On the Move

Have finally made the move to wordpress and you can find me here http://vickiparker.wordpress.com/

But be warned its still a work in progress.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Layouts

Here are the layouts I have finished from Fridays crop.

The "Crazy" one is from Trinas sketch at SBO and the Totally Fascinated one is what I did for Tanya at Stamp In Scrap.

We are in clean up mode outside and the outdoor furniture has been cleaned and put away although it is a beautiful day and we could still be using it!! So much for the grotty weather we were expecting. Off now to clean up my scrap area and sort out what to do next.

Have a great Sunday.

Thanks Everyone

Thanks all for your kind thoughts. Just to update, I rang the camp this morning and she was off doing "stuff" and according to the leader I spoke to - was perky. Thats enough for me and she was going to tell her that I had rung and that she could ring me back. Haven't heard from her but can imagine she would do the rolly eye thing and mutter to herself about mothers who worry about nothing!!! This is something the doctors are expecting her to grow out of but as you can see we are still waiting. As for the zzzz's have been too busy scrapping.

Just have Aaron home today as Rebecca is at work. He is making the most of it with dibs on TV, DVD and computer, and no arguments. Its very peaceful.

Got a RAK in the mail today - thanks to Michelle W for the lovely ribbon - have been looking at getting that for a while now so perfect timing. Also Julie - the PIF still hasn't come!!! Are you set to do battle with NZ Post?

Not Sleepy Tonight

OK its now 4.05am and I am sooo not sleepy. Just worrying about Alexia away helping at a Brownie Camp. We got rung to say that she had had a fit (she has epilepsy) and that she was OK and didn't want to come home. They were still OK to have her there as well but still she's not here where I can see her - if you know what I mean. She hasn't had one since the end of December last year and prior to that was June last year so they are few and far between but I know that she is going to be really annoyed/upset and just downright p****d off because she has to have 2 years seizure free before being weaned off her medication and now it all has to start again. So that is why I am sitting here at this time checking blogs, leaving comments, reading the SE forum, checking out Trade Me, reading emails etc etc etc.

Will upload some layouts I did at Tanyas crop in the morning - very pleased with myself as I did about 4 of them. Certainly does help to make up page kits to take along.

From the Blogs

On the rounds of checking my bloglines found some things that you might like to check out:

1. Joanne - You thought the crime was bad here in NZ check out what is happening where Joanne lives - its the OMG post on 29th March.

2. Mel - Want a laugh check out Mels post on Essential Items on 31st March. Go Mel!!!

3. Lesli - Has some fabulous sketches and check out that give-away.

Closer to home

4. Tanya is doing kids classes over the school holidays. They are just fantastic - some lucky kids there. Also thats my layout up for her sketch for this week - how cool!

5. Trace - yes definitely on the countdown now to our holiday just like you. Getting a tad excited about it all.

6. Hannah - Happy 30th birthday. Who's the spoilt one???

Thats it for now - off to the hairdressers for a long overdue cut. Will leave the colour a tad longer so that I look great for those holiday photos - thats if I can put up with the brown/gray stripey look going on!

Lets Try It Again

Finally I can put some photos here. Thats our letterbox and driveway at the bottom of the photo and our bark at the neighbours in the top!

This is the garden that Andrew made - check out that straight edge. Just starting to put the bark down.

A layout from Tanya's crop - finally used that Scenic Route paper that I was a bit iffy about.

Alexias excitement over the Westlife tickets. A Page Maps Sketch.

Aaron with his chewing gum and my intense dislike of the stuff.

Have had a good weekend apart from the bark chip drama. Caught up with friends visiting from Blenheim today. Colleen not too sure about the photo of her in my BOM!!! Talked to Mum in Australia who is just getting a tad excited about us coming and worrying that we will think of her as old as she has lots more wrinkles since we last saw her!!! Scrapped a bit. Went across to our new local store - Bunnings - for lunch. Those sausage sizzles are going to be great for Sunday lunches - I can just send Aaron across with his dollar. Today we supported Pregnancy Help, next week who knows? Finally have Rebecca home for tea - she has been out 5 out of 7 nights this last week. Off to watch ER & Men in Trees and guess what, now only three weeks to Australia!

