Happy Mother's Day

to all Mother's out there!


I have had coffee in bed, got given some lovely hand made gifts, and Ross has served me breakfast ... not in bed as I don't like eating in bed, but minus a knife and fork! It was delicious nevertheless. Colin is making lunch and my mom and dad, and our friend Karen and Jacob are coming along too. (Karen's husband is working today.) Here are my gifts: a wooden box painted pink and lined with polar fleece for my "treasures" and a water spray bottle painted in the colours of my cat Sally!

All in all, it will be a very busy day and what I'd really like is a quiet day by myself!

So, I will share some of my sale bargains with you - tell me what you're doing on Mother's Day or what you'd like to do :-). Post a comment by Wednesday night 9pm (NZST) and I will use my random number generator to choose a lucky winner after I get home from my s/b class. I don't know yet what you'll get - but it will all be new and I will post overseas

Have a great day.

Magazine, sales and teaching

I see Memory Makers Magazine is to cease publication after the Sept/Oct. I am very sad about this as it's a magazine I really enjoy. The reader submissions are different and show many styles; not just the same old, same old. Then I have to wonder with two US magazines going/gone and a third on very shaky ground how TWO NZ magazines will survive. On the other hand this may be good news for those magazines as people will possibly buy them

Spotlight has been having a sale of craft items and our local one has 50% more off all sale items. I got BasicGrey papers for 10 cents a piece! Thickers were $2 each and there was so much more on sale! I spent a fortune

My scrapbook teaching classes started last Wednesday and they have been so lucky as I got lots of bargains at Spotlight to give them. I have six ladies and that is a nice sized class with which to work

And we have a new family member! His name is Speckles and he is a six week old pied cockatiel! He's actually Colin's bird who has been saving his pocket money for a while now. I will take a photo in the morning ....... after I've made a Mother's Day card for my mother

More Praise

If you've been reading my blog you will know of my quest for a paper kit. I bought four from Scrapbook Dreams and I am very impressed with them. They arrived wrapped in tissue paper (in a box of course) but even better is that each kit had a contents description - Make and name of each patterned paper; make and colour of the c/s.

I will be purchasing again and even better I can purchase a number at time and save on postage

Innovations

I have one in my hand! And I have to say it is fantastic! Love the size and the way the l/os are one to a page. And I love the variety of articles eg Double your Scrapping - How to go from a single page to a double page. I love the "Top Tip" that is printed in brackes on pages. And given all the comments that people have made I think that if you haven't seen one of these magazines RUN to your nearest shop to buy one

Thanks for all your comments on the other s/b magazine

NZ Scrapbook Magazines

For the last five years, Up2Scrap has been the only NZ magazine published. Up until now, they have published a magazine four times a year, but it is now bi-monthly. Personally, I am a bit tired of all the articles being a Step 1. Cut your green paper 11" x 5" type of article. I want more than that. Maybe some articles about Using a Word document. I also like to see lots of l/os. In the last issue received yesterday, out of 24 reader submissions, 13 of them were from NZers and the rest were Aussie. Now that's okay, but I really don't think that the Aussie magazines have 46% of the reader submission from NZers! I know that NZ scrappers submit and are rejected. I must say that I get a bit tired of seeing the same style of l/o published. And I have given them my opinion for what it's worth. I am also probably their longest subscriber.

Enter Innovations to be published monthly. I am desperately awaiting my copy so that I can compare.

I am really enjoying Memory Makers Magazine at the moment - lots of different articles and lots of different style l/os

I know there are a couple of discussions going on elsewhere about the two magazines, but tell me your opinion

First week back, (inter)National Scrapbooking Day and more

Well, one week down, nine to go! Mostly it's been great except for four Year 13s who really should no longer be at school. No matter, I have four weeks to go until my weekend away with a few scrappy friends and less than ten weeks to go until my SIL gets here! The Year 10s did a common test at the end of term 1 and we're waiting for all the results to come in. So far Ross is first (out of over 250) and likely to remain there. He also got an E on his animation in ICT and his teacher invited me specially to go to view it. I was impressed.

