New web site :)

Well my dear friend has her website up and running with awesome jewelery on it. You can see it all here If you have a design in mind she can make it for you or if you see a piece that you like but want it in differnt stones/material she is your lady. Her craftsmanship and eye for design and colour is exquisit. Pop over and have a look.

Well here is a photo of Jake doing his opening speech for the school concert. Doesn't he look so confident. I appologise for the photo (I was about 6 rows back and then I had to crop the photo.)

Well not long now till the jolly big man in a red suit appears. I bet everyone elses kids are as excited as mine. Every morning "How many more sleeps?" they know but just want reasurance they haven't missed a day LOL. Hopefully the weather isn't going to be too harsh on us, I'm wanting to go to the river so the kids can go fishing and take a bbq down.

At the moment my mother is up north with her family. Nana H always has a christmas get together before christmas for all the family and friends and basically anyone who wants to go, so this year mum decided to go up and only told Nana. So all the family was hugely surprised as my cousin was over from Soul with her husband two kids (and pregnant with twins), another cousin was over from Australia, so they are all having a good catch up tomorrow before she flies home.

Another cousin of mine is laid up in hospital at the moment. She had a baby by c-section on Thursday and yesterday colapsed (luckily while there was a nurse with her). She was not breathing and her heart had stopped. She is now in the hospital part hooked up to a oxygen and a drip with blood thining agents in it. She had a clot in her abdomin and it moved into her lungs. I was talking to her this morning and by the sound of it will be in there until after the new year anyway. What is worse is she isn't even allowed to hold wee Tom as she isn't allowed to bend her arms legs etc incase it causes more blood clots. So he is in the maternity hospital and she is in the public hospital. I'm looking at going down to see her tomorrow.

If I'm not back before Christmas (or your not back before Christmas). Have a safe and merry Christmas and New Year, and drive safely, watch out there are idiots on our roads :)

Yayy holidays are nearly here

Yayy nearly school holidays. Only one more day at school for the boys. I am so looking forward to the holidays its not funny. It has been a fabulous year for the boys at school. I was so proud of them at the school concert. Jake opened the concert and had a speech that he had been practicing for about 6 weeks. They get a year 3 too and all the others said no they couldn't do it. Jake put his hand up and said he would. Well for those of you who know Jake know he is the shyest little boy. If he talks too someone his head goes down and he talks to his feet. Well not Monday night. He stood up there in front of a full hall, looked to the back of the room (with out a mike) and belted out his speech. It was loud and clear and everyone heard him. I tell you we were the proudest parent in the room (and grandparents).

Well not long till christmas now. Too be honnest I have put my head in the sand a bit over it this year. I have only just posted christmas cards. For me that is terrible, usually have them out by 14 November. So you can see that head was well and truely dug in the sand!!!!!!

We are drenching lambs at the moment and they are doing really well with the recent drop of rain and a lot of heat. I was out mustering last week and we had some NZ falcons doing their bit in the sky and they were just beautiful. I actually sat and watched them for about 10 minutes until DH came over the radio "What are you doing?" He had never seen them before so then he sat where he was watching them too. I think they have taken up residence somewhere as they have been around a bit and a neighbour said he hadn't seen any here before. So when I get time I go on my horse for a ride and make it a mission to find them :)

Last weekend we had one of DH's brother come down. To be honnest it really threw us. We hadn't heard from him since we shifted (after he did a bit of S**t stirring). He was bringing the guy down who brought our place but DH put his foot down and said he wasn't welcome on our place after the way we were treated (He wouldn't let us get all our gear) and the amount of money he cost us in gear he demolished (about $10,000 worth). So it wasn't unreasonable at all. Not sure what they thought of the place but to be honnest we don't really care. We love it here and too us it is our little piece of paradise.

The weather has been so hot here lately 30 odd degrees and we have done a fair bit of swimming. Both at the pool and down at the river. It is supurb.

Till next time take care

What a beautiful day

It is truely the most beautiful day here today. Not a breath of wind and not a cloud in the sky. I still have Jake at home sick, he is certainly better but doesn't have much energy. I'm being a bit causious too as the teacher was telling me this bug has put one of the kids in Jakes room into hospital. That was a bit of a reality check. I feel guilty when Jake goes and plays with a toy or something. Keep thinking he should be at school, then he will go and lie down on the couch and you think, good thing he is at home LOL.

