Back into routine.

It is hard to believe that the holidays have been and gone and we are getting back into routine again. What have we done? Well my Aunty was down from Waihi just before the holidays started and flew home the first Thursday of the holidays. On the Tuesday Mum and Aundy L came down and Wedesday went back, with all three kids. The price of the fuel we decided to try and make less trips so all the kids went back. So all Wednesday afternoon I stripped wall paper from Abbys room (above, I was sure she was sick of the big trucks on the walls), thinking when we went to Dunedin the next day I'd get some cheap paint. Well the idea was right, but reality was slightly different. The walls were about as straight as a dogs hind leg and paint just wouldn't cut the mustard. So the cheap paint job turned out to be a wall paper job. And to make things worse I couldn't get pink paper, well I could if I could wait a few days for it to arrive, but I wanted it done by the time the kids came home. So I had to get some neautral paper that they had in stock. There had to be a sealer underneath so I got that done on Friday, then Saturday we had visitors turn up in the afternoon. It was fantastic to catch up with them, but my papering job didn't get finneshed until after the kids got home. Then I got some baskets for Abby to store her toys in and she just loves them. So much so that they get carted onto her bed before she gets to sleep. :) Jake had rugby last weekend and had an absolute blinder (not that I saw it, I was waiting at home for some visitors). He came home with the player of the day trophy, and scored a try. He is really coming into his own now, and wanting the ball instead of running around behind everyone.Now some layouts that I have done- the ones that I know that I haven't shared with you :). The first is for stampinscrap Christchurch A layout about how much I love Jake (warts and all)

This one is for scrapbookoutlet A challenge that I had to matt a photo, do more than 6 stitches and distress some part of the layout. All about how Jake made this "tractor" out of stuff lying around the sheds :) This one is also for scrapbookoutlet It is a challenge from Jenny doing your favourite place. Well this photo represents my favourite place, wide open spaces, no phones, just the sound of nature :)
This one was for New Zealand dares where you could do a layout about winter based on a add that they showed on the website. (The photo isn't very good, it was raining and dull outside so I couldn't get a very good photo)
Well that is it for now. Till next time.

Scrapcamp

What a fantastic weekend. I arrived on the Thursday afternoon and set up. On Friday night there was the opening night of the Winter festival so we went down to enjoy the fireworks on the water front. It was fantastic. Here is some photos of the fireworks :) Here is some of the wonderful ladies that were at the camp, these ladies made the whole weekend worth while, so to you ladies thankyou very much, awesome.
The new look Julie and Nik.Kim and Lara and E I managed to get 13 layouts done two mini books and a off the page. Not as much as I had hoped too, I think there was too much talking going on LOL.

Over the weekend we had a few challenges. The first was a 30 minute challenge. You had to try and complete a layout in 30 minutes. aghhhh. Well here is my resulting page.

Another was to start a layout and then pass it around to the next person after 10 minutes, and it continued like this until it was finneshed. :) And my resulting page was Honey. So thankyou to all the wonderful ladies who contributed to this layout.

We also had Nik doing Stampin up. What an awesome product. I loved it. Nik did a couple of projects, the first was a card with the new colours- gorgeous. The second was a scrapbook page.

Now I just have to wait for my little order to arrive :)

Now for a just because layout ;) This one has hidden journaling under it explaining how we were at the collie club and a older boy had his bike and Abby asked if she could ride it. He said she was too little but she got it and kept riding past saying. Look at me Shit I'm good aren't I LOL

There was more layouts than this and there was boy layouts too, I will share them with you another time. Can't overwhelm you too much :)

Snowing and Two more sleeps

Just to let everyone know that it is snowing. We currently have two inches of snow outside and it is still falling. If I get photos tomorrow I will post some. But more importantly to say TWO MORE SLEEPS TILL SCRAPCAMP AT QUEENSTOWN RAFLMAO. Till later

Warming up - preparing for snow

Yep, its warm here today and last night it was still 9 or 10 outside. Usually when it is warm like that you know it is going to snow, and when they predict it down to sea level, you can almost guarantee it.
Again this week we have had the dreaded cough, we just can't seem to shake it and the boys had Friday off school. Poor Olly was coughing that much that he has vomited, poor wee mite. So there was no rugby for them yesterday. There was one very unhappy boy, it nearly started world war 3. In the end we all went out for lunch to a new restaurant (to celebrate Lionel and my birthday {yes we are on the same day}), and it was fantastic. To be honnest it is the only time all of us have been to a restaurant together, so it was great. And the food was fantastic too. The kids had a ball and Jake has decided that is what he wants to do for his birthday :)
Now my box of goodies...............I haven't photographed it, but I can confirm that there was a bigbitecropodile in the packaging. And it is absolutely fantastic. There was also some Little yellow bike papers and they are just divine. And that was it really - I think.

