More Rob and Bob.


















Another doodle challenge from 2peas. Doodle on a photo.



















And dinner last night. Oh so yummy Whitebait fritters. I've waited all season for Rob or James to go whitebaiting but no such luck. In the end I bought some from a parent at school. Freshly caught. Delicious. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Michelle's Blog Challenge # 2

Ten CD's you would just have to have if stranded on a Desert Island

I had to think hard about this. I love music so much and have a lot of favourites.
Not in any particular order and a couple more for good luck.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By The Way
Jonny Lang - Lie To Me (great album this)
America - Best of (I think it's called - you know with "Horse with No Name" and all those fantastic songs)
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Paul McCartney and the Wings - Band On the Run
Rod Stewart - Atlantic Crossing
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
Doobie Bros - Greatest Hits (I think)
Beach Boys - Greatest Hits
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Santana - Supernatural and Shaman

and then there's Sheryl Crow, Smashing Pumpkins, Cranberries, Collective Soul, Lynard Skynard, Van Morrison, Katchafire, The Beatles and so on and so on.

Without Music, Life is a Journey Through a Desert.

New Rob and Bob. Yummy.

Awards for Ex

OK I'm finally updating. Can't believe I've left it this long. What a slacker.
The For Keeps Awards for Excellence were announced yesterday. Congratulations Nic on making the Elite team - I knew you would.
I got an Award too - Award for Excellence in Design. But the funny thing is I didn't find out till this week I was getting it. So it sort of doesn't feel real. Also on the For Keeps website my name isn't on the list, but I actually received an email from the editor this week confirming it. I don't know. It'll be real when I receive my prize I guess. I'll have to ask Nic when she comes back from Australia if she did actually hear my name read out. LOL. But I am rapt. And I love the layout I won it for.

So anyway I was thinking this week about scrapbooking and how I've hit a bit of a slump. For the past year I've been designing for different mags and manufacturers and that's all I've done. But it was good because I had goals and deadlines and challenges. I had to do something specific. Now I can do anything and I'm feeling a bit lost. That's why I've been doing every challenge I can get my hands on. So for me I need a challenge to work well.

More challenges

'Look' is for a Doodling challenge

And 'Sunset' is for a Scraphic Design/White space challenge

Michelle's Blog Challenge

http://www.eforum.co.nz/viewtopic.php?t=3727
1. Name one productive thing you accomplished this past weekend.
Weed sprayed.
2. Name two things that you look forward to doing.
I have to put 3. Scrapbooking of course and going away (either to surf comps with James or away camping at Xmas) and watching Emma play netball.
3. Name three things that gross you out.
Maggots, bad bloody injuries and vomit.
4. Name four things that you normally do on a daily basis.
Apart from the obvious, check my emails, check 2peas, check KS, and check blogs.
5. Name five things that you own that you think you could get rid of and not miss.
This is a hard one. I honestly can’t think of anything but if I do I will add it in another post.

Another Sunday morning

Sunday mornings are the best when you get up and everything is tidy from the night before. Dishes done, washing done, house is tidy. I love it. AND 'It's a beautiful day' (U2 song comes to mind). AANND everyone is safe at home from their nights out.
Just have a cuppa or two, some breaky - avocado and marmite on vogels - don't mock it till you try it - yummy.
Think about what to do today.
Think abit more about the layout I'm working on. When don't I!!!
Have to work tomorrow so I'm going to make the most of today.

A challenge

The colour combination in this picture really appealed to me, so I challenged myself to use them on a layout. Here's the result. Have a try - white, yellow and biege/tan. The Bazzill c/s I used is 'Wheat'.
Oh and I printed the photo on the 'Wheat' c/s too. I've used this photo before, I know. It is a great photo printed on textured c/s.