Lionel is working down near the river today so we took a packed lunch down and had a picnic beside a wee contributory creek and the kids had a wee play in there after eating. It was so nice, the only noise was the kids catching fish (rocks) on their fishing lines (a stick). It was so nice to see them playing with whats around them and enjoying each others company. Abby even brought a goldfish home in a cup with water (a red coloured stone) and it is sitting on the bench as wee speak, although the water slopped out on the way home and we had to put tap water in when we got here LOL. Now they are out side hunting out birds nests (just the blackbirds ). Will certainly keep them occupied for a while. Well I'm off for my last (hopefully) physio appointment now and pick Olly up from school a little earlier. Till next time take care. :)

Oh before I forget, I have a friend who makes jewelery and it is just divine, she caters for formal, informal and just plain casual wear and will make things to order. There is necklaces, bracelets, earings and even other things like jewelery boxes. I have some differnt articles and they always draw a compliment. She is getting a website made up that displays some of her stuff so when that is available I will let you all know.

I love the mouse :)

We have a sneaky wee mouse looking around the blogs at the moment and you never know where she is going to turn up. Her (well I think it is a she) name is A-nony-mouse and she has originated from scrapbook outlet . So if your here Hello * waving madley*.

Now scrapbook outlet has a awesome competition going as I have mentioned in previous posts. They set challenges and for each challenge you get a raffle ticket and they have some awesome prizes. Pop over and have a look at the gallery. IT is awesome some very tallented ladies on their board and they have lots of encouragement for eveyone and there is lots of inspiration. Their online shop is great too, some cool products and lots coming in all the time.

This layout I did for A-nony-mouses challenge on scrapping a toy :). Tigger was given to Jake when he was born by my cousin Rachel and he just loves him. Can you tell? :) This layout is based on a Erica Hildebrand sketch click here . Her link is also to the left. She does some awesome sketches and if you require a certain one she will do what she can to make you one.

This transparent card was done for Andreas quick challenge on making a card that you can see through or has transparency on it.
This layout is just because. A good friend of mine and her daughter.

And this layout is a old photo of Abby and Olly :)

The competition has been great it has got me scrapping again which I am loving. At the moment it isn't that easy with two sick boys at home. Yep two of them. Olly has been off school since Thursday with vomiting and Friday Abby and I had it as well then Jake came down with it on Saturday night. Hopefully they are on the mend now. Fingers crossed.

You will never guess what I just got......

Well before I tell you .... Woooo I love suspense lol. Yesterday we had school sports but it was so cold that the school decided to send just the ones that were competing in the school relay, which was a fabulous idea as Jakes nose has been running all week. So he was to stay back at school and help Miss Goss look after all the others that weren't going. Any way with all the mayhem that was going on Jake decided that it would be far to cold for Abby to go so behind my back he packed Abby a lunch and sorted out a schoolbag and other stuff for her to take. On the way to school Jake said Abby is going to stay at school. Well you try arguing with Jake, I kept saying she couldnt' stay as she was only just four. Got to school and he went running in and to cut a long story short Abby stayed at school for the whole day and had a ball. Trouble was this morning she wanted to go back.

Sports went well. Oliver did extremely well, well above our expectations. He got first in long jump, sprints, hurdles, long distance, shotput, high jump and the only one he didn't get first in was discus where he got second equal. Couldn't believe it and it wasn't by a little bit either. The long distance was 65 meters. We might have a athlete on our hands, although he is still adament he is going to be a Allblack and he isn't going to have kids because he is going to be playing rugby LOL. I will get photos in next time.

Today has been a fantastic day. Firstly in the mail today my new MP3 player turned up, and I love it. But I do need more music to choose from LOL. And secondly and more importantly I have a cuttlebug. I can't believe it. Got it from the warehouse and paid $90 for it. For those of you in the know, know that they are $130. Somebody obviously stuffed up and there was no way I was turning that down. I've called it a early christmas present, and I'm not wrapping it up till christmas either. Might wrap the box up but that will be it LOL.