Oops!

Today we got our bark chip delivered for the garden we created over Easter. Only problem was they delivered it to the wrong house! We were patiently waiting for it as it was supposed to be here between 9 and 10am but it didn't come. Andrew rung them up and was told that it had already been delivered. Turns out he came at 7.30am and dumped it on a neighbours front lawn a couple of houses over. Big oops! We moved it with the help of Andrews Dad and did the best we could to clean it all up off the lawn and the driver came back to check it out as well. The neighbours weren't home and we haven't seen them yet. Not quite sure how to explain it to them as they don't speak much English so might just write a note and pop it in the letterbox. As a result of the mistake they have given us a voucher for $70 off our next order. Yahoo - no excuses now not to do the gardens around the back.


Am getting fed up with blogger as it doesn't like doing any photos at the moment so will have to wait until it gets its act together.

Fireworks

Have just got back from watching the fireworks across the road for the new Bunnings opening. Was going to try and take some photos but it was pouring with rain. Managed to stay dry though. What a fantastic display - was expecting it to be a 5 minute wonder but went on for about 15 minutes and very different to what we see at Brighton at Guy Fawkes. Well worth the effort and makes up for all the traffic disruption and dust etc that we have experienced over the past year.

Have been trying to upload a couple of photos but blogger not playing nicely so will try that again tomorrow.

Been cropping today and got the beginnings of about 4 layouts that I will finish over the weekend.

Note to Tanya - spit on the screen is not good! ROFL.

A Beautiful Day

We sure have had a lovely day. This morning I went for a walk around our Botanical Gardens. We are not called the Garden City for no reason. It was just beautiful and with the change in seasons such a lot of colour. Definitely an autumn feel about things with the chestnuts on the ground and did see some lovely pink flowers from late bulbs. There were lots of tourists around taking photos. It seemed like every man and his dog and every mum and her pram were out walking. A few joggers as well - not for me though - too many wobbly bits when I run!!! LOL. This was all at 9am this morning too!

But do you know what I really noticed - that if you smile and say hello to people - THEY DO IT BACK!

Happy Autumn Days everyone.

Layouts, layouts and more layouts.

Just a couple done over Easter:

And my Book of Me that blogger wouldn't let me do the photos for the other day.

This is the Special Letter one (front view). Have written about how my friend Colleen sends me beautiful friendship cards and how she always signs them the same way. Used a transparency over the top and traced Colleens writing.

My 10 Greatest Joys (Front) - thanks Neen for the quote I "borrowed" from your blog.

My Dream Job: Again have used a transparency for the journalling.

My Bucket List: An acrylic page - starting to get the hang of these now. Just waiting on my new postage stamp pages (hint hint to a certain someone).

My pages are very simple and managing to get all the challenges done as they are basically 6x6 which is really working for me. Roll on April.

Just for Mel

Hi Mel
Go for it - the Book of Me that is!! We are doing prompts by Janine and Hannah at Scrapbook Essentials. Check out Book of Me Challenge under the Forum index. We started last month and here are the ones for February:

1) What's in a name? What does your name mean? Do you know why your parents chose it? What does your name mean to you? Do you like or dislike your name? What nicknames do you have? If you don't know much about your name or it's origin, there are some great websites out there which have tons of information!

2) All shopped out. Keep your reciepts from the supermarket, petrol station, lunchbar, etc for a whole week, then use them on a layout (pays to photocopy them otherwise the ink will fade over time). Journal about the things you buy and why. Comment on the prices or why you like the brands you do. Perhaps take photos of some of the items on your receipts and use these on your page.

3) A magic carpet ride. If you could go anywhere in the world, right this second, where would you go and why? To a show, to visit friends or family, or just somewhere you have never been? (Maybe somewhere that it is raining, LOL)

4) What would you grab? Okay, so for some reason you have to leave your house RIGHT NOW!! Assuming all your family and pets are safe, what THREE things, yes only three, would you grab and why? Perhaps a photo of each to compliment your layout?