My plan today was to cut out my dressing gown (done), get some more page kits done (not done) and to prepare for this term's Beginner's Scrapping class (sort of done). The boys had friends over - five teenage boys playing PSP etc so for lunch I made bacon, cheese and corn scones. I was going to do macaroni-cheese but there was not enough pasta of any kind. Got to fill those stomachs and legs with something substantial! And I need to do the grocery shopping too!

Onto scrappy things ...... it is always National Scrapping Day on the first Saturday in May in the US and down under we follow suit. At SBO there have been challenges all day so that's what I've been doing.

9am challenge: Easy as counting to 5 recipe challenge 1:Get together 1 half circle, 2 swirls, 3 rectangles (photo can count as 1), 4 flowers, and 5 buttons. Mix well and create!!
Didn't manage this one

10am challenge: no right angle cornered photos! circles, stars or even the old corner rounder...just don't have any photos with 90 degree corners on! p.s. your page can still be a square or oblong!
This one I used some old photos of the boys that have been calling me for a week now

11am challenge: create a page using the title 'Wish Granted'
I used a photo of the boys' favourite treats from SA - I love the colours, don't like the photo or the l/o! Doesn't matter - it's scrapped!
midday challenge: Using the classic Tupperware Shape-O-Toy as inspiration I wanna see you use at least one of all these shapes somewhere on a page... a circle, a triangle, a star, a square, a cross and a hexagon
Not for me thanks :-)

1pm challenge: Colour Combo - Create a layout using the following colour combo as the dominant colours in the layout. Charcoal Grey and Hot Pink"
Well, my version of hot pink anyway! I love this one: photos from my second Beginner's class back in 2006 - and it's a lot "pinker" IRL
2pm challenge: Easy as counting to 5 recipe challenge 2:Step 1: Create a layout with only Black and White Step 2: add a TINY splash of colour, Step 3: Embellish with hearts and diamonds Step 4: Include the word LOVE in the title Step 5: Add Sparkles - i.e glitter, bling, sparkly ribbon etc
I didn't think I'd manage this but I found these photos from 2002 and they were so dark that the touch of colour was there
3pm challenge: "Frame it! - create a page or a couple of cards with a 'frame' or three! Frame your journalling, your whole page or your photo...try a paper frame, a paint frame or even some brads & ribbon..."
Messy and so not me! I should have put the photo on the right. But it is a tribute to a special sister
4pm challenge: A journalling Challenge. The prompt (thanks to Oprah) is 'what I know for sure'. Your challenge is to complete a layout which contains journalling of some sort that answers this prompt. The prompt can be interpreted anyway you want.
Hmmmmm ... now this is hard!

5pm challenge: Grab it and stamp it... grab some paint or ink and anything (that's not a traditional stamp) you can lay your mits on to use as a stamp on your layout A stamper I am not and finding something different ... hmmm not for me

I'll see how many more I get done - I've had a lovely day today so far; tomorrow our precious Jacob is coming to visit so I must make a cake in the morning

And another post for today

We stayed home all day - it was lovely! I did a bit of scrapping and packed some more page kits.

Mini Me I scrapped because I love the photo ... and it also fits one of the challenges at SBO

Peace - I love those photos and it's for the April sketch challenge at SBBD. I rotated the sketch 90 degrees because my photos were landscape

This morning I bought a slide scanner - I found a few places yesterday and all of them were out of stock and only expecting new supplies in mid-May. I had been watching two on TradeMe and this morning I decided just to buy it now. I am looking forward to looking at some of the slides. I'm almost tempted to keep all of them now just to have a look slowly over the next year or so.

The three boys fixed the family room couch - one of the sides had come off and so they had to sit downhill. Now it's fixed and they can sit properly - so can any guests who are here!

Tomorrow we have soccer in the morning and I will have to get school lunch ingredients. Maybe I'll have more time to scrap in the afternoon

We will remember them

Australia New Zealand Army Corps

Anzac Day - the day we remember all soldiers and in particular the Anzacs at Anzac Cove Gallipoli, Turkey.

