Surprise!!

And yes he was surprised to see us so early! We had a really good trip north despite the over turned trees and broken branches through Levin. hat a time they had on Thursday through that storm, but there was lots of clearing happening when e came through.

We got to National Park just on 2pm, wwent down to the cafe to say hello and then headed to the house. We crept next dood to school and sat chatting with the Principal for a while before going into the hall to see our boy. The kids around him asked if we were his parents - the school is so small all the kids know all the parents and clearly we were unknown therefore we had to be Colin's parents. We followed them back to class, where they were dismissed for the day and then had a chance to see Colin's artwork and other school work and chat to his teacher.

And then Colin asked if he could go to a friend for a while! I was so pleased about that so he went off to his friend, we unpacked and had a cup of tea. When he came home, he was all over us - even after dinner he just had to sit next to us and touch us.

He talked about his being homesick and how he cried every night but by the Thursday he was feeling better. He knows that he will be sad on Sunday but also has expressed how lucky he is and pleased that he has this chance.

Colin is also working hard at school - he has to - he's the only Yr 8 boy so is unable to diasappear into the crowd! Because it is such a small class, there are very few behavioural problems so the kids can just get on and learn - Colin acknowledges this too and that he's enjoying it.

We are doing nothing today - it is wet and miserable out so I made pain au chocolat for breakfast and now we're just relaxing in front of the fire.

We may head up to Piper's Lodge tonight to watch the rugby (don't laugh) and tomorrow, Colin wants us to go to the cafe "Out of the Fog" for breakfast

More about Colin

Well, the Carrot Carnival apparently wasn't too exciting so they headed up to Turoa but were turned back because the blizzard came through. Colin then went to Owhango where they spent the rest of the weekend.

Breakfast on Sunday morning at Cafe in the Fog

Playing pool at Ski Haus

Gloves drying after skiing

Colin phoned me tonight to say they were probably going skiing tomorrow and he was moving up from Happy Valley to Rockgarden flat - so no longer in the beginners area! He is sounding soo much better! And I am so grateful to the people who are trying as hard as they can to make him feel at home. And I am equally grateful to all of you who are sending ME words of encouragement

Roll on Friday!

End of Week 1

Well, Colin went skiing today and is much happier! They spent the entire day at Happy Valley and had a wonderful time and he is as happy as can be this evening, Thank goodness for that.

As for me - one down, nine to go. At least I have Friday off next week. The kids go wild when the wind blows or whenever the weather is bad. The seniors do not seem to be at all worried that they do their Mock Exams in five weekes time. I seem to be the only one worried. Argh!

Homesick

Last night my boy spent ages texting me to tell me he wants to come home. I know he's homesick and of course it breaks my heart. I told him that people can get homesick at any age (I did eleven years ago when we moved here) and beating it will make him a stronger person. I told him that when he starts feeling homesick (at night in bed) he should focus on good things. I also told him to think about the fun things that will happen and in no time it will be next weekend and we will be going up there.

As a mother, I just want to drive up there and hold him and hug him and bring him home but for his sake I know that won't work. Oh but is is hard!

Edited tonight: Thanks for all your compassion. He sounds happier but is still telling me he wants to come home. I said we'd talk about it next week. Much as I'd love to have him back home, I don't want him to come home because then I want him to learn through this and come out stronger at the other end

My boy

Here is Colin in his new school uniform

And relaxing in front of the TV tonight before dinner

Colin phoned me tonight and sounded so happy and had had a really good day. His "Mum" packed him a good lunch and morning tea and he couldn't finish it all! His teacher said he worked really well in class and was well settled too. He loves his new homework book - four pages per week so that's a page a day he tells me! They're hoping to go skiing on Thursday so I'm sure that I'll have lots more to tell then.

Thanks for all the messages of care that many of you have sent me - I really appreciate it.

Home again

Here we are home from a week away. We first went to a farm near Rotorua and it was so wonderful! It is the Apple Tree Farm Cottage and was very cosy and comfortable. The kids loved playing with the farm kids and animals. We went to Waikite pools twice, found Butcher's Pool )tucked away where no one can find them), went up the Gondola and the boys all went on the Luge. We saw a bit of Andy who is my SIL's nephew-in-law whose family are moving to NZ soon to join him.



