Soccer started on Saturday...for real...a whole game...not just practice....this was Patrick all morning before we left...sooooooo excited to be playing big boy Soccer on the same team as his brother no less!! My two are in front here in the blue...

And they did awesome!!! talk about proud-motheritis on the sideline and a little more quietly than me proud-fatheritis too!

Joseph really shone, last year he was the youngest on the team and while he gave it his all, the ball was usually dominated by the older kids...this year he IS the big kid and he scored goal, after goal, after goal....!!! I did feel sorry for the other team but rather excited for our team too, what a great start! Patrick was like a wee terrier, worked hard the whole time, totally focused and never gave up once in a huff (as he so often does at home!)and I was so pleased and proud when he got his very own goal too! There was only five on our team so not much leeway for subbing and resting but they had so much determination they didn't even think about being tired....Patrick came home and the first thing he did was wipe his boots down and dry them and placed them carefully in the wardrobe ready for next week...well done little guy!

Lots of stuff been happening....the biggest as most of you already know is we are soon to become Northlanders!! Can't believe how quickly it all happened but yep Keri Keri here we come!! Jim starts his new job in 6 weeks and we are aiming to join him and rent for the first 4 or 5 months while we look for a new home to buy. While its sad to leave our place here in Huntly where the boys have grown up thus far and we've had fun renovating, extending and landscaping, we both feel its time for a new adventure and hope whoever buys our place will enjoy what we have achieved so far. The boys have taken the news in their stride with memories of our holiday at the beach still fresh in their minds they were very excited to be told we were soon going to be living near the sea! I have been making lists of stuff to do...all that cool stuff like decluttering and wiping every little fly poo off the ceiling ready for buyers to view! oh yay!

I have enjoyed being a Survivor on the SBO DT contest these last few weeks...but boohoo unfortunately the card challenge was my downfall and I was one of the bottom two who left this week....good luck to the final 5! Also thanks heaps if you voted for me during the previous rounds....these were my entries throughout...

I guess the cards were a bit simple for this type of competition but I really don't like fussy cards so stuck with the sort of card I would like to get myself or would choose to give someone.... clean lines and a bit funky!

Also the NZ dare girls are back refreshed after a wee break so don't forget to check out the new dare for this round to use all product from one manufacturer....and theres a great prize which could be yours for entering from Junkitz!!

Have a great week!

Think of me cleaning lol!!

Oh hi blog! Good...you're still here then lol!!

It was all systems go as usual this morning...back to the routine hooray! But with a lovely relaxed crew who got ready to go out the door this morning without one single tantrum about shoes, without having to be told a million times to do their teeth...i guess its a good thing they are desperate to get back to school, kindy and music group rofl!! Please let it last for a few days heh, heh!!...the dogs are in the starting block position by the door as usual!

Well Gran and Pop certainly got to see the boys (and Mum and Dad!!lol!) at their worst and best during their visit from the UK these holidays (HI Guys!) but hey thats good, this is real life after all and we loved having them here....even if we couldn't hear them all the time over the yelling, screaming and barking that is the chaos of our house right now while we are living through ages 6, 4 and "I'm not quite two and can't talk yet and man that is frustrating sometimes"!

So Freestyle! that was good...nice to have a day devoted to scrapbooking, first time I've gone to CC classes and meeting some 'famous freestylers' and so nice to say hi to scrappers I know through the internet! Thank you if you said hi to me...I was a bit dazed during the whole thing lol!!Picked up some fun techniques from the 4 classes I attended...this is the needle felted birdie I made in Tias class....layout still to come! So cute!!

Art Journal from Rhonna's Art Attack class using her papers and stamps....which I'm turning into a mini album with pics from our recent beach holiday....

We learnt the art of dying paper towels and an easy masking trick in Emily's Shiny Happy People class...havn't completed this one yet either!

But my favourite class was Zina's Little Miss Creative and here is my version of the layout she taught...alotta, lotta fun!!

The only gripe I would have is there just wasn't enough time dedicated for each class and the tutors were racing through the instructions at the speed of light...certainly not much time to 'enjoy the process' as Rhonna kept desperately saying during her class rofl!! It would have been nice for them to have had time to expand on why they love this style of scrapbooking and hear them talk more about freestyle. Too be honest I won't be forking out that amount of money again for classes unless they cost less or are go for longer or both lol!

Have you been checking out the excitement at SBO's DT Survivor competition?!! The wildcard is making a comeback this week and the new challenge is to make a set of 4 cards using one pattern paper...can't wait to see what the Survivors create this round....and there is supposed to be an extra challenge this week too....lots of nasty talk about cockroaches ...eeeekkk... hee hee!!

Thats my lot here, Autumn has arrived with a vengence...its cooolldd!! I've got woolly socks on and it actually feels right to be knitting a woolly scarf now lol!!

More from Tutakaka

Another lovely set of snaps from Northland.

Sand Castles
Sculpture

Kayak rides

Caught a fush!

We are on Holiday!!!!

Woohoooo!!

