Can't quite believe it but in the space of 3 weeks we have sold one house and bought another! Hugely relieved and excited! This weekend was so good for us, we had alot of ups and downs in the space of 3 days as we realised what we'd had our hearts set on there for a while (living in Keri Keri town itself) actually wasn't the right thing for us after all and we have been extra lucky to have an alternative present itself and completely fall for it and get it at a price we could afford! Convinced we have an angel out there somewhere watching out for us...

So we are now soon to be the proud owners of this lovely Villa, with a flat section and three paddocks to play with (and no doubt extend our menagerie)...the only thing needing work is the main bathroom...but hey DIY man extraordinaire has to have something to do in his spare time aye!!

Located in the wee country community of Ohaeawai (oh-high-why) between Keri Keri and Kaikohe, where Jims work is based and which on our second visit we are now really warming to...just like a Huntly in the North I reckon! So we are perfectly placed in the middle to the boutiquey, cafe, Arty charms of Keri Keri and to the down to earth, good old fashioned service charms of Kaikohe...whose skate ramp by the way is waaay better than Keri's...which apparently is very important!

To all whanau and friends who may be interested in visiting, we have tons of space annnndddd the pub and dairy are in walking distance....(as is the school and playcentre)...now what could be handier than that!! Don't worry Jim can source plenty of reflector jackets for that wee walk (stagger!) back home along the roadside...sorry no footpath...yet...but we will be putting a submission in to council very soon rofl!

No scrapping done whatsoever recently but I would like to share the link to Lianne and Jo's fab new blog Scrapping the Teenz so if you own one of these creatures be sure to checkout some great inspiration for cool ways to scrap them!

Just a quickie cause we are off up to Keri Keri this afo....taking the boys for a look around and we the good news is our house is sold, went unconditional yesterday so we are going to do some house hunting up there too!

It was Josephs school cross country yesterday and here he is running and laughing and waving to the crowd lol!! Did so well, didn't stop once. Also a few pics of his number one supporters who spurred him on with much cheering from the sidelines...

The buzz at the moment seems to be all about the Dove campagin aimed at raising self esteem in young girls and seeing the beauty in everybody....Yay for Dove...and yay for Ngaire for posting an awesome challenge relevant to this on her blog....such a cool blog she has...must go there more often!

...As a Mum of three boys though I would like to say don't forget the boys too! They are every bit as sensitive as us females, they tend to just bottle it away though and I think the message should be nuture self esteem in all our children and each other!

I did this layout a while back just for fun, it makes me laugh...I guess I just accept the way that I look, my crooked front tooth, the laugh lines...or crows feet lol!, the glasses, the hair that never does what I want it to do!! As long as my boys and Jim love me for me than thats all that matters... thats what makes me feel beautiful.....some days are harder than others I must admit though...after a day hanging at home with the housework, three noisy grubby bundles of mischief (aka the boys!) in my jeans and t-shirts, pottering in the garden....beautiful is probably low on the list of things I am rofl!!

And just a reminder Wednesday is the deadline for this round at NZdares...have you dusted of the childhood pics yet...I have seen some real cute ones around...

Mine is a baby pic, there wern't that many to choose from...the joy of being the 4th kid lol! but I love the quote from the plunket book I found, it suited the pic down to the ground!

This was shared recently within a group of my online scrapping friends and I thought it very, very funny....

The Ellen Show was on and she read this submission to a contest from aviewer:

So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom.Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES IT. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honour me and the amazing job that is motherhood.We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped". Now, if you have a cat, you know that he is right - their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind.And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth. And then I decided I really didn't want to know...And THAT is my favourite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.


Until I saw Samuel had raided my handbag this afo......



All I can say is thank god we don't have a cat.....and thankfully the dogs butts are too hairy to get that close too.....I can just about handle the fact that he is carefully applying it up his nose ROFL!!!

Big YAY going out to Vicky and Trina for 'surviving' the comp over at SBO and becoming new DT members there....have much fun ladies!

And weren't the NZdare girls toooo cute when they were just little!!!! and I'm sure they still are now lol! Some simply gorgeous layouts being produced for Andreas challenge to scrap a photo of yourself under 10 years!! Can't wait to see everyones entry's....wheres mine you say!! I guess I should be brave tonight and drag out the cardboard box with those pics of mini-me....now this could be fun.....and funny lol! Are you up for a laugh too....I dare you!!!! and don't forget if you pass by the NZdare blog we love to see comments....even if you are just laughing at our pigtails lol!!

Its funny I don't usually think about what brand of supplies I'm using on a layout and subsequently my stash is a huge mish mash of all sorts of different stuff, whatever catches my eye really...I'm not one for matching and co-ordinating too much lol!

So Trinas dare over on the NZdare blog was a bit of a challenge for my poor scrap stash!! My reliable friend Basic Grey won the day with pp, tags, letter stickers, rubon and chipboard plus a dab of paint and a bit of penwork.

You've still got time if you havn't put a layout together for this one...deadline 6 pm Wednesday 9th May. You could win some loverly new Junkitz goodies to add to your stash!

OK so who wants to buy a house? Come on...its very very clean rofl!! I never knew the kitchen sink could sparkle like that...very pretty! Spent all weekend giving the garden its Autumn overhaul too, yay for good weather!

SBO survivor is on its last round....the final four are all exceptional scrappers, but I do have my favourite and my fingers are tightly crossed for her this week! Have fun with this weeks challenge ladies!

Samuel earned his "I destroy because I can...but I don't mean too" badge well and truly yesterday...He is in love with his Bob the Builder DVD that Gran and Pop gave him before they left...to the point that he has figured out how to put it on himself....which we (or maybe that should read I) thought was cute ...until obviously he didnt think the DVD turner thing wasn't popping out fast enough for his Bob habit and he yanked it out and now it dosn't pop out or pop in at all....its buggered!! Dad didn't think that was so cute but I just hid knowing I let them do stuff like that but they really shouldn't be doing because they don't know how much DVD players cost lol!!!

Oh well good news is I don't have to cancel our subscription to DVD unlimited because we can watch them on the laptop weeehooo!

Just realised....not looking forward to doing all the address changing stuff that comes with moving...

Here are a couple of pics from this week of my chocolate brownie making 'helpers'...hmmmm lol!

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...