Living my dream

Cybercrop tonight

At SBO. Be there or be square.

I saw this picture

on a card the other day and it just drew me in. I felt for all those little ducklings and just had to buy it. It seemed to reverberate in my soul. That they were trying and while they were trying they could get hit by a car and squished (not that they knew that!). I loved their can do attitude. They just knew they were going to do it and were waiting patiently. I found it really motivating and couldn't walk past it. Love it.

Photograph by Jim Rider

So now I've shared this gorgeous picture, heres some other stuff that's been happening. Poor wee Dan has a cold. His nose is like the Huka falls. Yukky! And he keeps rubbing the back of his head. I'm sure hes not feeling very well, but he's still the cool little man we know and love. Lots of smiles, lots of giggles, no moaning or groaning. What a trooper!

SCKC, the last couple of days I've had envelopes and boxes in my letter box. Its wonderful. You guys are really making a difference and its so touching. THANK YOU!

Don't forget to check out the Fiskars ANZ Blog on Sunday cause there will be lots of inspiration for anyone whose just not sure what to do.

And thank you for all the good wishes regarding my appointment on the FK DT. Its been so cool to share this with you guys! Thanks for making me smile.

Alrighty, gonna go enjoy this evening. What a stunning day huh? Hot as! Hope you had a good one!

T

Scrapping stuff

Lots and lots going on in the scrapping world. And something I can finally tell. Oh wow, I am part of the latest For Keeps Design Team. I found out yesterday that the issue with my first lot of work, is in Aussie homes now! And I've gotta say its been hard not telling. LOL! We've known since last year! Best part of it for me? That I've been able to walk this journey with a fantastic scrapper and good friend Donna Meuli. She is also on the team. Congrats girl!

And huge congrats to all the girls on the team. I can't wait to see this mag with all the new work in it!

Hey, have you caught up with Kelly Rotherhams blog lately? This very talented Aussie gal is now residing right here in little ole NZ and so we're gonna start claiming her as our own if shes not careful. ;) LOL. But she has some amazing classes that shes teaching. And if you're down her way (P. North) some great crops coming up.

They will be held on the 1st Fri of the month at Russell Street School in P. North. Jo Burney and Charlotte Whitta will also be in regular attendance. How cool is that?

Check out her blog for more info. Make sure you scroll down to valentines day - her son made her a heart out of train tracks! how cool is that?! I was sitting here looking at it with Sarah on my knee and as I scrolled down she said "ohhhhh, thats beauitful' and it is.

Ok, kids are up, so better go. Have a great day!

t

Feeling lucky

I used to hate it when I was younger and people would say to me 'you're so lucky'. I used to get annoyed that they didn't see the hard work going on in the background that made the 'outer shell' look lucky. That it took hard work to get the look of luck. Funny huh?!

Has anyone heard that story about the swan that swims across the pond looking ever so elegant and graceful. But when you go underneath the water all you see are feet frantically paddling to keep everything above them afloat.

That is so many people. Including me sometimes. However, lately I really do feel 'lucky'. I feel like I've been lucky to make some good choices. That I've been lucky to meet some incredible people. Well just plain lucky. Like bumping into Pud yesterday. It really has felt good to know hes alive and loved. I feel incredibly lucky to have chosen that path to walk down last night at just the time that Pud decided to go hunt ducks. LOL!

Do you feel lucky? I'd love to hear about it.

T

Pudding is alive and WELL!!!!!!!

In December 2006 we moved about 1km around the corner to our 'old' new house. We took our lovely two cats with us and while one (Toast) very happily settled in, the other, Pudding, left us and made his way back to the old neighbourhood 3 times. Yep, three times.

That last time he had been with us a week and stayed outside for 2 days before waking us up at midnight meowing goodbye and running out the cat door. We didn't see him again.......

until tonight.

I went for my 'normal' walk, down the road and through the walkway past our old house. As I was coming out the other end of the walkway, I looked down the road and saw Pud. I called out to him and he stopped immediately, before running back to me. I couldn't believe it! We had a lovely bonding moment with lots of purrs, cuddles and meowing. He looked amazing. His coat was shiny. He looked loved. I knew then that no matter how much I wanted to take him home, I couldn't. As he decided he'd had enough and continued his walk across the road, I watched with tears in my eyes. I knew he was happy, I knew Toast would no longer beat him up. I knew that by me walking away he would continue to be happy. But I also knew that by me walking away, I would be sad.

