My Dad

This morning before 8am my Mom phoned to say my Dad was not very well so I called the ambulance. I rushed down to their house and stayed with my Mom whilst the paramedics checked him out. Then I went to school to sort out some lessons for first two periods thinking I'd be back by 11am. When I got back, the paramedics were taking my Dad to Wellington hospital. I took my Mom in and we waited, and waited and waited. By 10am I realised I would not be back at school any time soon so phoned them to let them know where they could find the next lot of work.

The medical staff considered two possibilities - a heart attack or a clot on the lungs. After endless tests, I finally left my Mom at the hospital at 4.45pm as I had to get home to sort Colin out and make things as normal as possible for him. The plan was to meet Ross at the football to watch the NZ girls take on Colombia (NZ won 3-1 - go NZ!).

Adrian went to the hospital and found my father stuck out in the passage way .... for the night! He complained a little and eventually a bed was found for Dad in the short stay ward. He brought my Mom home and they got home at 9pm.

Tomorrow they will test for the clot on the lungs or pneumonia

I stayed with the boys in the rain and wind but they were very happy that the NZ girls won so that was good for them. Neither Colin or Adrian could concentrate very well today; I just spent the day sitting doing nothing which is very tiring.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll know what the (I can't think of the word) is, and we can either take my Dad home or to Kenepuru which is much closer.

Fifa U17 Women's World Cup

Most people in NZ will know that this is currently on. Ross is a flag bearer for the Wellington games which take place over four days. Each day he is there for seven hours: practising and then getting ready. Adidas have sponsored some cool clothes; they have a PS3 to play with, yummy lunches from Subway, and drinks from Coke. He is having fun even though it is a very long day for him.

Today started off really cold and miserable and I thought he would be cold but it soon fined up and turned into a wonderful day. We watched the England - Nigeria game and Nigeria deserved to win, but the English girls scored a goal against the run of play and that was it for the rest of the game!

Here are the flags and the English and Nigerian teams

Ross in uniform

New look

What do you think of it? I got it all free here ........ maybe there's something for you too. However, I do miss my photo of Ruapehu but I'm not sure how I can crowbar it in!

New blog and more

My SIL's that is: http://jennyindurban.blogspot.com/ please visit her and leave her a comment?

A peeve
Most of us scrapbook to leave the memories for our children/grandchildren and so we try to be fairly archival about what we use. My irritation at the moment is manufacturer's products that don't make the mark. In particular Heidi Swapp' "adhesive" chipboard - I only put it on the l/o last year and already it's falling off. I wrote to Advantus last year to complain and they were going to send me some replacement stuff .... until they discovered I lived in NZ. I tell you, that company and designer will get no more of my money. Have you come across any badly manufacturered product?

Labour Weekend

We headed north (along with most of Wellington) to Rotorua to catch up with my SIL's niece, hubby and children. They arrived a short while ago from South Africa and due to job constraints are having to live split up in Rotorua and Auckland. Their little boys are 5 and 2.5 and really took to Ross and Colin. Anyway, Adrian decided we had to go in his car as it's much cheaper on fuel than my car. The kids wanted to go in my car as it's way more comfortable and has more space so they got as much as they could legitimately say they needed to pack into the car. Well, Adrian had a fit at all the luggage and the boys and I just burst out laughing. Eventually we were all rolling around laughing but we did go in Adrian's car :-( However, he did admit while we were there that we should have taken my car

All photos blurred

Please note the matching clothes and poses! All chosen by the five year old in the photo!
Ash and I scrapped most of the weekend (I did six l/os and was pleased with most of them) and the six boys watched TV and played.

We went out to Rotorua Airport where Andy does tandem ski jumps to watch him do a couple of jumps.

And then we couldn't not go to our favourite Waikite Pools.

On our way home we saw a steam train outing and got a loud "toot-toot" from the driver when he saw me taking photos

Fiskateers

A few months ago, Rebecca from Fiskateers asked for some sewing projects. I sent photos of my quilt and this morning I got an email from Rebecca saying my quilt would be featured on the blog today. Here it is: http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/2008/10/19/fiskateer-sewing-week-because-i-say-so/

Scrapping yesterday

Despite not having the photos I wanted, I still managed to scrap and have a wonderful day. KiwiScraps really is a very good venue as it has everything we need (and more!).

