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