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.

My Middle Child

A few days ago on Hays blog (would add a link here but don't know how - check out hippyhappyhay from my sidebar) she wrote about her middle child and the middle child syndrome. A photo automatically came to mind of our middle child. It was taken a couple of years ago on a holiday at Hanmer and yes the other two had been teasing her and ganging up on her. Says it all really. Its going to make a great scrapbook page!



From an excerpt in a book that she had read it said that middle or second born child often have the sense of not belonging. They fight to receive attention from parents and others because they feel many times they are being ignored or dubbed off as being the same as another sibling. Being in the middle a child can feel insecure. The middle child often lacks drive and looks for direction from the first born child. Sometimes a middle child feels out of place because they are not over achievers and like to go with the flow of things.

Being a middle child would mean they are loners. They really don’t like to latch on to a person in a relationship, therefore they have trouble keeping one due to lack of interest. Not liking to take the limelight for anything, they are not over achievers and just simply work enough work to get by, and typically that goes with school as well as a career. They are however very artistic and creative. If forced to use abilities they will work well, but do not work well under pressure. They often start several projects but rarely keep focused long enough to finish a project. The best career move for a middle child would be along the lines of using their creative. Going into a writing or journalism career, and into a career that they could freely express themselves would be good. Anything that would have hours that are flexible, and projects that frequently changed would be good for a middle born child. Since relationships are not of high importance to a middle child, often times they are alone. However, the best possible match for a middle child would be a last born.

Now Alexia is a lot of these. She is a bit of a loner but would be a fantastic person to have as a best friend - she has lots of acquaintances. She does lack drive and looks to Rebecca for guidance especially more so now that they are teenagers. When she was younger it was the other way round. She is definitely a go with the flow kid and has a who cares attitude. With schooling it describes her to a T - she does enough to get by, is very creative, does not work well under pressure (NCEA was a big drama last year) and has a million things on the go at the same time.

How very interesting - thanks Hay. Just might have to look up now about the oldest and youngest.

On the scrapbooking front I have finished Micheles CJ. It is the last one I had to do. Have really enjoyed doing them and can't wait to get mine back. Will start posting photos after the weekend of those that have theirs back. Everyone else will have to wait - don't want to spoil the surprise. I wasn't going to do another one straight away but have had an absolutely brilliant idea for one so just might - will depend on the costs.

Happy Anniversary to Us.

Andrew and I have been married for 23 years. It seems such a long time in terms of years but it has gone so fast. Here we are 3 kids later living in our dream home designed by Andrew and finally in a position where just living is a lot easier. We no longer have the 21% interest rate that we started off in our first house with 3 hire purchases on the go at the same time and driving crappy cars that only just made it to work. Life is good and I like where we are now.

In the next few years will see some big changes especially with Rebecca turning 18 this year and finishing school. Who knows where she will be and what she will be doing next year. Also have Aaron in his last year at primary school and becoming a teenager this year. Alexia has big dreams so who knows. It is a time in our lives that we are starting to do things just for us and it is taking a bit of getting used to but the planning has begun and the dreams are big. Who knows!

Here are a couple of photos.

Alexia made us an anniversary cake. It was lovely but had all these little hard bits in it where something didn't get mixed properly!!!! LOL.

Andrews parents provided afternoon tea - cream sponge with a meringue on top. YUM.

We didn't do anything special as we have had a busy day looking at dogs at a show. More on the great doggy debate another time. Will do something a bit down the track when things aren't so hectic.

A big thanks to Trace for the lovely RAK I got on Saturday and have used the rub ons on this layout for the Friday Night Challenge. Not overly happy with it but its done. Had to use a frame, 1 big photo and 3 small and something recycled, so I used the strap cut from an old back pack. These are photos from our first trip to the Air Force Museum when they had an open day. It was a seriously cool place to visit and we were really impressed.

Have a great week.