Living my dream

Quick Kids review

Tonight I went for a walk with one of my dear friends. When I got home, I noticed the kids lights were still on so I went in to turn them off and tuck them in. This is what I saw:

Two angels. Sound asleep. Just ignore those hideous curtains! One day we'll have nice curtains.

So the art came home from daycare today and Matts was a drawing of him and Daddy swimming. I loved the caption that came with it:

"Dad is swimming all the way to me and he can!! He has grey hair".

I giggled and giggled. Andy didn't. LOL.

The kids and I then made quiche for dinner tonight. When eating it, Matt asked if the eggs we used had babies in them. I calmly explained how we need a rooster to let the eggs have babies in them so our eggs were fine and we weren't eating babies. He promply said:

"When I grow up I'm going to be a farmer and look after my rooster that will give me little chicks to hold".

Love it.

Dan said his first 3 word sentence today. Well sort of. It was actually a song. He has a hand me down singlet from Matt with Bob the Builder on it, and just adores this singlet. He will point at his draws saying 'bob, bob'. So once we get it I then have to sing the song several times until hes finally fully dressed and can't see it anymore. Today he even joined in and said 'yes he can'. Love this age.

I went and picked up some photos from Sylvia Park today. We were there a few weeks back and happened across people taking professional 'studio' type photos. Well I just couldn't help myself and bundled the kids up onto the stand and got some taken. They are good. Not GREAT, but good. Its really really hard to get all three looking in the same direction at the same time. I'll try and scan a couple and put them up in the next couple of days.

Bedtime. Catch ya tomorrow.

Edited to add: my boy JUST got up and went to the loo by himself without us waking him up. This is a first and a biggie. We're hoping now for a dry nappy tomorrow morning! Go Matt!

No scrapping stuff here today

LOL. Just a warning. LOL.

Today I found out that Daniel can start daycare in 2 weeks. Not unusual, we had planned this, but up until this morning I thought he was starting in September, late September. For whatever reason they could start him a few weeks earlier. Which for me (and him), is great. But a little unexpected. I wasn't prepared for that news. Dan and I went on our walk (yes, in the rain and wind!) and all I could think about was how in 2 weeks time I'd be by myself. He'd be staying at daycare. He's too little! LOL! Not really. He's been dying to stay there. For months now he gets upset when we have to leave. Maybe its just his Mummy that's getting a little sentimental. LOL! Jeepers if I'm like this today, what will I be like in 2 weeks? so that was number one tear jerker moment.

Next was watching the news and hearing about Christian the lion. If you'd like to get really choked up, you MUST watch this you tube video. If you just want to see something really cool. Watch this version.

The basic story is that these two guys brought a lion from Harrods about 30 years ago. As he grew up in their Chelsea home, he kinda got a bit big (ya think?! LOL). So they took him to Africa and after acclimatisation he was reintroduced into the wild. After a year, they went back to see him. They were told he wouldn't recognise them. Not only did he recognise them, but he brought back his 'wife' to meet them.

It was the coolest thing I've seen in a LONG LONG time.

Later.

LO shares

A few months back I wrote an article for For Keeps Creative Paper. The article was all about beads. As those who read my blog know, beads are one of my favourite items to use in my work, so it wasn't hard!

I first learnt how to add beads to a page, in a line through the delightful Nic Howard. I sat next to her at a crop and watched her and that was it. I was hooked. That must have been over a year ago now and I've been using beads ever since. So many colours, so many ways to use them. So many options. LOVE them.

If you'd like to see the full article, check out issue 69. But here are my LO's....

And a couple of cards

Hmmmm, that last ones a bit crooked, but you get the idea. LOL.

Hey, I made a booboo on my post the other day. The Stampin' Up! giveaways start FRIDAY, not Thursday. So see you then for those.

Later.

No 8 Wired - Kiwidares

If you haven't seen already, No 8 Wired had their 50th dare post nearly a fortnight ago. Its a cool one too. Inspired by Project Runway and a magazine spread. You can check it out here. We even have a wonderful prize sponsored by Qtea Kits (run by Danielle Quarmby).

I've been frantic getting a few other things done, so only had a chance to do mine today.

I was inspired by the word 'love' and the snuggly photo of Sarah.

Speaking of which, she has become quite the prima donna when it comes to my LO's. Anything I create with her picture must have butterflies. And they have to be pink. I wonder what she's going to think about those green ones when she wakes up in the morning? Eeeeek. LOL!

So anyway, if you wanna be in to win that cool prize, make sure you get a copy to Lianne or leave a link on the No 8 Wired blog by Wed at 6pm.

And what have I used on that LO? Lots of yummy stuff. BG Euphoria paper, Prima flowers, Maya Road flowers, Hambly transparencies, Heidi Swapp ghost xtras and chipboard butterflies, and of course the ole Cuttlebug. 

So today the kids went out to see the All Blacks practise rugby at Henderson. I didn't go. But Matt and Dan both wore their All Black gear. Matt tells me it was important to make them run faster! Gotta love the way his mind works! LOL! Apparently he sat there just watching. Not saying a word, totally enthralled that these were the All Blacks. He was however, disappointed that they didn't score any tries like he does at rugby practise. Too cute!