My grandfather fought in WW1. He wasn't accepted by the South African army so went to England and joined up with the British Royal Sevice Corps as a lorry driver. He was wounded and sent back to England to recover where he met my grandmother

We remember all of them

Last day of the Holidays

So what am I doing? Marking. I have two Year 10 tests to mark as well as a couple of Level 1 Unit Standards. The US will be quick so I'll leave them to last.

I have also been doing some investigations regarding those slides. To send them away will cost around NZ$300 but I have been doing some investigation and have found a machine that I can buy for about $250. That will be the way to go. Now I just need some more school holidays to do it in! Can't do it next holidays as this lovely lady is coming to visit! As my bloogy friend Helen says, this is mess that I have had to deal with is why it is so important to get our memories scrapped.

Talking about Helen, this is what she gave me:
Now I just need to pass it on to five other bloggy friends (and I'm happy to pass it on to anyone who asks for it)

Better get back to the marking so I can enjoy what's left of today. So much for my holiday to do list - I didn't sew but got a little of the other items done and sorted the slides!

Holiday catch up

So what have we done? Of course organising last week's crop took up some time and that's all reported further down.


While I was scrapping on Saturday hubby and #2 son spent the day on a friend's yacht on Wellington harbour. It was perfect weather and they were lucky enough to see dolphins too. They both came home exhausted because it's hard work on a yacht Oh I think I am so clever! I've used a wonderful program called Photosheet that I got from here. It allows me to make collages so when I go to print I can get small photos on on 6x4 print

Doj went to the vet on Tuesday for his last visit (I hope) to have his stitches out. He's been fine but has a limp. I did notice last night that his limp seemed to be more pronounce so we'll have to keep an eye on that.

After we got home, my friend Bronwyn came over. She came to sort photos and get photos out of those yukky magnetic albums and I went through my dad's slides. What a job! We estimated that there were about 8000 slides many of them steam engines which was his life's passion. What do I want with soooo many photos of steam engines? Unfortunately, I don't so they're all going in the bin. I kept about 700 which I want to have put on a DVD so I can see them properly and perhaps have some printed. This is what it looked like at about 600 slides left to sort:

In the foreground are seven rotary trays - that's what I'm keeping. In the plastic bag are some of the ones that are being thrown away. These are the two boxes that were full. The box in the foreground has empty plastic containers (going to plastic recycling) and the box at the back has the rest of the slides that are going in the bin.

Oh and the flowers were from hubby at Easter!

Two Years at Craft House

Our craft group has been scrapping for two years at Craft House (aka KiwiScraps) and six years in total. We have been talking about heritage l/o for a few months now so my friend Bronwyn and I put together an heritage pack.

Each person got a hand made mini-box with 18 photos of the heritage l/os that Bronwyn and I have done over the last month or so with simple instructions on the back. There was also sufficient c/s and paper to complete three different l/os as well as some lace, brads and tags.


I used one of the "sets" to create this l/o of my grandmother, my mom and my weddings. I have written more details on the back of each of them. I have also written on the back who all the people are in the photo

Then there was some old Making Memories Heritage paper that we gave to each person. I used mine for this one. It is my mom at about three years old and my sister and I at Fancy Dress competitions. I have entered this one and another one in the SBO April challenges

Then I found a photo of my dad as a baby and a young man. I want to get a photo of him now to put on the right hand side


This is one of my dad as a young boy with his cousin, uncle and dad


I did the l/o of the three "Supermen" from Easter.


I am loving the heritage stuff at the moment, but also need to get my current photos scrapped. When we have our weekend away, I want to get all the baby photos out and scrapped. When my SIL comes in July, she is bringing me a CD with all Adrian's family heritage photos so I will have to make time to do those too.

I have blurred photos and cut names where necessary

Say no to word verification

I am glad to see I am not the only one who finds word verification irritating! See here and here. I often don't leave a comment because I don't have time to enter the words and then fix it if they are wrong. Those words are often hard to read, change randomly and then have to be re-entered. Often people don't realise word verification is switched on and it's easy enough to change that. Have comment moderation because it's easy enough to delete spam messages. In all the time I have had word verification switched off (about a year or so) I have had one spam message.