I scrapped Colin's school photo in my normal fashion - photo on one side of a double l/o and a pocket on the other side for reports etc. If he does some nice artwork I usually take a photo of it, print it at 5x7 and put that in the pocket too. (photo and names blurred)


Then I scrapped some photos from February this year. We went to Whiteriea Park for an evening bbq and the boys found an old boogie board which they used as a slide down the grass on the hill. I loved how this one turned out and once I've done the journalling and title I'll photograph it and upload it here. Updated - I decide that it didn't need a title

Then I did a few more which I'm happy about, but I really love the boogie board slide.

It's always amazing to me that I can scrap photos and one l/o really just does it for me - the rest are fine, but there's one that I really love (until the next one). I suppose that's the joy of the memories

Update for Trace: Angel was in disgrace yesterday as she had been chewing up too many things! Boy, she let us know that she was grumpy too - the shrieks and squawks that were coming from her!

Update to the Snapfish saga

I got two replies - one of them included an apology. They have also given me a credit for the prints and the postage. This is good but still doesn't give me my photos for Saturday. Not sure what I'll scrap on Saturday now

Can you see the steam coming out of my ears?

I am soooooo angry with Snapfish. Those of you in New Zealand will recall their 1 cent a print promotion at the beginning of October - unfortunately their website died for three days and people were not able to take advantage of that promotion. I sent two emails to them and one reply, one of the questions was "What were you doing at the time the website went down?" Well, I told them, "I was drinking a cup of coffee whilst watching the photos upload." What kind of a damn fool question is that?

Anyway, I finally was able to order my prints on 11th October and added to and subtracetd from my order a few times. Now each time you do this, you have to keep clicking MATTE or it automatically defaults to Glossy. You can imagine that doing this a few times one forgets to check the MATTE button. This is what happened to me.

On 12th October I received an email telling me that my prints would be sent. On this email, I happened to notice those dreaded words "glossy". I emailed back immediately telling them not to send those, but to reprint in Matte explaining why. Well, today, my envelope of ugly glossy prints arrived and not via courier but in an ordinary $1.50 envelope for which I paid $4.95.

I am furious to say the very least. And Snapfish do not have any kind of contact telephone number either. I really wanted those photos for Saturday so that I could scrap them. I have told Snapfish just to refund my money and I will go to Harvey Norman

Parcel in the post

Last week I got a package of BasicGrey Two Scoops chip stickers in the post. I thought it was a mistake from a TradeMe seller, but no. So who sent it? If it was you, thank you very much - you are very kind

Senz

I'm exhausted (I fell asleep in the satff meeting this afternoon)! I helped unpack a few boxes on Thurday and was then back bright and early on Friday morning to help in Donna's awesome distressing class. That for me was the best one of the weekend. Back downstairs to help at the stand again and it was VERY busy. We all went to dinner at Curry Workz in Upper Hutt and I can thoroughly recommend them.

I spent the night at the NZIC student accommodation was although simple was very comfortable. In our wing, there were 11 bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchnette area and a lounge with a TV. It was very warm in the room and I got up during the night to open the window, but better too warm at night than too cold. Only problem was some "Expo groupies" who appear to have been to every expo possible. They were wide awake at 6.30 am and shouting to each other. As another lady said, they're like kids on a tour

Back to Senz and straight into helping Trina's beading class. There was a bit of an oopsie with the materials list which had me running downstairs to get some dimensional magic. It was a cool class and Trace, Mandy and Kelly have photos. A quick early lunch and then I helped in Donna's Christmas acrylic class. I left early as we had a wedding to attend.

Sunday morning when the alarm went at 7.30am, I wished I wasn't a person who cared about commitments as it was soooo tempting to stay in bed! Off I went to help in Trina's Little boxes class, then back to the stand. At 1.50pm Andrea told me to go and do Vicky's class! There I went with nothing except a pair of scissors and a pen because I had no photos I couldn't really do much but I will finish it as I liked the technique. Lee said I could share her things, but I didn't need to

I don't think any of us were sad when 4.30pm came and we could start packing. I had to laugh at Andrea: she put a box under the Making Memories product and just swished it in with her arm! Packing up all the paper was my job and that took me one-and-a-half hours to do! There was just a little bit of beautiful paper there!