Well only four more sleeps till scrapcamp, Fantastic. Then on the downside, there is only one more sleep till the dentist :( . I have a filling which I'm not looking forward to, it is only my 4th ever so I shouldn't complain, but I hate going to the dentist LOL

My computer is back

And it is fantastic. Lionels was Ok but mine is like a comfort blanket IYKWIM. Now I have it set up in the lounge as it is warmer here and I can keep an eye on everyone. Just for winter though.

We had rugby on Saturday and for the first time both kids were at the same place, so was fantastic. Mum and dad came down just for the day to watch them, then they went home that afternoon. Abby actually had her first game as well, they were short and needed more players, so she stuck it out for about 3/4 of the game then wanted to go and play with a friend on the playground LOL. She scored one try so was wrapped with that . Olly well, he scored 5 tries in the first game and the second game he got at least 5. Last week he got the player of the day trophy and thought it was wonderful. Here are some photos of him with it and of Abby ready for her first game.Jake said he enjoyed his game, and he is getting into it more than what he was at the beginning so that is good.

I've just discovered a fantastic blog that you might enjoy. It is Jozzas. Jump on over and have a squizz. Some wonderful cards and a gorgeous BTP.

Till next time, take care

Sick kids.

Well its been a long couple of weeks. Ive had Jake at home all this week and a few days last week. He is on antibiotics for a bronchial infection and has a terrible cough on him. Hopefully he will be back at school next week.

My parcel from Andrea is in the post so I will be able to share with you all the goodies. Hopefully my computer will be back with my programe so that I am able to downsize photos other wise they will be just too big IYKWIM.

My street wise programe is going very well, and boy, I've learnt allot, and am absolutely loving it. Its just getting it all down patt so that in a situation it will come naturally. Lets just hope I don't get into a situation. One of the first things we were taught is, if you are mugged or attacked, don't yell out "help" "stop it", specially if people are near by. Apparently people won't come to that, The lady that was nearly killed in Dunedin at the beginning of the year, they say at least 50 people would of heard here but chose to ignore her. But if she had yelled "FIRE" people would of come running. So don't forget that, yell "FIRE" at the top of your lungs, you will be surprised apparently.

Lionel and the boys have their white belts in Karate and Lionel also has his white belt in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He loves the MMA and says it is very physical, and now comes home and practices on me, luckily I do street wise, so am able to fight him off LOL.

Queensbirthday weekend was a fantastic weekend. Abby and I went to a 4th birthday party Saturday morning then in the afternoon we had friends come and stay a night from Winton. I hadn't seen Her for 7 years, so meeting the kids was fantastic. We've seen her DH a bit with trips he does but just not the kids or his wife. Then on Monday we had more visitors which was fantastic, very unexpected, kind of off the cuff, so we all had a great catch up and laughs.
So not much got done over the weekend.

Well that is it for now, just a quick hello and good bye. till next time.

Darn computers

Last week, we brought a laptop for DH. Lionel has decided that he has to start getting up with the 21st century and broadening his horizons a bit. We didn't want two desktops so a laptop was the only way to go, then in the winter when its cold I can sit out in the lounge and use his (he he he). Well we got it last Wednesday. Fantastic I thought, then Saturday the mouse stopped working on mine, so it was Lionel's computer. I brought a mouse today from the local computer man and after being to Clutha turned my puter on. What happens...... It goes bang.....bang.. Nothing. It won't work at all, so now I have a brand new mouse and no puter to plug it into and back to DH's. I'm taking it to Jons tomorrow morning when I drop the boys off so hopefully it isn't serious. Even though it sounded serious. Fingers crossed.
DH went to the dentist today. He broke half a tooth away and I made him go LOL. He isn't a fan of the dentist and gets really uptight and jittery LOL (Don't tell him I said that :) ). So we had to go through the rigmerole of picking a dentist in Balclutha. We got the three names out of the yellow pages and then went about picking one. Decision's decision's. In the end we got one and we picked him because he looked more professional LOL (He had a fax number in his add). Well Lionel said he was great (not a comment Lionel puts in the same sentence as dentist LOL) and what was better was he put in two pins and built the tooth up, did x-rays, injections and took half an hour, and charged $60. Couldn't believe it, thought it would of been over $100 anyway. Well that is it for now. Hopefully I'll be back to my computer soon so will keep this updated more easily :)

Been a tragic week

It has truely been a tragic week down here. People from around the road were in a horrific road accident. The husband and eldest sons best friend lost their lives, and the youngest son was left fighting for his life because of the lap belt in the back seat. The community have been absolutely amazing. I went around to a friends place yesterday (the sister in law of the gentleman killed) and the cards/ flowers/ food was absoulety amazing. The fridge was over flowing and the feezer, tins were filled. It was a heart warming site in such a horrific situation. There was one funeral on Thursday and the other on Friday and Lionel said there was at least 800 people at the funeral. It has really brought home to roost the time I spend with my family is precious and not to take any situation or time with them for granted.

