ANZAC Day 25th April 2007

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them.
-- Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Out of my comfort zone

I decided at the last minute to do a class at Crafting Connection - Emily Falconbridge's Wall Art. Sooo out of my comfort zone! I found it really hard to just "stick stuff down randomly". I found it hard to match (or not!) the colours. I so wanted to make all the pieces of fabric the same size and place them symmetrically on each side of the photo! Whilst I'm not sure I'll ever do anything like that again, it is growing on me ie I like it! My family could not believe that I did something so bright! Click on the photo to make it bigger - if you can bare to. Anyway, here it is and a photo of Emily and me. Thanks Emily and it was great to meet you

Croc Charms

In Oamaru in January, I discoverd a shop selling Croc Charms. Well, of course I had to have some; but then Monique linked me somewhere with an explanation of how to make your own. Out of the 16 charms on my two shoes, two are "real" ones! Don't the others look cute? I'm so pleased with them!

Circle Journal

I am almost finished all my contributions the a US/Canadian CJ that I'm in! I have one more to do and then I'm done. Here's what I've done so far:

My Home Town for Lin

Best things in Life for Karen

Treasured Moment for Wendy

Favourite technique for MarySue

Faith for Vanessa-Lynn

Favourite Season for April

Ten Favourite things for Nancy

There is one missing and I know I took a photo, but can't find it anywhere

Still school hols

and I love that!The boys have not been too bad - ie not too much bickering going on! They have learnt how to make crepes which we have been enjoying for breakfast most mornings. I plan to make them a little recipe book with all their favourite recipes in for when they leave home. But I've still got lots of time!

I have been updating my blog and adding links to blogs that I read. If you would like me to add yours, please leave a comment or email me and I'll add it. Also let me know what you think of this colour (blue at the moment - I think!) becaue I may change it

Thank you

Thank you to everyone for your really kind comments both here and those who emailed me. Thank you too to the donations that some people have sent - we are very humbled and Adrian got quite tearful when he was reading everyone's comments

Wishful thinking .......

No, not on my part at all - read the story and see below. At Adrian's office, they had a fund-raiser today for the Cancer Society. They found eleven people to have their hair shaved off and then painted by BodyFX. Each one of them then had a photos taken of the art work and this is all to be published in a book later this year with all proceeds to go to the Cancer Society.

Well, my dear husband decided that he would have his hair shaved off!!

A "full" head of hair

Half way through

Shaving off the rest

Kojak look-alike!

The art work begins

Wishful thinking ..........

Yes it's a tropical island! Not that we can say we have tropical island weather in Wellington today, so on his part it is wishful thinking! He personally raised a fair bit of money as did the other ten and there was a collection box out during the grand event today

Easter and holidays

Wasn't the weather great over Easter? We spent some time doing up bit of clearing and planting in the garden and also had a bbq onSunday with my Mom and Dad. Of course the Easter Bunny came, but this year was quality rather than quantity and the boys were pleased about that.



I got a torch!!! As I said to Adrian - it's my fourth - what should I do with it? But I made sure that I had bought myself a scorched almond egg anyway. Ross bought (with his grandmother's money) a really nice Ernest Hillier egg so I got my share of chocolate.





This week I have been to Adrian's place of employment seven times!! The boys got some part-time work there so I fetched them on Tuesday just after lunch. Then I went back at 5.30pm to fetch Adrian as his car was in the garage. Took him and the boys to work on Wednesday morning, fetched the boys at lunch time, fetched Adrian again in the evening. Took him back to work again this morning and I'm going back tomorrow - he's involved in a Cancer fund raisning venture about which I'll post tomorrrow and have some photos. So watch this space!





I did get to Spotlight though and they had some fantastic American Crafts patterned paper for 20 cents (US0.14) a piece!! I went back for some more later and it had all been hidden away again. No worries - I know someone who is there almost every second day and she knows some of the staff so she'll let me know when it's back out again.


Anyway, thanks Nancy (US) and Karin (SA) for visitng my blog

I read somewhere about someone who had gone to Forest Lakes over the Easter weekend and she was complaining about the food - so glad we self-catered for ScrapCamp!

It's all over

But it was a great weekend. Yes I stressed a lot about people who cancelled and people who booked and cancelled all in two weeks and wooden letters that did not arrive and finances that were stretched to the very limits but it was a FANTASTIC weekend. All the ladies were impressed with the goody bags which represented a retail value of at least $95 and many people were using bits from the bags all weekend.

The Tool Taxis from Fiskars were a hit as were the baby Xyrons from Esselte.

The pens from Scrapbook Outlet were great and the piles of stuff from Scrapbook Essentials both as gifts and to buy were fantastic.

Lots of scrapping got done and the wooden letters class by Jo was a wonderful success - thanks Jo - we know what value we got

Many thanks too to Up2Scrap, Nik Wilkinson, Cadburys, Haley Ingram, Making Memories, Paula Alcock, Marie Thompson, Krislyn d' Souza, Joan Childs and other sponsors

The plane from Christchurch was delayed by 15 minutes and the luggage by FIFTY! That meant we were a bit late getting to Sharlene's for lunch. We played the toilet paper game - each person had to take "enough" and then for each square had to tell us something about herself. Irene took one; Jo took many!

Tania and Suazanne scrapped until 5.00am the first day and 5.30am the second. Self-catering was great and easy and I got compliments for the food. Porridge for breakfast remains a hit!

It is a pity that Forest Lakes has become run down and very grubby as it is an ideal venue for our purposes

Will there be a next time? Yes .......because I want a weekend away!