in order to get rid of the ones that were down his collar. I managed to rip off his shirts and get us inside and then had to race for the fly spray to get the ones that were still attacking us. Vinegar didn't work and he was beside himself so I ended up phoning city drs to find out what else I could do. Gave him pamol and bathed the stings with baking soda. Luckily he was only stung on his neck, ears and wrist, lucky he wasn't nekkid as usual or he'd have been much worse. At least we know he isn't allergic too. Half an hour later and he was ok. He took me out after tea to show me where they came from.

Well better get off here and get them in their pjs.

Later dudes and dudettes!

I am gonna be nice today

2006-03-07T17:19:00.000+13:00

He he he!!!

Well not much to report today, lotsa pics of the bean though, must take a few more of the eskimo as she is being more of a poseur lately!

This lot are of her all dressed up in her new outfit to go out to the pub for tea (the shades were her idea) she kept posing and blowing raspberries and then giggling her head of - the child is too cute for her own good!!

Playcentre again today, Fiona was there for the first time in ages so it was good to catch up with her, she is hoping bubs will be born this week fingers crossed. I offered my photography services to take some pics of bubs in the first few weeks so I can practice and she gets some nice pics. She is cool with that. I took some cool pics of Tyler and Ben today, Ben is a hard case of a kid, he was swinging on Barney and I was pushing him from the front and pretending he was getting me - he laughed and laughed and I think it was the most I have ever heard him laugh (got some cool pics too so hopefully Jo will like them)

Have spent the afternoon printing off photos of playcentre kids as we have another get together at MaryAnne's to put together portfolios for the kids. Unfortunately I have run out of ink halfway through the task but thankfully playcentre will pay for ink and photo paper for me. Undoubtably like any other meeting held at MA's we will end up on the sauce and I will have to drive carefully home avoiding this bloke pictured with Quinn. (I tried to get him to take him but nope!!). The fuzz turned up to playcentre and the kids got to go check out the car, funny Quinn was the only one game enough to go and talk on the radio and turn on the siren - must be something to do with Uncle Bruce and not being scared of the cops. He thinks every cop is a friend of Bruce's LOL.

OMG at the moment my house looks like it has been toilet papered for halloween!! 2 guesses as to the culprits!! Walking about with bog paper "puppies" taking them for a walk!! ROFL!!!

Well guess i had better get going and get tea ready before my piss up OOOOPPPS I mean meeting ;)