Then we went to National Park. It poured with rain all weekend but I scrapped on Saturday - all the boys' soccer photos from the last five or six years! I have dragged that pack of photos etc all round NZ so I'm so pleased that they're done! I do need to do some journalling though.

Then it was time to say goodbye to my baby - and I admit I cried in front of him and I didn't want to do that. He is going to have such a wonderful time and his new "mum" is going to spoil him rotten! Then I drove all the way home (310 kms) with just Ross in the car. e did really ell and were home in 4 hours without going over the speed limit. I was really proud of myself when I got home.

And while we were away I won a prize at SBO!

A tribute to .....

This is a tribute to my beautiful siser-in-law, Jenny. Yes, that's right we have the same first name and because we married brothers, we now share the same surname. We also share a love of scrapbooking! We never think of ourselves as sharing the same name but it's always quite funny when other people realise it.

What made me think about this is this post on the Aus/Nz Fiskars blog: Hi this is a happy hello from Jenny xxxxx in sunny Durban South Africa. My sister in law Jenny xxxxx (yes same names !!!)from Wellington New Zealand send this to me.

Jenny and I both have Gmail and Skype so most evenings we have a quick chat to catch up on what's happening in our lives. She's closer to me than any real sister could ever be and I only wish we lived closer!

Aus/NZ Fiskars

Please go to this site: http://fiskarscraft.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/around-the-worl.html?cid=121751388 leave your name and where you're from and my name and from NZ and maybe we'll both win a prize!

This and That

Yay for wonderful school holidays! I didn't really sleep well the first few night of the hols because I'm stressing about school, but I've put it behind me as I've made some decisions about my future there.

Then I haven't been sleeping well because I caught a cold (but not the "man -cold" that has also been here).

The boys have been quite good so far - minimum bickering and lots of playing. They are both out at the moment so I managed to get a lot done at the shops earlier. Now I'm just enjoying the peace and quiet! And surfing and visiting blogs that I haven't seen for awhile. (By the way, Tracy - I am unable to leave comments on your blog). I should have been sewing some trousers for myself but I can do that tomorrow.

It has been soooo cold here and a lot of the roads around National Park have been closed - as long as they're not closed when I go up there! I have been getting things ready for Colin to take with him including having to go to the inefficient Postie+ to buy school pants for him. We got them in the end!

Snapfish had a photo collage promotion and I ordered one for Colin to take with him. I was going to do a little mini-album but decided that a collage would be nicer. I also got one for myself. Then I got some nice frames at Briscoes and yes they were on sale - 40% off!













"Pieces of Me" is for Colin and "These I Love" is for me.


I also got a bargain at Spotlight - a trolley bag for my sewing machine. I take it with me every Monday night and it is heavy and Spotlight had a 50% off today so I got a nice tapestry one for $50! I can just see A's face - he'll say "not another one"! At least I don't have to carry my sewing machine now.

Also, I got a new disc from Esselte for my WishBlade - only one cutting program was working and when I asked for the third disc in February they told me I didn't need it. Anyway, in the last few weeks I emailed and emailed and emailed. Finally they admitted that it may well be because I had version 4.0 and maybe I should have had version 3.1. The disc was couried to me, I unistalled and reinstalled and voila - my WB now cuts in both programs!

I must say that as the time gets closer to taking Colin to school I am getting sadder, but it's such a wonderful opportunity for him and I'll see hime every two weeks.

PS I sold one of my tea cosies on Felt! Yay!

The Big Read

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed

01. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
02. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
03. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
04. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
05. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
06. The Bible - Much of it
07. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
08. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
09. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - some and a number of stage productions
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwel
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker7
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks9
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I have highlighted those I've read and italisized those that I have seen a movie or stage production. Hmmm ......... at least I've read more than six!

More cupcakes!

More cupcakes! I have in my Felt shop

Full time teaching

So I have a full time fixed term position to the end of the year. My head said "Say no"; my heart said "Say yes". My head reasoned that if I'm not good enough for a permanent f-t position, then why am I only good enough to fill in everytime they need me?

If nothing else it will pay for trips to National Park and I have already received permission to take some Fridays off. If I go by myself, I'm going to catch the train on a Friday and back on a Sunday. The extra money will be useful

How I see NCEA results

For those of you who have said you don't know; and for those of you who do - feel free to add your comments!