On a much lighter note. For those that know Olly, know that he loves boxes, containers, anything with pockets, and he is always trying to fill these with anything he can find, usually stones, cut up bits of paper or anything he can get his hands on. Well anyway, he came up to me on Monday/Tuesday and said "Mum, my shoes are getting too small for me." So I went and had a look at them and what do I find???? In them there are three pairs of socks.... I took them out and told him to try them on " Ah that is much better mum. Thanks." And runs away LOL. Every day he comes home from school with hundreads of acorns (last time he told me he had 271) and they become sheep on his toy farm.

Abby also came up to me this past week, with her make up kit. She is holding the blusher brush and says to me "Is this thin Lizzy? Like the people on TV put on their legs?" Like I thought thin Lizzy's hadn't been on TV for about 5 years LOL. Took a bit of explaining that one LOL.

Well that is it for this week. I've got a heap of washing to do, we've had 2 inches of rain and Jake had rugby this morning in rather wet conditions LOL . So till next time

Did you see 20/20 On Thursday?

Well there was a friend/neighbour from around the road on it. His name is Ralph and has Cerebal Paulsy (sp). It was a fantastic show (alright, I might be a bit biast LOL). Lionel went down to the firestation for a couple of hours to watch it with a few of Ralphs mates. Well he went down at 8.30 and didn't arrive home until the early hours of Friday morning LOL. Lets just say he was a bit slow on it Friday :), and there was no sympathy from here. But it was a great skit, even though it was only 10 or 15 minutes long, and they'd done so much filming for it. I think it would make a great country calender.

Friday night we had a ladies night out and went to Waihola for a meal. Usually it is the playgroup ladies that go and any one else that wants too. It is a great way to get to know newer people with out kids around, and it is a great social outing. There was 9 of us and we had a lovely meal (I did feel guilty about giving the kids and DH heated up mince, home made wedges and peas for tea). It wasn't a late night but certainly an enjoyable one.

Yesterday the boys had rugby, in different directions again, and I went with Olly and Lionel with Jake. Jake came home with the fairplay award so he was wrapped with that. They get a certificate and a moro bar. (I got to see the certificate).

Well here is a layout that I did yesterday, entitled Our river Queen. Sorry the photo isn't very good.

And this is a closer up of itand here is a cloer view of the clock face that I made, on the bottom right hand side of the photo.

Forgot to add this layout

This layout is for No 8 Wired the New Zealand website. This weeks challenge (challenge number 45) was to do a layout based on the sketch that was put up on their site. And this is the resulting layout that I did, entitled, New years Day 2008. We were up at Kelvin Heights for New years eve and new years day. Very quick one this time and using up lots of Nanas/mums old buttons :)

Happy mothers day

I hope all you mothers out there got spoilt today. Jake made me this awesome layout below. He went away, punched cut to his hearts content then added "To Mum from Jake. Happy mothers day. I love you."

I didn't know he had done it, he snuck away and made it and then managed to hide it in his bedroom. It is the most treasured scrapbook page I own. And to be honnest it has really brought home to me why I scrapbook. To preserve these precious memories for generations to come. And Jenny, I think you are on to something with your guess :) But my lips are sealed LOL

Been a delay

Just to let you all know that the parcel hasn't arrived yet. Andrea has ended up in hospital and has been in Intensive Care and only just out into the general ward today, so she has been one sick lady. Hopefully she is on the mend and gaining strength back and will be back with us very soon.

Just to let you know (well actually Jenny, its specially for you). I have some Little yellow bike papers coming. They look absolutely divine. Some Sassafras lass papers, and I also have another toy coming, which I am not going to tell you what it is. I love keeping people in suspense. When it all arrives, I will post a photo of it all for you :).

