Going to the Farm

As promised here is some pics of my latest creation ... a mini book for Emma about a recent trip to the 'farm'. This farm is actually the camp that is just out of Mosgiel where Scrap Camp was held earlier this year. John, the manager of the camp, is also one of the kindy teachers. We headed there on a bus and got to see the animals he has there - 3 lambs, 4 hens, 3 cows, 2 goats, 3 cows, 2 pigs and 1 dog. This was great especially for the kids that have never seen some of these animals up close before.
The minibook was created with the new papers from October Afternoon 'Farm Fresh' which suited the farm photos perfectly!
The photos of pigs and goats - I put it together for Emma like a storybook - so she can read the journalling herself ...

And the back ...

Speaking of October Afternoon, I have seen the new papers and with an upcoming 5 year old in our house they will be perfect for the 'off to school' pages for her album!

Now off to make invites to a certain early birthday party - theme 'butterflies/princess/fairies' - will post a peek at these once I have finished.

Hello again

... life doesn't seem to be slowing down at all, now on the run to the end of the year (no I'm not running - that would require too much energy - LOL!)
We have been busy (as per usual) over the last month, so here is a few pics to show what we have been up to ...
... Marty and his new toy ...
... Finn in training to be a Black Cap ...

... my $5 bargain at our school fair ...

... and this gorgeous girl came to stay from Melbourne for a few days ...

On scrapping front I have purchased a couple of albums lately so have been getting all my layouts in order and filed properly. Feels great to finally have these in a proper albums instead of just piled up in a file box. Got a couple of mini albums in progress at the moment and a few layouts with some of the above photos - might surprise you all with another post later in the week with some of these projects ...

Go Holden!

Yes I know a long time between posts ... honestly I do not know where this year is going ... it's going to be Christmas in no time at this rate!
I have managed a wee bit of scrapping recently, and in honour of todays great sporting event across the Tasman here is one of my creations from last month ...
... my attempt at taking a pic of the V8's at Qualifying day at Sandown in Melbourne when I was there recently. Man they go fast ... hence the funny take on this for the layout! Love that Scenic Route paper - might have to try and source a few more pieces of that now that company is sadly no more.
School holidays are over, has been a funny couple of weeks. The kids spent some time in Alex and I managed to get quite a lot of work done during that time, so was nice to have a couple of days off with them this week. Unfortunately our big day out in town had to be cancelled because of a sick boy - don't think he would have been welcome at Cadburyworld carrying his sick bowl with him! So needless to say I had two very upset kids on Friday, but the promise of a few treats over the weekend seemed to go down ok.
Can't believe this will be Emma's last term at kindy - not sure where the last 4 1/2 years has gone - she has just grown up too quick! But she is very ready for school, and is looking forward to her school visits at the end of next month.

And another month has passed ...

Is it just me or is this year going fast? Have been pretty much all go since I got home from my holiday - rugby/school/kindy/work - the days seem to all blend into one at times! So this past weekend with no commitments we decided to head away to Central for a bit of fun in the snow. We stayed with the in-laws in Alex and on Saturday we headed through to Cardrona. Winter/Spring conditions made for some beautiful scenery ... an orchard of icicles after a morning of frost fighting with sprinklers ...
... blossom encased in ice ... This is the view from the behind the Snow Farm carpark looking back over towards the Cardrona skifield ...

And this was us enjoying a few hours of fun sliding down hills on sleds ...

And yes I had a go too ... with a bit of a push - LOL!

Have a great week :)

I'm back ...

... so did you miss me? LOL!
I had a great break away in Melbourne, such a beautiful and funky city ...
... this little chick to play with ...

... a very cool little shop, with yummy treats ...

... a bit of V8 speed on practice day at Sandown ...

... and an overweigh suitcase on the way home - opps!

Also danced on down at the P!NK Funhouse concert - such an amazing singer, and the opening act was none other than kiwi band Evermore! Whew - am now home for a rest!!

In scrappy news I haven't achieved much since I got back but do have a pile of photos to print, a list of layouts 'to do', and ideas of scrapping projects. I didn't find much 'new' product in Oz, we are very lucky here in NZ to have a lot of the latest stuff and with the exchange rate at the mo is actually more expensive to buy over there. I visited Kaisercraft in Geelong while over there, was great to see all their products in one place but again we now have access to all of this stuff now here.

Lastly, I do have a new layout to share, this is one I did as Guest Designer for SBO for the latest ezine ...

Hope you all have a great week :)

A month almost flown by ...

