Living my dream

Going a million miles an hour

Life is busy. Constantly busy with so many things going on. Sure keeps me on my toes. This week has been particularly busy. But its been nice to get a few things done that have been waiting a while. You know, like my hair.

I realised on Friday that I hadn't had it cut since my birthday. October last year! What the? No wonder I wasn't feeling particularly happy with it. LOL. So I made a quick call and managed to get in on Sat. Yeah. Was so nice! Came out feeling like a new woman. Unfortunately they couldn't do the colour at the same time, so I went back last night. But it was worth it. I took my 'homework' as my hairdresser likes to call it. My big black book where I write notes, journaling etc and filled two pages with ideas for pages to come. Was well worth it. Best part though was the glass of wine they give you! I so needed that after yesterday. LOL.

Here's why:

Yesterday I

• Painted the fence (second coat)
• Went to a meeting about Connect Cafe
• Had the gas guy here connecting the gas - he didn't clean up and left a coat of dust ALL over the kitchen. I was fuming!
• Cleaned up said dust
• Had a friend come over
• Matt flooded kitchen - had to clean up kitchen (again!)
• Got my hair coloured
• Placed an order with glamour girls (stamp shop - for some storage for my acrylic stamps!)
• Booked my spot at scrapcamp

So today, the kids are at daycare. THANK GOODNESS! And I'm organising my tissues/napkins for the napkin swap Chris is organising. I've had these for ages (used one of them on my Up2Scrap mini album - see it in the last issue), so that was good. Anyone who is keen, then come by Chris's blog to check it out, then send her an email. We need another 4 people, but if she gets more, who knows? She might just organise another! hehehe.

Speaking of Chris. Did you hear?!!!!! She's coming to NZ as a tutor for SCRAPCAMP! OMG!!!! I've been chatting to Chris for a while now and am so excited that I get to meet her in the flesh. Can't wait!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? Well, actually I'm gonna meet a heap of people I've chatted to lots online - so so excited. Just love that Yolande and Lianne organise such an amazing fun event.

And more exciting news for those scrappers out there....have you seen this new blog? Aussie pub calls. Its sooooo cool. Just like the American version, but for us Kiwis and Aussies. Yep, kiwis too. There are already a couple of kiwi sites there, and of course our very own Up2Scrap are listed too. What a fabulous idea! Good on Michelle and Alana for organising this! So if you're into scrap stuff, make your way over here and check out whats happening. Click on the calender and you'll get to see DT calls, mag submission details, events coming up, allsorts. And if you've got something to put in there, just send them an email. Easy peasy!

Well I think thats about it. Whew. I really do need to put up some pics to make it a bit more interesting, but have to go do stuff.

Have a great day!

T

Freestyle scraplift - No 8 Wired

Ok, so NOW is the time to pop across to No 8 Wired and check out our 'dare in the middle of another dare' dare (LOL!). This week we are having a very special dare to really get you thinking in the 'freestyle' way, to get you excited about whats coming, and of course to introduce you to the tutors a little bit more. And man oh man, what a talented bunch they are too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got so darn excited about their LO's I just had to do TWO! Yep, I know, crazy, but there you go. If you go to No 8 Wired, you'll get to see my 'official' one, and below is my 'just cause I HAD to' LO The amazing artist I lifted is Tia Bennett check out her LO on No 8 Wired.

So other titbits:

Was creating this afternoon, and trying something a little bit different and left it lying on the table (as I do!) to make dinner, when Sarah walks over and says: wow Mum, thats LOOOOOOOVVVEELLLYYYYYYYYYY! It was such a boost to the ego. Just love that little girl!

Dan is now pulling himself into a standing position. Slow down boy! Lifes too short! LOL. And this morning I held his hand as he walked a couple of steps. Very tentatively, and with gigantic exagerated movements, but it was so cute.

We spent the morning with the Mums from Connect Cafe and had a ball. They are some really lovely Mums, all of us just being Mums and taking some time out to sit around and chat while our kids can play in a safe environment. Its great! Best part is my two have become very good friends with Grace, the daugher of the lady who runs CC. Deb and I have been friends for ever and its so lovely to see our kids also become friends.

Oh, and more scrapping news.... HOF has been announced. There are some very excited ladies out there right now! And rightly so. I recognise a few names and their work is AMAZING! And one is on the Junkitz team! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO Jamie Harper.

Anyway, gotta go finish another LO and get my posted at No8. Do come check them out. I know Lesley's got hers up already. Way cool!!!!!

Have a great weekend.