Well this week has been a busy one. Jake and Lionel started Karate on Monday and absolutely loved it. Olly didn't want to because he thought that you had to fight, but he is going this week. Then on Wednesday, my Street wise course started, it is like a self defence but it is aimed at ladies and gentlemen. The tutor said that more and more males are being targeted and this course will help you defend yourself. So look out. Then Wednesday night after my street wise Lionel is doing mixed martial arts, which is a lot more physical than Karate, it is fighting on the ground as well as standing. Apparently if you learn Karate and they get you on the ground then you can be in a bit of trouble so this will be good for him and later on maybe the boys too. For the whole family to go it costs us $50 for the whole term and we can do all four courses, (Karate, MMA or mixed martial arts, Street wise and Thai chi) for that cost if we want too. I couldn't believe that when he told me. Next term I wouldn't mind looking at Karate too but at the moment the one will do LOL.

Today we had Rugby in Balclutha. Well Jake did and Olly was in Lawrence (but they were meant to be in Tapanui, so the two Lawrence teams played each other LOL). This time I was with Jake and Lionel with Olly. Jake played really well I thought. He is actually tackling now instead of running beside the players and he is running through them with determination now. So I was really wrapped as you can imagine. They lost 8 6 I think it was. And Olly tells me he got 6 tries in their win against the Blue Lawrence team (Olly is in the yellow team).

I'll be back when my parcel arrives ;)

Holidays are nearly over

Only one more sleep and the boys will be back at school. Sad really. They have flown by so quickly. Didn't get half the stuff done I had planned. I'd been meaning to go and catch up with a few people and haven't visited anyone. So to make up for it, I'm off to visit two people tomorrow. One is new in the district so I'll take something up to her and introduce myself.

On the scrapbooking front I've been doing a few BTP (beyond the pages).

Scrapbook outlet have had a few competitions running and with yesterday being international scrapbooking day things were busy on there as well as most scrapbooking sites, to celebrate the occasion. I didn't get much done at all for it, but some of the competitions run until Friday night, so I've still got time (I think ). I have won a prize on SBO but am not sure what it is, it is arriving hopefully Tuesday. I will share with you later :)

These two are for a altered note book challenge. You could alter one or you could make one from scratch. These two are altered and when I get a new toy (Hopefully Tuesday) I will be doing ones from scratch. (I will post a picture of my new toy when I get it, after I've had a play) .

The first one is a altered 3B1. I've always got note books around me and the kids always try and say they are theres, so this way there is no doubting it ;)And this one is a cheap spiral bound one from The Warehouse (I think they were 3 for $1.00). It will be handy to keep in my handbag. I always seem to be looking for a piece of paper to write notes on so will be great).

No guessing what these are for. Again it is a competition on SBO. The card was made using my cuttlebug and a heart die with a embossing folder and then inked to give definition, and also the back ground has been put through a embossing folder too. (I love my cuttlebug and folders and of course the dies). For those that don't know, dies cut and folders emboss, giving it the raised and recessed pattern which you can then ink or leave as is.

Mum doesn't like anything for mothers day, so I just altered this eclipse tin and made butterflies to go on it.Then I made this small tag album with quotes on it to fit inside. So that is it from me. Till next time

Closer up

Just some closer up pictures of the letter "B" that you can't see very well from the photo. Some of the pattened paper is cut out and lifted with foam to give it dimension and also glitter and beads have been added.Also this layout that I did for scrapbook outlet challenge. We had to (well didn't have too, could choose too) a layout on music, Layout with fabric and a layout scraplifted from some one else of the outlet. I didn't get a round to doing the fabric layout and I wasn't happy with the music layout so here is the scraplift layout. Scraplifted off Delys Cramm. I do appologise for the photo as it is terrible, but I photographed at night (to get it in, in time for the competition) and I had to take it at this angle so that there was no harsh flash light on it.

Just some off the wall are I have been doing

Iv'e been busy doing some wall art. Chris Millar made these and had one in her gallery over at scrapbook outlet . Thanks for the inspiration Chris :). One is for Abbys room as she has been wanting something to go on her wall (it is going to take a bit to compete with her big trucks wall paper LOL) We are going to re-wall paper it in time LOL.
You will have to excuse the photography as it is a bit hard to photograph them in their frames and do them justice. The frames are from the Warehouse (two for $20).
This one is for Abbys room. She is funny, she sits there and tries to work out which papers belong together (for the double sided papers). And yes, the one butterfly is meant to be on a angle. :)
This one I did before I had the butterfly punch and I have put it on the wall in our lounge (Lionel loves it :) )

This letter I did at my very first scrap camp with Nic and finally I have a frame for it :)Thats it for now. Hopefully I get some more layouts done soon to share with you all :)

Snowing here today

I can't believe it. 18th of April and we had snow this morning. The kids were so excited seeing it snow. They thought that there might have been a day off school so they could build snowmen LOL. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us it dissapeared with in 5 minutes of landing. It is just too early for that really. It is still cold though and we have a fire on tuked up inside after being to music this morning. (Glad DH had bills to do and had the fire going so it was nice and warm indeed.) Me and a friend went out for lunch also as it was her daughters 5th birthday the other day and she was sick so we never got to go to Dunedin. I made this cool wall hanging for her birthday. It is one of those deep photo frames (can't remember the proper name of them). I put a photo of the birthday girl and Abby and called it best friends. Also had a flower etc in it. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo so I can't share it with you.