And we got another bantam egg today. Yippee! Its quite a different shape to the other ones, so I'm thinking (hoping) we do have two different bantams laying?! Their shells are also way whiter. Its kinda cool.

Oh and over the weekend I got my bloglines down from over 1000 posts to read, to 0! Yep, as of half an hour ago, I had no new posts to read on my bloglines links. LOL! So I'm really really hoping it might be easier to keep up with now. LOL.

And I think thats about it for now.

Don't forget....Stampin' Up! preview on Thurs. And some giveaways. Spread the word.

Are you ok?

Did you survive the storm? Wow, it was incredible! The wind was soooooo strong. Waves were coming up over the motorway at the bottom of the bridge where the old toll bridges used to be. A dolphin was washed up on Castor Bay beach, branches broke off our big Pohutakawa tree, but our chooks were ok! I didn't end up going to Hamilton for Vicky and Neens crop. Bummer. I was traveling with a few girls and together we decided it was just a bit too hairy. Especially the ole harbour bridge.

Still I managed to get a couple of cool things done like taking Sarah on a Mummy date, and catching up with Donna and Andrea to crop up here.

Andy and I even ended up going to a 40th which we weren't sure we'd make so that was very cool.

But with all that happening yesterday I didn't get to put up my sketches. Naughty me! LOL.

So here they are:

This one is for Fiskars and if you pop over to the blog you'll see it being used for a challenge and you might even get to see your work on the blog next week, plus could win a prize. Well worth it! I actually took it from a LO that was recently published in FK.

This next one is for SBO. Lots and lots of photos!

Oh, and great news. We had another bantam egg yesterday, and this time I found it just after it had been laid, by Goldilocks. The thing is it was quite a bit longer than the first one. So now I'm not sure if Goldilocks has started laying as well as Pinochio, or whether it was her all along. Either way, its pretty cool to see her in there doing her thing.

And Andy cooked that first bantam egg yesterday and we found out some interesting stuff. The yolk was very yellow, plus bigger than the big eggs. And that meant there wasn't much white. These eggs are PERFECT for me. I don't like the whites of eggs, so from now on, the bantam eggs are Trina's eggs. LOL!

Ok, gotta get going. Pancakes are being cooked. And I have to resist them. So better go eat something else before I give in to temptation. LOL.

Have a great Sunday and don't forget to come on over to the Fiskars blog today. Lots and lots of stuff happening and lots of prizes to win.

Stampin' Up! Giveaways, next week

On 1st August Stampin' Up! is bringing out a new spring catalogue, with more gorgeous products to work with. I'm lucky enough to have a sample and will be putting up some examples of how it can be used from the 1st, plus will have some giveaways too. Very cool stuff.

So if you'd love to be part of that, make sure you come back from the 1st on.

Later!

We are so darn excited here today

When we went to collect the eggs, we had an extra little deposit in the nesting box. And when I say little, I mean tiny. But ohhhhhh so cute! Isn't it just gorgeous?! This means that our bantams have finally started to lay! How exciting is that?! I mean seriously exciting! We 'think' it might be one from Pinochio as it had a little grey feather stuck to it. But I guess we'll find out for sure soon enough. The kids were beside themselves and just loved the little size. It fits so perfectly inside Sarahs little hand. I must take a photo of that actually.

And while we're on cute photos. take a look at this....

Our new house is actually a 1950's house and the kitchen was last done up in the 70's (we think). When the house was on the market, we 'think' they did a quick tidy up and put some new handles on the kitchen cupboards (wish they'd painted to. LOL). Well, one of the handles broke off the other day and Andy 'found' these ones which he'd brought back from overseas one time. I thought I'd conveniently hidden them away somewhere they wouldn't be found, but I walked into the kitchen and there it was. The kids love it and to be honest, its actually really cute. So its staying.

Alrighty gotta go get ready for tomorrow.

Have a good one.

Thurs

This afternoon we decided to make the most of the beautiful weather and took off to Mt Victoria. The kids love the mushrooms at the top. We bumped into one of the daycare families and had a lovely time chatting and playing. Sarah was invited back to their place while I took Matt to rugby. Unfortunately the fields were closed and so we just went back to collect Sarah and ended up staying for dinner. Was a really lovely catch up time. On the way home, we passed Mt Victoria again and I suggested we go up and have a look at the lights as it was getting dark. The kids loved it. And I used a small fence to try and get some pics. Here's my favourite.

It really was just stunning.

Oh and hey, here's another share from my work with the July Tarisota kit. This time alot more muted. But I adore that background paper.

I also grabbed the very bright turquoise material and white washed it to tone it down a bit to suit the LO more.

Ok, gotta get going. Have a good one.

More Tarisota shares

Thought I'd share some more of my creations from the gorgeous, scrummy July Tarisota Kit. Can't say it enough. It was full of beauty, colour, richness.... so so sooooo loved playing with it.