Trina

Lots of little catch up news

And some scrapping news for Friday. You've gotta come check out No 8 Wired this FRIDAY!!!!!! There is a special dare happening this week. Yep, we know, right in the middle of another dare! But this one is really special. It involves more than just us. But I won't give too much of it away. You'll just have to come by and check it out Friday afternoon/evening. Oooooo, I love a good dare, especially when its gonna be this much fun!

So, well, I seem to have been a bit busy lately. Lots and lots of scrapping, but not alot I can share just yet. Sorry. But the kids have been quite cute. Here's a quick update:

Dan has discovered what it is to splash in the bath. Andy and I now get saturated any time we bath him. Its great fun though!

Dan is now sitting up by himself. In fact he started getting into that position by himself before we did. Every time I sat him down he just wiggled away. Now he does it all himself. Cute.

We have started to do sign language with Dan and he now knows when we say 'all gone' and 'more'. He reacts in very distinct ways and its really cool. Now we just have to wait until hes old enough to tell us himself.

He is also drinking water from a cup. Sortof. At least he holds it himself and gurgles. I think he gets some, but its a bit haphazard. Some days he'll take heaps others, none. I think he likes the feel of it in his mouth. LOL.

 

This morning on the way to daycare Matt, Sarah and I had an interesting conversation:

I squirted water on the windscreen to clean it. Matt tells me I have missed a spot and so I squirt some more. Sarah asks if the car does it? And I tell her yes, with some help from me, pushing a button. I tell them that I can show them 'later' how it works.

Sarah: We can do it later when we're big boys and girls

Matt: But we are big boys and girls.

Sarah: No we're not big boys and girls.....yet.

Too cute!

We also did some painting today. Of our fence. Its an ugly ugly brown colour. Not even a stylish brown, but a horrid brown. Now we think we might get rid of it when we eventually rennovate, but I can't stand the look right now so we're painting it. Yesterday we went and brought the paint, and brushes. Today we started. My goodness. The kids were funny. They were so proud of themselves. Until one point when (after definite agreement they wouldnt paint each other) Matt decides to paint Sarahs face. This is in the middle of Dan screaming his nut off. So Sarahs screaming. Dans screaming. Matts giggling (until I tell him to go on the thinking chair - then he starts screaming too). And Sarah has paint on her hair and down the side of her face, about to go in her eyes. Thankfully I managed to clean it off/out without any going in her eye. Whew! Then after the appropriate time on the thinking chair Matt was allowed to come back and WATCH us. But he cried so much and kept saying But Mummy I'm so sorry. I just really really want to paint! In the end I gave in and let him and all was well in our world again.

So heres a pic of my two painters. They are so proud of their work! And so am I!

 

Random Thoughts

• Yesterday there were 14 kite surfers and 10 windsurfers in the bay - good winds!
• Even though a wee baby does 4 seperate poos before 4pm on one day, there is still room for more, and it is most likely to gracefully drop out of his nappy while he is playing on the jolly jumper, forming 3 lovely piles for his mother to clean up! - UGH.
• Kids can make cards very quickly (and they still look good). I've gotta learn from them when scrapping!
• I finished a LO. Its below

So what about this weather?

Wow, last night I got the fright of my life when I heard the noise outside. It was sudden and unexpected. What a storm.

So since then, lots and lots of rain, lots and lots of wind and last night some really cool thunder and lightning.

There has even been snow in Queenstown. What the? I know we're heading into autumn, but this is crazy!

So are you and your family ok? Did your house come through unscathed?

I'm hoping the weather comes right soon as I'm not ready for winter JUST yet :)

Yep, I'm still here.

Its been a full on week or so, but I am still here. Actually missing blogging, but don't have a lot of 'new' stuff to say. LOL.

So tonight I do have something new. I have a blog at Junkitz. As part of their DT we get a blog on site. So please go check it out here. I've only just started, but will be updating it and putting up LO's etc as time goes on. And yes, I'll be trying to keep it different to here. Hmmmmmm. Interesting.

They have approx 25 blogs for you to check out and see whats going on, so do pop across if you get a chance.

So what have you done with your weekend? We've been up to a bit and right now I'd LOVE to be scrapping, but I've run out of dymo! HUH?! Nevermind. Will be first on the list when I go shopping tomorrow! LOL.

So in the meantime I'm catching up with emails and stuff.

Yesterday we weeded, trimmed hedges, and waterblasted fences. Things are looking cleaner and tidier!

