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

Some scrapping

These are most of the l/os I did on holiday and on Saturday. Most of them don't have the journalling or the title - I'll get there! Some of those I did, I haven't photographed yet. I know that they're plain and simple, but that's my style!

Photos taken a few years back at Marineland in Napier - before the dolphins died

Snapshots of C at National Park

Easter 2007 - using up the left over rings from the Napier l/o

Chess (2005)



When we went to Surfer's (Queensland, Aus) in 2000, there was a chap doing caricatures. The boys chose their own "base". These are photos I took of the A3 drawings

Back to school

Here they are all ready for school today. Both of them are in a streamed class (advanced class) at their different year levels. Both really looking forward to going back to school

My classes seem to be fine too - the odd bad one but hopefully we'll cope during the year

Back to school

We are all back to school tomorrow after seven lovely weeks of summer. Today I bought school shoes; told a SAfrican lady whose son starts at our school tomorrow that he is elcome to come and find me if he needs help; ironed on name labels and sewed on buttons. Now hopefully I have clothes to wear!

Oh and then lunches start - at least I only have to worry about lunch for me because the boys get their own. I do pack Adrian lunch .... last night's left overs so that is easy and cheap.

An award

This time from Helen in South Africa I "met" Helen through my SIL and I read her blog regularly

We're back!

After two glorious weeks in Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds or more specifically Momorangi Bay. We spent three days in Nelson and spent it all at our favourite place - Rabbit Island.

"Our" picinic spot three years ago

As it was now - the sea eroded under the trees and they

were all taken down and dune grasses planted

Then we went to Momorangi Bay for eleven days of rest and relaxation. We ate lots, drank wine, looked at the view, read, sat in the sun, bbqed, swam and I even did a bit of scrapbooking.

This is the sunset one evening this week

In our garden:

Kereru and there were two of them

This weka came walking right past us one morning

This male and female californian quail and three young

birds hopped on the fence one morning

The view from our front window

Adrian swam out to this boat on Wednesday morning just before we left

The fisherman at the end of the jetty

And sometimes they just jumped into the water from the end of the jetty

- and yes, the water really was that sparkling that morning

We had a lovely time, but all good things must come to an end, so it's back to work and school for all of us. However, there is a mountain of laundry to get through first! Oh, and groceries to buy and that reminds me, at least one boy needs new school shoes!

Hubby may no longer cook!

I like spicy food; I like curry; I like the food a tMonsoon Poon ..... but I like it spicy rather than burn-your-mouth-so-you-can't-taste-anything type of food.

A year or so back, Hubby made soup and to spice it up he put a heaped teaspoon of dried chilli flakes in ..... then he thought that wouldn't be enough so he put another heaped teaspoon in! I couldn't eat it.

Tonight he cooked dinner using green curry paste. I suggested that he put one teaspoon in - one heaped dessert spoon was used. Again, I could barely eat it.

Why does he do it? The boys don't really like it either so it's such a waste of food

22 January Edited to add: he confessed that he put TWO heaped dessertspoons of the green curry in and that it was also a bit too strong for him!

New bag

I need a new bag: it has to take my purse, my camera and other assorted bits and pieces. I'd like one that is a backpack style and has pockets - both inside and out.

What do you suggest?

Photos

So, both DigitalMax and SnapFish are having a special - 12 cents per print. I usually resize my photos using PSE but am thinking of using just the digital print size. Has anyone else done this? What are the photos Like?

Doj ... pronounced Dodge

So where did the name come from? About nine years ago we lived in Whitby and this beautiful black and white cat would insist on coming to our house. I kept trying to chase it as I knew that it probably belonged to someone. I gave up and called the cat Daisy because "she" was so beautiful and we were very into Thomas the Train at that stage. Then some people up the road who we know told us their cat had been missing for a few months. I showed them Daisy: "Oh that's Oscar", they said!

They took Oscar home and locked him inside for two weeks to re-home him. As they opened the door, he shot down the road to come back to us. Then we moved to Tawa and asked if we could keep the cat but we didn't like Oscar so we changed it to James (see the Thomas influence again?).

We had just moved into our house and were having a bbq and my mom said, "Just call him Doj: Daisy, Oscar, James" and so the name has stuck!

Home from the hospital and ........

I am pleased to report that Doj is home from hospital in being cared for by "Nurse Granny" - my mom. She is going to be able to offer him better care than we will be able to over the next few weeks. He has three tablets and liquid in the morning, and two tablets in the afternoon - he greedily ate this morning's ones because they were given to him in little balls of mince! He also has to have five minutes of exercise three times a day and some foot massage! Here he is in his home for the next six weeks as he is not allowed to jump. It is fine now, but I can imagine that in four or five weeks time he is going to be itching to get out. The three boys made the "house" and I gave it a quick slap of paint as it did look a bit like bare wood.

And then the lovely Sonya gave me this lovely blog award! Thanks Sonya! As Sonya says, we read each other's blog regularly and feel we know each other but have never met - such is the power of the Internet.

Now it is my turn to pass it on to at least seven other people. I choose: Jenny, Katrina, Irene, Angela, Sharlene, Ruth, Shell, and Sherri Now friends, this is what you have to do: 1. Add the logo to your blog.2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they have “One Lovely Blog”!