Glass handbag

As promised photo of the cute gift I bought my Mum. Why I did not take an aerial shot of it I don't know cause it's actually an open bag with 2 handles and would make an awesome vase.
And my handsome son playing with the camera on our fishing trip last weekend. LOL James. And a must read on Kelly's blog- The Creative Process.

Thought I'd share ...

my pages published in the recent issue of For Keeps magazine #35.
'Like Sisters' was for a rub ons article - I used MOD rub ons on the blue c/s and title.
'Waitara Beach' was for a Beaded monogram article.
Scans are pre APE. I used to scan then stitch the layouts in Paint, until I discovered how easy it was in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Must re-scan and stitch when I have time.

Check this out ....

Check out Cath's blog. Scroll down (on her blog that is) to see all her wonderful work.
Cath was a Kiwiscraps consultant and I did not know she was such a great artist.
I just love her paintings.

Relax and enjoy

I've been so tired this week. It's funny how you build yourself up for something and then after the event it just hits you. I was so nervous about teaching classes last weekend, and when it was over and I relaxed and realised how well it went I just got so tired.

So it's a long weekend this weekend - Labour weekend (not that it makes any difference to me cause I don't work on Mondays usually). James is away all weekend at a surf comp and Rob is away on a fishing trip. So Emma and I are lazing around. She's been unwell since the school holidays 2 weeks ago so I want her to sleep in and do nothing and get better. I of course will catch up on a few unfinished projects and housework and we have DVD's. The weather is not good as usual lately so I won't feel guilty being inside.
I think we might go and see my Mum and Lionel tomorrow. They live about 2 hours away up north. So Emma and I can cruise up there - stop at the Honey Centre in Warkworth and get yummy fresh honey. I bought Mum this cool as present. It's wrapped up at the mo but when she unwraps it I'll take a pic. I saw it in a flower shop window yesterday and I thought of her straight away. It's the first time I've seen something and thought "Oh yeah, Mum will love that". It's a cute as little handbag made of glass in this cool colour. I can just see it displayed on her gorgeous furniture. It's about 6" x 4". They had lots in all sorts of bright and funky colours. Hope she likes it.

I really like this idea. Might try it.

My latest layout is this for the recent Ad Inspiration on 2peas. Click on the page to see in more detail.

cuuuute

I work in a school and we held our annual Calf Club Day last Friday and I just had to share this cute as little creature one of the kids made as part of their craft activities. He is really simple but he really appealed to me.
I know you think I'm crazy!!

new stamps, doodling and stamped jeans

This was a fun layout. I used my New Hero Arts stitches and ribbon stamps and a bit of doodling (used to draw these bugs when I was a kid).
And my jeans below.

Home again

I am very tired after a wonderful, fun weekend at SENZ.
Friday - taught a great class on Friday called Ink, Layer and Paint. Attended Christina's Designing with Fabric class - very cool.
Wendy and I spent Friday night painting/stamping our jeans ala Heidi Swapp style. They look so cool.
Saturday - taught a cool Heidi Swapp travel layout class. Attened the very cool Scrapbooking Daisies polymer clay class. Did some shopping. :))))
Sunday - attended Wendy's wonderful Waxed Trio class and taught the Heidi Swapp class again.
All in all a fun inspirational weekend. Met and caught up with lots of great people.
And had the priviledge to meet and chat briefly with Kerrin Quall. Very lovely, cool lady.

My last post for a few days. I'm off to SENZ (Scrapbooking and Stamping Expo in New Zealand) Friday - Sunday. I'm teaching 3 classes - 1 each day and i'm looking forward to attending a class called Scrapbooking Daisies - a class making millefiori (sp) flowers using polymer clay for scrapbooking - fun.
Here's a picture. Aren't they divine.

Getting a bit behind with the updates. You can tell I'm back at work.
Well I didn't get the phone call from For Keeps for the Elite team , an Award or the new Design Team. Boohoo. So my time on the DT is up I guess, though half of my stuff hasn't even been published yet. I'd love to share my entries but last year one of my layouts was picked up for Australian Paper Crafts mag so there's still hope of one or two being published yet.

