Tuesday, October 31, 2006

A layout for the metal swap at SE. Congrats to the new
DT over there and well done to those who entered...I just don't know how you find the time lol!!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

If you've got the Basic Grey Gypsy collection papers check out www.poppyink.com/documents/gallery.html
....can take a little bit to load if you are on dial up...but be patient...its worth it! Some fantastic inspiration to be had!

Well we are learning about all of Berts little quirks all the time...we have noticed every now and then he will pick up a random item, sometimes my slipper or a shoe or even the tv remote and take it somewhere to sit and guard it...he dosn't chew them just likes to sit and 'own' them for a bit.

This afternoon the clouds were looking ominous so I thought we'd take the car to pick Joseph up from school but uh oh no keys to be found! after 5 minutes frantic searching we had to zoom on foot to school to make it in time for the bell....I promised the kids $2 for their piggy banks if they found them when we got home....lots of searching later still no kids and I upped the price to $5 lol!! I started to think I was going mad as I retraced every step I had taken from garage after Kindy pick up to the hallway where I thought I had dropped them onto the floor next to P's kindy bag and a bag of groceries, looked in all the normal places and in all the not so normal places like the fridge and Samuels cot!

Nothing... vanished into thin air...until I noticed Bert quietly disappearing out the door with a party blower one of the kids had just been playing with and a big fat penny dropped! After a quick search outside I found them by the back steps....silly hound! Oh well least I know now where to look when things go missing

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

A wet Labour day...as mum to three boys I have started to fear the sound of rain on the roof on a weekend morning!! It always cracks me up how we extended our house for more space but we seem to still ALL end up in the same room rofl!!

Typically we put some good sounds on,


made a heap of colourful playdough which kept the boys amused for a good length of time,


Jim carried on nailing the timber on the new deck regardless of the rain...complete with his little assistant Samuel still in his pjs! He just loves helping Dad and the look on his face when he got to go in the ute to get more wood, just him and not the big boys, he really felt cool you could just tell!



I did some scrapping and some baking,



the dogs (yes we have a new doggy friend for Harry, called Bert adopted from the pound and he is just lovely!) looked for cats out the window and waited hopefully for a break in the weather for a walk


and Mum and Dad came for tea....all in all in was a good day despite the rain! Last time I have an Irish coffee though, I swear I hardly slept all night...darn caffeine! I knew I should have stuck to my green tea.... I couldn't stop planning layouts in my head....or maybe I need to drink more of it lol!!!

The layout I did 'In good company' was motivated by Ilka's challenge at SBO to make your own paper....started off by staring at my cs for a good length of time...as you do...got some green and blue paint out and dabbed some on....stared some more by which time the paint dried and it was all looking a little sad until I picked up my black zig and doodled stars and circles and spirals all over the place then glued on little squares of red to give it a lift....quite liking it by now...but the hardest bit I found was the second part of the challenge to then use bought pattern paper on the layout also! Lo and behold nothing I had seemed to work with it so I went minimal and used strips of some dotty Cherry Arte and KI memories between the journaling.

Still havn't used my new Autumn Leaves stamps....got the stars and hearts....next layout.....!!

Bert has a new nickname already...'Dirty Bertie' as in that cool kids book where the kid does all the gross things and the adults all say 'thats dirty Bertie'!! In his short time with us so far he has rolled ecstactically on a dead fish during a walk round the lake, fished a dirty nappy out of the rubbish...and held on with jaws of steel as we tried to prise it off him, and today out at the farm he found the stinkiest, pooiest mud patch he could find and covered his lovely white fur with it....under all that cute, butter wouldn't melt in my mouth fur is one disgusting mutt rofl....I swore I even saw Harry turn his nose up in disgust...but he is such a lovely fella and he is here to stay...will just have to buy in bulk dog shampoo...!!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006


My... what a big one! lol! This Oriental? poppy must have got mixed up in my punnet of Californian poppies and finally burst out of its huge bud this morning in full glory! Its bigger than my hand!

I'm still here... thanks Ilka :-)...just cogging along! Spending more time in the garden now that Spring is here and Samuel is always two steps in front of me and keeping me on my toes lol!