... since my last post, am not exactly sure why this year is managing to disappear so quickly!
School holidays are basically over now and we have survived. We had a trip to Invers to see my parents and Emma went along to her first major netball game. She loved the 'bangers' and didn't get too bored with the game - but thank goodness it wasn't any longer!
The kids stayed down with my parents for a few days which they all enjoyed. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to enjoy the peace as had work hours to get done for the week, but this meant that I could have a couple of days off with the kids when they got home.
So we did bike rides to the local library...

Carrying home only a limited number of books ...

Had some chilly weather, including bumper frosts that made this little garden ornament look a bit funny with an extra layer of icy fuzz!

We baked and made some yummy biscuits and a load of cupcakes ...

... and to top it all off we had a crazy night of earthquakes, just a tad scary!!

But something I have noticed with the holidays this time, and it might be because the kids are getting older, but the volume of the noise has increased dramatically! They have been playing nicely togther, no major fights but some days I just wish I could have found their 'mute' buttons!! LOL!

Am pretty excited at the week to come, 5 sleeps to go til my little adventure across the ditch. The six weeks since I booked the tickets has flown past, now just have to ensure travel insurance is sorted and get some money changed over. Have a couple of things on the 'to do' list, and thanks to my brothers planning this list is growing. We now have tickets to P!NK's concert on Thursday night (30th) and then hope to go to Sandown on Friday (31st) for the qualifying day of V8 race cars.

On the creating front I have actually spent a bit of time going through all of the kids layouts, adding journalling and dates where there was none. Also finding where I have gaps and now plan on going through the pile of photos and filling in those gaps with new layouts. I don't want to scrap every photo of have of the kids but amd trying to aim for one a month for them - well at least for the first two years. After I have this sorted I will be getting some new albums and filing these away in order.

Have been doing some new creating today but you will have to wait a couple of weeks to see some of it ;)

One month to go ...

... a month today and I will be finally giving my wee niece the biggest cuddles ever - she is now 6 months old and I cannot wait to finally meet her. This is my niece who was born 10 weeks early just before Christmas - she is so cute and I can't wait to meet her in person!
And yes she lives in Melbourne which also means I get to spend some time also crusing the streets of this cool city exploring.
I have been doing my homework and have discovered a Huge Craft & Quilt Fair is on the weekend I arrive - ok so I might have known this before I booked ;)
Also have a list of a couple of other things of interest like a really cool looking cupcake shop and the KaiserCraft factory outlet down in Geelong.
Can you tell I am excited?!?!

In other news, I am so proud of my boy! Finn has grown in confidence over this rippa rugby season and finally scored his first try on Saturday!!! I was standing only a couple of metres away from the corner and saw the look of delight on his face when he scored and the congratulations he got from his teammates - he was soooo excited and happy and looked like he just wanted to burst. In recognition of his effort the parents decided he should be Player of the Day! But being the typical male the story of his try only took 5 minutes to 'grow' - in his words "I just spotted a gap and ran as quick as a cheetah" - LOL! The trophy has had pride of place on his bookcase all week and even went to school for newstime on Monday.

Nothing crafty to show today, have been trying to sort out my messy scrap area, almost done so will get creating again soon!

Winter wonderland!

Yesterday morning hubby went off to work just after 6am but was back home a few minutes later. I am thinking 'what has he forgotten now' - don't laugh coz it happens frequently! So he comes in and says, roads too dangerous everything is covered in snow. I stayed in my cozy bed for a few more minutes before getting up to have a peak past the curtain and sure enough it was definitely winter out there! Schools/kindy's closed for the day! It wasn't so much the snow that was the problem, but the fact with the freezing temperatures any compacted snow was promptly turning to ice. Hubby has skidded through a couple of interesections and didn't want to risk trying the motorway which was sensible and they closed the motorway not long afterwards because of accidents.
So here are a few photos of our day in the snow ... with breaks inside for milo and piklets while sitting by the warm fire ...

And the following photo is one I took at rugby on Saturday morning out at Outram - the fog made for a spectacular sight ...

Now off to get the kids to school, 10am start this morning, snow all gone but lots of black ice so a later start to be safe.

A little surprise ...

... from my friend Beverley in Wellington, some cupcake goodness - just beautiful!

And such a gorgeous box ...
Really brightened up my day receiving the parcel from Beverley - thank you so much!
Been a chilly week down here, lots of frost and fog hanging around, but very beautiful all the same ...

And this afternoon I finally booked flights .... 7 weeks til I get to go and give me wee niece a huge cuddle!

A bit of advertising fun ...

... if you liked the drumming gorilla you might like this new ad which starts tomorrow ...