Here are my favourite pics from my photography homework. I identified our hallway by the front door of all places as having good lighting and it also has a dark curtain which I used as a backdrop.


Wasn't going to do the NZ dares this time round, but started fiddling around this afternoon and put this one together using some of the making memories moulding strips that I 've had hanging around for absolutely ages!

I took Vicky's online photography class at SBONZ on Tuesday night....This lady knows her stuff, but explained it so simply with the most awesome examples of her own pictures...that I 'got' it!! Now I just have to put it into practice which isn't so easy lol! I tend to be a panic clicker...but my subjects are usually kids or the dog and they move sooo darn quick! Anyway I have been carrying my camera around all day and trying to practice all the wonderful things we learnt this week...2 lessons to go...these are my favourite pics for the day...even the dog got to play soopermodel and said cheese...gotta love those teeth!





ps: do people usually iron their backdrop sheets or what? mine's definately got that crinkled look lol!

All Hail

the

sandpit
king!!!

Who ever invented the camera deserves a medal...I just love catching funny little moments like this...it is going to make me a very happy old lady one day!!

Well done Mum, I forgot Fathers Day lol! well we all forgot really, I was reading the paper over Jims shoulder and noticed a big ad saying Fathers DAy Special!! The kids promptly announced they knew because it had been on 'What Now' that morning, but hadn't realised they were actually supposed to do anything lol! So they went out to the garden and picked Dad a flower....as you can tell we don't go for making a big deal out of these sorts of days, but its still nice to give them a hug and tell them they are appreciated...

Here is my layout for NZDares pattern paper dare...use 7 or more. My lovely niece Jessica is the star of this one!

Thanks Meg at Scrapbook Essentials for the chance to play at Guest Designer, I had such fun, the layouts I created can be seen up in the gallery now.

Jim has finished most of the hard landscaping now in the back garden for my Japanese garden so I can start planning and planting now...can't wait to get stuck in...

Phewff so the LSS ride ends for me! I am so glad I took part and really enjoyed the creative push but quite glad to get off here and concentrate on my SE layouts this weekend. The effer girls have thrown a curve ball for the next dare and called it #3.5 which has to be in by Saturday...I would never have done it with all my hair intact rofl!! Commiserations Vicky but we still have one kiwi contender in still Marieke Broeckman...all the very best to you for the next one, will be cheering for you!

Other news is my baby boy has turned one this week! He had a lovely day with lots of cupcakes and wonderful pressies. Poor wee fella is still struggling with his teeth which seem intent on all coming through at once...his nose and saliva are streaming so he is a bit of a soggy one year old at the moment lol!!

Had a bit of a What The?!!!! moment on Wednesday when the kindy teacher rang that morning to say Patrick had had 'An Accident.....quite an extensive one actually" while my heart did flip flops and my head started racing with thoughts about ambulances, ringing Jim and getting down there quick....she then calmly said .....and his shoes are thoroughly soaked do you mind if he walks around in bare feet... dumbfounded I blurted out, so hes just wet his pants then, of course he can wear bare feet!!! Really!!! are they not trained in telephone calls lol!! Could she not have just said, Patrick has peed his pants and his shoes and saved me same grey hairs......hold me up!!!

Ok so if you want to see some creativity going wild, head over to twopeasinabucket and pop last scrapper standing #3 into the search!! The girls judging are REALLY spoilt for choice this week! Anway here is my entry, it suits me but after seeing the competition I am thinking I will be having a lovely restful week next week lol!!

Cannot believe I am through to LSS round 3, as is Vicky! excited or what! The dares don't get easier though this week its all things circle, I was pleased to latch onto an idea straight away this time so feeling less stressed about this one!

Lovely weekend, Joseph's team had a good win at their soccer match and earned the coaches choice player of the day, so cute! It has been great to see the team learn to work together and support each other over the season, their last game next week, I am going to miss it when it finishes the whole family has enjoyed it!

The kids nasty cold cough bug finally got me...aaagggh...dratted cough is driving me (and everybody) nuts!!

Have finished one layout for SE, got photos sorted for the board book will order from digimax tomorrow and the other layout won't take long so should have it all finished by the end of the week hopefully.

