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...!!

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

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.

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

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!