Basically there are Achievement Standards and Units Standards. US have been around for ages so I'm not going there. Some AS are internally assessed and some are externals - the externals are the exams at the end of the year.

There are four possible results: N, A, M, E
Not Achieved
Achieved
Achieved with Merit
Achieved with Excellence

If a student gets sufficient number of Achieved and Merit results the final result in a paper is M. If there are insufficient A results but there are some M results, these M results are converted to A and the final result is A.

A student cannot get an M or E without an A so it's really important that they can do the basics.

From what I have seen, it's not hard to get an A. An M takes some effort and an E is designed to make the bright kids think.

Personally, I quite like it

Ross Report

So his first "real" report at Secondary school ....

English: Four Achieved with Merit, one Achieved
French: three Achieved with Excellence, one Achieved with Merit
Maths: three Achieved with Excellence
Science: two Achieved with Merit
Social Science: one Achieved with Excellence, and one Achieved with Merit

A pretty good report all round!

Changing family dynamics

My friend Alicia has suggested I write don how I think things will change next term and then compare my list to the actual changes that do happen. So here they are:

Ross will realise how much he misses his brother: not just because there is someone with whom to play, but because the chores get spread.
I will miss Colin.
Colin will learn to make decisions for himself as he won't have his brother to do it for him
I will miss Colin.
There will be no bickering.
Did I mention I will miss Colin?
Colin will become self sufficient
I will ........... no, I've said that already!

As I think of things I will keep adding them

Cupcake Tea Cosy

Like all good maths teachers, I have a Graphics calculator which produces random numbers. So I set my calculator to pick a random number beteen 1 and 12 and it chose #1! Roo!! I have your address and I have lots of stuff to post (sorry Vicky's sister, Lara, Julie and Meek) so I will get it into the post for you soon.

Our news

Colin is going to ski school next term!! He is sooo excited about it and really looking forward to it. He will be at school at National Park Primary for the third term and take part in their ski programme. He will be boarding with the principal and his wife who are friends of ours. He will be skiing a number of times a week on that beautiful mountain up there ^^^^^^

We think it's a wonderful opportunity for him but we will miss him very much. We will go up every two weeks to see him and he probably won't be able to come home as the train is not suitable and the bus only goes to Palmerston North. Anyway, a good excuse for me to see my mountain more often!

So it is all systems go in getting him organised for his new school!

Cupcakes!

Cupcakes are just so in at the moment and I don't mean the edible ones. Bath bombs, felt decorations, handbags - you name it - it has been turned into a cupcake. Here's my version:

A tea cosy

I'm making more and I will be selling them. I've seen them at Etsy for US$36 - what are they worth here? The next one is chocolate brown with lime green "icing". So leave me a comment by Sunday night and I'll do a draw to win this one and I will post/ship internationally.

Weekend Away

We went away for the long weekend to National Park. For those of you not in NZ, it is a tiny dot on the map about halfway up the North Island and is the gateway to the Whakapapa ski fields on Mt Ruapehu (that beautiful mountain up there ^^^). Friends of ours live up there: Terry is the principal at National Park school and Di works in the Station cafe at National Park Station. Terry has his 60th birthday weekend so they invited firends and family to join them at a ski lodge for the weekend. It was a gloriously relaxed weekend - Saturday we went into Taumaranui to the chemist and on our way back stopped at the Raurimu Spiral - an amzing piece of engineering.

Then we headed up to the mountain which had cloud swirling about it. We got up there and it was very cold but the boys found some snow to play with and we went for a little walk. Saturday night there was a lovely birthday at the Lodge.

Sunday Adrian and Colin went on a two hour walk to the Taranaki Falls with some others and I stayed at the Lodge and finsihed lots of marking. Sunday night was a roast dinner at the Station Cafe.

We drove back today through lots of rain but we were ahead of the traffic which was good. We had a lovely weekend away.

Look at the mist swirling round the mountain

Grumpy today

I have this Year 10 class that it relatively small but also has some of the laziest kids I have ever come across ......... that's apart from the noisy, disruptive, won't do their homework types.