Enjoy

Hummingbird cake

Recipe from our lovely friend Dianne at The Station Cafe in National Park - make time to stop there for coffee and cake or a meal - you won't be sorry. The other good cafe is Out of the Fog in Owhango which is about 15 - 20 minutes north of NP on SH4.

Drain 450grams of pineapple and reserve 1/4 cup of the liquid
Sift together
1 cup of pain flour,
1/2 cup of self raising flour (I use 1 & 1/2 cups of plain flour + 1 teasp of Baking powder),
1/2 teasp of baking soda,
1/2 teasp of cinnamon,
1/2 teasp of ginger (I'm quite heavy handed with the spices)
200gm brown sugar (I think it's fine with 150gm)

Mix in
Pineapple and juice
1/2 cup of coconut
1 cup mashed bananas (about two medium size bananas)
2 lightly beaten eggs
3/4 cup of oil

Bake at 180degrees C for 40 - 50 minutes. The mixture is quite liquid

Ice with cream cheese icing
60 gm cream cheese
30 gms butter
1 teasp vanilla essence
1 & 1/2 cups icing sugar

We all worked hard today - the three boys built an immomility cage for Doj as the one from the vet costs $3 per night and for six weeks will be a lot of money! I painted the computer cupboard and sewed two pairs of 3/4 pants for me. Tomorrow I want to paint Doj's new home.

We will also visit Doj and then go looking for some brass doorknobs for the painted cupboard

Saturday

Doj had his operation yesterday morning and the surgery lasted two hours - a long time for even a human! Fortunately it was only neccessary to put a pin into his leg but it is rather a long cut. We saw him yesterday and again this morning and he was so pleased to see us! He was purring and meowing at us. He is unable to walk but was trying to drag himself a bit today. The bandage around his tail is a painkiller patch that dispenses a set amount of pain killer at a set time - really amazing. He is lying on a sheepskin which is on a heated pad - talk about comfort.

The vet told me that mentally he is a very strong cat which is also aiding in his recovery. He will be able to come home on Monday but has to be kept immobile for six weeks ....... how on earth do we tell this jumping, climbing outside cat that he has to stay in a cage 100cm by 60cm by 50cm (40" x 24" x 20") for six weeks!

Now we just hope that he recovers well and doesn't do any damage to it in the recovery time. Thanks to so many of you who have left comments here and/or emailed me - we really appreciate it.

Update

The cat is under sedation and is on a drip at the vet. Before anything further can happen, he has to wee. If he can't it means that there is probably nerve damage and we have to put him to sleep. Otherwise he will have an operation tomorrow morning to put a pin in his leg. Even then, depending on what they see when they open him up, will depend on what happens.

We will be speaking to the dog owners later on.

To say that we are all stressed and worried is an understatement - the boys and did virtually nothing today; fortunately for hubby he was at work and that took his mind off it. I have had quite a few little weeps today. We're hoping for a positive telephone call tomorrow morning

Our cat

Last night our cat was attacked by a dog last night on our property. He has quite a lot of injuries: Broken back left femur, broken upper tailbone, possible fracture of the pelvis/spleen, possible break in the ball-and-socket of the left back leg. eare now waiting for the next lot of x-rays so that we can make more decisions about.

We are all very upset and the anger at the dog owners has not yet surfaced. Actually I am so full of tears this morning: just anything is setting me off.

Please send good and healing thoughts/prayers in the direction of our cat

I tried to upload a photo but blogger is not playing nicely today

Cake .....

Hummingbird cake (pineapple, bananas and coconut) with cream cheese icing on the left and chocolate cake on the right. Friends for morning tea.

This DVD that I really wanted

Take away curry for dinner .........

....... what more could I ask for?

Some Un-Du maybe? Yes Scrapbook Central have it and I always forget about them

Happy New Year

We have started the year off well. Late 2005, we had a colour consultant come in and advise us on colours for our house. We started over the New Year weekend in 2006 by painting the fence, deck and other outside wood. Months later we did the downstairs passageway and one of the bedrooms. Sometime early in 2008 we did the stairwell and upstairs passageway.



Remaining prior to Christmas 2008 was the family room, dining room, our room and the bathroom. The family room was a very daunting prospect as we had loads of stuff in there, especially my scrapping stuff.



As I posted earlier, we bought a new TV so had to do something with the feature wall:

this is before

and after

That left the other three walls to do and I had sorted out all my scrapping stuff (loads on TM, lots in the recycling, and a box to go to Trina). My corner just prior to painting

And my corner after painting ( the colour is really not that yellow)

The corner where the two walls meet showing the effect of the two colours: the colours are Merlot (red) Dejavu (rich cream) both by Resene

We will buy the paint for the dining room tomorrow and hopefully finish that before the weekend is over.

Today we planned to bring in all the outside Christmas lights but that meant that the shed needed a clean out ...... yet more recycling, boxes and more for the Sallies, and a few things for TM. By this time it had started raining and we didn't want to put wet lights away. So the lights are still outside but switched off. That will be the boys task tomorrow while we unload at the Sallies and buy the dining room paint.

It feels great to start the new year with a big clean out ...... still lots to go, but a big effort already done