The weather is still bitterly cold here so DH has been doing lots around the house, finneshing touches on the deck, front fence all done and we have just finneshed fencing off the haybarn and made a paddock for the horses. Oh that reminds me. I had physio yesterday and it has made a huge difference. No pins and needles in my fingers but the shoulder is still not too good. Head back on Tuesday for more.

Well I hope everyone has had as good a day as I have. :)

Take care

My baby girl is 4

I have to admit it, every other birthday all my kids have had just seems like another day and nothing seems to change. Well this one really blew me away because all of a sudden my baby girl seemed grown up. She seemed taller, she seemed more mature she seemed more......older. And I mean that never happens over one night and I can't for the life of me work out why.

Abbys cake was a pretty simple one. Abby wanted a chocolate one with mashmallows on the top. Not sure why chocolate as I have never made a chocolate one in my life. It is usually Banana, or banana choc chip, or fruit but never Chocolate. Must admit the kids loved it and it was so easy to make.

Mum and dad came down for the day which was going to be great because the boys were meant to have athletics in Lawrence but the weather wasn't good so it was postponed until tomorrow, so they missed out on that. But we had a great day and Abby just thought it was wonderful. Mum and Dad gave her a lovely we pink skirt and some make up which she thought was great.

We met my parents in Lawrence and Abby went with mum and dad while I went to the Dr. Abby said to Dad. "Grandad, I've got something cool to show you." and then led him into a shop and walked to the back. She put her hands on her hips and said "oh no, its not here, where is it. GRAN where is it gone?" The lady came back and asked what was wrong. Abby wanted to know where the pink fishing rod had gone. Aparently about 10 months ago she was in there with Gran and had showed her and gran said to show grandad next time and he might get it for her. Gran and Grandad had a very upset child on our hands and to make things worse, it was sold the day before.

At the moment there is a competition running at scrapbookoutlet . It is run like a raffle and for each thing you complete you get a ticket and at the end they draw ticket numbers and have some awesome prizes. The first one is a 6 month subscription to their packs and the second is a cuttlebug (which I would just looovve), and the third is a voucher for their store. Pop over and have a look, there is lots of stuff to whett every appetite. The second competition was to make three tags and two had to be altered. Well here is mine. The first is a button altered

The second is a envelope that was made on the cricut machine (thanks Lara) and altered and last but by no means least is a tag off Jakes pair of jeans that I brought him altered.

Well the weather hasn't been too good here the last few days. Monday we had snow falling (brrr).

I've finally been to the dr about my shoulder. I had to really, it wasn't improving and I just couldn't sleep properly. Shouldn't of bothered though, cause now I have to go to physio. She thinks the shoulder could be freezing up and one muscle needs work apparently and she also thinks that I have carpel tunnells and thinks I will need a cortisone (SP) injection. Like there is no way that is going to happen. Then she noticed me limping and checked my achilies and there is big swelling there too. I think it would be easier if they made me into dog tucker LOL . So I have physio tomorrow and hopefully she is able to straighten out my problems (well the obvious ones anyway ).

Well that is it for this session. Take care

I am Baaacccckkk

It has been so long and I appologise for that. Lots has been happening, well probably nothing exciting but the usual for this time of year. I can't believe it is only about 56 days till Christmas. And I have done any christmas shopping :(. Usually I have 90% of it done by the July August but I don't know where the time has gone. Never mind we will get there.

Today we finneshed our tailing, and what a relief it is to have them all out of the way. It is kind of like a milestone. Once that is done we can get on with the next project, or farm job (which is getting some paddocks sown in some young grass).

The last four days have been absolute scourchers and absolutely no wind. Yesterday it was 25.5 at lunch time and getting warmer.

On Sunday we had our 25 year celebration for the playgroup which was held at the playgroup and what a great time it was. We had a BBQ lunch and that was followed by a afternoon tea and a cutting of the cake. That was the first nice day for about a week so it came at the right time.

