Living my dream

Have I given you this link?

Its for a call for Scrapbooks etc. They are looking for work for a special issue about interpreting other peoples work. Katie Nugent has shown 23 different LO's and asked you to scraplift one (or more) and email it in. GOOD LUCK.

Today is Halloween. Now I'm not usually one for celebrating this. I don't believe in it. I don't like the idea behind it and I certainly don't like the hype that has started to take hold here in NZ. And no I'm not a wowser - I LOVE Xmas, Easter, & Guy Fawkes!

But, today they are celebrating it at the kids daycare (I've made little cupcakes) and one of the Mums is having a halloween party which we've all been invited to. So they're getting dressed up and we're having a day filled with sugar! EEEEEEKKKKKKKKK! LOL! Wish me luck tonight. They are going to be so fired up its not funny!

Have a great day and enjoy this summery weather! Looks like its gonna be another good one! Yeah!

What does sun + a little bit of wind make?

A perfect day for drying washing. So when Matt asked if I could wash one of his 'babies' cause it had dirt on it, we negotiated (as both dogs were the ones that really needed washing!) and we (Matt, Sarah and myself), finally came to the agreement that the blue and pink teddy, frog and all three dogs (yep Daniels dog was the clincher) would be washed and hung on the line to dry.

Looked really cute.....

Mondayitis

I can feel it creeping up on me already! In fact it has been all day. Its been so nice to have Andy home. I don't want to loose him to work again. Selfish huh?!

We've had a good weekend. And today was lovely. We went for a walk between Murrays Bay and Mairangi Bay. The wind was up and the tide high so we couldn't walk along the lovely seaside path, but instead went up and over the hill. Was just as well as we found some lovely nastersiums (spelling?). You know those beautiful bright orange flowers you can eat? Well as a child I used to bite the ends of part of their stalks and suck the honey out, and today we taught Matt and Sarah how to do it. They thought that was pretty nifty. Big sigh of satisfaction.

So here's a couple of cute things my kids have been saying (again) .... you getting sick of these yet?

Sarah: I'm an adult cause I look after babies (her dolls/toys).

Sarah (while driving along the Rothesay Bay Ridge): Look I can see all of NZ from up here.

Matt and Sarah in Kitchen on Friday morning, hugging each other. Sarah to Matt: Don't worry Matt soon our Daddy will be home"

Sarah talking about the title on my NZ Dares LO: Did you paint that the same as your toenails? (yep, I've got a new colour now!).

Hope you've had a good weekend and managed to get some scrapping in!

Have a great Monday.

Look what I found yesterday

Newspapers from the days after I was born. We had done that for our children and I knew that Mum and Dad had kept the birth notices, but not whole papers. I must've known somehow as they must have given these to me, but to come across them yesterday when I was tidying up was quite something. Brought a few tears to this old girls eyes (yeah, don't look at the date too closely! LOL).

Funny how the Herald is still going strong. Does anyone else remember the Star? I do, but it stopped a few years ago now! And check out the fonts?! All pretty much the same. Interesting to catch a glimpse into the past like this.

I've been telling you some funnies about my kids and what they say. So here's one of my funnies.

I had to get a new warrant. So in I went, my front tyres were failed. Eeeek. I had to buy new ones. But as I drove away I got thinking about this and couldn't work it out? I thought I'd only had my car a year. Two at tops. How did I go through two front tyres in that time? Maybe there's something wrong with them? I should talk to the guy changing them. So I get there and ask him, how long should tyres last for? I've only had my car a year! He asks how many kms I've done and embarressingly I can't remember. So as we go to look, he checks the registration. Its a 2004 rego. That means my car is three years old. I've had it three years! And I've done over 40,000 kms. Tyres are good to go for 25,000 kms. Any more than that and you're doing well he tells me. So I grin sheepishly and feel very embarressed that in my brain time is going so fast I don't even realise I've had my car for 3 years not 1!!!!!!!!!! You've just gotta laugh right?!

Scrap news: check out SBO for some exciting stuff that is coming up. You can see it here.

Also we've changed the DT gallery upload day. Its now going to be Saturdays. Yep, each Saturday you'll get to see the DT's new work for the week. Great stuff. Make an effort to get over and take a look. Its well worth it.