Have a look at this clothing tag that was on a top I bought in the holidays.
Look familiar?? Those funky flowers are so in aren't they. I love them.

Ad Inspiration page

And here's the Ad challenge.

Sunday morning up with the larks, think I'll take a walk in the park, hey, hey , hey it's a beautiful day.

NOT. It's a crap day as it has been for days now. I'm definitely up with the larks but the weather's awful. You'd think I would sleep in for the last day of the holidays wouldn't you. NO too many ideas rushing round in my head.

James made it home safe and sound at about 1.30am. Glad that's over. I am actually very proud of him for achieving that.

Rock Star INXS - This is for you Megs - I am happy with the choice for their band. When I heard JD sing the new song with the band he was perfect. I felt sorry for Mig most of all. Near the end they were all so good, but definitely, I think, JD was best for them. Marty will be better on his own. I would love to see him and Suzy together. I tell you who else was awesome and that was the lead guitarist of the House Band - Rafael. I loooooved watching him.
Can't get 'Trees' and 'Pretty Vegas' out of my head. Great songs.

Blog cruising - leave me a comment so I can visit your blog.

Just cruising a few blogs today. Left you a message Ruth (Ruth is sad cause no one's left comments lately - I know what you mean Ruth - I love comments too).

Took some photos in to be developed and will pick up this afternoon to complete my final For Keeps Design Team layout.
:((((((((

Nearly finished my Ad Inspiration page - will post later.

Found Rhonna Farrer's blog today.

And here's a funny photo of Emma the other morning.....
hair cut, lots of product in hair, slept on it, voila, just like the ad on TV for pads. ROFL.
Ooohhh bad hair Emma!!!











And here's a nice photo of her.










oops, just joking. silly emma.

Here's the nice one.

He made it OK, what a relief. And they did fine with the drive.

I have been wanting to try a landscape 8.5 x 11 layout.
So I had a go and enjoyed doing this layout.
I'm working on another for my Ad Inspiration page.

I have a huge worry today. My son and his girlfriend and their 2 friends are driving down to Gisborne today - a 6 - 7 hour drive - for the first time he's driven that far. His friend has his full licence so he's driving most of the way and then James is driving the last bit through the gorge which he knows better than his friend. It's the first time they've driven so far on their own and it is a hard trip. I'm going to worry myself sick all day. The weather is terrible, there's lots of big trucks on the road, there's other crazy drivers, what if they drive too fast and can't handle it. This would have to be my worst worry so far.
James is going down to do a judging course for surfing on Saturday but one of them has to be home for something on Sunday so they are driving back on Saturday night. I am so not happy about that, after a day's course, but his friend will drive I think.
OMG I'm scared.

snapshots

I've copied Nic who copied Tia with this idea of taking angle shots. I had heaps of fun snapping shots of Emma and the dogs in the sand dunes yesterday. Not fantatsic shots but they were fun. Did I say that already. Though Emma got sick of it after awhile and ran away from me.

Bright and colourful challenge

Did this for Kim Archer's bright and colourful challenge on her blog. Check out her Challenge gallery in her blog. Link in my sidebar.

I painted all the circles in the background with various objects and cut out the heart so you can see the back ground. Was fun to do.

Mmmmmmmm sunshine

I lay in the sun for about an hour this afternoon - yum - reading my new mag 'Notebook'. How cool is this magazine.

Don't veges look so yummy when they have just been cooking for a minute and their colours are so vibrant and crispy looking. My photo of the day - yummy just cooking veges.

Favourite things about spring

2peas blog challenge

Summer's on it's way
Longer days
Beautiful flowers
Warmer nights
Baby things everywhere (lambs, calves, pukekos, swans, ducks etc)
Holidays
Swimming soon
Fresh air
Clearer skies
Lovely gardens

5 minute wall art

One Heidi Swapp mask, some BG letter stickers, a 12 x 12 canvas and some paint. Voila, a nice piece for Emma's wall. And all it took was 5 minutes. Quite pleased with that.