Today I kept two girls after school because they would not stop talking and giggling while I was talking. One of them I kept last week because she hadn't done her homework. The next thing I see she's talking to her mother on the cell-phone, "I don't know why I'm being kept in." I said I'd talk to the mother and explained about the noisy, disruptive, rude behaviour. The mother told me I should give notice when I'm going to keep her darling daughter in - when they enrol at the college the parents sign that their children can be kept up to half an hour without any prior notice. I have explained to my two junior classes that they will be kept in on a Tuesday if they don't do as expected - so why don't they just do their homework and behave in class? Then there's no problem with them staying in.

Then the mother started on about how her darling daughter gets "picked on" about homework. Well, I nearly said to her, "Be glad that the teacher cares enough to check your daughter's homework every day"

Sometimes I wonder why I bother; I have a sick child at home (Ross) and I'd rather be at home looking after him than dealing with someone else's spoilt brat. And quite frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn about other people who clearly don't care about their children. I am done with checking homework

Replies

Penny - I go to AE Preston which is a Wellington butcher. I think the meat at the Mad Butcher looks revolting and cheap!

Tracy - I don't seem to have a link to you anymore?

The ACrylic Album

Here is the acrylic album - all the photos are of Adrian's favourite places

Our now non exsistent picnic place on Rabbit Island

On the left - Lochmara Lodge and outside the accommodation at Fordoun in SA
Left - the willow tree at Bladen (vineyard) and Porpoise Bay on the SI
Waikite pools near Rotorua
Milford Sound
And at the back - looking out to sea just north of Kaikoura

Meal Plans

With the big increase in the cost of living here, there has been a lot of discussion on various forums about meal plans. Penny always has a weekly meal plan. I used to have a four weekly meal plan and it made it very easy to cook (and shop). Otherwise at 5pm I'm standing in the kitchen wondering what to take out the deep freeze that will be ready by 6pm!

So here's my first week:
Sunday: Roast
Monday: Chicken wrapped in bacon
Tuesday: Mince with nachos or pasta
Wednesday: Some sort of casserole that I'll start on Wednesday morning
Thursday: Butter chicken
Friday: Hamburgers and wedges
Saturday: Soup and bread or leftovers or go out

This is slightly different to my actual plan, but that's the meat I have in my deep freeze and I normally go to the butcher once a month. So I'll use up what I have and then start my four weekly plan from the beginning of June

Laid back Sunday

Today feels like such a laid back day! The boys were at a youth group camp all weekend so we had a bit of a holiday too. Friday after we dropped them off, we came home poured some wine, open some chippies and dips and just sat on the couch together watching everything on TV1.

Saturday Adrian picked the boys up for football (they won 2-1) and I went scrapping. I made an acrylic album for Adrian of eight of his most favourite places - Nelson, Lochmara Lodge, Waikite pools, Kaikoura, places in SA. I must say it turned out quite well and he was very pleased with it.

I came home and we went to the Embassy to see Second-hand Wedding. It is rather special to see a movie at the Embassy - full of atmosphere. The movie was wonderful and we both really enjoyed it. Then we went to Monsoon Poon for dinner - one of our most favourite places to eat and I really don't know why! The music is way too loud and the tables are not flash but the food is wonderful and the staff treat the customers really well. It was a wonderful evening and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Today we fetched the boys and they had had a wonderful time too but are both very tired - early to bed for them! I hope that we're going to go to the RSA for an early dinner then back home early too.

Happy Mother's Day

to everyone who is a mother
to everyone who was a mother
to everyone who is a mother to someone else's child
and to all mothers who have to spend the day in hospital

Ross made me a booklet of vouchers: the last one is a Fight Free Day ....... I am still chuckling about it. He also made me breakfast in bed: a hard egg (yuck) and bacon and by the time I got the knife and fork it was all cold. As for the toast - that arrived much later. I ate it all

Colin got Adrian to buy me four mini bottles of Lindauer Fraise

My parents are coming to lunch and I have a leg of pork and a huge container of vegetables roasting right now. Bread and Butter pudding and then Irish Coffees and I think that will be a great Mother's Day.

I have had a cold for a few days and yesterday the inner ear infection recuured - I felt so sick and was in bed by 8.30pm and asleep by 9pm - that's unheard of for me. I was dreading the thought of having to cook today feeling so sick but fortunately the symptoms seem to have disappeared but I may have to take some more tablets later on.