The horses are both going really well, although I haven't ridden mine for about 10 days because I have done something to my shoulder and I have very little strength in it and seem to always have pins and needles down my arm and three fingers. If it isn't right by Friday I might have to go to the doctor. Mind you that is a last resort. The kids have been riding Honey lots and Jake even saddles her up, with a little bit of help and he just goes, had her cantering last week for the first time and thought he was made. Still hasn't got the posting right, but that should come with time. Olly rides her on his own, although Honey gets away with a bit more with Olly, where as Jake doesn't let her. Abby has been riding on her own too and thinks she is Christmas, just grins from ear to ear :) Here is a photo of Jake.

Friday there is pet day at school and Jake is taking Garry and Billy (two mice) and Olly is taking Fluffy (guinea pig). Luckily we don't have a horse float or they would want to take Honey and it is just a little too far to ride down. (Phew).

Yesterday I took the boys to school and just as we were about to leave Jake announces that he cant find his school bag. We looked everywhere (it was packed with his lunch books etc ). We checked the horse pen, lamb pen, the kids old car, garage, bedroom everywhere. I was so frustrated, like how hard could it be to find a kids school bag. Obviously harder than I thought. Then I remembered he borrowed a pair of scissors form my scrapping desk. Here was the bag, under the desk with the chair pushed in behind it. I know I have trouble finding things at the desk at times but I never thought it was so bad I couldn't find the kids school bag there. And the area had been cleaned up the other night when I made some cards. It is a first for me. And all Jake was worried about was, what he was going to eat for lunch LOL.

Well I'm off to pick the kids up from the bus. I willlll beeee baaack :) Take care

Can you believe it another family member?

Well we have. It is a horse for the kids and her name is Little Honey. What a shock, two horses in three weeks. :) Little Honey is actually on loan to us for as long as we want her. She is 25 years old and about 11.2 hands high. She just adores kids and I admit the kids just love her to bits. We went and got her yesterday when we picked Jake up from my parents. Then at lunch time I rang the local farrier to get her feet trimmed and he came out this afternoon. He did a great job and while he was here I got him to do Mollys as well. Poor Abby got a little upset as she thought he was going to do something horrible to "My Little Honey." LOL
The kids all had a ride on her this morning and Jake and Olly have ridden on their own. There was no way we were helping there. Abby wanted to as well but we had to draw a line somewhere. Honey has done alot of work with kids and even was a horse with the riding for the disabled for a few years, so she certainly has the patience.
I will get photos of her being ridden as this certainly isn't a very nice view :)

What else has been happening? Not sure if I mentioned it or not but our deck is finneshed and it looks fab. Pulled one front fence out to do a new one (the old one was rusted and looked diabolical (sp). There is two posts in and the holes dug for the other six. Hopefully weather permitting we will be getting onto it again soon.
Well that is it for now. No sbing pages to share, sorry. Hopefully next time

We have a new family member........

and I am so excited about it. Her name is Molly, and believe it or not she gets called Mole for short :). It isn't actually as bad as it sounds because Molly is a horse. I brought her on Sunday. Funny really as we have been down to Invercargil to have a look (nearly two hours away) and we ended up getting her about 5 minutes away. She is an adorable Standardbred and is 15 years old and at an estimate 15 hands high. I have been on her everyday (except for today as we were away). It is great to be getting my confidence back and being back in the saddle again. Here is some photos :)

Haven't done much on the scrapping front (I wonder why). But have done two layouts. The first layout is based on sketches at sketchs Oz blogspot web site It is of all my children in the bath. Aren't they gorgeous.

The second one is based on a sketch from scrapwitch and is of Jake with Mrs Fluitsma at his last school. They just adored each other and Mrs Fluitsma even wrote a good bye letter for Jake and gave us three fruit trees (one for each kid) in rememberance of her. She is one special lady.

So I will leave you all with this short note. I am off for a bath to soothe my aching muscles. Muscles I had forgotten about. So take care

My Baby boy is 6

I can't believe where the time has gone, it has just flown by. We didn't do anything exciting really for it. Mum and Dad called in after being to the 10 tennors in Dunedin the night before and they stayed for tea then left. Olly had a great day, and was quite excited about the fact that because it was his birthday he didn't have any home work LOL. So what did he do, he helped Jake with his LOL.