By the way it wasn't a virus that hurt my computer it was my mouse. I needed a new one. Now it's going like a dream.

Computers - OMG

Yes OMG I was nearly crying last night. I thought I was done for. My stupid computer (just joking - darling computer:))) spat the dummy last night and was acting all jammed up and slow and the mouse wouldn't move and I was stressing and stressing and panicking cause I thought I'd lose everything and nothing worked and OMG I was nearly crying. So I turned it off and went to bed and thought OK I'll try again in the morning and if I have to take it to the computer shop, so be it. So anyway I started it up this morning and slowly after turning it on and off a couple of times I managed to do a virus scan and it was very infected, very infected. Don't know why my virus software didn't sort this out itself but I did a manual scan and now I've fixed it and I'm happy again.
Wow how can we get so strssed over a computer and how can we become so dependent on it. Anyway I need to back up all my files. Isn't there a way of doing this other than saving on a CD?

Monday's update

Was supposed to post this yesterday but had trouble uploading to my blog, so gave up and came back this morning.

So you can see I've been playing around adding silly Blogthings to my blog - bit of a laugh really. And a Flickr badge - pretty cool.

I did this layout on Sunday - Follow your heart - quite pleased with how it turned out.

Photo of some cute shoes I bought for $18 from The Warehouse a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for looking and please please leave a comment. I love comments and I don't get many.

Sunday walk

We went for a Sunday walk down to the beach with the dogs this morning. It was a lovely warm day but the beach was wild and windy with a strong onshore wind - no good for surfing as you can see. Anyway my random photo for the day is this photo of these people walking all these poodles - Rob and I figured it must be a poodle club. The other photos are our dogs Otis - black dog, and Rio the ratbag tan one, who loves to run and run and run.

2 weeks Holiday

Saturday morning. First day of the holidays, yeehaa. Had my shower, doing the washing, painting a canvas, music on, nobody home except me. I decided to french plait my hair. Pretty good don't you think for no looking. I know it's probably a bit old fashioned but I don't care, I'm not going anywhere today. It'll make my hair curly for tomorrow. Not that I'm doing anything tomorrow either so it's all probably a waste of time but hey it'll keep my hair out of my face cause I plan on doing a bit today - scrapping that is. When I was in my early 20's I used to french plait my hair every second day for work so I became an expert and just whipped it up perfectly in no time. And I hadn't forgotten. I expected it to be messy as but not too bad I don't think for the first time in ages.
So here's my random photo of the day - my hair french plaited.

I love the look of the new MM felt ribbon so I made my own and some felt flowers.

If you were a dog ...

What would you do if you were a dog & you'd been sharing a kennel with another dog much bigger than yourself & your owners bought you a nice new kennel of your own?
Wouldn't you be thankful and run straight in there & really look like you loved it or would you hop back in the other kennel you snugly share with your mate and not have a bar of the new one.
Yes well, we bought our dog Rio a new kennel because our big dog Otis gets stuck in the end with his nose poking out and Rio is all snug in the back. Hoping that Rio would like his new kennel and leave the other one for Otis so he would be snug too. But noooo. Rio likes being all snug at the back against the nice warm Otis and Otis obviously doesn't mind having his nose poking out in rain, hail or wind. He can fit in the new kennel too. I think they keep each other warm. So we have a new empty kennel. Well here's hoping when summer eventually comes they use it cause it'll be too hot in the other one.
What's with this weather anyway. So flippin freezing. Feels like it should be snowing here.

Today is my Mum's birthday. We celebrated it yesterday at my sister's place with a yummy dinner. I made Banofee pie. Here's the recipe if you don't already know it.