Have a great day everyone

The Lunch .......

was lovely: Bread and oils to start; a choice of Lamb Shank, Chicken, Fish or Pasta - I choose fish and then for dessert I chose a trilogy of desserts - three small bowls of delight: an apricot half baked in filo pastyr with custard, a very rich chocolate mousse and cassis poppyseed gateaux.

Steve and Steph (on the right) from The Breeze and Paige, their assistant on the left

There was a bag of presents - something from Life Pharmacy and believe it or not, I have not opened it yet; a decadent cupcake from The Chocolate Cake shop, a CD and beautiful flowers.



Yes there is two of everything because Adrian got one too!

I know!!!

I got a telephone call from The Breeze this morning. Every year they have a Mother's Day competition - five winners and a friend/partner are taken to lunch at The Intercontinetal and given flowers, goodies from Life Pharmacy etc.

I am one of the winners!!!! They phoned me this morning to tell me. Adrian said he did have a Plan B if I wasn't selected though and that was to take me to lunch at Logan Brown. Either way I'm a winner.

I'm really looking forward to it

What's your guess?

Last night Adrian asked me if I prepare for each lesson or if I re-use work from the previous year. I explained carefully that I don't write out exactly what I'm going to say or do anymore, but I have a plan of where I'm going to to and I use worksheets and excercises from previous years.

Then he says to me that I should prepare work for Friday for whatever classes I am teaching between 12pm and 2pm ..... AND DON'T ASK ANY QUESTIONS! Now don't tell me that! I open the presents at Christmas time and carefully seal them again.

Off I went to school today and casually say to my Head of Department, "Am I doing something on Friday?" She looked at me with a huge smile on her face and said, "Do what you're told and don't ask any questions!"

So what's your guess? I am desperate to know of course as I don't do surprises very well!

Accidents

Today we were nearly either involved in an accident or would have been witness to it.

I bought a fridge on TradeMe for our little staff space at school and the boys and I headed to Paraparaumu to collect it. No problem and we were almost home. Travelling south on SH1 the traffic lights at Whitford Brown turned orange. I was in the outside lane and knew I wouldn't get across in time so I stopped .... as did the old man in the inside lane (next to me). But the great big Linfox double rig behind the old man put his foot down as he thought the old man was going to go. The next thing there was a huge squeal of brakes as the driver of the rig put his brakes on. Thank goodness there is a large verge on the right as I swerved into that to avoid the possibility of the Linfox coming into me. He managed to stop in time but the clouds of smoke from his tyres wafted right round us. Fortunately the old man didn't notice, but Colin looked at the driver of the Linfox and said he was looking pretty pale.

The kids were quite shaken and we discussed concentrating all the time as a driver and also being aware of what is going on around you. Colin particularly, was concerned as he was sitting on the inside.

Because it's NSD

(National Scrapbook Day) even though it's nearly all over. I have some grunge board to give away so I challenge you to complete some UFOs. By 9pm next Sunady night and I want to see before and after photos please

ANZ Fiskars blog

Australia New Zealand that is! For ScrapCamp, Fiskars, who have been donating items for three years now, gave each of us the very cool fingertip knife. Here we are featured: http://fiskarscraft.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/anzac-scrapcamp.html I must say those fingertip knives are very useful

My scrapbook pages

My pages may not be terribly artistic or have masses of stuff on them which is why I seldom upload them to various scrapbook galleries. But they are snapshots (pardon the pun) of our lives and what we've shared as a family. My family love them and so do I and that's what's important. I have decided that I'm not even going to buy the beautiful embellishments anymore as they just languish in a box never to see the light of day again. So there may be a few bags available for those of you who love to use lots of product on YOUR pages :-)

This is another one from ScrapCamp - NO embellishments, just my WishBlade to do the title

Another one completed

This one uses some of the product from an SBO paper add-on; the title I made on my WishBlade (including the bit around the edge) and it fits the NZ Dares dare for this fortnight: Use a number in your titles.

The photos were taken at my BIL's 50th birthday that my husband attended in South Africa. I love how the title turned out and it was chosen by my hubby!

Some Photos

This is the "Chocolate Story" that I was given at ScrapCamp! So cool that I really don't want to eat the chocolates from it!