Here we are living the kiwi dream for a few days....a bach on the water front...Tutakaka just north of Whangarei.

Jims parents are here from the UK and mine are joining us tomorrow...so the kids are going to be in Grandparent paradise!

Their wonderful granny brought these fabulous pirate costumes with her and they have had the best time wearing them and pretending to be pirates, digging for treasure and sword fighting and ahaaing me hearty all day long.

It was still damp but warm , and they managed a dip in the suprisingly warm sea...the dogs are loving it too as are we....looking forward to some sunshine tomorrow just to add some icing to the cake!

Tomorrow Joseph will turn six...somebody pinch me...I can remember bringing my little baby home and laying him ever so gently in his cot fast asleep, a tiny dot wrapped up in his blankie, walking out the door and saying those exact same words...somebody pinch me, we have a gorgeous baby boy in the house...although these days I definately know he is there lol! he thumps around the house with those growing, getting ganglier by the day, legs and feet, talks ten to the dozen, and sometimes I could swear his ears are drawn on...as he just dosn't seem to tune into my constant squawking about doing teeth, bringing wet swimming gear home from school, homework, remembering to put your undies on (yes its true he seems to have a penchant for going commando under his school shorts and conveniently forgets this small item of clothing which drives me insane!)

What can I say though...I love him to bits! I love sneaking up quietly at school and waiting until he spots me so I catch a glimpse of the face that lights up when he sees me before it is quickly replaced by the whoops hang on I'm at school cool face...the oh hey Mum, its you face rofl!

I love the determination he puts into things that are important to him... like riding his bike and conquering the big ramps at the skate park with his Dad...biking is his thing and he is a constant blur on our street!

...I love the way he will complete a project from start to finish...like in the weekend he found my stash of plastic and cans ready for the recycling pick up and decided he was going to make something with it all....so drew a design on paper first then enlisted his Dad for drilling help and put together what we call his 'water feature'...thought it was so cool he had a vision and actually brought it to life....

Anyway we are all geared up for his big surprise tomorrow...while he is at school we are making over the baby room to become his very own room and Samuel will move on to his big boy bed in with Patrick....Patrick is keen to be the boss too so a good move for everybody I think! Can't wait to see his face when he finds it!!

The NZ dare this week is a goody but a toughy...street art! This is what I came up with, the grungy stencil look lent itself well to a masculine type layout..

And a bit of a heads up...tune in and check out the NZdare site this Friday evening...there is an extra special something.....oh somebody stop me....suprise.....mustn't let......the cat out of.....the baaaagggggg........

Saturday morning we went to the local Farmers market and picked up a bunch of gorgeous sunflowers...i'm not a huge fan of cut flowers but these really made me feel happy as I looked at them during breakfast this morning....the sunlight streaming through the white blind behind them made a great neutral backdrop...although I quite like this one too lol....looks like Patrick is about to break into a wee operatic number!

Nice to take pictures of still subjects for a change!!

I'm sitting here absolutely stunned that it is Friday again!! flip that went fast! and yes Nana brought cream donuts for lunch today too YUM lol!! Afterwards we went to the park, Patrick took his bike and Samuel took his ride on fire engine...one of those ones that you can stow stuff under the seat...at one point it tipped over and out fell the dough part of Samuels donut....with all the cream expertly licked off of course...funny!


Heres what I did with one of last weeks photos for my NZ dare layout


The dare is this round is to use a 70's album for inspiration...you can see the one I used on the No.8 wired NZdare site and while you are there check out the cool new banner Lianne has put up...yes mum and dad those are your cows lol! and no those cows do not represent the dare girls Jo! rofl!!


Anyway this dare was fun, fun, fun!! and I do hope you give it a go...just reading a few comments on blogs lately I get the feeling some people are shy about entering their layouts for the NZDares...for whatever reason DON'T BE SHY!! we love seeing each individual interpretation of the dares and we want to see you do things you otherwise might not do for your every day scrapping...have some fun, be inspired by the dare girls,have a go...and the bonus side to the creating and sharing and having fun is you might just score the prize draw as well so what are you waiting for??


(You know I think I could get a job selling vacuum cleaners or something with a spiel like that rofl!..)


I must sit down and write a list of things I will need for my day Freestyling in Auckland next month because what with the UK whanau arriving in a couple of weeks and a weeks R&R with them up in Tutukaka its all going to sneak up very quickly....I am so looking forward to this day...just me and lots of other scrappers doing our thing....bring.it.on!! Hoping to put a few names to faces too! Tia Bennett has posted a wee sneak peak of the creating goodies that will be used for her classes...


Ta da! and once my list is done I can clip it onto my little todo list fridge magnet...now, now don't laugh...Tia did say it was crafting month so I started fiddling round for the heck of it lol! really I am pysching myself up for the following...trying to get myself into an altered project frame of mind!!




So who is having a go at the DT call for SBO...love the whole survivor style idea...should be great fun even if I just end up voting! Have had a light bulb moment for my altered item so hope I can translate the idea from my head to the real thing...but I can't wait to get stuck into it this weekend...