Here are the ones for March:

1) The Bucket List. Okay so it is a movie at the moment and I thought it would be a great topic. List 5 things from your bucket list – that is what would you love to do before you, ummm, are no longer. Maybe like me it is small things like learning to tat or maybe you are brave and adventurous and would like traveling the Kalahari on camel.

2) Dream Job. If you could wake up in the morning and do ANYTHING for a job and the magic fairy granted you the money and skills to do it, what would it be?

3) Letters. After finding 60-year-old love letters my Grandad sent to my Grandma, it has inspired me scan & scrap them! So how about scrapping a special letter or card? It could be one you have kept from your childhood or teenage years. It could be a love letter or card from your boyfriend/partner/hubby. It could be a note or Mother's Day card from one of your children. Or a special letter from a friend.

4) My Greatest Joys. Scrap your 10 greatest joys. Create a layout about the 10 things that bring you joy or happiness. Photos are optional, but could be a neat way to include lots of smaller pics on a page.

Would be great to see what you do as well.

Also here is the Easy Quiche recipe - just about forgot.

3 eggs
1 and half cups milk
1 cup grated cheese
half cup self raising flour

Beat eggs and milk. Add cheese, flour, salt and pepper and options such as bacon/ham, onion, parsley etc. Put in greased dish (I find spray is the best) 200degC for 40mins.

You can put just about anything in the filling - we had it for tea tonight. Just yum.

Good luck.

Easter

Four days seem to have flown by so fast.

On Friday we got stuck into the garden and planted the plants down the fence line that we had bought the previous night. It is so nice now to look out the lounge slider to greenery and not just the boring brown fence.

On Saturday it was cold and drizzly so I scrapped. Finished off my Book of Me layouts for March. Did my 10 Greatest Joys, My Bucket List, My Dream Job and a Special Letter from my friend Colleen. I thought my Bucket List be easy but it was harder than I thought. My list mostly involves travel as we haven't done much of this. Very funny that Trace is heading to Antarctica whilst I'm going to Alaska on our lists. Would put photos here but blogger not co-operating with any.

Rebecca surprised us with a Cadbury Moro Gold Easter egg after she finished work on Saturday. So totally unexpected and isn't she such a good girl thinking of her parents. My in-laws gave us a family present - a 1kg egg - guess who's going to make a start on it first!

On Sunday we went out to the dog show again but the people and dogs we went to see weren't there much to our annoyance so finished fluffing in the garden - lawns etc.

Today the lawn edges actually got the big chop - this is what I have been waiting 4 years for. Andrew is very fussy and it has taken most of the day for him to do this. I just had to stand there and say he was doing a good job and provide the coffee and lunch. Next weekend the bark chip goes down and then we can finally say the landscaping for the front of our house is finished. Yahoo!

Finally check out what Annelie is up to on her blog - got to be in to win!!!

Circle Journal

Here is the finished album - hopefully you can all see them OK and doesn't take forever to download.

The instruction page - had to do 2 pages - one to be about your pet peeves, what really annoys you and the other what makes you feel good about scrapbooking. Had to stick to the same colour theme and do a flower on the page which was different to what everyone else had done.

The sign in page:

The lovely creative ladies who took part:

My pages:
Michele:

Julie:

Alice:

Debbie: Donna:

Beverley: Janine: Kelly:
Louise: Tanya:

Happy Day

Well, we have survived to the end of the school week. Sure has been a busy one.

Aaron got a 3rd at the zone swimming sports. Alexia got sunburnt playing at the estuary on her biology trip. Weatherwise we have had some fantastic temperatures this week - in the high 20's.

Happy Birthday to Avonside Girls High School. The whole school celebrated 80 years today with a fashion parade of the old uniforms by the teachers - apparently really funny especially the principal wearing the current uniform (complete with IPod, sunglasses, cell phone etc). Then each form class had a can of drink, easter eggs and birthday cake. The girls were just buzzing when I picked them up after school - they just loved it. The photos are going to be put on the internet so that should be interesting.