I got home and was elated. I knew he was alive, I knew he was well. This last year, that's all I've wanted to know. Finally I have proof that he is ok. Its wonderful.

And it topped off a lovely day, even if tinged with sadness.

The rest of the day was lovely cause I got things done. Things that have needed doing for a long time. Whew. Feels good.

Hey, getting excited about Sunday coming up. We've got some amazing inspiration coming to you on the Fiskars ANZ Blog. And best of all its going to help with more pages for the Southern Cross Kids Camps! Yeha!!!!!!!! Keep watching the blog this week for more info, and Sunday for a pile of inspiration!

Ok, well I'd better dash, gotta go and finish off some more stuff, and maybe even have a cup of tea!

You know you *have* to go food shopping when....

You go to have breakfast and there is no bread left

You go to make a cup of tea and there are no tea bags left

You go to use the toilet and there is no tp left. LOL!

Yep if I hadn't just about lost it at not having my morning cup of tea, the lack of tp really wasn't good! LOL! Thank goodness for the spare toilet.

So off we went to the supermarket and the kids were a nightmare! Matt just wouldn't stop touching things so for the first time, we left the trolley at the help desk and I marched all three kids down to the car and Matt had some time out. Yes, it was hard. Yes, I got some sympathetic looks, and yes it worked, but I'm not so sure thats such a great option next time. Might have to find a 'thinking chair' a bit closer.

I did get some great wine cheap. This time a bottle worth $18.99 for only $9.99. Gotta be happy with that!

And we did have a much better afternoon. They all helped me make dinner before we went up the road to post my parcels. I thought it might make them realise they actually liked all the ingredients so they might like the dinner. Unfortunately no! They didn't even want to try it. My deal is you have to have one mouthful, which they dutifully did, but that was it. So for dinner tonight M&S had vegetables. The lovely pasta bake I'd made went to waste. Sigh.

Dan did try it but after having his milk, he did the biggest powerchuck I've seen in a long time! He's been fine since, but it does make me wonder if having curry powder in his dinner for the first time reacted badly with his system? Anyone have any experience on this? It was only very mild!

Ok, must go and make myself a cup of tea. I really missed it this morning, and seem to have been making up for it all day. LOL!

Later.

PS: If you wanna win some nice Fiskars goodies, go across to the Fiskars ANZ Blog and enter our rak draw.....

A few more

pages to add to the SCKC albums. I used some of the 'extreme boy' range from Junkitz. Just seemed perfect for a boy! Funny that....LOL!

I've also done some cute ones using Heidi Grace papers, but you'll have to wait until Sunday to see them. In case you haven't checked the Fiskars ANZ blog, go take a look. There was a big announcement there yesterday about their part in this page drive.

Ok, Donna tagged me so here goes....

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago: I had recently returned from 'the big OE', was married to my first husband and was struggling to adjust to life back in NZ.

Things on my to-do list today: Food shopping, post some parcels, take the wheelbarrow tyre to get fixed, exercise.

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Easy. Rennovate our house and pay off the mortgage, also on our rentals, buy some more rentals. Buy a batch, boat and car that fits 7 people (I'm needing to start driving the kids friends around!), with a billion dollars I'd then give all our families 1 mill each and set up a trust fund for the kids to receive when they are 30. Then I'd arrange the kids first 'learning holiday' and we'd go to China to see and experience another way of life. After all that I'd sit back and scrap and scrap and scrap. Bliss. LOL!

3 of my bad habits: I eat far too much junk food. I'm impatient.

3 places I have lived: Port Pirie (Australia), Wimbledon (London), Northcote (Auckland).

5 jobs that I have had: Part time - worked in a shoe shop, and HMV (while at school and varsity). Full time: BMG records - fun, National Insurance travel branch - learnt alot!, Macvad - met Andy and travelled heaps!

5 Things people don’t know about me: I watched a lioness walk through my campsite in Africa. She was no more than 20m from me and nothing between us. When visiting the mountain gorillas in Uganda a baby gorilla approached me and played with my bootlace. I make promises (set goals) to myself, then make them happen, even if its years later. I was 23 before I drank a full glass of wine! Hated the taste! LOL!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you wanna give it a go, consider yourself tagged. hehehe.

Have a great Monday!

A few more....

pages to add to the SCKC albums. I used some of the 'extreme boy' range from Junkitz. Just seemed perfect for a boy! Funny that....LOL!

I've also done some cute ones using Heidi Grace papers, but you'll have to wait until Sunday to see them. In case you haven't checked the Fiskars ANZ blog, go take a look. There was a big announcement there yesterday about their part in this page drive.