Here's my creation for the week. A giftbox with tag. Using the gorgeous Fancypants paper and ribbon (plus some BG and beads!).

Have a good Sunday!

Daddy's home!

Thank goodness! What a long two weeks its been. And I mean LOOOOOOOONG. LOL. We nearly didn't have him home today as the ANZ flight "broke down". Thankfully he got on the Cathay flight and while delayed a couple of hours, he still made it home. Yeah! Check out the greeting by one happy chappy:

When the twins were Dan's age and Andy had been away this long, they would treat him with disdain when he returned. He would be allowed into the home, but they wouldn't warm to him for about 2-3 hours. I've always imagined it was their way of showing displeasure, or how much they missed him? But not this little fella. He thought his Dad was the best thing since sliced bread. And even when I came close he remained in Andy's arms. No reaching for me. It was really really great.

Couple more funny sayings:

Today in the car. Sarah says:

"Look Mum theres a car on the footpath."

I reply "Oh my goodness. Look at that. Whats a car doing on the footpath?"

Sarah "Its a footpath car. They fix any part of the footpath thats been damaged".

Too cute!

Later on there was a conversation about a rubbish bin that had a pink lid. I must admit this is a little strange! So listened to the conversation between Matt and Sarah. They were discussing the merits of it being pink, why it would be pink, whether it was painted, and who painted it. It was really really interesting to hear their thought patterns.

Kiwidares have this fortnights new dare up. Its all about colour. Go check it out here. We have a wonderful sponsor again. This fortnight Tarisota Collections are kindly donating a prize. Tarisota are an incredible monthly kit club with seriously fun products. Love it.

Here's my take on the dare: Using Pink and Orange only (yep, that flocked vellum looks a little green/brown, but IRL its orange!). And a funny story that goes with this LO. I used the back of a piece of PP. Put it all together, turned it over to sign/date it and realised I had left the manufacturers details on it. LOL! So this LO is ever so slightly rectangular and will have to go in my album sideways!

Have a great weekend.

Achievements

What makes you feel good? What is it that gives you that feel good feeling? You know, like you've just had a pat on the back? I realised today that mowing the lawns is one of the things that does it for me. LOL! I know! Mowing the lawns. Who would have thought? But we have a large lawn now and when it gets long and has lots of daisys all over it, then it just looks messy. So tonight while the sun was shining! (Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! - maybe I should post about the weather more?! LOL) and while Linn was giving the kids dinner I got out the lawn mower and did it. Feels good. Apart from that its a good workout! Ever so slight hill (well makes it sound more like a workout! LOL) and a 45 min job. Yay.

So.....it got me thinking a bit more about achievements and what other things make me feel warm and fuzzy and I came up with a small list:

• Bringing in the washing
• Finishing a LO
• Picking veges from our garden
• posting a letter
• Eating a meal I cooked - yep, I don't enjoy cooking, so when I do, its kinda cool! LOL
• Having a totally clean bench
• Paying the bills

I've discovered with my achievements, I like them to have a beginning, middle and end. And with kids you don't always get that. Well not for years anyway. LOL! So I've kept this list to all things except kids, cause of course at the end of the day they are my biggest achievement! Corny, but true.

Just found out I'm heading off to Wellington for Crafting Connection. I'm going to be manning the Fiskars stand. Showing how the tools work, maybe a few make n takes!?! Very excited to be doing this! So who's going to be there? Please make sure you come and say hi.

I'm also going to be holding a class at NZ Scrapbook on 7th November. And you guessed it, its going to be a set of 4 (5 if we get time) Xmas cards. We'll be using the easy and fun Making Memories Xmas foil and flocking kit, so give them a call and book yourself a spot.

Fiskars are also holding a demo at Spotlight Wairau park on 8th November. Its a VIP night so I think there'll be some good deals to be had. But more importantly you'll get to see more make n takes and Fiskars tools/product in action.

Now on the other side of scrapping, taking photos. Have you seen Sharons photowalk blog? Its very cool. I've been wanting to join her and others (come along!) for ages, but life has got in the way. So we've just arranged one for next week. Wed in Devonport. If you wanna know more, then email me trinamcclune(at)xtra(dot)co(dot)nz. Will be nice to get out and take some photos. Just cause.

