Living my dream

He's home!

Yay, Andy is home. Gee this trip was a long one. Even with our trip away too, it felt long. He came home to lots of hugs and screams and laughter. So nice for him now the kids are older.

He came bearing gifts and the kids thought they were in heaven. So did I. He was so thoughtful and brought me a couple of charms for my charm bracelet. I only like to get things that are meaningful. And I always try and buy one for each country I've travelled to. Well I didn't have one for China, and now I do. Way cool.

Thought I might show you a card I made a couple of weeks back. It was my friends birthday so I made a card, then loved it so much I made the same exact card for a 'thank you' I had to give. It worked so well. And to be honest, this design was actually taken from a sketch, but darn it I can't remember where the sketch comes from. Sorry.

So have you checked out No 8 Wired? Cool dare on this week and a couple of LO's up already. Here's mine again in case you haven't seen it.

The challenge this fortnight is to only use one manufacturers products. That means no extra cardstock, or embellishments from elsewhere. And its actually harder than it looks. Mine is all JUNKITZ! And they are sponsoring the dare this week, so if you enter you might win some really cool stuff.

Have a good weekend.

T

Wow

Did anyone see the sunset tonight? Wow. The sky was ON FIRE! It was so beautiful. And for once I was able to appreciate it without worrying about my camera - I was out walking!

So our trip.....

Well it started off with a very very early morning. 3.30am. Boy were the kids excited! No tiredness there......yet. We flew uneventfully through to Melbourne, the kids loved their tv screens, books, colouring books etc. It worked really well. My Mum was so well prepared. Matt even slept a bit and so did Dan. Although he didn't really like his basinette. Funny that. His feet were touching one end and his head the other! Poor wee man.

So we got to Melbourne and we met up with some friends I've made online. It was sooooo good to meet Paula, Erica and Tracey and to see Wendy again. What good friends they are to come all that way out to the airport just to say hi. We hung out, took photos, and laughed. Mum was so helpful. She took the kids around so I could hang out with my buddies. They even took a parcel and posted it for me! Yay. Thanks ladies. And here's a pic...

Check out my SON! Yep, hes a BOY! I can't believe how different boys are to girls.

So we went on to Launceston where it all fell to pieces. The poor kids were shattered. There was lots of screaming and we finally got them to bed.

The next morning we went out for breakfast and the kids ate heaps! They were hungry! It was good. We went for a walk along the gorge which was so beautiful. So peaceful .... until Matt and Sarah came along! They discovered if they shouted, it echoed. I pity the people who were trying to have a nice peaceful walk! LOL.

That afternoon we went out to start seeing some of Australias wildlife. We went to a platypus house and watched them swimming around and saw a blue tongued lizard and some sleeping echidnas. Cool. Then we went to what used to be called the Asbetos ranges. We had heard you can see wombats, roos and other wildlife feeding at dusk. And we weren't disappointed. Man it was amazing. We sat down and had our picnic dinner and a few roos came right up. One even went under our table! Huh?! LOL. The sunset was beautiful, the setting was amazing. Such a wonderful day.

We got so close to that roo. Got some cool pics.

So that was the first couple of days.

While we were over there, a couple of things happened. Dan started taking bottles. I was stressed and it affected my milk supply. To be honest it's a good thing as every feed hurts. Yep. Still. I can't believe it. Plus with teeth, the little man is causing some extra pain too. Sigh. But you know what I gave it a good shot. He's 8.5 months old! But today with only one breastfeed, it was a little emotional.

The other thing he started to do while we were away was to crawl PROPERLY! Yep, no more commando crawling. He's up on all fours. What a little man. He is also standing in his cot now and at every moment he can. He still hasn't worked out what it is to move when he's standing, but I figure it won't be tooooo far away?

Since I've been back I've been trying to catch up a bit on things. And scrapwise I've done a heap. A project, and 2 LO's. Moving onto another one which needs to be done for Kiwidares new dare on Friday. Come check it out. Its gonna be interesting! And another great sponsor too!

So that's me for now. I'll keep updating more in the next few days.

Ciao.

