Emma's 20

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl. 20 today. WOW.

Bracelet tutorial

Here are some bracelets I made a couple of weeks ago using this tutorial here. The Beaded Wrap Bracelet. Though I did tweek it a bit to make it easier after the first one.

1929 Ford

We had a visitor to the Holiday Park last weekend in this 1929 Ford. His name was Bruce Miles. He has travelled up from Christchurch in this car. What an awesome guy. He took people for rides all around Port Waikato and stopped and chatted to anyone who wanted to stop and chat. So friendly and interesting. And it was so comfortable to ride in. I was amazed at how well it still goes. Perfectly well in fact. What a great way to meet people.

Thats me, a bit windblown.

Emma

Bruce, James, Rob and James' friend Anaru.

Work, work, work

Work today. Preparing for another busy weekend in Campland being Waitangi Weekend. Last weekend (Auckland Anniversary Weekend) was the busiest since we've been managing the Park at the beginning of September. We were chocca full. Was great but busy. Managed to get to the beach for a couple of hours yesterday on our day off, got a little sunburnt which is unusual for me at this time of year, that usually happens at the start of summer, but hey we haven't really had a summer.
Made this yummy salad the other day. Thought it was worth sharing.

The Best Lentil Salad, Ever

Here is the recipe I found on Pinterest
It is really good. I think the dressing makes it. Has a middle eastern taste. Yum. This is how mine turned out. My ingredients other than the dressing were:
Black Lentils (from Moshims)
Red onion
Dried Cranberries
Capers
Pinenuts
Feta Cheese
Parsley and other fresh herbs from my garden

I think that was it but you can add what you like.

Online Journal

So its the 1st of Feb already. I think summer may finally be here. Who knows. All I know is its the worst I can remember.
I am really gutted I don't get to post much on my blog. Every day I think of something to put on here but just never find the time. It can be done though, because I did it for my birthday month.
So lets try another month. This month. A daily post. And if I can do it I will continue to TRY and do it. I want to use it as an online journal, which is the whole idea anyway isn't it. Most days I take photos so there should always be a photo or 2 to post and I am playing around with arty stuff too most days so shouldn't be too hard to find something to post. Its just the loading and resizing of the photos that takes time.
So todays post.
I love that Rob, James and Emma all went out for a surf together this day. Felt so good to see them participating in such a cool thing as a family. LOVED it!! I sat on the beach and watched. Surf wasn't great that day but just a bit of fun and getting into the water.

Music Tuesday - Stay - Jackson Browne

Another GREAT song

Music Tuesday - With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker

Beautiful

Art Journal

Thought I'd share some pages from my Art Journal. I use it to play around with techniques and ideas.
Here are some older to very recent pages.

Some of these aren't finished yet, they are just backgrounds. As I've experimented more I've decided I prefer the ones that I've used book pages as the base for the backgrounds. I also like using magazine images, either as a main image for the page or as a silhouette.
I joined Nathalie Kalbachs Creative Jump Start Summit. It's FREE. You receive an email each day to Jump Start your creativity and they have been brilliant. So pleased I joined in. It has really made me think about spending even just 10 minutes, when I can, creating something. ANYTHING. It doesn't matter, just playing is the key, a little or a lot whenever you can.

Goodbye Xmas 2011

Finally packed away my Xmas tree on Monday. I try to hold out as long as possible. I love looking at my decorated tree with its pretty lights and the lovely spirit it gives the room. I wait till the very last moment lol. Then reluctantly pack it away.

Music Tuesday - September - Earth Wind & Fire

Another favourite filled with great memories

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

What a busy few days it has been. Had a great day for my birthday. Here are some photos.
Had a nice lunch with James and my BFs.

Walked around the market at Aotea centre. Colour and patterns everywhere.

The old Farmers Santa still hanging in there. Now on the Whitcoulls building in Queen St.

Then we had dinner at Daikoku with family. That was so much fun! Definitely going back. Emma couldn't make the day, she had to work. 

I had scallops. They were goooood.

I do love nights in the city at Xmas.

Been working since. Despite the rain we have had a fairly busy Holiday Park and today is finally our day off. Hence the blog update.

Music Tuesday - Little River Band - Reminiscing

Good memories, good times.

Birthday Month Day 30

A bottle of Lindhauer to drink tonight in the city. We are staying at Skycity tonight and tomorrow for my birthday we will spend the day in Auckland. Then in the evening we are having dinner at Daikoku on Quay St with the family. Exciting!!

Birthday Month Day 29

Florence and the Machine CD today. Some good listening to be done today while we work.

Our local Port Waikato Xmas Parade was held on Saturday. It was a beautiful hot sunny day and we spent the day preparing our Port Waikato TOP 10 Holiday Park float. Not a lot of thought went into it really, we just loaded it up with everything we could think of in a camping theme. Thats what we do. Added some tinsel and we were off. Threw lollies to the kids. Though I think most of the kids in Port Waikato were in the parade lol. Still its a great community thing and we get together at the end for prize giving and a BBQ and then we head home. Just in time for the weather to turn to crap.

Santa on horseback

We all assemble at the local Port Store

 The parade ahead of us

 The parade behind us

 The end of the parade

 Almost given away all our balloons

Birthday Month Day 28

Todays treat is a bar of Toblerone. Yummy, yummy!!

I finally finished this quilt made of fat quarters, other bits of fabric and a couple of bandannas too and some blanket stitching. My first and probably my last quilt. Too hard with just a basic machine. But I really like how it has turned out. Nice and colourful for summer.