We have started lambing now and it has gone fairly easy, would be better if we had more grass around, but it is the year by all accounts. One mob we went around last week had four sets of quads in which is rather annoying as most ewes can't cope with three lambs let alone four. They were all doing OK so we left them there and for a bit when Lionel needed a lamb for a ewe he went there. There is four pets at the moment, which isn't too bad for us. I was reading in a diary from two years ago we had 15 WHAT WERE WE THINKING? So four isn't too bad.

The last couple of days both boys have been off school sick. Olly has improved greatly but Jake can't seem to shake it yet. Yesterday we lit out big heap of wood that came out of the section 12 months ago after we arrived here. It went up really quick and we got rid of alot of extra wood around, was great.

Today I was at music with Abby and Lionel had a clean up in the section and dug the trench along the front of the house and we put gravel along the bottom, drainflow along the top and covered it all up. We also rang a place for a price for the wood to do the decking along the front. It is going to be 5.4 meters out and 11 meters long, so hopefully we will hear back early next week and have the timber her and started by the week after. Will be so nice to be able to sit outside for tea and enjoy these beautiful days and evenings we are having. Get it done then I might have to start pushing for the back one, or is that asking too much?????

Some of you know that I have been looking at getting a horse again. Well it isn't going to good, no luck for me yet. I have one sorted for the kids. A neighbour of mum and dads has a older pony there that only gets used when the kids go to mum and dads and she said we can have her, so the kids are excited about that. Abby is worried where she is going to sleep as Honey won't fit inside. LOL.

I am keeping an eye out for me though and hopefully something will come up.

My Calligraphy course has one more week to go. It has been so much fun and with a great bunch of ladies. Will be sad not to be going out. Kids will miss it too as they say Dad lets them do things mum doesn't when I'm not there LOL.

I had a laugh the other day in Clutha. I was filling in time in a couple of shops and Abby would talk to the ladies at the counter. Any way she was busy telling everyone "Do you know what my dads favourite colour is?" " It is piiiiinnnnk, my dad just loooooves piiiinnnnkkkk." LOL. That really made Lionel happy LOL. Well kids do say the most funniest things at times. Like last week, Jake went to get some icecream out of the freezer for a treat. " Dad, I hate to blow on your parade but, we don't have any icecream left." Now where on earth did that come from LOL.

Well till next time take care

Bit cool here today

Have finally done a little bit of scrapping, with the shearing, vaccinating, drenching and dipping out of the way, I have time for me. Must admit I am loving it too :). This layout was done, based on a sketch from Pencillines . Sketch number 8 of Ngaire's. Have changed it a bit to suit as I didn't want the photo as big. Also did it for a challenge on scrapbook outlet . But I didn't read the instructions right and it was meant to have a black and white photo and colour one as well. Never mind, a good excuse to do another layout as this ends the end of August :) I do love this photo of AJ even if it is from behind, and it looks alot better in B and W. Shows the details more ;)

This layout was done for scrapbook outlet as well. It was a challenge from Donna to use chipboard, which I don't need any excuse to use any way. I have painted, stamped and glossed it. Yummo Well today we had playgroup which went really well, about 12 kids there, tonight I have my caligraphy course, which I just love. Tomorrow I take the new motorbike to town for its big check and have a hair cut then as well. Well I am actually just having a trim and thin out. I decided before dads birthday that I was going to grow it then I thought it would look nicer short for his party so cut it and thought I would grow it long. After scrapcamp with the longer wig on I am definately giving it a try, but for those of you who know me, know that by christmas it will probably be cut short again LOL. My old friend Jane who is a hairdresser use to laugh. One week I would have it cut short then the next, growing it long. Will see how long this lasts for LOL.

Well that is about it from me. Take care and keep smiling. :)

Woops forgot a layout

Forgot to add this layout in the other day. It was done at scrapcamp. See the little arrows? Aren't they just the cutest. Nik had her cuttlebug at scrapcamp and had a new arrow cutter. Aren't they just so adorable (I so want a cuttlebug). Wish Hubby would read this, he might get a hint LOL. What a gorgeous day here today. We have been vaccinating and dipping ewes yesterday and today and I was out mustering a couple of paddocks on foot just after lunch today. It was just so beautiful and peaceful. I stopped and listen and all I could hear was tui's and the running water at the creek as it went over a little waterfall, just simply divine, and not a breathe of wind. It was just to gorgeous to put into words, then I had to start climbing a hill, and all I could hear was me breathing in and out LOL.