Anyway, that's my opinion and if you still want word verification that's your choice! :-)

Photo printing

I used to have my photos printed at DigitalMax and I was always happy with both the quality and the service. Then DM was bought by SnapFish and I was less than impressed by their service (you may remember my tirade some time back) and I have become increasingly less impressed with the quality of prints. Yesterday morning I did a bit of a search to look for other printing outlets. FrogPrints @ 34 cents a print is almost twice what most of the others charge. I'm not to keen on using the Warehouse Stationery printers as I don't think the quality is good. So that left Harvey Norman (special at the moment 14 cents a print) and Camera House. I had the same photo printed at both places. Camera House 50 cents and matte an extra $2 making my one print $2.50!! The quality of both prints was very similar but clearly the price at Harvey Norman is much better. Bronwyn and I were there preparing for our crop on Saturday and through one thing and another the printing was a bit of a mess and two of the staff members at HN offered to reprint our photos for us! What awesome service! Then I checked the lifespan of their photos - 120 years ... well, that's good enough for me. So now I am a Harvey Norman fan.

Then, I've been doing a bit of research on those page kits and I think I've found the right place: Scrapbook Dreams. Their page kits look like just the kind of thing I want so I may go shopping there as the prices are not too bad either.

Remember Paul Potts?

In NZ we saw a snippit tonight on TV - here is the full version It's just wonderful

Easter

We had eight adults, two teenage boys and three little boys and Wellington weather could not have been better. By 9am all the little boys were here and we had an Easter egg hunt outside. There were LOTS of little eggs and marshmallow eggs, a chocolate chicken for each of the little boys and a Lindt bunny for each adult. Oh what fun! The litle boys were so into to and even Jacob who had never been on a Easter egg hunt before was copying the other boys and finding eggs.



We came inside for Bucks Fizz (champagne and orange juice( and/or coffee while I finished off the scrambled eggs. Then we sat down to brunch: bacon, sausages, eggs, portabello mushrooms, tomatoes and "smashed" potatoes (cooked, partly mashed, sprinkled with garlic salt and olive oil and then baked in the oven). Then we has dessert - Hot Cross bun bread-and-butter pudding. It was a lovely meal shared with our family and extended family.


Jacob had a sleep in Ross' bed and then all the little boys put on Superman suits. The two littlest had suits that had belonged to Ross and Colin which I could not bring myself to get rid of.


Around 4pm we decided to go fishing; the light was going by the time we found the "right" spot and I took lots of lovely photos of the fishermen. Unfortunately, that's all we brought home from the fishing expedition but there's always another day


It was a wonderful day and I only hope that everyone else enjoyed themselves too

Happy birthday Carol!

Go and visit Carol here

Little boys are very, very tiring!

Holidays!!

Yay it's holidays after a long, exhausting week! I have pumpkin roasting for pumpkin soup and because I forgot to buy chicken stock I made my own. Found some bits of chicken in the fridge, threw in an onion and a few carrots, a few bay leaves and peppercorns. Filled up with water and a bit of salt and let it simmer away. That was supposed to be lunch with either scones or South Island cheese rolls but as the guests left Taupo a bit later than expected it will now be dinner.

I have lots to do these holidays:
1. Complete our preparation for our Heritage l/os at Saturday's crop with my friend Bronwyn
2. Sew a dressing gown for myself.
3. Continue working on the items I am making for someone I know
4. Scrap
5. Read - the school librarian gives me lots of different books to read. It's great as I get forced to read something that I may not necessarily have chosen for myself
6. Have coffee with friends

If you're on holiday too, have fun

Exhausted

I spent 13 hours at school today and tomorrow will be 11 hours ..... it's Parent-Teacher evenings. At least on Wednesday we get a bit of a sleep-in as we will start at 9.25am.

Then not long to go to the holidays and Easter! We have visitors staying with us and our precious Jacob and his mum and dad will spend Easter Sunday with us. Three little boys looking for Easter eggs - it's going to be such fun and Adrian and I can't wait (neither can R&C if the truth be told).

