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 ...

OUCH!

Finn was playing ball tag at lunchtime on Moday and decided to kiss the concrete in a big way! Got a call from school and was greeted by an upset wee guy with this mess on his face. It doesn't look as bad now, and the bandage is there to protect a large area where lots of skin missing - yuck! Also two skinned knees and scruffed toes on the day old new school shoes!!
Crafty wise - I am almost all caught up on my 365 album, just last weeks photos to print and last two weeks of journalling to do. Had a scrap sunday with the girls at the weekend and managed to get a couple of layouts done.
But am trying to ignore my scrap desk at the moment and concentrate on getting some contract work done - but wouldn't you know it my mojo is back and I just want to play not work - argh!

Whew ...

... hubby found out yesterday that he has his job still! Well there is a restructure so it's one of the new jobs.
To say it's a relief is an understatement, has been in the back of our minds for the past few months ever since the changes were announced. We have tried to stay positive but you are always thinking 'what if ...'
So I think we will celebrate a little this weekend and my thoughts go out to anyone else who is currently going through this too ...

Busy busy

... after a few days with the help of this ...


I am feeling a tad better. Can actually bend over without feeling like my head is going to explode out of my eyes! Germs - GO AWAY! Oh yeah and the dog is sick too - she did a huge vomit by the sliding door on Friday night - yip inside - YUCK! Took her to the vet and she has a bit of a fever so on meds and very bland food for the next few days :(
On the scrapping front a bit of playing and I created this ...



These were some of the photos I took in Central Otago at Easter time. Love how the Cosmo Cricket Happy Camper range just fit perfectly with the colours in the photos.
On Friday I also did a bit of shopping for scrappy supplies at the 24 hour Regent Theatre Book sale - an annual huge book sale held here in Dunedin. These are the treasures I found, a mixture of old novels, music books and dictionaries - just perfect to use on some vintage style layouts. They were a bargain indeed as all books are only $1 each!!! Hence my wee pile :)

My head is spinning at the moment with a lot going on in our lives - jobs waiting to be confirmed, as well as finding a house with HUGE section that we love and the tough prospect of thinking about selling our current home which we still actually love - very tough decisions to be made in the next week. But I am sure it will all end up working out just fine but tough to get my brain around it all as well as keeping control of all the day to day stuff round here. Whew, with that off my chest now I am off to make a cuppa and relax for a bit ...

Rain, rain go away ...

... come again another day! It started Thursday night while we were at rugby practice and pretty much hasn't stopped since! *sigh*
Althought the weather gods did listen to me and we had a rain free Saturday morning for Finn's rugby (my parents were chuffed to see him play) and then it started again at 11.30am that morning.
With the gloomy weather and stuff going on at hubby's work, now add to that I am stuffed up with blocked sinuses, ears, sore throat, dull achy head - normally I am the last one to get any colds but this year I am the first! LOL!
But on the bright side I don't need an excuse to stay snuggled up inside by the fire, doing a bit of scrapping and reading. ;)
So on that note I am off to do a bit of creating while my head feels clear, then looking forward to a pile of cheeserolls for lunch - yummo!