It was great to meet people I had only "met" on line: Trace, Shell, Yvonne, Nic, Lee and others. It was wonderful seeing Nik and others again. Thanks to SBO for the opportunity to spend time with them again

Whitcoull's Top 100

I've read the ones in bold; the ones with an asterisk I can't remember

1. Lord of the rings / JRR Tolkien
2. My sister's keeper / Jodi Picoult
3. Pride and prejudice / Jane Austen (a favourite)
4. Cross stitch / Diana Gabaldon
5. Harry Potter & the dealthy hallows / JK Rowling
6. The bronze horseman / Paullina Simons
7. The Da Vinci code / Dan Brown
8. The power of one / Bryce Courtenay
9. The pillars of the earth / Ken Follet
10. The other Boleyn girl / Phillipa Gregory
11. The lovely bones: a novel / Alice Sebold
12. To kill a mocking bird / Harper Lee
13. The kite runner / Khaled Hosseini
14. The time traveler's wife / Audrey Niffenegger
15. Holy Bible (Quite a bit)
16. The hobbit / J R R Tolkien
17. Magician / Raymond Feist
18. The clan of the cave bear / Jean M Auel *
19. Nineteen minutes / Jodi Piccoult
20. Gone with the wind / Margaret Mitchell (think Scarlett is a whinging female dog)
21. Angels and Demons / Dan Brown
22. Harry Potter and the half-blood prince / J K Rowling
23. The Poisonwood bible / Barbara Kingsolver
24. Into the wilderness / Sara Donati
25. A thousand splendid suns / Khaled Hosseini
26. Life of Pi / Yann Martel
27. Memoirs of a geisha / Arthur Golden
28. Jessica / Bryce Courtenay
29. Birdsong / Sebastian Faulks
30. Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone / J K Rowling
31. Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix / J K Rowling
32. A fine balance / Rohinton Mistry
33. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe / C S Lewis
34. Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte
35. Rachel's holiday / Marian Keyes *
36. The memory keeper's daughter / Kim Edwards
37. Shantaram: a novel / Gregory Roberts
38. Pact: a love story / Jodi Picoult
39. Tea Rose / Jennifer Donnelly
40. Change of heart / Jodi Picoult *
41. Angela's ashes / Frank McCourt
42. Mister Pip / Lloyd Jones
43. The girl in Times Square / Paullina Simons
44. Twilight / Stephanie Meyer
45. This charming man / Marian Keyes*
46. Wuthering heights / Emily Bronte

47. River God / Wilbur Smith
48. The Persimmon Tree / Bryce Courtenay
49. World without end / Ken Follet
50. Dune / Frank Herbert
51. Wild Swans: three daughters of China / Jung Chang
52. April Fools Day / Bryce Courtenay
53. Atonement / Ian McEwan
54. The bone garden / Tess Gerritsen
55. The alchemist / Paulo Coelho
56. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / J K Rowling
57. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban / J K Rowling
58. Sushi for beginners / Marian Keyes
59. The curious incident of the don in the night-time / Mark Haddon
60. Catcher in the rye / J D Salinger
61. I know this much is true / Wally Lamb
62. Eragon / Christopher Paolini
63. Tomorrow with the war began / John Marsden
65. Northern lights / Philip Pullman
65. Captain Corelli's mandolin / Louis De Bernieres
66. Kane and Abel / Jeffrey Archer
67. Tully / Paullina Simons
68. Catch -22 / Joseph Heller
69. No. 1 ladies detective agency / Alexander McCall Smith
70. Watermelon / Marian Keyes *
71. We need to talk about Kevin / Lionel Shriver
72. Anybody out there / Marian Keyes
73. Chocolat / Joanne Harris
74. Winter Rose / Jennifer Donnelly
75. Denniston Rose / Jenny Pattrick
76. Killing Floor / Lee Child
77. A really short history of nearly everything / Bill Bryson
78. Anne of Green Gables / L M Montgomery
79. Nothing to lose / Lee Child
80. The secret / Rhonda Byrne
81. The book thief/ Markus Zusak
82. Galaxy / Douglas Adams
83. The stand / Stephen King
84. Edmonds Cookery Book / Edmonds
85. The potato factory / Bryce Courtenay
86. Lucy Sullivan is getting married / Marian Keyes
87. The vinter's luck / Elizabeth Knox
88. The red tent / Anita Diamant
89. Bridget Jone's diary: a novel / Helen Fielding
90. The Penguin history of New Zealand / Michael King (It's on my bookshelf!)
91. London / Edward Rutherford
92. The god of small things / Arundhati Roy
93. The shipping news / Annie E Proulx
94. Four fires / Bryce Courtenay *
95. Mao's last dancer / Li Gunxin
96. Last chance saloon / Marian Keyes
97. Plain truth / Jodi Picoult *
98. Perfume: the story of a murderer / Patrick Suskind
99. The Thorn birds / Colleen McCullough
100. The notebook / Nicholas Spark