Today I went to a crop at Tanya's and worked on my Book of Me. Tanya worked on my Circle Journal and now have it in my hot little hands. It makes for very funny reading and will share it over the weekend. Am really happy with it and thanks everyone for their contributions. I just love it.

Have been to the nursery with Andrew after work and we have bought a few plants to go in the garden over the weekend. The traffic was horrific with everyone leaving for their Easter holidays and we had to do a big detour round the block for what is normally a 2 minute drive up Marshlands Road.

When we got home it was to find that Alexia had cooked tea for us. Any tea that I don't have to think about, plan and cook is like a 3 course dinner and she was pretty pleased with herself. Is now arguing with Andrew about her cooking the meals versus them all going round to Nana's for meals when I am on scrap camp. Not my problem - they can fight it out amongst themselves. LOL

A special note to our resident "Angelgurl" - have a fantastic birthday tomorrow. Love hearing what you have been up to and look forward to hearing what happens tomorrow. Have a good one.

Happy Easter everyone.

Why Is It that...

....everything happens in a short week. Have just realised that Rebecca is out every night this week either working or at a friends 17th birthday. Aaron had a school trip yesterday doing the waste thing ie. he visited the landfill, the refuse station and also "The Shed" where they sell recycled stuff. Tomorrow he has the zone swimming sports. Alexia is also on a school biology trip tomorrow. For only 4 days before Easter it just seems like everything is crammed in. My friend Judy would laugh at me and tell me to "just breathe".

Last week I received an email from Telecom saying that I needed to update our email settings to ensure that we could continue to send emails. Yesterday I had a lady ring me to help me do this. Today I get a letter saying it has to be done by the 18th to ensure that we will still be able to send and receive emails. So what happens - I try to do it myself and get stuck so I ring the help desk only to find out that we are OK and don't need to do anything. What the....!!!!

Here are some layouts I have finished. This first one is from the Basic Grey March sketch and have tried to upload to their gallery but don't quite get that either (apparently its not square - bit tricky for me seeing as its a double layout). I am such a technophobe but hey I'm learning. LOL.

This second one is one of Trinas sketches:

And a scraplift of Tanya's. Tried out my new grunge board for the first time - very cool stuff.

Check out what Tanya is up to. Such exciting news - all the best with that my friend and can't wait to see what you will have coming up.

Also saying hello to Five-Browns (Mel, I think) from Cape Town. She "found" me through Lesli's blog. Thanks for visiting. Yahoo - I've gone international. ROFL.

A Busy Weekend

Yesterday was one of those days spent round home just doing anything and everything. The Christmas lights have finally come down and had the spiders dusted off and packed away. Also been round the spouting and brushed off the spiders and then sprayed just to make sure they stay away. We have quite a few round the place and amongst the plants not to mention the odd white-tail spider found crawling across the carpet. These ones give me the heebie-jeebies.

Definitely an autumn feel about the place now with the leaves on the cherry trees starting to change. Had a bit of prune in the garden and planted up some bits and pieces given to us from my in-laws who have a wonderful garden. Also picked the last of the big tomatoes and the caterpillers can have the rest. Still lots coming on the cherry tomatoes though.

Andrew sprayed the weeds last weekend in preparation for our big thing in the garden over Easter. Are finally going to cut the lawn edging to make our gardens. Every summer I have had the excuse that it is too dry to do it and the edge will all crumble and every autumn/winter I have had the excuse that it is too wet to do so next weekend he has no excuse! Four years is a bit long to wait.

Today Rebecca had the day off and we went shopping. She has worked most weekends and I told her that it was OK to say no as she has been left with no time to actually spend some of the money she has been working so hard for. Today was the day and even then she got rung this morning to see if she could work. She is happy and now owns 2 more pairs of shoes, a big canvas to decorate, beads to make jewellery, beading magazine, book and photos printed off. A good day for her.

Have finished a couple of layouts over the last week.

This is a scraplift. Thanks Tanya.

This is from the SE February Kit instructions. Am quite enjoying doing the odd girlie page at the moment. Thanks Janine. I do appear to have a bit of a thing for striped paper! LOL.

