Some photos

None of them are the greatest photos but they should give you an idea!

My photos from China: I have used black with red and yellow and some patterned paper. This is the Chinese Lions - needs journalling!

Riding bikes on Xi'an city wall - I was so pleased when I found this bike paper!

Happy Valley theme park on our last day in Beijing

The 12 hour train trip from beijing to Xi'an

All about the hats that Colin bought

I found this photo of the boys when they were about 3 and 4 - so cute! I scanned the negative and printed the photo. Journalling left to do!
Senz:

I did two Nic H classes ao five l/os in total - none of them finished though! But they will be. I like Nic's classes: good clear instructions, lots of product, lots of fun, and extra kits to buy.

The photo of my bass guitarist was perfect for this (unfinished) l/o!

The Flip folder front - the page protector opens in the middle to reveal a 6x12 flap on each side and a centre 12x12. Very clever because you get the equivalent of three 12x12s on one page protector. However, did they have extra stock of these to sell? Of course not - order them and pay for the postage, please! And no extra kits - and I, as well as others, would have bought them ... if they'd been available

Opened up

Putting on the Ritz - very 3D and I'm not sure that I'll ever have photo to use on this one! Neither of them finished as they also needed some hand made, rolled flowers(!)

And if I haven't had enough to cope with, yesterday I got a letter saying I have been on the wrong pay scale and my salary was going DOWN by $10,000 per year - that's $384 per fortnight! What's going to go? And I believe they are going to write to me to ask me to pay back 7.5 years of overpay - I said they can "f-off"! The school is being very supportive and are doing all in their power to help ot. If needs be, I will go to an employment laywer

Senz 2011

I got up at 5.15am to catch my 7am flight to Auckland on Saturday. Tracy was there to meet me and we went to pick up Hilary from Scrap it Simple. They could get in the back door, but the paying public had to stand in the cold for 20 minutes while the "door-keepers" looked at us. When they finally opened up, the woman's comment was, "You should have stayed in bed an extra 15 minutes"! I muttered loudly that my plane wouldn't wait 15 minutes for me.

I had a look around but nothing much jumped out at me.

My first class was a Nic Howard class: 20 photos scrapped - two singles and a double. As usual, the instructions were clear and Nic is always generous with product. Half-an-hour break and I was back with Nic doing two single boy l/os - again the same comments. Even her in-class prize draws are great. Oh, and there are always extra kits to buy ... which I did!

Negatives about the day was standing outside in the cold for 20 minutes and the cafe running out of food by 2.30pm.

Tracy, Hilary and I went out for dinner - two drinks each and an Indian meal in an Irish pub! It was filling and delicious though. Then we went back to the crop and sat at a table with two very naughty ladies. As a result, we laughed and laughed all night. We left at about 10pm after winning rubbish prizes - six or seven year old Scrapworks stickers! On to McD's for a hot chocolate and finally into bed around midnight.

Sunday morning we were up at 7am and back to pick up Hilary. This time I went inside pretending to be part of the workers. My first class was an enjoyable class but only took me 45 minutes. Having said that, I didn't have photos but I didn't think that it would have taken me another hour-and-fifteen minutes to put seven photos in! Instructions were a bit haphazard, had grammar/spelling mistakes in it and measurements were only given in centimetres. No spare product and we were given half sheets for some of the papers. Lots of people wanted to buy extra kits and there were none to buy. We were told to go down to the shop part and just buy the separate bits, much of which had already been sold. Not professional.

The last class was very full on and once I was in the class, really not my style. No instructions whatsoever - we were all to work at the same pace. Well, that didn't happen! Fairly generous with the product though. I stopped at the hand-made, rolled flowers!

Back downstairs to help Hilary sell her product. She didn't want to pack it up to take it back so she marked it down! Lots of people bought as she was the only one who marked down product. At 4pm we started packing up. We worked so hard! It took us 55 minutes to pack her shop up and then we went to the airport. Me for my 6pm flight to land in a bumpy and wet Wellington and Hilary for her 7pm flight to Chch.

I am tired and heading to bed soon. Will post some photos when I can get decent daylight to take the photos.

Met lots of people and caught up with lots of friends.

Christchurch

As many of you are aware (and this is mainly for my non-NZ friends) Chch has suffered very badly since September 2010 with large earthquakes and thousands (really) of after shocks.