Doj goes for the operation to take his pin out tomorrow so hopefully by next week he will have made a full recovery.

The Amazing Race is sadly over and I earned 13 raffle tickets - hopefully it's lucky for me! Well, we'll know tomorrow.

I'm off to bed before I fall asleep with my face on the keyboard

Some layouts

Here are some of my heritage l/os:

This is is my parents around the time of their engagement and marriage

I did it for Bossy Scrapper at SBBD last week

Snow in South Africa is for SBO Amazing Race Denmark competition

Non - Heritage:

Sunday Cruise is also for SBO for Day 8 Holiday photos

Day 8

No questions tonight :-( but four l/os:

Head to Tonga - famous now for the volcanic activity - do a HOT themed layout!

The Amazing Race is all about airports and travel so show us your best holiday pics on a layout

Japan = Super Kawaii! Think Cute! Harajuku girls and bubbly big eyed cartoon characters. Create a super cute page (use your best judgement, think little animals, candy colours etc)

Africa =Think wildlife... either the ones you live with, would like to have or saw a the zoo... or the kids going wild

I have a couple of ideas that will fit some of these and so this may just be the motivation I need to get the photos scrapped! Not so keen on the "cute Japanese stuff" though.

Weekend wise - Daylight Saving is over tomorrow so if you're in NZ remember to put the clocks back an hour tomorrow before you go to bed. We have a bbq next door. I also need to do some grocery shopping and get some Easter eggs. I want to make a dressing gown too as well as try to do some more scrapping.

And then only four school days left - YAY!

Thursday

Ross competed in the Wellington Regional bowls final today. In the semi-finals they won 16-3 which put them into the finals where they came second. I was really pleased with them as it is second across Wellington Schools! He was disappointed because they didn't win

In the Amazing Race it is Day 7 - USA. Tickets for Angela and I (yay! nine now for me) and a cool sketch to follow for more tickets but I don't have the time or the energy at night. Maybe I'll have time over the weekend. Oh and if YOU feel like winning tickets, go to the Forum, register and post a new post in the "Please pop in" area and say "Hi, I am ........ and jenny sent me". Both you and I will get one ticket in the raffle

Talking of which we have a lot to do: we have visitors over Easter - a family to stay and our lovely friends Jacob and mum and dad on Easter Sunday. Three little boys to spoil! ANd brunch afterwards. I have to buy groceries as well as get organised for the long weekend.

A Doj update - he goes in on Tuesday to have the pin removed - exactly three months after he was bitten. He has been at home for a month but kept inside and he is doing so well! He loves to go outside on the deck in the sun and thunders down the passage. He does walk with a limp but that's only to be expected

Amazing Race

Day 3 China - use something handmade. And I won the China questions part!
Day 4 France - at least four layers (I have one that fits this; unfortunately I used it at another site so I can't use it here)
Day 5 Norway - winter photos - I have uploaded mine but will upload a photo taken in the daylight to upload here
Day 6 - UK ... and I was just pipped to the post by Angela! But I got another ticket via Nic H's questions

Eight tickets so far ......

Amzing Race - Day 2

Day 2 was to visit Papua New Guinea. Answer some questions and Vicki just beat me to it - go Vicki. To get another raffle ticket was to scrap a l/o using one of the colours of the PNG flag ie red, black, yellow, white. Here's mine, but I'm waiting to do the journalling as my mother can't remember the date! The photo was on the front page of the Cape Argus and somewhere is the original newspaper. When I find it, I'll acid free spray it and tuck it in the back.


Products used: Making Memories Heritage paper, Bazzill c/s and some flourishes cut from a CB die. Another raffle ticket for me - five in total

It's actualy been a lovely day even though the weather hasn't been great (windy). I scrapped the other photo with this one and I'm prepared for tonight's Bossy Scrapper. I also did a couple of loads of laundry and put a roast in the oven. Off to get the laundry in and put some veges on before 7pm and Day 3 of the Amazing Race and 8pm for Bossy Scrapper - yay!.