Ok, got a few LO's to finish, so better stop procrastinating. Have a good one.

Did you know

that the South Island has now passed the 1,000,000 population mark? Wow! As a geography student (both school and varsity) it always amazed me that there was such a difference between the North and South Islands populations sizes (and there still is), but they've now hit a big number. Cool. WTG Southerners.

Ok, so I've had lots of little things I've been wanting to add here, but I keep forgetting. LOL. I started to write a couple of notes, then lost my bits of paper. So I'll try and remember, but it might be a bit all over the place.

• Daniel loves water. He will play in it, splash in it, drink it no matter what it looks like, where it comes from. We have had to start keeping the toilet lid down AND the door shut cause he will play in it for hours if we let him. Ooooooo YUK!
• With all the rain, hes been really happy. He splashes in all the puddles and runs for them knowing I'm going to try and stop him. Its become a bit of a game. But if I don't stop him, he ends up doing the baby 'downward dog' (you know that yoga move where you basically bend in the middle with hands and feet touching the ground and head down too) slurping on the puddle. I guess you just have to laugh?!
• Ok, funny Matt story. Traveling in the car to daycare this morning listening to nursery rhymes (as you do), and 'curlylocks' comes on. The line is sung '.....sugar and cream' and I hear Matt mutter to himself......Mmmmmm sugar and cream (think Homer Simpson). Was just too funny.
• Funny stuff with Sarah. On the way home from daycare Sarah is eating a pear. She  says Mum I swallowed a pip. I tell her that's ok. 5 mins later she pipes up with Mum pips don't taste very nice. LOL! I didn't realise they had any taste!
• When is this weather gonna give up? When are we going to see some sun? The kids are going stir crazy and while I'm getting out for walks (rain or not) I'm over it! C'mon weather. Sort it out. 'k?!
• Happy birthday E! Hope you've had a great day!
• No pics today. Maybe tomorrow?

Later.

We survived....

Yep, we did it. We survived the weekend. It was a full on day on Saturday, but well worth it. Catching up with Oli and her girls was wonderful. The twins birthday party very cute. And Thomas, well, we could have left that! Did anyone else go? Did you enjoy it? Maybe my kids were just too young? Dan was his usual social self. Making friends with the people in the row behind us. Too cute. I guess it could have been a little harder for me with 3 kids by myself? Perhaps I was just not enjoying it due to stress? Who knows?

The rest of the weekend is a bit of a blur and I'm glad I'm home. Dan is sound asleep in bed after a busy day at parks and not much sleep. The twins are with my Dad and Pene. Due home soon. They were so excited to be going to Poppa and Penes for dinner.

So cute story of the day..... Matt was given a dinosaur by my Mum yesterday. He just LOVES dinosaurs at the moment. And can tell you exactly which one is which. He played with it all day and then in the evening started asking about his other dinosaur. I could only assume it had been left at home, and really it wasn't an issue. So we get home and there is his T-Rex. Sitting on the bookshelf. He picks it up and says 'here it is. It must have planed home'. I was totally confused so asked the obvious question 'what do you mean?'. He said that T-Rex must have got on a plane and flown home. Now I was curious as to his line of thinking so thought I'd push it a bit and asked but how did he get to the plane? 'well, he drove to the plane with his seat belt on' (this is the short answer, the long one was very involved), he had obviously thought it all out so I decided best left at that. Suffice to say he was thrilled that T-Rex was home and he could now play with him and 'racing dinosaur'. Another story best left for another day! LOL!

2nd cute story of the day. Matt and Sarah have just got home. They are exhausted. Its been a long weekend. Matt is in meltdown mode. Makes life difficult as you just can't reason with him. But, we are learning how to deal with this. So just now he comes out to the lounge as he's realised he needed to do 'x' before bed, its late and I say no its time for bed. You need to go to sleep. He starts to really cry. Sarah says in a very tired voice Mum I don't like that noise. Matt has already been warned, so I tell him if he continues to make that noise and keep Sarah awake, I'll take his toys off him. He says "but if you take my toys away I'll have nothing to cuddle". Oh man! He is now being very quiet and hopefully falling asleep. Such innocence!