Scrapping wise I have just sent off a box to Scrapbook Creations with a layout I submitted and another they then asked me to create to go with it and a few words as well for their Quick and Easy page...hopefully it should be in issue 40! Thanks to Kelly (Memoryfairy) at Scrapbook Essentials for her submission challenges which motivated me to submit in the first place! Havn't done anything else!! Just quietly recharging my scrapping mojo at the moment...and the garden is the perfect place!

Jims Mum and Dad are visiting from the UK again this year which is great so we have been busy planning a weeks getaway with them and my Mum and Dad up North in March...found a wonderful bach on the beach in Tutukaka which looks like heaven for both adults and kids....all booked! theres nothing nicer then having a holiday to look forward to!! check out www.seaviewbach.co.nz

Wednesday, October 04, 2006



The NZ dare this time round is to use flowers on a masculine layout. I wanted the flowers to almost be part of the background cardstock and all the focus on the photo.

So I used the same colour cs with a rub of delish paint, outlined in grey pencil and sketchy detail added with white pen to pop it a bit....hard to get a good pic but hey you get the idea, looks better in real life though!! The words read...somewhere in the middle of wales....the man I fell in love with.

This was taken on one of our little road trips in moritz (a little red metro car) somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Wales, we used to love just driving anywhere and seeing where it would take us... the road is the grey line running across the middle and we had just raced up the side of a rather steep hill!


Our favourite hot drink lately is green tea...so much so that we have ditched the healtheries teabags and bought some proper leaves and the most gorgeous little Japanese teapot and cups (off trademe for $10!)! I feel like a little girl in the mornings now having a tea party!
Jim and I have both decided Japan is a place we would like to visit...me for the tea and gardens...the for the classic japanese cars (he has so far restored a classic honda N360 and is working on his next project. An Isuzu for the whole family to fit into lol!!

With the good weather we have been having I am really enjoying being able to fling open our new bifold doors onto the garden! We have set up the stereo in one of these rooms and it is so nice to have the music on while gardening. Really enjoying the sounds of Morcheeba, Corinne Bailey Rae and KT Tunstall at the moment.

Monday, October 02, 2006

I seem to be doing the dumbest things lately! don't know what my brain is up to at the moment...for example, the boys are out at mum and dads for a couple of nights sleepover and I totally forgot to pack Patricks nightime pullups duh! even though I laid their Jammies out and everything! Apparently Patrick told Mum when she asked where they were that 'he was a big boy now and didn't need them'....NOT!! rofl! It didn't dawn on me until midnight last night when I suddenly thought about it so rang them (how embarrassing, but hey its my parents they know I'm an egg lol!) to get him up for a wee! I know its hardly a major drama...just stupid and I hate being stupid! so get over it and get on with it lol!

Not a whole lot of scrapping going on but I have started my Get Real Album using some of the lovely new Basic Grey for the SBO comp and completed a double layout for the cyber crop they held...the challenge was to use chipboard. I painted up some letters with delish paints and decorated the star with urbanlily rubons.

The holidays are going well, I really enjoy having Joseph home and Patrick does as well, they are good playmates.
Caught my little superman Patrick in action
flying down the hill on his bike the other day


We were lucky to have such lovely weather for the first week, even got to meet up with some of my yahoo scrapping group in Hamilton gardens on Friday which was awesome...it would be so cool if one day the whole group could get together! The Japanese garden is coming along really nicely, must take some pics...when the rain stops lol!

Have just installed a better photo editing program on the pooter, have been having much fun playing. This is my first attempt at painting out an ugly background....photo taken pre Vicky's photography class lol! I know now how to get better shots without the ugly stuff in the background lol! but I really like this pic of my boys so thought I would try and save it! I like it!

Autumn leaves have a new blog to inspire and motivate you to use more colour called Designing with colour www.autumnleaves.com/colorBlog/ one day I might learn how to add the link properly lol!

I actually used red as a background on a layout the other day for the Scrapbook Essentials button swap! That is so unlike me, master of blues, greens and browns or neutrals...safe colours! So I might try and do some of the autumn leaves colour challenges to keep me using more bright colour