Amazing Race

has begun! No not the Phil one, but the SBO one. Have a look here for all the information
Lots of scrapping and other fun.

First stop Canberra, Australia to find lots of items at Aussie Scrap Source (go me!) and then scrap a page using any of those items. That's a real problem because I just have to use Bazzill and Aussie Scrap Source are not the distributors. Way to go Sandra for having the first l/o done; good luck everyone else getting a l/o done


Edited to add: I did one! Yes, I used BasicGrey, BasicGrey and more BasicGrey but the photo is scrapped and Colin likes it. I also blurred all the faces and names

That gives me four raffle tickets so far (I need to put it here or I will forget)
Two blog entries (before and after); one l/o; Day 1 first with the answers

Books, Bowls and Blog link

So Penny will be very pleased to hear that I finally got a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - what a lovely book! I really enjoyed the style of writing and the story.

Ross played in the Wellington Secondary Schools Bowls Championships last Thursday. He played pairs and he an his partner won three out of their four games which was unfortunately not sufficient to get into the semi-finals. It was a horribly windy day and most unpleasant to be outside. By lunch time the wind had dropped a bit so it did get better. I was a little annoyed as in the morning I had heard that lunch was an hour long so Ross and I went off to Janus Bakery and he got back and found out that he was late because lunch was only thirty minutes long. College Bowls is run by a couple of old ladies who really love their bowls but their organisation skills need a bit of work. No matter, they still had a good day. In the league, their triples team is currently top of the table with one game to go.

And the blog link? Well, I was looking for a word that means "competition" but begins with B to fit in with the Books and Bowls and couldn't find one but it is a blog link so go and look here for all the news.

Scrapping yesterday

I love this l/o! Panorama photo and l/o inspired by De Anna Heidmann as seen in Memory Makers Magazine. BasicGrey paper, Bazzill c/s, a few rubons and the title cut on my WishBlade

Here are a couple that are waiting for journalling from Adrian:

With his brother and wife in South Africa

In the hammock he bought in Nelson

Labour Weekend last year

Check this out!

Go to this blog and have a look at the wonderful give-away. I have just the project for the pearls, the crocheted flowers and the pins. Have a look at Bev's wonderful cards whilst you're there

Just a note

We didn't get medals at the Lions event; we got our membership badges. But thanks for thinking so highly of us! :-)

Weekend

We headed north to National Park .... actually Owhango which is 20km north of NP. We went up because it was the national launch of the Kan Tabs for Kidney Kids new tins. These 4 litre paint tins were sponsored by Resene Paints and a great for putting can tabs, wine bottle tops, ginger beer tops in fact anything with a good aluminium base. At the same time, we were presented with our Ruapehu Lions Club badges - we live the furtherest from our home Lions Club than anyone else lol!.

Anyway, back to Kan Tabs - please collect these and get them to your local Lions club. These bags, buckets etc make their way to National Park where they are bagged and weighed and then delivered to Wellington where the money raised goes to the Kan Tabs for Kidney Kids charity. Oh and if you are in Wellington, we are the collection point.

Then my lovely SIL got me to go to my tenth folder and post the tenth photo - in 2006 we were given tickets to watch the Hurricanes play some other team in a Super 12 (14?) match. They were hiding from the camera!

The wonderful Penny is making lots of yummy jam and so I can see scones, fig jam and cream in the future!

Then I have such a great sewing project happening but I can't say too much about it at the moment as someone comes visiting here regularly and I can't let her know!

Off to watch Dancing with the Stars - go Geraldine!

March 14 (3.14)

Now to a mathematician 3.14 is the start of a number used very often - Pi, π, is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

There is lots about Pi (π) on the Web, but here is a snippet: With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating.

Also a great song that my older son just loves (Maths geek that he is)! http://www.vvc.edu/ph/TonerS/mathpi.html

Have a great Pi day on Saturday!

Scrapbook kits

Well, it appears that the wonderful paper add-ons I used to buy are no more. So who else has great kits? I'm not so fussed on the embellishments but I love the cardstock and patterned paper where all the matching/co-ordinating is already done.