No school tomorrow for Joseph as all the schools in the area are closed for the Maori Queen's Tangi....could be a nightmare trying to get over the bridge to mainly music too so think we will just stay put at home!

Jim has treated himself to a BMX bike for his birthday next week so he can play around down at the skate ramps with the boys. Its great, the boys love it that Dads out there with them doing what they are doing, Joseph is getting really confident and speeds over the ramp and has started going riding the skate bowl too has had a couple of minor tumbles but they don't seem to faze him at all. Patrick is happy to just potter about and I help him zoom over the ramp.

Man that was exhausting! I raided the choc olate stash after this lol! The cause of the urgent choc eating is this, my entry for LSS dare no.2 (use 13 pics on one layout), left all the sticking down for this morning only ran out of my favourite sticky dots and had to use those blasted photo splits which drive me mad trying to peel off bits everywhere and they always want to stick to your finger and not the paper!!. For a start didn't know where to go with this one to make it stand out so had to stop thinking of the competition aspect and just create the layout for myself, which is good because I have a layout that I like without having tried to over do it. Have had a quick peek at some of the other entries and all I can say is "wowee!! Some people come up with the most amazing ideas!!


But!! no rest for the wicked mwah ha ha, the goodie guest designer box from Meg at SE arrived yesterday full of the most wonderful urban lily paper and some other treats for me to play with so I shall get a start on that tonight, have some ideas going....must dig out some baby photos....

Woohoo I'm in the next round of LSS! Along with the talented Ms Vicky Gibson (see my links) go the kiwi girls!!
So to the next dare...called the 'Bakers dozen' which is to use 13 photos on a layout....have been scribbling random ideas all day....

NZdares next challenge has been extended to a 2 week deadline!! Not keen on this... a fast game is a good game...I was putting things together much quicker with less procrastinating because of the short deadline and was really happy with what I was turning out....Come on you kiwi scrappers rise to the challenge and push yourselves, thats half the fun! waiting 2 weeks is going to become very ho hum!

I have a lot of fun with challenges also at Scrapbook Essentials forum and Meg has lots of lovely goodies in the shop there too!! She also very generously supplies a guest designer kit and all those who have over 40 posts go into a draw to become the designer for the month! Ruth was to be this months but due to her Mum in Hospital she will be doing next months and there was a re-draw.... Me lol! Hopefully the kit should be here on Monday which gives me a couple of weeks to create like mad!!!

This is my entry for the Last Scrapper Standing dare for Effer dares....Cherryarte paper again perfect colour...blue and green...my favourite combo.

I used rubons for the title then added a couple of epoxy stickys, one with the word pure and the other Energy renew but wished I hadn't as they look a bit funny...couldn't get them off though without ripping the paper darn it! but never mind, this is creativity and creativity isn't perfect!

Started off with just the white sequins for the swirls but decided it just wasn't quite working so raced down to the local fabric shop and found the beads, couldn't believe it when I walked in and they had them in just the right colours...so I simply imbedded them into the sequins with a bit of glue...I like it, my bit of arty farty scrapbooking lol!

Just waiting now to see if I get through into the next round!!

Well its been a week of snot, snot and more snot with alot of coughing thrown in for good measure...3 kids with colds ...fabulous... poor wee Samuel is having a hard time sucking his fingers with a stuffed up nose and wakes up very grumpy as he ususally sucks them to settle himself back to sleep if he wakes... so sleep for both him and I has been sporadic the last few days!

Got my A into G and finished a layout for NZ dares No.4 challenge 'The Chaos within'...chose a more serious tone with this one and scrapped my lovely Nana who is dealing with Alzheimers. I love this paper by Cherry Arte...it does pay not to scrap while tired though as the mistakes kept coming thick and fast but I just wanted to finish and fell into bed at 12.30pm lol!

Am now working on my Last Scrapper standing challenge with the effers which is to do all journalling on the photo itself. I need to finish tonight so could be another late one!! yes Jim is a scrapwidow lol!!....heres a sneak peek...more gorgeous cherry arte paper...the photo looks a bit strange but should look good once I've finished with it!! I hope!!