Here is a bit of light relief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlfLjz0PUDU&feature=player_embedded

"Munted" became a term for everything damaged beyond repair in Chch. SOme people will lose their houses

Here are some photos:










It's so very sad - sometimes they have 12 or so shakes per day!

How many times have you "plonked"?

I am really into this new craze – called “plonking”.

( Not to be confused with Planking)

You plonk yourself down in a chair – with a glass of plonk and get someone to take your photograph!

So I am contemplating my second "plonk" tonight

I am flying to Auckland on Saturday morning at 7am (which means I have to get up at 5.15am) for Senz (Scrapbook Expo). I am staying at a friend's aunt's house and I have four classes booked. Then home again on the 6pm flight on Sunday.

I'm already exhausted from the last two terms now I'm putting in a really busy weekend - how will I cope on Monday?

5.16am Wednesday 22nd June

That's when the NZ Winter Solstice will be .... then the days start getting longer - yay! So by the time I wake up on Wednesday morning the Earth will be turning closer to the Sun for us in the Southern hemisphere

Seal Coast Safari

In March I bought half price tickets for Seal Coast Safaris and with every thing that happened, I forgot about them. I realised last week that they were due to expire very soon. I tried to go last Sunday but they were full so booked for today and took my Mom. It poured down all morning but started clearing this afternoon. The trip goes through Long Gully Farm. Here are some Kaimanawa "horses in the mist" - bought by the owners and there are about 18 that run wild on the farm

Looking up the Wellington fault line - a bit scary to think we were that close

An old ship's anchor with a dedication to I think one of the owners who passed away

Psalm 93:4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! Amen!

The seals! Lots of them but of course hard to see until they move

My Mom with the "walking stick" we found for her. This is where we had our afternoon tea break. We opted to have Manuka tea which was very interesting; not a horrible taste, but not something I'd have again in a rush

The Kaitaki (ferry) coming in with the South Island on the horizon

We had a really interesting afternoon and would recommend it to tourists and residents alike

And here's my other gorgeous boy

He plays in one of the school bands and they did a lunchtime concert two weeks ago. You will note that he is growing his hair because he's in a band!

For a band who have only been playing together since the beginning of the year, they did really well

Formal 2011

Tonight was Ross' Formal. I took him down so my Mom could see him all dressed up. Then we came home for a pre-Formal party

Adrian, Ross and I

Ross and his date - note the flowers!

I tried to get some photos of them dancing but it was really hard

Ross was so looking forward to this! All day today he was getting excited. I think he had a great evening and judging by how often he was dancing (and we are talking real dancing here), I think he must have enjoyed himself

Queen's Birthday weekend

This past weekend was QB weekend so we had Monday off. It is also my annual girls' scrapping weekend away. We went to a beach house in Waikanae and it really was a beach house. From my bed I could see the sea and Kapiti island. This is what I saw one morning at 7.45am. I did get up quickly (still in my pjs) to go outside to take a few photos.

Looking towards the south-west to Kapiti island
Looking towards the north
We had a lovely house with a nice work area. This is what the scrapping table looked like with five of us.
This was the view looking out the window towards the sea. Unfortunately when I took this photo is was rainy and miserable out, so the view is not really clear.

It rained most of the weekend but that didn't bother us - we were warm inside and were surrounded by all our scrappy pleasures. My aim was to get quite a way into my China photos. I decided to keep the theme colours to black, white, red and yellow. I completed two doubles, 12 singles and six half size (6x12). I then got a bit tired of them and did three other l/os. I planned the rest of the China l/os (another 19) so that I could get additional photos when I come home. And Yay! Harvey Norman have a 9 cent special starting today. I will carry on with those China l/os at our monthly crop and also when I go to Senz at the end of June. What a great weekend I had!

Saturday night is Ross' Formal and I will have more photos to scrap from that - thank goodness for the special on printing! Check back Sunday as I will hopefully be able to load some Formal photos then

So tired

Today we had another garage sale - this time to try to get rid of all my Dad's tools and other assorted treasures. Neither my Mom or I could believe how much he had - some of it brand new in the packets that he'd never opened. Amazing what some "shoppers" do: four early on the morning wanted lots of stuff for next-to-nothing. I wasn't going to let that happen. They picked up a torch, dropped it on the concrete and of course it broke. They put it back on the table! I told them that in the real world people pay for what they damage and that would be $5. They didn't buy anything but I did get my $5 from them! Another man was so great - he wanted lots of stuff and made really reasonable offers for it all. Most people are honest and will offer a fair price. So we did well - I was pleased but we have another whole garage sale worth of stuff to go!