So point me in the direction of a great kit please

Week Five!!

And that means half-way to the school holidays - yay! I have come down with the most awful cold and I really shouldn't have gone to school yesterday. But I did and didn't have such a good day so came home feeling miserable and tearful.

Hubby went to Auckland this morning on the 7am flight so I woke when he woke just after 5am and then again when he said goodbye. He is gone for a week so I will be extra busy in the week ahead.

My albums did arrive and I am thrilled! Already have the 2009 one with some l/os in it. Along the way, I annoyed some people but I was expressing what a few other people had mentioned to me too which could all have been avoided with a bit of communication. Why do people get upset with the truth? Oh well, onwards and upwards.

Talking of the school holidays, Easter is at the start of the holidays and we will be host to my SIL's niece and her husband and children as well as our lovely Jacob and his mum and dad. Can't wait to hide lots of Easter eggs and have the three little boys running around to find them! My boys have already put in their order for a Lindt bunny each - they inherited their mother's good taste in chocolate.

I'm off back to bed ... have a good weekend

Scrapping, rain and a whinge

On Friday it RAINED and I mean it rained. It rained so hard that the rain was coming under the deck roof and into my classroom. I got wet every time I ventured out my classroom and I had an umbrella. We really did need the rain though; but I wish they were getting this rain in Victoria.

On Saturday I went scrapping. As I said a few posts down, I took page kits and the following are my l/os. I am so pleased with what I did! I have still to finish some of them but they are in a pile next to me, staring me in my face, so I will have to finish them! No, I didn't finish all my page kits but I did a lot more than I usually do. The photos of the l/os aren't great but I'm sure that you can see!

Colin's 13th birthday

Christmas 2008

Birds we saw on holiday recently

The fence of our cottage...

and the wildlife behind it (ie in our garden)From our holiday in 2007 (this is in Queenstown) Our picnic spot and the changes that have happened. What does the l/o need?

Colin's leaver's dinner in 2008
The boys on holiday
Colin's Tech work from Taumarunui High

We also made cards to send to someone in Victoria who is collecting "Thinking of You" cards to give to those who have lost family, friends, houses etc. We made 23 between eleven of us. If you want me to email them to you, please let me know as I think there are more than enough photos on this post tonight!

On Sunday, a young couple with whom we have made friends came to visit us. They have young Jacob who is 19 months old who is a delight! Adrian and I just love having them round as we so enjoy this little man. Jacob is becoming so comfortable in our house which is just great for his parents. They stayed most of the afternoon and Ross and Colin enjoyed playing with Jacob too.

Here he is with Ross who had a VERY late night on Saturday night!

(Face blurred deliberately)
Update on Doj - there is none :-( He's still in his immobility cage and sees the vet every week. In two week's time she is going to take Xrays and we are hoping that he will be able to come home then. It is now over six weeks since his operation.

Penny's reading group: well, that hasn't happened yet. Kelly kindly said she would lend me the book so maybe I'll have it read at the end of March.

A s/b store, from whom I order a fair amount is not my favourite place at the moment: I had an order delivered in early December which had a fair bit in it, but the couriers damaged the box and I lost some of the contents. I'm still waiting for the replacements. Over two weeks ago, I orderd some albums (over $100) and I'm still waiting for them! Now, if there's a problem and stock hasn't arrived that's fine but just tell me where my parcel(s) are. Maybe this week ....

Then, perhaps you remeber me telling you that one of the DT from SBO had asked for some photos to scrap? Here is what she did - I think it's gorgeous!

And that's all from me for a while ... oh yes - our Senz tickets arrived. Now to keep them in a safe place until July!

Weekend and winning

ON Sunday morning there was The DomPost Walk the Bays - a walk around all the bays in Wellington. Before you fall off your chairs, no I did not walk (but I wish that I had). Adrian did and throughly enjoyed it. He did one last year and I still have to scrap that one - now he's giving me stuff for this one.

Then I entered the Lucky 313 competition at Scrapbooking Innovation (the new NZ s/b magazine) and won a subscription!