Tomorrow we have playgroup and and I am on duty, and I haven't had time to bake. Usually I make sure I do plenty of baking and take along a selection of Custard squares etc. Might have to be scones tomorrow LOL. Then tomorrow afternoon I am off to stock up on my groceries then tomorrow night I am off to my course. I have started a caligraphy course in Milton (about half an hour away). It is one of those adult learning things and runs for 6 weeks. been to one. All I can do is i,t and l and only in lower case lol. I loved it though, and there is some lovely ladies there. I am the youngest by about 25 years :) so feel a bit out of place, but we all enjoy it so that is the main thing. All the others are card makers so I might have to take along some scrapbooking pages :).

Well till next time take care :)

A long week

Not sure if I said in my last post or not but our darling baby boy who is 5 nearly 6 (the one who has glasses). Well he lost them when I was away at scrap camp, and he had no idea where they were. My mother had spend all day Saturday and some of sunday looking for them and then when I returned from scrapcamp, I spent about two hours monday and everyday there after looking for them. I had been told that they were in the dog paddock (where the dogs are tied up). We looked and looked, looked with torches in the dark (thinking they would shine up), to no avail. I'd given up and rang the specialist in Dunedin (we were meant to go down on the Friday for a check up). She said I won't order any, they will turn up, but come down even if you don't have them.

Any way, Olly found them on Wednesday, which was a huge relief. Where were they? Sitting down where he had taken them off and put them. If I was't so relieved I would of cried LOL. So on Thursday this dear child toddled off to school, with his glasses happy as larry. Thursday night he gets home. "Um, Mum? I've lost my glasses again." What was this child thinking....... We had a specialist appointment in Dunedin the next day. So off to school we go. The teachers were out looking for them (there was a 10 minute gap where he lost them after school). We searched till 5.00 and no luck. We head home, dejected. The teacher said she would send the class out before school for a quick search. But that turned out fruitless. So off to the specialist appointment and for a new pair of glasses. We ordered new ones and they turned up the next Wednesday. An hour after they arrived we get a phone call from the teacher. "Guess what? We just found Ollys glasses...They were put neatly aside under the trees so they wouldn't get stood on while he was playing rugby" Agggggg. So now we have two pairs of glasses LOl. (and one is put away).

We are still trying to get the shearing done. Had some rain this week which put us back a bit and then on Thursday we had a friend call in who was over from Australia, It was so cool to be able to catch up with him as we hadn't seen him for a few years.

Today we had Jakes first game of school rugby. It was so cool to watch him play, although there was a big age gap from 11 to 6 and those that played tended to pass it amongst them selves, which was a bit sad, but Jake loved it. They put him on the back of the scrum, and he made a brilliant tackle that stopped a try, so he was wrapped with that.

Other than this, not much else has been happening.

On the scrapping front, I am in the process of making three different minni albums, a tag album, a flag album and a star album. Mainly because I've said yes to doing a class with some of the playgroup ladies. They have't done any scrapping and wanted me to do something for them, so finally I gave in. Kind of looking forward to it really and thought I should have some other things, other than pages. Everything I make I tend to give away IYKWIM. So it will be nice to have some of my made stuff around again. When they are completed I will post a picture to share.

Before I go, we (me and Abby) were heading down our lane the other day and we were singing. We make up silly songs, to tunes, like "Baa baa, black sheep, have you any wool, no sir, no sir, none at all. None for you, none for me, none for the little boy living in the tree." Get the gyst. Any way I sang humpty dumpty normally and later on when we were fencing Abby says "Mum can you sing that song again?" I asked which one. "you know the Honkey Donkey song." I had no idea what she was on about, then it clicked " Oh you mean humpty dumpty." "Yeeeeeaaa". LOL Can you tell I don't sing nursery rhyms much LOL.