Now some layouts to share.

The following layout is for scrapbook outlet . It is based on Trinas sketch for this week (12.4.08). It is a great sketch and I enjoyed doing this one, using the grungeboard (arrows) and Felt for the first time ever (title). Also used my new star punch that I won through Fiskars. I love it, nearly as much as my new fingertip knife :)

This layout I did for Laras challenge on scrapbook outlet . To do a "harvest" layout. It was due a while ago and I never got it uploaded in time, so here it is for you to look at.
And this one just because. Photo was taken a while ago. The photo actually lifts up and there is journaling underneath it.Well I'm off to put some more coal on the fire. Take care

A quick layout I did

This is just a quick layout I did for the number 8 wired NZ dares competition this week. There was a add that you had to base your layout on and this is my interpretation of the add.

Last night we went to a Karate evening down at the local hall. There is a gentleman who teaches Karake, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Tai Chi, and also a self defence course. We'd talked about getting Jake into Karate for quite a while now and we were going to have to take him through to Milton (20 to 30 minutes away) and we got a newsletter to say about this. So last night they had a informal get together and he showed us what each one entails and we could see for our selves what we wanted to do. So for the last 27 hours I've had two boys doing their interpretation of Karate/mma/Tai chi/selfdefence. Trust me, it isn't pretty LOL. Any way we came home and now I think there is going to be four of us doing something LOL (Only four because AJ is too young LOL). It is very resasonable and run during the school terms so it certainly fits in with us. To make it even better we just go to the bottom of the hill (all of 5 minutes drive). So we will just take it term by term and see how it goes. Personally I'd like to see the boys to Karate for two years and then onto the MMA, but time will tell.

Till next time :)

Forgot to mention. I had my computer in at the computer Dr last week. What a difference it has made. I now have a external hard drive (don't know how I lived with out it) (160gb). All virus are gone, all spy ware has gone. I didn't realise how bad Nortons was, I've now got a better one and best of all it is "free". I had 200 odd spy ware on my computer plus all the virus's. And I thought it was going to be clean. My computer doctor lives down the hill so it was very handy and he is very reasonable. Not only that but my computer is now 100 times faster, so look out :)

Quck update

Just some photos to share of Olly in action at the rugby last weekend. Tomorrow they have their first round of the draw. Only problem is

Jake is playing in Balclutha and Olly is playing in Herriot. About an hour apart and playing at the same time :) Luckily we now have two vehicles so we can go in opposite directions LOL.

I had Abby in the car with me after being at Mainly music and after 1o weeks they get to keep their chart with stickers on to take home and put on the fridge. Anyway I was driving along and Abby was trying to tell me about something on her chart. I said I can't look I'm driving. To which Abby replied, "Oh thats all right mum, you look at this and I will tell you when there is a corner coming up." Thats a bit scary.

Lionel had a appointment at school yesterday, with the lady who was observing Jake. he said it was great and got this 4 page write up on it all. And they have discussed things and she is coming back one day a week until it is all sorted, even if it takes 3 years. So that was great to hear.

There is a big scrapbooking retreat happening in Queenstown at the end of June. Click HERE for more details. It is going to be a fantastic weekend with lots being organised behind the scene. All the money raised is going to a Nominated charity. So if your interested follow the link there, or through scrapbook outlet .

I had a fantastic parcel arrive on my door this week. It was from fiskars (a prize I won) and in it there was the fantastic squeeze punch (star shape Large), scissors and the new fingertip knife. To be honnest I wasn't sure on the knife when I first saw it, as it looked a bit different. Well I guess it is different. It attaches to the underside of your finger and you hold it like a pen, but it is attatched to your finger instead. The accuracy of it is amazing. It is my new favourite tool.

Well that is about it for this post. Hope everyone is behaving ;). And be careful.

Oh yea

Forgot to mention. The layout in the post below this entitled " through the generations" that I made at scrap camp for nz dares website. Well with it I was selected as being their guest designer. Unfortuanately with the computer problems I was having, I didn't find out until the night before it needed to be in. I managed to get a layout done and really enjoyed doing it. The hardest thing was finding a photo of a favourite child hood memory. Once I'd done that it was fairly easy. But anyway, here is the layout that was a result of the panic.