Anyone watching telly tonight? 'heros' is back. I'm interested to see what the premise is for the next series? Anyone else watching it?

Last of all, here's a couple of photos from the weekend. 1) The kids found a dinghy and decided to play in it. 2) Matt on the tramp. 3) we had a party for my sister Lisa and my birthdays. Lisa is learning how to make things out of balloons. The kids were perfect guinea pigs......

More birthdays

Happy birthday to my dear wee goddaughter Sophie. Its her 4th birthday today. She lives in Australia so is too far away! I miss her and especially her Mum. Hmmmm, that's got me thinking. A trip might be in order! LOL.

And a huge big happy birthday to my dear friend Gary (for tomorrow). Gary is my exercise inspiration. He trained with me when I was doing ironman. Always ensuring I had someone to swim with so I didn't drown. LOL! He is a great friend and again, I wish he lived closer. Have a great day!

So Sat 20th a big day for us. Its the twins friends (also twins) birthday (happy birthday Anni and Bea!), we have friends up from Wellington - can't wait to see you Oli and all your beautiful children! Plus Thomas is on! The kids have been waiting for this forever. Yeah! Will be interesting as I'm taking all three by myself. After Thomas we've got a drive, so wish me luck! Not just for Thomas, but getting through the day. Eeeek. What was I thinking? LOL.

And just wanted to say thanks to Donna, Jo and Andrea. An impromtu scrap night made this girl rather happy after a unpleasant morning. You girls rock.

Have a great weekend.

Sometimes I'm just too quick. LOL. I should've waited til after breakfast for this post, but nevermind. I've just come back. LOL!

Today while I was getting Matt his 6th weetbix (where do they go?), Sarah decided I was taking too long and started getting her toast ready herself. WTG Sarah! What a big girl. She did a great job (if not a teeny bit too much jam! LOL). Here she is.

Also good luck and have fun! to Debbie, Sandra, Lesley and Ann who are demoing for Fiskars in Warehouse Stationary today. You guys are gonna be great!

Its Friday and that means

More DT work being uploaded to the SBO gallery. Heres my LO from the September kit:

I used the September kit along with some Fiskars tools - the 1" squeeze punch, and ultra xpress shape cutter and oval template (for those scallops).

Talking of Fiskars you can see some demos this weekend around Warehouse Stationary. Make sure you pop in if to any store between 11am and 2pm you'll get to learn how to make a Xmas card that I designed.

Donna mentioned on her blog yesterday that the latest FK is out. So I just had to make a wee detour on my walk yesterday and pick up a copy. Was stoked to see my LO in the Kiwi gallery. Funny story about this LO. About a week after it was picked up by FK the Kiwiscraps newsletter came out and Kelly Rotherham had a LO in it which was 'similar' so I emailed her and we had a wee laugh. Then not long after that a new dare blog came out kiwi scrapjacks and the first person (and LO) they scrapjacked was Vicky's and again they were 'similar'. In this industry there is often talk about how LO's are copied. This is the third time I've created a LO then seen it elsewhere without either of us knowing the other has done something similar. So I have personal experience that it can and does happen without anyone 'lifting'. Its a controversial topic. I know, but sometimes people just do things the same. Anyway, heres my LO:

 

Ok, kids crying. Must go see whats up. Have a great Friday.

The good the bad and the ugly

Ok, lets start with the ugly. Check out what I found by my front door this morning. It was HUGE. That is Sarahs shoe beside it. I mean HUGE! Ugh.

  The bad: Well its my birthday and Andy isn't here. I hate it when he's away. But always bad on a day like today. Still he made up for it big time, and I had a really good day.

The good: he organised amazing birthday surprises. First was the chocolate cake which was delivered to our door at 8am! I mean YUMMO! But not for breakfast! LOL! So we waited until afternoon tea when the kids came home and we all had a lovely tea party at the coffee table in the lounge. Matt and Sarah helped me blow out the candles. Of course we had just enough candles! LOL! Check it out.....

Next amazing surprise was the flowers he arranged. They arrived around lunchtime. What a treat to come home to.

I also got flowers from my Mum, and Linns garden. All amazing bunches of beautiful flowers. I'm so spoilt. The house smells lovely.