Ok, Donna tagged me so here goes....

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago: I had recently returned from 'the big OE', was married to my first husband and was struggling to adjust to life back in NZ.

Things on my to-do list today: Food shopping, post some parcels, take the wheelbarrow tyre to get fixed, exercise.

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Easy. Rennovate our house and pay off the mortgage, also on our rentals, buy some more rentals. Buy a batch, boat and car that fits 7 people (I'm needing to start driving the kids friends around!), with a billion dollars I'd then give all our families 1 mill each and set up a trust fund for the kids to receive when they are 30. Then I'd arrange the kids first 'learning holiday' and we'd go to China to see and experience another way of life. After all that I'd sit back and scrap and scrap and scrap. Bliss. LOL!

3 of my bad habits: I eat far too much junk food. I'm impatient.

3 places I have lived: Port Pirie (Australia), Wimbledon (London), Northcote (Auckland).

5 jobs that I have had: Part time - worked in a shoe shop, and HMV (while at school and varsity). Full time: BMG records - fun, National Insurance travel branch - learnt alot!, Macvad - met Andy and travelled heaps!

5 Things people don’t know about me: I watched a lioness walk through my campsite in Africa. She was no more than 20m from me and nothing between us. When visiting the mountain gorillas in Uganda a baby gorilla approached me and played with my bootlace. I make promises (set goals) to myself, then make them happen, even if its years later. I was 23 before I drank a full glass of wine! Hated the taste! LOL!

I'm not going to tag anyone cause I've seen this around a few blogs, but if you wanna give it a go, consider yourself tagged. hehehe.

Have a great Monday!

A few more....

pages to add to the SCKC albums. I used some of the 'extreme boy' range from Junkitz. Just seemed perfect for a boy! Funny that....LOL!

I've also done some cute ones using Heidi Grace papers, but you'll have to wait until Sunday to see them. In case you haven't checked the Fiskars ANZ blog, go take a look. There was a big announcement there yesterday about their part in this page drive.

Ok, Donna tagged me so here goes....

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago: I had recently returned from 'the big OE', was married to my first husband and was struggling to adjust to life back in NZ.

Things on my to-do list today: Food shopping, post some parcels, take the wheelbarrow tyre to get fixed, exercise.

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Easy. Rennovate our house and pay off the mortgage, also on our rentals, buy some more rentals. Buy a batch, boat and car that fits 7 people (I'm needing to start driving the kids friends around!), with a billion dollars I'd then give all our families 1 mill each and set up a trust fund for the kids to receive when they are 30. Then I'd arrange the kids first 'learning holiday' and we'd go to China to see and experience another way of life. After all that I'd sit back and scrap and scrap and scrap. Bliss. LOL!

3 of my bad habits: I eat far too much junk food. I'm impatient.

3 places I have lived: Port Pirie (Australia), Wimbledon (London), Northcote (Auckland).

5 jobs that I have had: Part time - worked in a shoe shop, and HMV (while at school and varsity). Full time: BMG records - fun, National Insurance travel branch - learnt alot!, Macvad - met Andy and travelled heaps!

5 Things people don’t know about me: I watched a lioness walk through my campsite in Africa. She was no more than 20m from me and nothing between us. When visiting the mountain gorillas in Uganda a baby gorilla approached me and played with my bootlace. I make promises (set goals) to myself, then make them happen, even if its years later. I was 23 before I drank a full glass of wine! Hated the taste! LOL!

I'm not going to tag anyone cause I've seen this around a few blogs, but if you wanna give it a go, consider yourself tagged. hehehe.

Have a great Monday!

A LO share

Here's a LO I just finished for SBO. It uses lots of yummy Fancypants papers and also alot of Making Memories embellishments. Yummo. I've left the name of Sarahs daycare off (in the scan), due to privacy, but it is on there now. I really struggled with this LO. It took me much longer than it should have. LOL! But hey, its done and I'm relatively happy with it now.

Does anyone remember me talking about the snail trails I kept finding each morning on my lounge room floor? Mmmmmm, it was a while ago now! Well, last night I got the buggers! Yep two of them and not snails either. Slugs. UGH! I was up at 2.30am cause Sarah fell out of bed and I couldn't go back to sleep. After I tried sleeping and couldn't I decided to get up and make the most of this time, when I came out to the lounge and thought I saw two feathers on the ground. Thinking Toast had brought a bird in and I'd need to clean it up I turned on the lights and there they were. Big fat ugly slugs. So glad I didn't stand on them in my bare feet. The thought just makes me shiver. LOL! Anyway, I picked them up on some paper and threw them out the window. I can't believe how brave I was. LOL! Hopefully they are all gone and there aren't any more of them and this mornings vacum will be the last one due to 'snail trails'.