Every Friday Mum comes for lunch and brings bakery goodies....I caught Bert up on a chair eyeing up the left overs and thought it would make a cute shot...wasn't til later that I noticed the other two there also hee hee...funny!

So its March already...Josephs birthday in 3 weeks..his first 'proper' party with school friends to be invited...its only ever been family affairs before now....but luckily ...for me he only wants to invite 4 kids WAHOOOO!! I had visions of trying to entertain multitudes of 6 year olds and failing miserably...but this I can handle! .. not nervous at all....heh heh..*gulp*

off to surf for kids party ideas now...

How exciting was the cyber crop at SBO the other night!! Only Elsie Flannigan was the mystery guest...although I think most of us had guessed!! Her 1st challenge was a 30 minute layout with doodling on a layout....eeek!!! I've never done a layout in 30 minutes in my life...and still havn't rofl!! This took me 45 minutes by the time the paint had dried...it usually takes me that long to choose my colour cardstock...hmm looking at it the next morning i could sort of tell it was a rush job, especially the title that looks like the kids did but it was fun and I like it... Thanks Andrea and Elsie for giving us kiwi scrappers a wee thrill on a Friday night!

I was so excited also to be asked to be the guest designer for the March kit at SBO too!! I think everyones a little worried for me cause there appears to be quite a bit of pink in the kit and wondering how I'm going to use it seeing as most of my photo subjects are of the male variety...hee, hee all the more fun it should be then!!



This reminds me...being surrounded by males, small, large... and small and hairy...well, farts are often a great source of hilarity in this household and today there I was looking through the MM idol entries and saw one I really liked and googled the artists name to see some more of her cool work and found this was her original entry but she decided not to enter it in the end...how flippin hilarious...a fart layout!!made my day that did...oh well dosn't take much sometimes does it lol!


It was hot enough to even get me in the pool at mum and dads today along with Patrick, the one discovering that hanging your tongue out like a dog really does help you cool off



I also caught Nana and Mr Bum Bum discussing the benefits of putting suncream on your cheeks!

Well I got off my chuff last night and actually did what I said I was going to do... a layout for the Scrapjack challenge....I just switched off and did it without trying to think of a hundred different other ways I 'could' be doing it and it came together in a jiff! A miracle for me!

This is what I have been pottering along with since doing Trinas online class at SBO...it was supposed to be for Valentines (rofl! cause I'm horribly slow at altering stuff) so it is now for our wedding anniversary in April. Just got a few more pages to do with pics of me in! By the way it is a Maya Rd "Love" chipboard book with some loverly urbanlily papers and an assortment of other bits and bobs!

I've had a big wadge of felt in different colours in my drawer for ages and yay! I finally used some on my layout for Dare #16

Had me going for a bit this dare as I had nothing much black and white in the paper stash until I hit on the idea of using a comic strip...Calvin and Hobbes are so cute and clever! Turns out the hardest part was trying to get a decent pic of it to show the cool font, which I didn't really succeed in doing as its a bit small but if you would like to download if for free...go here

Talking of free...not often you get an online class for free but at Poppy ink you can! You don't need the kit, do what I do when I'm cooking....just wing it with whatever is in your cupboard lol! The next class is by the fabulous Amber Skolnick...go here for details. Amber has also been Scrapjacked this week, she has such a fun style I think I might just have to give it a go and play too this round!!

Joseph and Patrick watched Sharkboy and Larvagirl on DVD this afo in 3D...I thought it was a great movie for their age group...full of action and a moral behind the story....they loved it.

An impromptu picnic tea at the park tonight, enjoying the summer evening, supported our local eateries and got pizza to go from the old courthouse cafe in Huntly, if you are ever passing by down SH1 and are feeling peckish give maccas a miss and head here instead...the pizzas are fresh and delicious!


The boys got out their bikes and Jim showed off a few tricks....


Dat!....is Samuels favourite word at the moment, which (of course!) means... whats that? The 'dat in this case was ducks...funny how little kids just love ducks!

and here he is having a little quiet moment with his digger when he got home.

Yes I will be posting the NZdares result for Dare #15 tomorrow after our wee hiccup lol...so stay tuned if you entered a layout as there will be a draw for the prize pack from SE (thanks Meg!)

and Jo has posted up Dare #16...its a goodie!

Have you checked out Scrapjacked...lots of fun there...

So what have I been scrapping this week...well I took Trinas 'all about love' class over at SBO
earlier in the week...gorgeous kit, great instructions, a fun nights chat and scrapping...and yes I am still working on my project which was supposed to be for Jim for valentines heh,heh but I had high ambitions there so wedding anniversary in April me thinks...I'm halfway so will post some peeks soon!

Should have been working on it tonight but Jims dad (Hi Pop!) tapes and sends over the most recent series of Top Gear from the UK so have been watching that instead...it was a very funny episode and I couldn't tear myself away....for the shame choosing a car programme over scrapbooking whatever next lol!