One of the l/os that I did from our January holiday
Photos from 2004
The bread that I regularly make



Those are the completed ones; I have done some titles and have to do some more as well as the journalling. I kept all the titles to do at home on my WishBlade and sold my chipboard to Tracy so that I am forced to use my WB :-)!

And Jenny - just to show you even though there is no title or journalling! I will need some more of this paper in Ash & Andy's container!

And while I was about it a few more that you will recognise, Jen, but they still need titles and journalling

This particular one uses an SBO paper add-on kit

I'm in "print"!

Have a look - page 19 http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/e-zine/Default.html

And if your're a scrapcamper, have a look here and leave or email your comments

Back home

It was a great weekend and I got 16 l/os done! They all need titles from my Wishblade but that will happen during this week while I'm still on holiday. The sponsors were all very generous and supplied wonderful gifts. I am tired of doing the organising and this is the end for me. Hopefully someone else will pick up the reins and take over. I will post some photos later during the week. Here is a photo of all of us holding the wonderful fingertip knives that Fiskars donated

Make your blog into a book

http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook and an estimate, for a soft cover 8x10 150pg book is $14usd which I don't think is too bad. It's very tempting!

School Holidays

YAY! I am so looking forward to two weeks off. I have got ScrapCamp next weekend so this week I'll be preparing for that. I really need this weekend - to be with a group of like minded ladies having fun creating is very restorative. Add to this a wonderful project shared by the lovely Jo B, a lovely setting and yummy food and the weekend is set to be great.

Also my new camera arrived and it has lots of bells and whistles. I have not had much of a chance to play with it yet, but the coming weeks will remedy that

I went to KiwiScraps yesterday for our monthly crop, but really was not in the mood so took nothing but bought lots! Mainly for Jo's project at SC. I also organised our crop on 17th May: it's been a year since we started there, but as a group we have been scrapping together for nearly five years. People have joined, people have left but the same core of about four or five people remain. But back to 17th May - we're going to have a party with a special project so if you want to join us, please email me to book your spot.

Ross is loving College and is doing well. Colin has suddenly discovered himself and found himself in the Otago Problem Solving group (during the course of the year, they answer five sets of five word maths problems) so all is well on the school front

What a shock!

Everytime I wave goodbye to my children when they leave on school camps, I worry that they will be safe and that they will come home safely. Sadly, seven teenagers and their teacher won't be going home http://www.stuff.co.nz/4481793a10.html This has shocked New Zealand: parents, teachers and everyone else. My heart goes out to all those affected at Elim Christian College

My quilt

is done!! I will take a photo tomorrow and edit this. The quilting police will be after me however, as I machine stitched the binding down - no hand stitching for me thanks!

I had to laugh!

Look at this:

Too funny! I need one of these

My Quilt

Well, here it is. It still needs a binding around the edge but it is quilted which I had done professionally and I'm so glad that I did. Every piece of fabric is representative of something in my life either current or in the past. I love it and I'm thrilled with it, but it is the last one I will do.

Third from left: a piece of fabric from my wedding dress
Second and fourth from left: Photos of the boys when they were little from a T-Shirt - I cut the T-shirt up

The crocodiles represent both a trip to Florida and the place at which we got engaged Ngwenya (meaning crocodile)

Nemo - my three boys love watching that movie and know many lines from it ...which they repeat during the movie

Tui - sings outside our bedroom window

Blue Guinea fowl and orange giraffes - tea towels that Adrian bought me at the Kruger National Park specially for me to cut up

Belle - when Ross was small his favourite story was Beauty and the Beast. When we went to Disneyland, he and I queued for quite a while to see her. She bent down to him and said, "Are you a prince?" He was five at the time

Frnagipani - our trip to Fiji and the flowers on my wedding cake

Just to the right of Belle - piece of fabric from a skirt I used to wear

Two cheetahs representing my cheetah encounter
Green spots - the dress I made and wore for the boys' christenings

Electric trains - my Dad's employment

Black and white cats paws for all the cats we've had

Dolphins - Colin's love of nature

Sports balls - sports the boys have played

Little blue penguins - the dressing gown I made Colin

Emperor penguins - our trip backstage to see the penguins at SeaWorld LA

The tartan - Colin at six months old had a cute pair of trousers I made from this fabric

The white waffle weave at the bottom right - the three dressing gowns I have made

Lots to represent South Africa and New Zealand and the green border represents the sea we crossed to get here.