Well for some reason these NZ dares are really tickling my scrapping funny bone and I 'm really enjoying injecting humour into my pages! This photo taken during a biking trip in the cotswolds cracks me up, my bum is the star of the show here, nevermind the pretty english countryside rofl!

Hubby is getting a bit worried about what I am going to do next...we have a certain pic of him ironing in the nude rofl that cracks me up but hey this is a family show right!

Have signed on to play the Effer dares challenge, totally out of my depth there I'd say and I'll be booted out the first week no doubt but I can't wait to try lol!

Its much warmer today and it feels like Spring is nearly here
woohoo!! Jim got stuck into finishing the wall beneath what is
to be our Japenese garden so
will be able to start designing and planting soon....so far have
planted some gorgeous dainty white
camellias along the back fence but otherwise it is still a big pile
of dirt lol! This years Summer project!





The following pics are proud mummy moments....Patrick has discovered that yes he can draw all by himself and he dosn't need mum to 'help' after all!! I was amazed when he drew this wonderful dinosaur in minutes!

I have been totally fascinated watching Josephs progress as he learns to read...it seems like the whole world has opened up to him...he reads anything now, words on cereal packets, road signs, tv ads and he loves it! We get a big pile of readers from the library for him and loves keeping them by his bed, so proud that he can just pick one up and read himself a story (although he still loves mum and dad to read to him also! thank goodness otherwise I would feel a little redundant lol!) Here is reading a bedtime story to Patrick, so cute!

You Did What! is Dare #2 set by the No.8 wired daredevils this week....so I dug out my hen night snaps and set about jazzing them up...had a ball playing with sequins, pink tulle and some very cool Rhonna Farrah patterned paper....love how my little chick turned out!

Whats for tea mum?!

Nooo, not content with walking since nine and half months this cheeky chap is now climbing the kitchen foot stool (which the big boys use to help and watch me cook) and perching there precariously with this hilarious expression on his face as if he can't quite believe he is up there either but he's loving it!

He's taken a tumble a couple of times but he is soon back for more lol...I told you living with this lot is verg'n on ridiculous!!

So there is this very cool new blog put together by a group of talented NZ scrappers www.nzdares.blogspot.com which hosts a challenge every week. Week 1 is create a layout using the theme 'Vir'gin on the ridiculous' ....and here is mine...focusing on how crazy life is living with a house full of men...little ones and large and one hairy one with sticky out teeth (thats the dog lol!) Got this great snap of them yesterday morning still in their jammies fooling around with some sticky eyes!

Now this is luxery!! updating my blog! the boys have gone off to see Cars with Nana and Grandad and its just me and Samuel...Grandad has just rung to say they will be late as the 12 oclock showing was full and they are having to wait until three...he says Hamilton is hell during the school holidays!! oh dear the poor fellas, never mind the things you do for your grandchildren!!

I may not be the best blogger around but I have actually been scrapping full steam ahead this month...i know unbelievable isn't it!! I think its because I have actually found myself a style of scrapping that I like and I find it easy, I look at some photos and things happen instead of me staring at them for ages and shuffling paper for ages and trying to force them to fit a sketch or a look, I'm going with my heart and what I want to do and its good! I am loving looking at alot of these freestyle scrappers and they are definately a big influence but I'm not quite as full on as them but have found a happy medium that suits me.

My current favourite place to lurk and browse and drool over layouts is here www.howmuchistoomuch.blogspot.com...these girls come up with challenges to use up their stash and produce some amazing layouts!

Part of the reason I'm getting lots done too is I'm doing lots of challenges, mostly with NZSscrappers and our current challenge master Julie and SE and TSO....best way to get motivated is to have a deadline! Have even won a couple which is great encouragement too!!




I have just attempted some pics of Samuel, I wanted to capture the cute way his bottom lip sticks out when is concentrating on something, and there he was twiddling the wheels on his tractor as he so loves to do but of course as soon as he spotted the camera ...thats what he wanted instead, so I have captured these pics of him coming to get me lol! well the camera!!

Well will you look at that! another month has passed! Sometimes one is simply too busy living to stop and think and muse about it!!