Dan has now decided he likes to go wandering. And this morning I turned my back for a minute and lost him. Now we don't have a big house! But he had managed to go out of the lounge, up the hall and into our bedroom! He's too quick and hes still only commando crawling! I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever crawl 'properly' actually?

The kids went to another birthday party this morning and it was lovely. And they are finally starting to be a bit more adventurous with other adults around. Yeah! Meant we could sit back and relax a bit. Whew.

Recently Andy was away again. Thankfully hes back now. But while he was away we sent him an email. I opened up the photo files for the kids to look at and they chose some photos to send Dad. So here is what they sent. Interesting.

Thanks

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments and wishes after my Junkitz news. I really appreciate all your kind thoughts and must admit it still feels a bit surreal however, I'm very very excited about it.

In Feb I was lucky enough to be the guest designer for Scrapbook Outlet for their Feb Kit put together by Donna and Lara. Boy was it a fun one to play with. Some really cool bright colours and some fun arrows, a mask and a stamp to play with. I came up with two LO's. And a cigar box for my sister:

The large embellishment across the bottom of the next LO is a Heidi Swapp mask which I've cut out of chipboard. Now that took me a LOOOOONG time. LOL!

The cigar box holds photos from a recent trip to Te Aroha and is of Vonny and her family. Thought it might be a nice way to give her some pics.

I'm just about to send my latest brief off to UP2Scrap. Yeah! Beautiful papers to work with. Can't wait to see the next issue and what everyone has come up with. Funny thing is that I was given a heap of Junkitz paper to work with. YUMMO!!!!!!!!!!! It was quite coincidental, but so much fun!

Gotta go dinners on the table. Hope you've had a good day. Lots more cute stuff going on with the kids, but that will have to wait until next time.

My exciting day

Edited to add: I've just had a phone call from Mum. She only left the twins for 5 mins to have a shower.......Oh dear! She tells me I can have them back anytime I want. LOL! It seems that yesterday they went for a walk to the shops and got some scissors. They used them all yesterday afternoon. Cutting things out. Her place was a tip, with lots of little bits of paper everywhere. Well you can guess where this is going right? And this morning when she got in the shower, they decided to keep going.....on themselves! Yep, you guessed it. Mum came out to find hair everywhere. LOL! She couldn't see where they had cut, but there were big clumps so she knows they did cut! I guess its my fault really. I keep saying we've got to get your hair cut! And I haven't got around to actually going and doing it, so they were just being helpful. LOL! You've just gotta laugh don't ya? I mean isn't it one of those rights of passage?! Can't wait to see them, and just quietly, I'm glad it happened when Mum was in charge and not me. LOL!

Yesterday was one of those days where I couldn't stop smiling. I woke up to an email from Junkitz asking me to be on their International DT. What a buzz. Best part is that there are a couple of other ladies I know who were also asked to join. Yay, congrats ladies! You rock! Check out the links in my blog to find out who they are......

And thanks for the congrats from those who already know! Especially SBO, Andrea you are so supportive of all your friends and customers. Thank you!

Well Mum had the twins last night so its very quiet around here this morning! Wow. I even got to sleep in (which I actually attribute to going to bed late rather than them not waking me up, but that's a different story)!

And as usual when someone does something really nice for you like that, Dan decided it was a great time to get grizzly! Can't really blame him though! Both his eye teeth are just starting to cut (one did come through) and apparently these are the more painful than the normal teeth. Funny thing is that he looks a little lopsided as he still hasn't got one of the top middle teeth. LOL!

So he's really starting to stop looking like a baby. I dunno about you, but once babies get teeth, then they really start to look older. He's now on more chunky food, and the first few times were a little scary as he learns how to eat without choking, especially after Matts wee episodes, but its exciting too.

And Matt and Sarah are growing up some more too. We have been working on them talking to people when people talk to them. They seem to go all shy. But they are now starting to do it voluntarily and it makes this Mummy very happy!

Its a big weekend out there for you Aucklanders. Sunday is childrens day and there are alsorts of things on. Especially the 'Teddy bears picnic' at the domain! Its also Chinese new year and the lantern festival is on at Albert park tonight and tomorrow. So I think we'll probably be out there somewhere enjoying this gorgeous weather!

Ok, gotta go. Dan wants his solids.

Feb is GONE!

I can't believe it. We're already in March. Where has this year gone? That means we're 16% of the way through the year. Just like that. Don't blink or you'll miss 2007! LOL.

You know I'm having a good year. Someone said to me that last year was going to be a good year for me. And it was, but you know. They were out, by a year. While last year was good, so far this year is turning out to be GREAT!