There! I think I've given you all of it - if not - feel free to ask

Oh ... and if you're going to ScrapCamp I'll have it with me

Daylight Saving

That's it - no "s" on the end! Also I can't believe how many people did not know when Daylight Saving ended and we went back to NZ Standard Time. Also how many people kept asking when Daylight Saving started - um ... that will be on Sunday 28th September.

So NZ DST ended and for my lovely SIL in SA we are now back to ten hours ahead of you - see the clock on the side bar

My Dilemma

I ordered a new camera from DSE on Monday and then discovered it for $99 cheaper elsewhere. I cancelled the DSE order (and have the cancellation notification) and ordered the camera from the other place. Both places said cameras only arriving 11th April. Today a camera arrived from DSE - do I send it back or keep it?

My camera

is an Olympus SP500 Ultra Zoom. It is 6mp and 10x optical zoom and has great features eg "use available lighting". I want to sell it for $300 - if you know of anyone who may be interested, please send them my way

Here is a good review: http://www.cameras.co.uk/details/olympus-sp-500.cfm

Catch up

So the brats got caught - they have to replace the lollies and apologise. Their parents were contacted. The one who stole the calculator has to return it and his misdemeanor has been referred higher up. There was also money stolen but no one is owning up to that.

Ross played in the second bowls team and did really well - played better than some of the regulars!

We had parent-teacher meetings this week - exhausting for me, but really good comments from Ross' teachers

Colin goes on school camp next week and is sooo looking forward to it - I hope that he is not disappointed

My quilt is slowly growing and I am now pleased with it

Soccer season hasn't started yet and I'm sick of it! I'm sick of whinging parents and kids who won't play because of this, that and the next silly reason. I'm sick of precious committee members who want to stick to the age group rules at all costs .... to the detriment of kids who just want to play soccer. I've been Age Group Co-ordinator for seven years and this is the first year that I'm really hating the job

Roll on ScrapCamp! Four weeks to go and it's over ANZAC weekend so is three days long - YAY

Wonderful Weekend

and it's not over yet! Yay - the boys and I still have tomorrow off. I sewed Ross' dressing gown - he was so pleased he showered so he could put it on straight away. I sewed another pair of sleeping shorts for Adrian (cream so now he matches with the sheets and duvet cover lol). I cut out and sewed the border to my "postcards" for my quilt. Now I have 48 squares which will need to be sewn together. I also used a very old T-shirt of Adrian's that had photos on of very young boys. I found lots of fabric in my sewing cabinet so I will use one of them for the backing of my quilt and I think I must sell the rest on TradeMe. I am feeling a lot happier about my quilt as I was ready to give up on Tuesday last week.

We relaxed and just had a great weekend. I made Hot Cross buns and turned the leftovers into a very yummy Hot Cross Bun & Butter pudding that we had for breakfast. I made butter chicken from scratch and it was yummy. We had a wonderful brunch yesterday and super blue cod for dinner. Tonight my Mom and Dad came over and we had a bbq.

We also did a bit of shopping today and I got a typist's chair for my sewing. It beats the uncomfortable little stool I have been sitting on!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone and I hope that the Easter Bunny was kind to you all. Boys are happy - they got good chocolate rather than lots of cheap stuff; Adrian got red wine and chilli bites (biltong/beef jerkey) and I got small bottles of Lindauer Fraise and Cote d'Or bouchees (chocolate elephants)

The "Easter Bunny" also found this really cute font to make labels!

Bl**dy Brats at School!

On Tuesday, 9 or 10 Yr 10s (Form 4) broke into my classroom at lunch time by opening the door from the inside. They put their arm in through the window next to the door. They moved many of my posters and work kids had done and then opened up my cupboard. In my cupboard they moved glue sticks all over, took a personalised stamp and stamped desks. I had half a bag of sweets for rewards - they ate all of them. A Graphics caculator is also missing.

I was so angry about it because I care so much about my classroom. It's one thing to go into a classroom, but completly another to go through the teacher's personal things and steal/eat hat's there. The last time I felt like this was in South Africa when our house was broken into.