Line shallow pie or quiche dish with sweet short pastry. I use the pre rolled sheets.
Bake till golden and cooked.
Boil tin of condensed milk for 2 hours till caramel(or use the new caramel one already done)
Pour over cooked pastry.
Chop banana over this when cooled.
Top with whipped cream.
Sprinkle crumbled Flake bar over cream.

Yummo. Easy as pie too. :))

So anyway I gave her two Scrap Canvases I had made and she loved them. One of James and one of Emma. Great idea for a present.
And I made her this very quick card. Nothing fantastic. But cute and she liked it.

So sad for Ty

OMG that was sad last night when Ty got voted off Rock Star INXS. I had forgotten how well he had actually sung the night before because he was first. He is an awesome awesome singer. Unfortunately not suitable for INXS but I hope he does well on his own, he is certainly capable. He is so cool. So sad what he said about knowing the reason he wouldn't make it with the band. :( I really felt for him.

Bohemian Rhapsody

WOW Suzy. She totally rocked last night singing Bohemian Rhapsody. The best performance of the show they said. Man she was good. And what's with them singing last night. I think they must be eliminating tonight. Some NZers may have missed it last night cause it was on late. I was watching the usual Thursday night show where they pick their songs and then they carried on and sang them. Don't know why. Mig sang 'Live and Let Die' really well and Jordis sang 'Imagine' (John Lennon) really well, but the others didn't impress me that much. Hopefully Suzy will sing the encore tonight. Not to be missed that's for sure.

I did this layout last night. I did get inspiration from some other sources particularly Kim Archer. Though it was my idea to do the circles with texture paste and a circle template; and punch the flowers with magic mesh. [I think so anyway, I'm sure someone else has done it] Anyway it was a fun layout that was just random and I was trying a few ideas out.

I did my scraplift of Dagmar (germanpeas). Her 'fiddyfeet' layout. Looks better IRL. I loved the machine stitching around the photo. And yes the 'a' is crooked dammit.

Now I need to do this weeks Ad Inspiration which is particularly special cause Jessica has used the Ad I sent her. It's a cool ad. Check it out.

Ruth

This is for my friend Ruth. A new stamp Kiwiscraps has in. It's called Ruth. If you don't believe me check here.

I've finished my For Keeps Awards for Excellence pages and I'm sending them tomorrow. Yay.

And what a nice day it is today - nice and warm, though in saying that we haven't had rain for a bit and our water tank is getting low. Hopefully it will rain before the school holidays in 2 weeks time and then be nice for the holidays.

For ages now I seem to have been doing pages that I can't show anyone cause they're for a competition or magazine, so this week I want to do layouts I can post - that is of course if they are good enough. Hope to do one tonight. And I've been dying to Scraplift this awesome lady. I've never intentionally scraplifted anyone cause I haven't wanted to but I feel the need to scraplift her. I love her pages.

Updating

Just watched Rock Star INXS and I must say it just gets better and better. I don't know who was my favourite tonight. I enjoyed Deanna's song that she and Ty wrote. Suzy and Ty were great. They were all good tonight.

Looking forward to my Scrap Canvas class tomorrow and we're going to do some Bleach Stamping at the crop after. And it is safe for scrapbooking. Once it has dried, it evaporates and then it is safe with your photos. And it is safe to use with rubber stamps. Apparently it is a great stamp cleaner.

Better IRL

My first FK DT stuff. It's disappointing though that they never look as good in print as they do in real life. I did the page for a Fun Foam article. I made my own letter stamps and the accents are stamps pressed into heated foam then rubbed with ink.

Mig was awesome

Rock Star INXS once again rocked. How was Mig - so good. I also liked Suzy and Ty. Tell me who your favourite is.

Emma sat a very hard Tap dancing exam on Thursday and she thinks she did OK. She had to make part of it up herself. She's got two more grades to go till she has done them all and it's hard convincing her to keep going. Each grade now takes two years so she has 4 more years. I so want her to finish because she is very good and I love watching her dance.