I have booked our accommodation in Auckland for Senz - looking forward to that! My niece is going on a quick trip of the South Island just before Senz and she is so excited about it. In the meantime, my SIL and I will do a day's shopping - KiwiScraps, Scrapbook Central and Queensgate - what a great time we're going to have.

Oh and of course it was Valentine's Day - we don't do the whole commercial thing but I did buy hubby a nice bottle of wine. He made me a CD of seven hours worth of lovely songs. That'll make sitting in my classroom by myself pleasant and road trips will also be great

Page Kits

Of course I known about the idea for years now, but have never really managed to get myself that organised. When we went on holiday, I grabbed some photos and some paper and cardstock that I thought would do. Many of them came from SBO paper add-ons. I scrapped all but one of the photos I took with me and came home with six l/os. This blog gives some extensive instructions for page kits; mine are just paper (sometimes), cardstock and photos, the rest I'll find in my stash on the day.

Last month at our crop I decided to do a similar thing - I grabbed some photos and added some c/s and patterned paper and scrapped most of what I took.

In between some gardening, visiting, shopping at Spotlight, visiting the cat and surfing this weekend I have managed to pack 20 kits ready for scrapping on Saturday. I don't think that I will finish all of them, but will be very glad if I do. The best thing is that all the paper and c/s came from my stash! (And you can't see a dent yet.) Most of the photos are from our holiday and at this rate I'll be able to scrap some baby photos this year! I also have plans for bags and a quilt so lots to keep me busy in the next few months.

Have a good week

And a third post for today

Via a bit of blog hopping, I found this Quilt drive happening in Australia that you may like to help out: Wonky Star Tutorial

Another award

I got another award - this time from Bronny

I have to say one nice thing about the man in my life: my husband - he appreciates everything I do to keep up with our children's busy timetable.

Now six ways in which I measure success in my life:

1. Sons who tell me that they are the only ones out of their friends who can really talk to their parents (we worked hard on that one)

2. A nice house and possessions for which we have worked hard

3. Ten scrapbooks (so far) of awesome memories

4. Students who succeed in my classes

5. Friends across NZ and the world (and Jen - I count you as a friend too)

6. Sufficient for all my needs (and greeds)

And now I pass this on to four other people: Jenny, Helen, Kelly, Lara and Trace

To donate

Lots of people have donated to the Victoria fires via Red Cross or Salvation Army, but if you want to donate to the animals here are two place:

Wildlife Victoria

Victoria RSPCA

Look at this photo and video!

It's enough to melt anyone's heart and these poor animals also suffer in the bush fires. Here's the newspaper report and video: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25039954-952,00.html

This week

On Thursday last week Lesley asked for some photos that would suit romance/love type photos. I had a lovely photo of Adrian and I taken at a friend's wedding last year. Today I saw the l/o that Lesley did - awesome! Now YOU have to wait until after 15th February to see it here.

On another note, the fires in Australia are just awful. In NZ, Debbie B is having a card drive: What I would like to start doing is getting cards made by as many scrappers and cardmakers around New Zealand. I know it isn't much but imagine if you yourself were in their situation and received a card from someone you didn't know to let you know that there were people out there thinking about you and everyone else. If you're in NZ, and you haven't seen this message yet and you want to make a card or more, please email me for Debbie's email.

Update on Doj

Doj had his operation four weeks ago today. He is still living at my parent's house where he went because we were going on holiday. My Mom is a wonderful cat nurse and Doj's health has improved so much. He goes to the vet once a week for a check up.

He had to go back today (yes, even though it's Waitangi Day) because the pin in his bone worked its way through the skin. He had anaesthetic and the pin was pushed back in. Hopefully it will stay in for at least another two weeks. He still needs to spend lots of time in his recovery box and will come home when he is much better. My mom takes him outside for a bit each day and he's loving getting into the sun.

In hindsight, we probably should have just put him to sleep because he has been through so much, but he has such a "cheerful" cat: meows when he sees anyone and purrs all the time.

I really hope that he recovers quickly