I am tired to my bones - I'm so tired of being everything to everyone at the moment and no time left for me. I go to school, come home cook, go to bed, can't sleep and then it all starts again. "Please will you"; "Can you take me"; "Can you do"; Can you phone" is all I seem to hear at the moment. There is not enough time during the weekend to do the laundry, the groceries and everything else as well as just have a rest. Actually I need to stop now because I'm making myself sad! I really admire single parents.

On a sad note, I had to take my mom and her cat to the vet on Tuesday and the cat was put to sleep. My mom is really sad about that.

Queen's Birthday weekend

I know I said no more challenges, but sometimes I will do them. No more where the "best" is chosen unless it's a specific competition with big prizes etc. If shops/forums want people to take part, then they should accept that "winner by lucky draw" is the way to get people contributing. Scrappers want to know that it is a level playing in which they are competing.

One such shop that usually has "winner by draw" is Scrappin Patch and they have a great scrappy long weekend planned. Go along here to see what's happening .... and take part!

Scrapping yesterday

Yesterday I went scrapping - haven't been for two months and yesterday I didn't have to consider anyone except myself! It was fantastic - for eight hours I didn't need to check on anyone, take anyone, show anyone, phone anyone - just look after me and do what I wanted to do. I didn't realise how much I had been giving everyone else until yesterday. And the world kept on turning (lol given that an idiot in the US was predicting the end of the world!)

This is from two fundraising events I was involved in for the Christchurch Earthquake appeal, Again, I have done more journalling on the back. Hopefully this will count for the ScrapBox c/s only competition .... although why I'm entering I don't know - they only choose "the best" and "the best" I am not; however, it's MY photos with MY stories that I'm telling

This photo is of Ross and Colin before we left SA taken at a play park of which I've forgotten the name.

Then the two annual "school photos and reports" l/o - the pockets came from Scrappin Patch and while I thought they were too brown, I'm not unhappy with them. The photos are blurred and I' ve tried to get rid of any names for privacy reasons

Today I have five loads of washing on the line (I hope the sun shines all day) and then I have to go and help my mom get sorted for a garage sale we're planning on having next week.

I am feeling happier and my husband wants us to do some counselling sessions through the Family Courts. Thank you to all of you who have written messages of love and hope here, sent me emails or messages on FB, sent me flowers, prayed for me and given me hope - I love all of you. Not sure what the outcome will be, but at least I can start thinking of a future now.

Up and Down

That's me - I've been up and down over the last couple of weeks. Doesn't help that we've had to write reports at school and proofread someone else's. With no extra time - just do it in your spare time. Lots of "cut-and-paste" went on.

Today a piece of stone arrived to fill the gap next to my stove - the gap has been there for two years! I must say that it looks very nice and so I decided to polish the stove quickly to match the new piece of stone. The extra piece of stone is on the right and I'm amazed at the reflection I'm getting

Buddy, the rainbow lorikeet arrived just after we got back from China but we have decided to give him back. He is a lot of work and needs lots of attention and we just can't do that for him right now.

Today I feel as though I've been in a washing machine - soaked, spun around and wrung put.

Next week Ross resits his restricted driver's license test - I hope he gets it this time!

An early night and hopefully I will sleep well

For today

I will turn my face to the sun so the shadows will fall behind me

Things will get better and I will cope with what's going on

Food

We had all meals booked and paid for before we left NZ which meant we didn't have to run around looking for somewhere to eat. Only some restaurants/hotels are licensed to serve western tourists. We only had Chinese meals but different from Chinese here. We sat at large round tables seating 8 - 10 people. Jasmine tea was always on the table first and then around 8 - 10 dishes and rice and soup arrived. Some dishes were nicer than others!

At a seafood lunch one day, we had lots of these little shrimps. They were supposed to be eaten whole but were very crunchy that way!

I can't remember where or when, but these little food nests were indeed tasty and served in a lettuce leaf.
One night in Si'an, we had a dumpling meal. Just little dumplings but more varieties than you can imagine and all so intricately made. All very tasty too

Celery dumplings

Duck

The second night in Si'an, we ate in "BBQ Street" - lots of BBQ restaurants. Again very tasty but soooo much food!

An example of the food we got

And more

We did get a bit sick of it and all headed to Burger King at Shanghai Airport yesterday for a burger!