So how did you all survive the beating we got with the wind and rain? Its still looking very gloomy here, but I hear that its going to start looking better from tomorrow. Lets hope so! I forgot how hard it is with kids who have cabin fever. Hmmmm, not looking forward to winter. LOL!

Hey, if you wanna see a really gorgeous LO pop over here. Lesley one of the Fiskars NZ ambassadors has done a stunning LO. Unfortunately the product can't be found in NZ, but its sooooo beautiful I thought I'd share anyway.

Hey speaking of Fiskars, have you seen they are looking for a new name for Fiskars TV? They are having a wee competition and you could win some great prizes. Check it out here.

Have a lovely Sunday good weather or not!

T

Sketch day

Todays sketch is brought to you by the shape....circle! LOL!

There are probably many different ways you could use this circle. I dare you to try something a little different than you normally would!

Last night I tried something new for dinner. Jo had told me a book called "4 Ingredients" by Kim McCokser and Rachael Bermingham. Its about making quick and easy meals with only 4 ingredients. And the first meal was a huge success.

I made beef patties from beef mince, onion, mashed potato and oil. Easy peasy. I put them into hamburgers and the kids ate them by my slight skills of trickery. You see they asked what I was making and I told them 'hamburgers' and they said what are they? I had to think quick to work out what I could tell them that would make them want to try them. I decided to go along the 'hotdog' track and told them that hamburgers are hotdogs, but instead of being long and round, they are small and round. It worked. Matt ate two whole hamburgers (only small ones), and Sarah ate 1.5! Being home made and filled with veges (carrot, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, mashed potato and onion) they were healthy and the kids sure got their 5+ for this meal! I am stoked!

It also fell into the "I'm only making one meal a night now" rule that I set up last week after deciding my kids were becoming too fussy and it was my fault for making 2 meals a night. we're now making one and they eat what we eat and vice versa. If they don't eat the meal, then they have to wait until breakfast. They are slowly coming around to this and as last night showed are willing to try new things. AWESOME!

On top of that I'm saving so much time! Fantastic. Big sigh of relief.

In case you were wondering....heres what it looks like, you can't miss it. Nice and bright! LOL:

Hey what about the wind yesterday/last night? Wow. We had to take our umbrellas down in case they went flying around the section. Crazy.

Can you tell I'm procrastinating. I can't quite work out what I'm doing with a LO and so I'm here instead. Must go and finish it off. Hmmmmm, wonder what will make it work?

Have a great day.

PS: LOVING all your comments from my last post! Wow you guys know some incredible people! LOL. I wanna hear more. LOL!

And I think we have a 'real' instance of me (and therefore you guys) being just 6 steps away from Oprah! WTG Rebecca. See it is possible. Amazing huh?!

Also when I got chatting to a friend last night I realised I had a really cool one that might be interesting to share....

I knew a lady whose friends mother lived next door to Sean Connery's Mum. Apparently they would talk to him across the fence. Big dreamy sigh. Now don't know about you, but by golly the older that man gets the more sexy he gets. LOL! Ok, off for real now......

6 degrees of separation

Have you ever thought about this? I mean REALLY thought about it?

I guess I got to thinking about it when I saw that I'm getting people from around the world looking at my blog. How cool is that?! Or scary?! LOL! Whichever way you look at it, it means we're all connected. We're all really close. And it got me thinking and most people will know when I start thinking that you need to run, cause I come up with some really hair brained schemes aye?! LOL!

So what is it? 6 degrees of separation is the thought that everyone in the world is only 6 steps away from anyone else.

What this means is that if I know 'x' person, thats one step. Then the people those people know are step two and so it goes until you get to step 6. The theory is that we are all only 6 steps from knowing anyone in the world. Wow! So you mean I could potentially get to know someone who knows my heros, or knows someone who knows my heros? LOL!

I'd love to put this in practise right here on my little ole blog. I'd love to see just how close me down under in NZ is away from someone really famous. I dunno, like Bill Clinton or Oprah Winfrey. I mean really big names that I wouldn't have a chance of getting close to normally. Wouldn't that be amazing to see if it worked?