But I guess the biggest thing was the pressies which he organised. He rang early and I put him on speaker and he organised the kids to run and get their pressies. The kids were so excited and came back with bags of beauty vouchers. But not only had he brought these from the spa, he also organised a day for me to go and a babysitter for the kids. So next Tues I'm getting pampered. How cool is that?! I can't wait. And best of all my red won't be running off my toes anymore! LOL!

I was also able to open my present from him and put it on. This was the biggest spoil of the day. Make that the year. No the century. He brought me a diamond pendant to match my engagement ring. Its a single solitare, exactly the same size and colour. And its stunning! I've been wearing it all day and am just gobsmacked that I'm so lucky to have this beautiful shiny piece of jewellery. I didn't realise they were so hard to photograph, but I tried and here it is:

Andy says we have to change the clasp so it matches the necklace he chose (and my other jewellery), but for now I'm loving it and wearing it anyway.

Apart from Andy's surprises there were many others too. My friends and family who emailed, txt, and phoned. So many. It was lovely. And all week I've been receiving lovely handmade cards and letters.

Thanks to everyone who made the time to do these things. It may not seem like much to you, but its a lot to me.

So I spent the day doing things I wanted to. I scrapped, went for a walk, played with the kids. My Dad called up late in the day and arranged to come over for dinner. So that was nice too.

Its been a good day.

So for the good, bad and ugly. I think the good definitely won over! I hope you've had a good day too!

Tonight I......

• picked veges from the garden for my dinner
• fed Dan his antibiotics
• watched Dan fall over in the shower and get a lump the size of an egg on his head
• Txt'd a friend to find out an op went well
• emailed a ton of people
• spoke on the phone to two people I normally wouldn't
• watched telly
• had a glass of wine
• cleaned up
• thought about scrapping, but came here to write this post instead. hehehe
• And did all the other normal stuff Mum's do in getting kids ready for bed

This morning I finished my LO for NZ dares. Have you checked out the dare this fortnight? Too much fun! Its all about moods. Yep, good, bad or indifferent its up to you to scrap a mood. Or maybe the mood of your photo, like I did.....

 

Today Sarahs dog had surgery

A couple of weeks ago we discovered Sarahs most prized possession, her dog (that Santa gave her when she was 1) had a small hole in it. She was distraught, and I promised to fix it. In all the normal day to day of life, we both just forgot about it. Until today. So when she went out with Linn I promised to do some life saving surgery on her precious girl. We decided together that a heart would be the best patch to use as it would show dog that Sarah loves her, it would show Sarah that dog loves her and most of all it would show them both that I love them lots too. As it turned out I didn't start the surgery until Sarah got home. So she kept running between outside where the boys were and inside where dog was. She loved what I did and just hugged her and hugged her when she was finished. Check it out:

Speaking of surgery, I wanna say a big hi and good luck for tomorrow to E and her beautiful boy Joel. Thinking of you and yours and hoping it all goes extraordinarily well!

Bloglines

Ok, so I'm a technophobe, and I admit it, so for me to finally do this is pretty big news! LOL. What you're asking? I finally started using bloglines. No more trapsing through millions of blogs to see whose updated! I just go straight to my feed page and its right there! Yeah! So if you see me on your blog more regularly you'll know why! LOL.

It has saved me numerous hours already. And its only Monday! LOL! I would highly recommend this service. Go check it out! Now!

So today we went and visited some friends. My friend Sanna and the twins friends (Sanna's kids) Anni and Bea. Twins too. It was fantastic. Best part was that we stayed for lunch - thanks heaps Sanna! - and discovered a new dish. It was so easy and the kids ate it! Yep, a mixed up dish. Normally they only eat seperate food. So this is huge and I'm gonna be making it for dinner/lunch sometime soon.

The last couple of days I've had the blinkers taken off my eyes in regards to just how cool my kids are. And yes I'm so biased! LOL. Its made me really grateful for them. For the little people they are and the bigger people they are becoming. So what happened? This.....