I was driving home after taking Emma into town yesterday, and this happens quite often, I'll be thinking about a layout and all these ideas for journalling etc come flooding into my head and I can't write them down cause I'm driving and I try so hard to remember them, but I get distracted and forget them and thenI get so p...ed off cause it was a really good idea. The problem is I'm in the car for usually about an hour. I need one of those hand recorder thingees.

Devastating

Check out these photos on this 2peas thread. They brought tears to my eyes. So sad. It seems so unreal and far away. Those poor people.
Keep scrolling down - there's heaps.

Nic tagged me

So that means I have to say 5 things about me or idiosyncrasies as Nic said.
So here they are:

1. I always wanted to learn to drive a big truck. Rob drove trucks for awhile and we owned one but at that time I had babies and had no time for truck lessons. So it never happened.

2. I love painting my toenails with nail polish in the summer. It makes me feel fun and lively.

3. I have old hands. If you notice my hands they look older than me. They have always been like that since I was young. Does this mean something?

4. I took karate lessons for about 3 years with James and Emma before we shifted to Port Waikato 3 1/2 years ago. I achieved my Brown belt in that time. I still have the skills that were honed into me at the classes and I often enjoy a little play sparring with the kids.

5. I was a hippy. I was a vegetarian, I wore hippy clothes, I burnt incense, I hung out at Cook St Market, I listened to Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix. Rob and I lived on the beach in Gisborne for a summer in the days when you were allowed to live on the beach for the summer. It was the best time in my life - not a worry in the world.

And I tag Ruth Ross and Corinne

Found this ...

Found the link to this website at Ngaire's blog. Design your own billboard, graffiti and lots more. She has other cool links and a cool blog too.

Rock Star INXS and other ramblings

My favourites last night - Deanna, Marty and Ty. Those people can sing can't they. It's my favourite programme at the mo. Well the only one I really look forward to.

Thanks to those people who have been leaving comments. I love reading them and then I try and visit those blogs and leave comments. It's great to meet new people (so to speak) and catch up with friends.

I finished my first page (yes only my first) for For Keeps Awards for Ex yesterday and started my second. I figure if I can do a page in a day that's five days it doesn't sound so bad. But do you think I can do a page in a day. NO. I usually have to leave it overnight and then come back in the morning with a fresh head. I think I might need glasses cause sometimes if I've been scrapping all day I get quite a bad headache - I don't know if that's from looking so closely all day or the concentration. So if I finish #2 today and #3 tomorrow then next weekend #4 & 5 I should be right, right. But unfortunately you can't plan anything in this household. We'll have to see.

Ooohhh and For Keeps Issue 34 is coming out soon with the first of my Design Team stuff in it. Can't wait to see it. I'm a bit nervous but excited too.

Spirit of New Zealand

I found pics of the sailing ship James is going on. Apparently it used to be called The Spirit of Adventure but it has been replaced by The Spirit of New Zealand. Looks incredible.

The best news

I am so multi tasking at the moment - feeding the animals, getting dinner and blogging. I'm so excited. I just got off the phone from lots of calls to relies about some great news we just got.
James was nominated for a position on The Spirit of Adventure sailing ship by my wonderful Aunt who thinks the world of him. There were 17 nominations and they drew names from a hat. His name came out 3rd so yesterday he was a reserve. Today the guy said they were adding 2 more voyages so he had won a position. Awesome. That is the best news. Everything is paid for. It will be such an opportunity for him and one he will never forget. I'm so happy for him.
Also, he's just been to Raglan the last 2 days in a surf comp and he got 3rd. Soo good. He is over the moon.

And my little toot. My Urban Lily page below was accepted for their guest Gallery.
What a great day.

One day old

Will you look at these darling little creatures. These are one day old chickens that came to school yesterday for children to raise for Calf Club Day. They had to order them. So here are 38 little warm bodies all huddled together waiting to go to their new homes. Help.