Thats about it for now - off to check my bloglines.

Bits and Pieces

First up - look what I got today at our LSS. Very cool and there is a postage stamp shape that I will get as soon as I sell some more stuff on Trade Me. LOL. Thanks for the coffee and company today Tanya.


Also here is my take on the Friday Night Challenge. Didn't get it done on time as was a bit confused over what words were to be used as some put them relating to their life so far (which I thought it was) and others chose words describing themselves now. So I did both and have put them in my Book of Me. Part of the challenge was just to do the words with no explanation as to why you chose those words but think words like painful and stressful need a bit of explaining. Painful = 3 childbirths, 1 miscarriage and 2 surgeries over the years. Stressful = the building of 4 houses over the years - no wonder I am going grey!

Left side - yep thats me.


Right side.


Am seriously thinking of changing over to wordpress but have seen Beverleys blog where she did a post just commenting on the comments. So here goes:

To Trace - thanks so much for the offer of a bed but don't really like my chances of being able to get up there for a crop anytime soon. You also get this award because I think you and I are in the same boat when it comes to learning about all the bloggy and computer stuff and we can learn from each other.


To Yvette - should have given you my cell phone number and will email you with it so that we might be able to have a chat over coffee next time you are in Christchurch under nicer circumstances.

To Hay - No. 38 is expensive. Good luck with that.

To Janine W - get well!!!

To Lesli - thanks for commenting on my blog from the other side of the world. Am taking those sketches to Tanya's crop tomorrow night and will share when done.

To Beverley - thanks for the instructions on how to "do a link".

Finally got all the photos loaded - seems to have taken all day and guess what six weeks today, we will be in Australia. Yahoo! The countdown has begun and starting to get excited now.

Circle Journal

Seeing as Julie, Janine and Michele now have their circle journals back will show you photos of what I did in their albums.

Julies theme was the Wonders of Nature - had to do a nature photo and poem to match. The pages that had been done were just gorgeous and its definitely a coffee table book. It is taken at the Mirror Lakes on the Milford Sound road. We sure do live in a wonderful country.

Janines theme was Pamper Me - what do you do to pamper yourself? Me - nothing! So I wrote about this in a blog post a while ago when I first got this CJ and put that in the pages. Told the story of how Tanya took me out for the day and pampered me. What a great friend. Hope to do more of these "Just Because" lunches this year. What do you say Tanya? This is the left side.

And the right side.

Micheles theme was Ad Inspiration. Had to create a couple of layouts based on ads that she had chosen. Went with couple of photos again from our trip down south. Now one of these photos is the same as Julies but confession time - this one is the right way up. Can you tell? This is the left side.

And the right side.

Will do some more later as people get their ones back and hopefully Tanya will have finished mine off at scrapcamp and will get it at the crop on Wednesday.

More Layouts

Just another couple of layouts leftover from Tanya's crop.

This first one is Rebecca at aged 18mths. One of my favourite photos of her.


The second is my busy boy. Doesn't everyone have a need to build dams in the river? Again an older photo.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments of late - just loving it. For all you bloggy people - why does my bloglines list sometimes have little red exclamation marks next to names?

Off to try and do the Friday Night Challenge at SE but not liking the chances of getting it finished in time. Am a bit stuck on the words - have to choose 6 words to describe my life so far.

Glad all you Auckland croppers had a great time - how about sharing those layouts?

Look what I got from Kelly - Thanks Kelly.

Just Sharing

Heres a couple of layouts. This first one is Aaron taken quite a few years ago. Just loved the look on his face. Thats also Grandad being a big kid. Started this layout at Tanya's crop last Wednesday and finally finished it.

This one is for the SE Sketch Challenge. It tells the story of Alexia and her love for coffee. Not quite sure when I was allowed to start drinking tea/coffee at home but she manages to grab the biggest cup she can because "she needs a coffee".

Happy scrapping to all the ladies at Scrap Camp in Queenstown and also to everyone at Debbies today in Auckland - have fun. Wish I could be there.