I'm Baaaack

I do appologise for not being on here earlier. Some of you may know that I have changed email address's and It wouldn't let me sign in. Big problems but now I finally have it sorted (I hope)

Well I have just come back from an absolutely awesome weekend in Bannockburn at a scrapbookers retreat. It started on Thursday night but unfortunately I couldn't go then because of taking the boys to school bus and only having one vehicle. I couldn't really let Lionel take them and Abby on the motorbike if it was snowing or raining or a realy hard frost, trust me, it was tempting thought :). So in the end I dropped the boys off at school and left for Central. Car packed up with all my scrapping gear.
In the end there was 8 of us there for Friday to Sunday and there was only me and one other lady who wasn't there on the Thursday night. We were also priviledged to have Andrea from Scrapbook outlet come and join us Saturday afternoon and she stayed the night too. Was great to have finally meet her, talked on the phone a few times but was great to put a face to a name.

Andrea (scrapbook outlet) and Meg (Scrapbook essentials) also had a shop there each which was brilliant. They had a good variety of gear .

There was also lots of projects and prizes that were kindly donated by Andrea and Meg. Andrea even donated a Nic Howard book which was part of a challenge. Lara had a list of pages that we had to do and each one was worth so many points. Those that finneshed or had the most points went into a draw for it. There was three of us that completed them all and Tanya was the lucky winner of the draw.
I'm already looking forward to the next scrap retreat. Just a pitty it is so far away. :(

Here are some of my completed projects for the weekend. This was a layout that included me in it. Unfortunately I've miss placed a book that I have with other things I had written down about me. When I find it I will include them on the layout as well.

This was a project donated by Andrea at Scrapbook outlet and Lara took us through the steps of altering it. It started of as plain chipboard and our project was to alter it. We also made transparency pages to go in it. It was a great wee project.

We also had as part of the list a 6x4 photo to scrap on a page (no other photos). I didn't have a 6x4 so I was allowed to use this photo. (aint he a cutie?) We also had to make a card out of left overs from another layout (Not associated with the challenge). This is the layout I did from the last retreat.

Then Tanya gave us all a challenge to scraplift a layout she had done.

and here is everyones take on the challenge. Tanyas layout is the top right hand corner. We also had to make a card that used no usual adhesives (and you couldn't use stickers to hold the paper on). I've used sewing and brads on this.This project was called "Andreas- stripping in the dark" . LOL We all got a piece of scenic route Scrap Strip2, a sheet of Black Bling, ribbon, flower and a paisley. We could do what we wanted with it and I chose to make a minni album of us all down at the river. I never had any photos so that is one of my projects this week. On the inside front cover I have the paisley that I am going to use for a date etc, but when I made it I had no idea.Here is everyones take on the project, Isn't it amazing all the different layouts that come from the same products :).This is a pillow box that Tanya did for a project for us. The goodies were supplied by Meg at Scrapbook essentials for this one.Another challenge was to do a laout where the words or journaling was the focus of the page and if you had photos on it they had to support it. I used no pp for this and my new Autumn leaves stamps (Thanks Andrea :) )This is one where we weren't to use any cardstock. I love these papers.Just one I did for me :) Again using my new stamps. And another one just for me.Another layout from the challenge. You had to scraplift someone elses layout from the retreat (this was before Tanya had done hers). This is a scraplift from Lyn's layout.

Well that is it for this time. Take care

What a week

Talk about a four seasons week. On Friday night we had about 10 inches of snow, can you believe it. It was simply amazing. Lionel had other words for it LOL. (which I'm not going to print here :) ) The funny thing about it all is that last Sunday (a week today) we were sitting outside on the grass and outdoor furniture having a bbq lunch. It certainly wasn't shorts or bare feet weather, but it was a beautiful sunny day, no wind etc then five days later we have all this snow. It was beautiful though, and by sunday was all gone. We had 25ml rain over night and it all just dissapeared. So now we have no snow but lots of water :) I'll try and upload photo's. Thats if Blogger will let me.
Here is Abbys bike which was left outside over night LOL.
And the outdoor furniture that we were having a bbq lunch on 5 days ago.
And our Olly. Believe it or not he is trying to ride his push bike, and he is about to go over the motorgate LOL. (Or cattlestop which ever you use LOL). He ended up getting frustrated and put it away LOL.
We were meant to be scanning on Sunday, but we rang our scanner man and told him it might pay not to come. He is now coming on Tuesday, it will be we but at least there won't be snow around (Hopefully).