One more thing ....

Please say hi if you call in to my blog. Would love to see who actually does stop by.

Make Scents

I did it, I made my header. I managed to fumble my way through it somehow.
I took the photo today of these beautiful flowers we gave a teacher at school (work) for completing her teacher registration. And i've never liked my blog title either so I changed that too.

Was reading on Ali Edwards blog about taking a photo a day to record each day visually for a period of time. I thought I'd do it for a month (if I remember to do it each day). So my first photo is my work space at work. I know, thrilling aye. But it was just what I thought of right then. I promise they won't be so boring. I will challenge myself to look for interesting subjects like Elsie Flannigan's pile of washing. How does she make that look so cool. I think it's just her that's so cool and anything she does is cool.

I really want a photobar at the top of my blog but I don't know how to make the photobar in PSE or any other way for that matter. If some nice person reading my blog knows how could you tell me please.

Finished my ScrapCanvas sample (this is going to be a very cool class) and last weeks Ad Inspiration (not that keen of my layout but oh well). Can focus on my FK Awards for Excellence pages now. Scary.

I know ...

OK I googled and I know who gets eliminated. They (the US) are 2 weeks ahead of us. But it's all good.

Rock INXS Rocks

Jordis, JD, Suzie, the blonde guy, they so rock. I can't believe how good they are. I love that programme. Might Google & see who gets eliminated. I know, I'm such a killer.

Have a pic.

[This *pick* is a crack up] James liked it.

I've swapped days this week and have today off instead of next Monday. I have so much to do. The last page of 3 for FK to finish and post today. A beginners class to organise for tomorrow, a ScrapCanvas to make and an Ad inspiration page I'd like to complete. No, I can't do all that today. Maybe the first two.
I've neglected this Blog too. Where is UnkyMoods?? I have changed my music video. Love this song - Addicted to Bass by Puretone. Takes a bit to load up though - wait and listen, it's a cool song.
Here's a cool website from a thread on 2peas. My colour is Caribbean Sea. YUM. Playful, Smart, Romantic. :)
It's such a gloriously beautiful day today. Summer's on its way YAY!!

NZ Idol update.

Well, well, well. NZ finally saw the light and put Theresa into the top 10. I still think Lissel should have been in there too instead of someone else but oh well, she's great and she'll do well anyway. I wonder if she scrapbooks, she would be great. Very out there and individual.

And what's happened to Unkymoods. I'm missing my mood indicator. The site seems to have been down for days.

About Emma ...

Emma's netball team won their last game of the season and also won their grade. Awesome. They played so well and hard this year. They totally deserved it. Emma played GA most of the time and sometimes WA. She played so well and shot lots of great goals. I'm so proud of her.
BTW she just got a fantastic school report too. (BIG SMILES)

Try this ...

Just found this fun idea on someone's blog.

Its called the "yourname is" game. You need to do a Google Search putting in "yourname is" as the searchee. (So I would put in " Lianne is" in apostrophes) and then chose your ten favourites.
My ten favourites are:

Lianne is in her late twenties, she has auburn hair and an understated beauty

Lianne is definitely the Lara Croft of QB

Lianne is dynamite

Lianne is one of the most talented players of her age in the country

Lianne is magical

Lianne is the hostess with the mostest

Lianne is the essence of the girl next door

Lianne is a graduate of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the Universityof Saskatchewan, and also holds a Bachelor of Science in biology

Lianne is self-motivated, at least in the areas of her passion

Lianne is an extremely creative individual and a superb musician


Bit of a laugh anyway.

It dosen't matter how old your children are ...

A wonderful lady writes an article for our school newsletter each week and I just had to share some of it. It really hit home for me. My guys are teenagers now and I hardly ever go in and say goodnight to them anymore cause I'm usually so busy at that time. They just put themselves to bed now. So I read this, and last night I tucked Emma in and we talked for a bit. It was good.