Yesterday we were in the supermarket and I saw some watermelon, I pointed it out to the kids and said, lets get some, we haven't had any since last year when we grew it in our garden. They were very excited and said yeah! But Sarah added her extra little bit "And iceblocks. We haven't had them for a long time too". Too funny. A lady was standing in the isle getting her oranges and she just cracked up laughing. You see we'd already had another funny incident happen with her and she and I just looked at each other and grinned. Sarah got all shy and the lady apologised to her for laughing, then said she was going to follow us around the supermarket cause she hadn't seen such good and fun kids in a long time. I was so proud. We had brightened her day.

Then today I finally took Dan back to the doctor cause he just hasn't been getting better and an elderly man came in. Dan just bonded with this man and ran up to him, then ran away, then ran back and away. They played like this until the man was booked in, then they played with a toy plane until it was our turn. When we came out of the doctors the man was still there and said what a wonderful family I had and I said yes, I'm really lucky and he gave me one of those knowing smiles and said it says alot about the parents. He made my day. But I and my children had also brightened his day.

Its like that add by AMI insurance (I think?) where the kid smiles to the guy on the bus, who smiles at the girl next to him and the smile gets passed along. We all live in this world and it doesn't take much to make someones day. Both of these people whom I've never met in my life before (and probably never will again) had a big impact on me and the way I feel about being a Mum. And I think our impact on them, left them happier too. How cool!

So on that note, I'm gonna go. But have a wonderful smiley day....ok?!

Birthdays

Yep, I know a lot of people with birthdays in October. Its a good month for birthdays ;) LOL.

So yesterday as per my many of my other birthdays I was given a birthday present from my wonderful, generous, crazy husband a little bit early. But I was only allowed a taste. I looked at it. Put it on, then was told to put it away so the kids could see me unwrap it. And because its not my birthday just yet I did what he said and put it away. I still can't believe how good I was, AM. OMG, I was blown away by what it is and am still a bit speechless thinking about it. I'll put up a pic on Thur.

He had even set up an elaborate scheme for me to find it. First clue was found in a card which had been hidden in our wedding photo beside our bed! LOL. Then next clue was in another card in his sock draw! LOL. Then I got to find the actual present. Too cool.

So cute kids episode 539.....Sarahs comment yesterday...."Mummy the red on your toes is running away". You see I had a pedicure (special treat) before we went to Fiji and how long ago was that? Well its still looking good (ish), no chips anyway, but growing out. She was 100% right. It looks like its running away. LOL.

Matt - when he (or any of our kids) have done something really clever or we want to show them physically how cool we think they are we give them a 'high five'. Matt has clicked onto how fun this is and has learnt from somewhere (Abby????) that there is more than just a high five. You can 'go low', or 'to the side' etc. He knows it all really well and at the end he'll whip away his hands and (instead of saying 'too slow'), he says 'too fast' (meaning him)! And to be honest he tricks me every time. LOL! Beautiful.

Daniel - poor little guy. Hes been sick on and off for about 8 weeks? Then over the last few days hes been getting more teeth. And hes been miserable. Just not his normal, happy carefree, independent self. So I put bonjella in his mouth (big mistake for my poor fingers), and all I could feel was teeth. Teeth, teeth, teeth, everywhere. Sure enough when I looked inside he had little white buds growing all over his mouth. So there is this poor little tyke getting every single tooth in his mouth except the ones he's already got. They are mostly through now, so I'm hoping the pain will stop shortly.

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for the comments on my LO yesterday. Still excited, but I also realised something. I've often heard conversations about getting published and comments on how you won't get pubbed unless you use the 'latest and greatest' products. Well, I realised yesterday when I was putting together the materials list, that this LO uses old stuff. And I mean OLD. Sure its got BG as its main component, but the newest paper I've used from BG is from the 'colour me silly' range and the oldest is REALLY old, like over a year old, maybe two? - from the vagaond collection and some from the aged and confused collection too. Also alot of the other components are old too. Maya road chipboard which you can't buy anymore (even though I've tried!), rubons, a flower. All stuff I've had in my stash for over 6 months. So I got excited and just wanted to point this out. To me its exciting because it means we don't have to 'keep up with the Jones' to get pubbed. And as long as we love the product, a great LO will come from it and that's all that matters! Yay!

Now don't get me wrong. I will keep buying new stuff. Its too cute not to! LOL. But if I don't use it straight away, then that's ok. I know it will be used 'one day'.

Ok, gotta go. Time to get the kids up.

Have a great day.