Thanks to Penny for this list

The Bossy Scrapper

This is the second one I did. I think that the title is a bit small, but that's too bad now. And look at those ancient vellum stars I dragged out!

A delivery

On Friday Andrea asked me if she could redirect 20 boxes of stuff for SENZ to my address. Actually she had no option - it was an address in Wellington or returned to Aus. Of course I said yes but I did wonder how to break the news to Adrian.

Well, this morning just before we got up, I casually mentioned "a few boxes - maybe ten". I got up showered and dressed so I was ready.

Just before 8.30am a huge Road Star truck pulled up and a very grumpy driver got out and asked where I wanted the pallet.

"Pallet? I said "It was supposed to be broken down into boxes". And the voice from inside "PALLET???!!! was not good either. He wanted to know exactly how many boxes were coming.

Grumpy told me he would put the pallet on the driveway or on the pavement. No, I said, neither was convenient especially as Adrian still had to go to work. After a bit of discussion (including how Pak 'n' Save get their deliveries ..... but I'm not Pak 'n' Save) Grumpy left. He wouldn't even wait for me to phone DHL

I phoned Andrea in a state and she was extremely concerned that Grumpy would drive back to Auckland without leaving the boxes behind. I was not happy at that point

After a nail-biting few hours Grumpy returned; actually I think it was his way more pleasant twin brother. He unloaded all the boxes, discussed with me the damaged boxes and even helped me write the correct wording on the delivery note.

The boxes are now safely stored inside. In hindsight it was very funny, but not at the time

Roll on Thursday

My scrapping yesterday

Here are the new ones I did; the UFOs are further down in another post

House of Cards: I am so pleased with the mini playing cards I found!

Wellington: the photos are all post cards

I have wanted to do one about Wellington for a long time.

The next one will be the Ruapehu one

The Bossy Scrapper

Scrapbook by Design have a Sunday night challenge called "The Bossy Scrapper". "The Boss" is appointed each week and it's her responsibility to issue instructions to everyone on the night in order to create a layout unseen. Well, I'm The Boss on Sunday night! So turn up to the chat room, and be prepared to scrap with me.

Updated with a sneak peak of mine

And here is the full version

SENZ

YAY!! All sorted out - I'm a helper now which is exactly what I wanted to be. If you post a comment here, I'll email you and tell where you can find me :-)

Fiskars Circle punch

I bought one of these on Saturday morning for my friend at National Park. When I got there, we started to play with it. First we needed something with which to draw a circle and finally we found a 400g tin of fruit that was almost 4". Then we started to punch - it's not as easy as it seems. After about 20 messes each we finally managed a decent circle and it was time to pack up for dinner. Then we found .......... a template to cut circles! We laughed at ourselves

Sketches

For those of you who like sketches, this is one of my favourites. I like the idea but to be honest, I have yet to use any of them. My excuse is that I have had no time!

How are you doing getting photos ready to upload to Snapfish? I have 42 ready and I know I will go over the 50 limit but it makes no difference as I had planned on getting them printed these holidays so their special offer is a bonus

SENZ

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