I have calmed down about it now, but on Tuesday I felt as though I needed a stiff drink when I got home.

Edited to add that someone recognised one of them and told me - I just passed that name on to the Dean and she found the rest. Don't know yet what punishment they'll get, but at the least I expect a contribution to replacing the sweets and an apology - I'm not holding my breath though.

Anyway, five lovely days off ahead of me and I have lots to do - sewing, quilting, scrapping

Yum!

Look what a courier brought for me today:

Penny is making this yummy fig jam from all the figs on her tree and selling it in aid of her son's kindy. I think a fresh loaf of bread and some fig jam will be in order this weekend

While surfing I found this on A Civil Conversation and I have to agree :

It is a cold, icy, snowy morning. I am sipping my coffee and pondering the words of Cathy Zielske, who works for Simple Scrapbooks magazine. Cathy is a wonderful soul whose simple but eye-catching designs have always caught my eye. I also appreciate her candor and very funny sense of humor.She recently wrote something on her blog that grabbed me and, dare I say -- released me. Yes, released. For quite some time, I have felt that awful pressure to scrap one-photo layouts because they're so much more artistic. Or powerful. Or whatever you want to ascribe to what has now become the plat du jour in Scrap Happy Land.I've been scrapbooking for as long as Cathy. In the beginning (thus saith me...), it was all about laying down at least five or six photos of the same event and telling the story of said event. Writing has always been an integral part of my scrapbooks and that really hasn't changed. But somehow, after reading the magazines to learn more about the hobby, I got the impression that scrapping a page meant to place one perfect photo on a 12x12 piece of cardstock, (with the coordinating patterned papers), a few embellishments and a dreamy one or two word title.It drove me nuts in a way because I wasn't seeing names, dates -- anything that would be able to identify that photograph to great-grandchildren years later when those photos were most likely aged as well as a fine bottle of Chardonnay. I started to think that the page really wasn't as much about memories as it was about product placement.Thank goodness for Cathy.She recently wrote this on her blog, Bits & Pieces:
Sometimes I feel nostalgic where scrapbooking is concerned. As if I’ve really earned that right—to wax philosophic ‘bout ‘dem good ol’ days. I mean come on… I’ve only been scrapbooking since 2001. That hardly qualifies me as an old timer. Yet I really do remember the giddiness of finally figuring out that I could do a hobby and still maintain my personal sense of design integrity and overall coolness factor. The novelty of it all can still be recalled, and the freshness of it rings so sweetly in my memory. And when you reach the point where you see trends come and pass, and even come back for a second round, well… that’s when all of a sudden you do realize you’ve been around the block more than one time.Ah, Cathy. I couldn't have said it any better myself.What struck me so powerfully was seeing Cathy's layout of a day in her life. Just very simple stuff. And then her collection of photos showing her husband was endearingly sweet and tender. As I read her journaling, I realized once again why scrapbooking is so important to me.Scrapbooking is important because it is my memories of my life. It is important because it celebrates the people I love. It is important because when I'm dead and gone, people will have another opportunity to see through my eyes the family that I cherish so much.In so many ways, I am a secret journalist, writing stories about my loved ones. Twenty years in the future, no one will care about whether I nailed that "shabby" look or if I used too many overlays. They won't care if the ribbon doesn't match perfectly or ask why didn't I use three brads in the upper right-hand corner instead of two.But I know they'll care about the photographs and the words. Thanks for the reminder, Cathy. I really needed it. :)

Playing Bowls

Ross joined the College Bowls and has had three practices. He and a friend were asked to join the 3rd team on Thursday as they were going to be short. In the College Bowls league they were drawn to play against the 1st team and two of the players play every weekend, and both of them have played at National level. In fact, one of them is a NZ national champion. Earlier on Thursday he had told me that their aim was to win by 40 points! I felt really sorry for the three young boys in the 3rd team.

They held their heads high and were determined to do their best and have fun. The 1st team fell apart a little when the score was 4 - 3 to the 3rds! Unfortunately, experience took over and the 3rd team was beaten 15 - 5. But a very creditable 5 points those were, of which Ross scored 2 points. The 3rd team was very happy with their efforts even though they didn't win. Their coach was so pleased with them, she gave them all a hug. Ross loves playing lawn bowls.