Home Sweet Home

Yep, we're back. Whew. Tassie was good. A beautiful, amazing and wonderful part of the world. But you know what they say.....there's no place like home. LOL.

So some more quick memories for our return......

Matt and Sarah sitting in their seats on the plane last night. As its taxiing down the runway, screaming at the top of their voices "Go airplane go go go. Go airplane go go go". We had at least the first 2-3 rows smiling and giggling at my beautiful babies.

Finding a copy of 'Scrapbooking for beginners number 4' with my LO in it. And a bit of my LO on the front cover. Cool!

Some exciting emails to come home to.

Sleeping just 3.5 hours last night. Sigh.

Downloading approx 1000 photos for the 10 days. Not too bad actually! LOL.

Got some scrap get togethers coming up in May. Can't wait. And my friend coming over - cant wait again! And a parenting course by Parents Inc. Can't wait number 3!

Bed calls. Later.

Airport blues

Couldn't help myself. Got half a spare hour at the airport and just had to log on. LOL! Am I an internet junkie or what?! LOL.

And did we get the times wrong or what for our flights?! We have 7 hours here at Melbourne. UGH. Nevermind. So far got 2 out of the way. whew. Dan's crying while I type, so I'd better go, but hey, will be back in no time and back to normal programming then. LOL!

Otherwise, trips been good. wouldn't say 'relaxing', but definitely worth it. sights in tassie are incredible.

C u soon.

t

Hi from hilly HOBART

Wow, Tasmania is BEAUTIFUL. And sooooo kid friendly. Ok, so we've been travelling a bit and that's not fun (until I bit the bullet and brought a portable DVD player. Now its fine and theres no more screaming from the backseat! LOL), but its got so much to see and do.

So some things I don't wanna forget......

* The squeaky sand at Bicheno
* Seeing the penguins at Bicheno
* Watching wild roos and wombats at the Asbestos ranges (now called something else???)
* The realllllllly steep roads over here!
* Road kill. No not just opposums (which may I add are HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but also roos, and wombats. Sigh.
* The beauty. Very similar to NZ.
* Hobart - just like Wellington. If you've been to Wellington, then you'll know what Hobart looks like.

Ok, off now. Just really quickly checking in. Been a while. But hey, I'm on holiday! LOL!

T

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday. A day of easter eggs and hyperactive children. LOL. But do you know what Easter Sunday is really all about? Food for thought.

So here are our kids. Excuse the blur. They were just full of motion! Funny that. hehehe.

The easter bunny did a good trick of hiding the eggs. And this year the string trail was quite a bit longer than last years. In fact even then it was probably too short. Note for self. Next year must be bigger! LOL.

We managed to get them to eat breakfast before they got to eat their eggs, but they are now into the buttons from the middle of the eggs for morning tea. Oh dear! LOL.

Can't believe how generous they are though. Always wanting to share with Andy and I. Wow. As a kid I would never share my chocolate. LOL. Maybe that's why I'm so big on them sharing now?

And hey, check out the new 'do's'. We got their hair cut yesterday. And it was actually quite easy. Was a bit worried as the lady we have been going to with rocket/horse chairs, tellys with cartoons and wonderful balloons and lollipops when they leave, is not longer in business. But hey, the things we worry about always work out huh?! LOL.

I've been creating. Both scrapbook wise.....yay, a new page I need to get done before I go on holiday....plus a hot cross bun ring. Check out this lump of dough......

Still got to get it in the oven, but just waiting for it to rise. Will take more pics then.

And this week I'm off to Tassie with Mum and the kids. Can't wait. We're in Melbourne for a few hours and I'm going to meet up with a heap of ladies from a Yahoo group I belong to. Sooooo excited. They are a great bunch of ladies who I feel priviledged to know and I've met some of them before, so its not 'new', but when you live so far away it makes it extra special when you do get to see them.

Speaking of seeing people. Happy birthday JANE!!!! My oldest (no not in age, hehehe, but in length of time we've known each other) and dear friend. Her husband and I colluded and brought her a ticket home so she can spend some time with me and her family. She has two wee kidlets and another on the way, so a break will be nice before number three arrives. Plus I've never seen her preggie. So so so can't wait to see her in May!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta go. But HAPPY EASTER everyone. May you not get toooooo sick. LOL.