We finally heard back from the insurance company and they looked at the bike and decided that there was no way they were going to fix it. Which is kind of good as the bike shop said that it would never be the same again with all the damage done to it. (whoops). We have a loan one at the moment and they are bringing a new one hopefully this week. Well that is it for this week.
Take care

Mr Gorgeous

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Brrrr

What a day. It is cold here today (3 degrees outside) and it has been trying to snow. We decided to go to Clutha to get groceries (was going tomorrow, but just incase we get snow). Yesterday was so nice, we were outside in t-shirts so it is a big turnaround, although the weather people did predict it. They are saying snow down to 100 meters. Glad we aren't lambing ;). The kids will be excited if it does snow though, they are wanting to make snow men :)

Jake was home sick from school yesterday after lunch and he slept for about 2 hours on the floor, but today he is fine, so hopefully it was just a quick bug and something the others won't catch.

I haven't mentioned it before but our wee boy is getting glasses. We went to Dunedin Hospital last Friday and had him checked out. We could go with out if we wanted but they suggested to get them as one eye is weaker than the other and if he continues like that the bad eye will deteriorate and eventually nearly cease to work at all. Then if that happens and something happens to his good eye he will be in big trouble later on in life. The wee man is so looking forward to getting them as he is special being the only one in the family with them (which has made Jake Jealouse and he wants some). Now there is three at school with glasses including his teacher. Hopefully they will turn up tomorrow, just have to work out how to get him to wear them and not break them too many times.

Now scrapping news. This layout was done off a Trina McClune Trina McClune sketch for scrapbook outlet. We had to use lace in it somewhere or a journaling block. I also hand stitched a sheep.

Well that is it for today. I hope everyone is warm and tucked up inside, and Mardi I hope it is really warm where you are :)

Take care

Forgot to mention about another site called morethanjustscrapbooking. It has just started up and looks fantastic. Pop over and have a look.

Queensbirthday weekend.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I know we did. We had some friends come down from Oamaru who we haven't seen since we moved down here (11 months ago). It was so good catching up with them and seeing the kids get on so well after all that time. I was worried about that as you don't really know what the kids remember. There was absolutely no reason to be concerned. Last night Jake, Olly and Olivia slept in one room and it was about 9.30 and Jake and Olivia were still chatting away. They arrived on Sunday before lunch and left today (Monday), then we went to the rugby in Lawrence but didn't stay for the whole game as the kids were winging the whole time (probably not a good idea going when they had little sleep last night). But it was such a beautiful day here (slightly cold this morning about 3 outside) so was a shame not to go and support it really.

I was meaning to get this uploaded before the weekend but just ran out of time, so here it is. It is based on a sketch from pencil lines , actually sketch number 34. And there is a few close ups to see the more intricate detail. If your a scrapper and never tried a sketch, pop over have a look and look at all the inspiration, you will be pleasantly surprised. Any way here is the sketch entitiled "Is this what you mean by sugar hit?" I get a giggle everytime I see this photo, it's not like they have coke all the time, they hardley ever have fizz or anything other than water and milk, but we were shearing up at the woolshed and had been for about three weeks, so this kept them amused at smoko times.

See, told you

Told you I wouldn't be away as long as last time LOL.

NZ has its own dare site for scrapbooking where they have challenges and I've decided to have a go with this one. You have to do a single page layout with 6 photos or more on it, so here it is. For a while I had only been doing one photo for a page, but now I am starting to get more onto there to tell the whole story. Again I've done a bit of stitching and loved using the scenic route Savannah range for this, and because I haven't done any computer journaling for such a long time, decided to give it a go again, along with the title, overall I am very pleased with it.

And here are some close ups too. Incase you can't read the journaling it reads. We were at the playground at Lawrence with Boo and Ally. What fun you had on the swing, you would yell, "Higher Mum, Higher Mum". You actually fell off at one stage (not too hight though). And you cried, I gave you a cuddle and said "are you all right, did that hurt?" Too which you replied "It only hurt when I hit the ground." date was 18 May 2007

Now if you have come in here, please leave a comment, so I know you have been, I know that lots of you do visit (due to my counter at the bottom :) and some of you emailing me), but just say Hi would be nice. Thanks :)