There have been a heap of changes in my life. Huge changes. Life changing changes. LOL. We're dealing with a 6 month old baby and we've living in a new house. I've been scrapping for Up2Scrap and SBO! I've been surviving 3 year old twins! I've started to do my volunteer work (with Connect Cafe! cool name huh?!).

I feel alive. And it feels good. Don't get me wrong. Life throws curve balls at you. All the time. Especially when you feel like this. Funny huh?! LOL. But I feel better equipped to deal with them.

So, I just wanted to share some cute little things my kids have been up to.

Last night I was getting ready to go for a run. Abby was here, so I could go for one on the roads. Yeah! I was just heading off when the kids asked what I was doing. So I told them. Matt pipes up

"I wanna come".

"Sorry sweetie, you don't run as quick as Mummy so I'll go by myself"

"But Mum I can run real fast, look" and off he sprints out of the kitchen through the dining room, up the hall and back.

"See".

What do you say to that?! His face was alight with enthusiasm and he so wanted to come, he CAN RUN!

So I ended up going by myself and they were still awake when I got back and that was ok. I went in there and gave them big cuddles and they could see how hot I was. They thought it was funny I was all wet. LOL!

The other thing was about some quiet time we had. We were all just sitting around chatting (ok so Matt was on the loo!) and I got thinking about some pages I'd like to do and what journalling I'd need. So I asked them what makes them happy. I was surprised and pleased with their answers. They actually thought about most of (Matt copied Sarah a bit! LOL) this stuff:

SARAH:

1. Daniel (note she didn't say Mummy or Daddy! LOL)

2. Making up beds to play in.

3. Aunty Lisa coming to stay.

4. Having pancakes.

5. Going to the big 5 year old school.

6. When I do poos in the toilet (had to ask why for this one!) 'cause I can get a jellybean!

7. When I tickle and roar at Daniel.

8. When I'm being silly and climb on Mummy (says she standing on Mummys leg!)

9. I love my sunglasses.

10. When I don't have to hold hands anymore when Im walking down the street.

11. Playing with my doggie.

12. When I go to the beach with my cousins and swim with my boogie board.

13. When I play with music.

MATT:

1. Getting jellybeans. When I go poos on the toilet, not in my nappies. You write poos down!

2. Opening presents.

3. When aunty Lisa stayed.

4. When we bake pancakes.

5. When I stay in my bedroom (HUH?!)

6. When I tickle Daniel (you can start seeing he copied Sarah! LOL).

7. When I tickle the wall (says he leaning over and tickling the wall).

8. When I tickle the wall again (ok, so tickling is obviously up there! LOL).

9. When I wash my hands when I'm finished doing poos and wees (Ok, so we have a 'thing' about poos at the moment!).

10. SARAH SAYS: When he plays with me.

11. Walking along the street with no one else (I questioned this and he meant not having to hold hands).

12. I like sunflowers (we've now moved out to the deck where the sunflowers are).

13. I like clouds

14. I like blah (his hand puppet which opens his mouth and roars 'blah')

15. Playing with muck and my toys.

16. I like to pat Toasty and play with Daniel.

17. I love purple and green and yellow and orange (sings as he is pounding away on his rainbow coloured xylophone).

So you can see, that really ANYTHING Matt is doing is what he likes. LOL. Sarah definitely thought about hers a bit more. Lovely really. These lists will become a LO one day.

When I read them back their lists there were lots and LOTS of giggles and then "read it again", "read it again".

And one of those moments when you just want the floor to open up and take you away.... I had told Sarah and Matt that I needed to buy some more bras. They asked why so I flippantly said, these ones are 'old and smelly'.

So we are in a shop and they ask where we are going next and I say the bra shop.

Sarah pipes up with: "So you can buy some new ones Mummy and throw away your old and smelly ones?" There were only a million people there. LOL!

Can you tell that while they are still being '3 year olds', somethings changed. I know I have recently, but that's a whole other post. LOL. But they have too. Someone said to me, when I was going through a rough patch, that you get to two and hold your breath until they are four. Well, two wasn't tooooo bad, but three has been! And I'm hoping (still holding my breath though) that they've turned the corner and are now closer to four than three.

So they are also loving daycare right now! They are joining in a lot more, making some new friends and painting and being crafty alot. Its fantastic. And I must take photos of their latest creation - their butterflies!

Anyway, must go. This has turned into a marathon and I've only got half way through things. Thanks for hanging in there, back again soon.