I mean here in NZ its actually quite easy. Its such a small country and for example, I know someone who used to be the personal trainer for our Prime Minister. I mean you can't get much bigger than that in NZ right and thats only two steps.

Or what about my friend in Australia who knows the sister of Baz Luhrman (famous Oscar and Golden Globe award winning director). Thats only 3 steps.

Its not that I know these people, or even want to. Just the idea that potentially we could only be 6 people away. Kinda spooky to think about huh?

And this is where my hair brained scheme comes in......

So who's going to help me? Is there anyone out there who's willing to see how far we can go with this?

Not sure how it would work. Perhaps you can tell me who you know and who they know etc so we finally get to that big name?????

Whadda ya recon? Could be fun? Or could be totally stupid, but hey, lets give it a go.

T

HI!

Just hi!

*waving*

Daniel and his bears.....

Over the years whenever I've been in London around Xmas time I try and go to Harrods and buy one of their bears. I've got two. LOL! But Daniel also has a couple of teddy's which are similar in shape and size plus a big Winnie the Pooh which Andy won at a golf tournament. Anyway.... these bears all lived together on a wooden Kauri chest which my grandfather made (he was a carpenter) and I inherited when my Grandma died. They all looked very cute sitting together, right next to Dan's cot. Until one day not so long ago we went in to get Daniel up and there was one of the bears in his cot. The next day there were two bears and so it went until every single bear would be in his cot with him. Now when we put him to bed, he points and grunts as we pick up each one and put it into bed with him. Of course his own version of Matt and Sarahs doggie is his most favourite and fits more to his size, but he loves to have these other ones scattered in his cot. Its got to the point where there are so many in there that I don't know how he sleeps, so I always try and pile them up at one end now. Anyway, all three of them were playing in his cot yesterday when Matt and Sarah got out and I happened to get a few cute shots of Dan and his bears. Love the colours even if Dan is a bit out of focus.

Also thought I'd show you a CJ which I did last night. I had a wee nana nap from 6-8pm last night so of course was awake til all hours and what do I do when I'm up? Why scrap of course. LOL. So here it is:

  The topic of Ruths CJ was friends, and more specifically what our crop group means to each of us. Well I've mentioned it more than once, but that group of girls is my sanity saver! They make me laugh til I cry and I basically forget everything else that is going on in my life for a little while. I'm not a Mum, or wife, or sister, or anything other than another enthusiastic scrapper and friend.

The papers I've used are some gorgeous Heidi Grace papers from the range "oh so loved" available here in NZ through 7 The Warehouse stores. And through Lincraft in Aussie. I thought it was perfect to show how much they all meant to me. LOL!

Talking of friends, just wanted to say a big hi to Jo! Had a lovely catch up with her today and a couple of glasses of bubbly. How decadent. But so nice.

And you know what keeps going through my head? "Life is good" and you know what? Life really is good. Some of you will know that I had a not so great year last year. On several different fronts, but this year is looking very promising.

I hope your year is looking just as good too!

PS: Forgot....I'm on the scrounge for pizza boxes (you know clean ones that we get our orders sent in) ;). Anyone in the Auckland area that has some spares, wanna send them my way? I'm happy to meet up to take them off your hands. Ta.

First LO's done and received!

Well I got my first SCKC LO's done yesterday. It didn't take long just an hour and I had 10 done! I couldn't believe it. Ok, admittedly they are way quicker than I'd normally ever do, and of course way smaller, but it was easy peasy. I used a gorgeous range of Fancy Pants papers from SBO for my first four. The papers are so bright and cheery I thought any girl would love them!

I also received my first envelope full of pages in the post.... 28 from Jo! Thanks so much Jo! They are perfect!

I also have very exciting news.....we've got two new companies who are wanting to give something to you for giving your time and energy in making these pages.

Paper Pesto are kindly donating a gift pack of some lovely papers, embellishmentss etc to add to our draw

And Andrea at SBO will also be giving something special....

So if you guys are thinking to yourselves, hmmmmmm, ok I'll finish now, maybe, to get another chance to be given something special, you might like to do another 8 pages and throw them in with the ones you've already done! You might just come away with an added bonus gift. How cool! Thanks to our very generous friends out there who think this is a worthy cause!

And if you're thinking how many is too many? Check out Kathryns comment in this post....shes done 83!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *intake of breath* Wow girl! I know you scrap fast! But 83 is amazing, even if you were at a retreat! ;) THANK YOU!

And for a really amazing post on all this and how its affected our coolio organiser Julie, check out her blog... WTG everyone!