T

Have you checked out the SBO survivor competition? Wow, the entries from challenge one are up and are amazing! One person is going to be eliminated this week. Ugh. Don't like that part. Sigh. Good luck everyone. There is some serious talent amoung this group of ladies. Just take a look at all the LO's. And have fun guessing whose is whose! 

Catch up

A week since my last blog post. Wow. Time flies. Lots has been happening and nothing too. You know how it is. However, there has been some cool stuff happening with my scrapping.....

I entered the Queen and Co blog, monthly comp (to use their brads) and was one of three winners. How cool! they have now stopped that comp and are doing something new, so that was a lucky last win! This is my LO...

I used the brads to form a heart as part of my journaling, plus as decoration on the 'S' and 'J' plus as added decoration around the swirl on the bottom left (I extended the swirl using white brads).

I've been playing around with beads lately. And although I didn't have any Queen and Co beads, decided that I had to give it a go on this LO. So I used the crafters workshop swirls template to draw the bottom left swirl, which I then covered with dimensional magic and covered that with teeny tiny microbeads. You can't see it here, but IRL it looks really cool. Bright and shiny and very 3D. The top swirl was a copy of prima say it in crystals swirl. Loving swirls right now!!!!!!!!

Please excuse the streaks on Sarahs face. They are actually on the inside of my scanner so I can't clean them off! I've gotta do some investigating on how to fix this wee problem.

I also got through as one of 10 finalists in the SBO DT call. Its a 'survivor' type competition with people getting eliminated along the way. This first cut was the biggest from 19 down to 10. My favourite part of the entry can be seen here. We are now working on our first challenge and have to send that in by midnight Friday. I've pretty much got mine sorted, but need to tweak a few things before I can send it in. Its all annonymous which I'm stoked about.

Last Thurs I got to hang out with a group of girls who all live 'fairly' close to each other considering its Auckland. LOL. And best thing, I got a page going. Didn't finish it, but got it close. Then Sat I hung out with another group of girls and left Dan with Andy. Boy was that nice! The first time in 8 months that I've been able to go out during the day without him. And I got my page finished, a card started and finished and another LO started. That ones still needing to be finished, but that's ok, all in good time. LOL! Thanks girls for a wonderful couple of refreshing times.

The kids have been gorgeous as usual. Lots of lovely things coming out of their mouths, like:

When Matt and Sarah were watching the wiggles the other day and the wiggles are playing a 'guess the dance game'. First they danced like kangaroos, then like ponies and last like ballerinas. As they are guessing the last one Matt looks over fondly at Sarah and says they're dancing like ballerinas, just like you Sarah. Ahhhhh, makes your heart melt. You see Sarah's latest thing is to dance. She dances all the time. She even makes up special dances depending on what we are doing. There is her pancake dance, her ballerina dance and then all the others. Its so beautiful.

The other cute thing she flounced off saying this morning when we asked her to please 1. pick up her jammies and put them away, and 2. put her night nappy in the bin, and 3. put a toy away.....  was "I can only do 4 things at once". Hmmmmmm. Scary. I don't know WHERE she got that from! LOL.

Unfortunately there are other things that aren't so beautiful coming out of her mouth too right now. Like the latest "Its not fair". Cor blimey. I used to say this to my Mum all the time too, but when I was MUCH older. Annnnnnddddd, where did she get it from??? I mean seriously?!

I've also had a few stressful things happen in the last 10 days. One of which was a road rage incident which left me shaking for 2 days. I am off to the police station later today to process a formal statement after talking to the police by phone and being asked to PLEASE do this. I'm not gonna rehash this. No need. But suffice to say please be careful out there ladies. There are some nasty people about.

The other thing is I'm sick. UGH. I so don't do 'sick' very well. And as of late, I've had my fair share of it. I normally don't get sick. So when I do I really don't handle it. Its such a waste of time! LOL. Anyway, am feeling a little better today. But am very grateful that the kids are at daycare. I so need to go to bed.

So on that note......and after a mightly long post....I'll catch ya next time.

Have a great day! I'm going to.