"It doesn't matter how old your children are; tucking them into bed or saying goodnight can be a real bonding time. It is usually a time when the child is relaxed and willing to share or talk about things.
I know on many occasions I have been in a rush to get the children in my care into bed. I just wanted them to lie down so that I could get on with my projects, tasks, or even possibly - get to bed myself. When I do that - those are wasted times for both me and the children.
My heart truly loves taking a few extra minutes with them at bedtime. I often will lie down next to them and cuddle. One of the children, a 9 year old, uses this time to ask me every question under the sun.
"Do you like red or purple better?"
"Do all planets have moons?"
“What was the nationality of the first person born?”
“If all the water dried up in the world, would we be one country?”

Things that I haven't even really taken the time to think through!
It's a great time to instil morals, values, and most of all too simply love the children. I like to hold them tightly, caress their faces and stroke their hair. For they will be older all too soon and their bedroom door will be closed to all. I pray that these times I take with them now - will keep that door open to me in the future.
Bedtime can be a really rushed time. It can be a time to usher the children out of our sight. (By the way, I have found the children don't settle down as well when I do this but instead - when I take time with them at night, they feel more secure and readily go off to sleep!)
You can choose to enjoy the bedtime ritual with your children. Even if they are teens, sit on the edge of their bed and talk softly with them for a few minutes. Hug them and let them know you love them.

This is a valuable time of day. Slow down and enjoy it. Take in the moment. It is too easily overlooked."

I can't believe it ...

It happened again tonight on NZ Idol, the best singer didn't make it to the Top 10. It's so wrong. Competitions suck sometimes. Tonight Theresa should have made it thru and last week Lissel should have made it thru. Thank goodness Nik and Jessie were picked. Here's hoping Theresa or Lissel get thru on the Wildcard.

Blah, blah, blah....

It's Monday again here in NZ - my day off work. I've done baking again - this time Afghans for the lunches. And hopefully I'm on a roll again with my scrapping. Just about finished one of 3 pages for an upcoming For Keeps issue, and I have finished a page for next Saturdays crop using new Urban Lily. Still have to take the dogs for a walk yet.

Fire

The fire alarm went off this morning and we looked out the back to see huge puffs of smoke coming from down the road a bit. It took ages for the brigade to be able to respond I guess because they didn't have enough members to attend. Engines came from town as well.
We went down to have a look and these poor people's house was just about gone. I saw the look on the woman's face and I'll never forget it. I keep seeing her face. She looked so lost and grieved. Those poor people.
What a sad thing to happen, to lose your house and all your special possessions. It happened to my Mum when she was a girl. They lost everything except the clothes they had on. So sad. I fear it happening to us.

I think I found my mojo

I thought I'd lost it or should I say I had lost it.
I could not put a page together but I think the problem was I was trying to scrap like other people instead of me. It's easy to really like what other people do and try and scrap like them but really you have your own style. I could not put it together. I even tried having a couple of drinks the other night and just putting whatever came into my head on the page - not a good look. Definitely don't scrap after a couple of drinks. Well it didn't work for me. So I decided to go back to how I scrap. And it worked (well I think so anyway - I was happy with the result) So from now on I'm scrapping my way not anyone elses and if people don't like it - oh well. But I will like it and I won't be stressed. So I came up with this layout of James using his sponsors' stickers and labels. I like using different bits and pieces on my layouts.

Today's ramblings

Jobs for the day other than the usual washing, dishes etc:
Bake a banana cake and cupcakes for the family's lunches. Done.
Take the dogs for a walk. Done.
While walking the dogs in the sand dunes, the light was good for taking photos so I practised my photography on some interesting objects. Man I wish I had a good digital camera. One day.
I came across this very cool blog today. What an inspiring person.
And I added a cool mood emoticon to my blog. Fun.
I spend so much time adding nic nacs I don't have enough time to update.
And I found this thread on 2peas very interesting today.