Still I now have a lovely new flumfy, warm pair of slippers! So what you say, well the computer is in our bedroom and its hard to leave the comfort and warmth of the lounge to sit on a hard chair in front of the pooter! Although I cheated last night and practically sat on the fan heater!

uh oh, i've been spotted... here he comes, the 9 month old of the house! Samuel is cute beyond words, happy, sweet natured, active... very active, curious and a total pain in the butt lol!! He is the number one cause of chaos in our house at the moment and he has no idea bless him and why should he, he is all about exploration and discovery at the moment!!

He beelines for anything the boys have, empties cupboards...breaking my favourite chinese year of the pig (1971 girl thats me!) mug in the process (tragedy!!), pulls himself up on anything stable or otherwise, is fixated with tv remotes, mobile phones, computer keyboards/mouse and toilets and of course everything has to pass the taste test! We had to take over one of Jims tool boxes in the weekend to house J and P's art and craft supplies as everyone was so sick of picking it all up after Sir Samuel had pulled it off their desk for the one millionth time!

But he is just so lovely, I just feel completely and utterly lucky and amazed to have these three beautiful boys!

Samuel is into waving and nodding and making funny growly monster sounds at the moment (and after seeing King Kong the other night, I've taken to calling him Baby Kong lol!) We often spot him balancing on his own feet without holding on so I am picking like the other too he will be walking by 10 months.. Its quite hard in a way knowing that he is our last bubba, and all these funny little things that babies do won't ever happen again under our roof. Sometimes I almost feel panicky that I havn't taken enough photos or video to remember! I don't ever want to forget! I guess when you get older thats where grandchildren come in so you remember all over again!

Anyway to things scrapbooky of which I have completed nil layouts in recent weeks, I did buy the new autumn leaves Freestyle book, which I have like very much. I did expect it to be more over the top and out of the box than it is but still loads of inspiration to be had....in fact so much my head is spinning with ideas and when I did have an hour to scrap in the weekend I achieved nothing!! I have a wonderful pic of a self portrait Joseph painted at school and I took a beautiful close up of him to go with it, I THOUGHT I had it all mapped out in my head to do but when it came to the crunch I just couldn't get it to transfer to the cs and paper in front of me, its going to be one of those hard ones that evolve slowly I think!

I like this quote from Freestyle...."A creative mess is better than a tidy void"

I'm going to set myself the challenge of tackling it tonight...I will turn the heater on and jolly well just relax and get on with it! I think I'm scared of messing it up cause I really like his painting and the photo and want it to really convey what I feel about it! Oh well we shall see tonight if I can squeeze the old creative juices into action and get messy!!

Here are a couple of my favourite layouts from Freestyle, one by Ashley Wren and the other by Zina.

We subscribe to DVD unlimited and have found it great to select DVD's online and they arrive in the mail. The kids looove it when they have DVD mail!! We currently get a kids one and a adults one. Anyway one of the good things I have found is that aside from seeing all the usual block busters I choose some of the less known ones too which we wouldn't normally do if going down to the vid shop to choose. My recent fave is one called 'In America' which had UK actress Samantha Morton in it, she is an awesome actress! About an Irish family who move to New York, simple story, fantastically intense acting by the cast, and the little girls in it just made it! Well worth the watch!!

My time is up here for now...lets hope I don't blink and another month escapes me!!

Hello Blog!...poor little blog sitting here in cyberspace patiently waiting for me to return lol!

Well Gran and Pop came, they saw, they hugged, they cuddled, they earned lots and lots of Grandparent badges, they cooked Jim and I a fabulous, candle lit meal, they babysat so we could go out for a drink together, they were tourists and saw sights, they were family and plebbed at home with us, they inspired us to landscape a Japenese garden outside the new extension (still in the planning stages but watch this space, so excited, can't wait to get stuck into this!), It was wonderful having them and horrible to have to say goodbye, emotions are raw but in a good way and we are going to save hard so we can do it again soon, and join them on a tour of the South Island in 3 or 4 years time (fingers crossed)!

Time to return to things left untouched for the last 3 weeks (wow it seemed longer than that which is good I guess!) like my scrapping friends on Yahoo and this blog, time to get stuck into more scrapping... MIL loved looking through my albums for real rather than pics on the web.

We miss you already Gran and Pop!!

Monique.