I made these bags using my own templates. They are tiny, but really cute. Perfect for that special treat that you might give someone 'just cause'.

This is a little booklet I made to put in the glovebox of my car. It has all the current emergency details I or someone else might need should there be some reason I can't tell them. I know its a bit morbid. But hey, its cute and means details are there, just in case. 

And off topic, I just have to do a big shout out to some teenage boys that helped me today.

Long story short, the kids and I caught the bus to their daycare today. We all got on the bus and before we sat down the bus driver took off. Matt was luckily in a seat (right at the front) and I was following Dan and Sarah who wanted to sit right at the back. Well as soon as the bus took off, it rocked Sarah and Dan and they both fell. Dan would have had a big fall onto some sharp steps, but these two young boys stopped him hitting the ground. They stunk of cigarettes, and had hoodies and stuff so were not the type of guys I would have thought would care about a young child. I know very generalised from me and a lesson relearnt today. Because, these kids were nice. All the way through to their stop we chatted to them and they talked about their young nieces and nephews. That saying "you can't judge a book by its cover" was never truer.

So a huge thank you to the boys on the bus who saved my son from a nasty accident! You guys rock!

Alrighty, time for sleep. Later.

Fiskars Birthday Bash

Today is Fiskars 10th birthday in Australia. Yep today! And next month, the Fiskars ANZ blog has been running for 1 year. Wow. Two huge milestones! To make it a fun birthday the ANZ leads have decided to throw a big party. There are already a couple of challenges up on the ANZ blog (click here to see them), but come Saturday and Sunday we're going to be having a heap more challenges, games, inspiration, and fun!!!!

On Sunday we've also lined up the 5 USA Lead Ambassadors to come and visit and have a 'live' chat on the blog. Here are the times around the world if you'd like to join us:

12 pm Melbourne (Sunday lunchtime)

2pm Auckland (Sunday afternoon)

7 pm Los Angeles (Saturday night)

10pm New York (Saturday night)

3am London (Sunday morning)

The way it will work is we'll be online at the above times and will 'chat' with them in a post on the blog. Just keep refreshing your computer to see more, new questions and answers. Can't wait!

And no birthday would be right without prizes and you can bet your boots we've got a HEAP of prizes to give away during the weekend.

So do come and join us and don't forget to tell all your friends!

Tarisota

I was absolutely gobsmacked and stoked to be asked to work with the Tarisota July kit as their guest designer. And what a kit it is! I made heaps from it, and still have masses of product that I can keep using.

So thought I'd finally share a few of my projects with you....

This photo of my sister was taken a year or so back. And I just love it. It was nice to be able to do a tribute LO to her.

This month there was a really interesting item to use. An embroidery hoop (well two actually). I sat there when I first saw it thinking....what can I do with this? Then it became obvious. When I was pregnant with the twins Andy and I painted them pictures for their bedroom. We hadn't done that for Daniel. So I decided this would become his 'painting'.

Yep, two pictures of nursery rhymes. Humpty Dumpty and Twinkle Twinkle. He now points at these whenever we put him to bed/pick him up from his sleep and we have to sing the rhymes to him. LOL! They've been a huge hit.

Ok, gonna go now, but will be back with more in the next few days.

Chicken Coop

I just had to tell you about this cool chicken coop that can be found and brought on Trade Me.

My brother in law made it with a group of young boys that he teaches/mentors. All the details are on the link.

But the aim was to teach the boys how to come up with an idea, follow it through to completion (including making plans/building and selling).

They have done this with a chicken coop and are now selling it on Trade Me. I'm incredibly impressed with what they've done and just wanted to sing out and let people know as its going for an incredibly cheap price right now.

Take a look here http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=165697254 and pass it on to anyone who might be in the market for one. You won't be sorry.

The auction closes later tonight.

Saturday Sketch day

We have been having a busy family day today. First swimming with the kids. Which was great. They are all such water babies. Daniel can just touch the bottom of the pool and with his water wings hes able to get around safely by himself. But the thing he likes most is playing 'tada' where he climbs onto the side of the pool, throws his hands in the air and says 'tada', then flies through the air into the water. Totally cool! Matt and Sarah like to do a few more 'big kid' things. Races are their main game. I'm still deciding whether its worth beating them or not?

Then we went and picked up some plants we'd ordered at Kings plant barn and came home and planted them. We now have an apple, plum, lemon, grapefruit and lemonade IN the garden, plus a persimmon and 2 raspberries waiting to be planted. Yeah. We'll do that tomorrow.

We're also waiting on a nectarine, a different plum and apple, plus maybe even a peach. So cool. Can't wait for them to grow and develop and fruit. How cool is that going to be?

Anyway, onto the sketches for today....

Here's my first one. Done for SBO.

And here's the one I created for Fiskars

Would love to see a link if you do anything with them!

Have a great evening and rest of the weekend.

Shattered

Last night I didn't get much sleep. For whatever reason I just kept waking up. Normally that would be fine. However, today I woke up to 6 young children. Yep, my kids had a sleepover with their cousins. And this morning I woke up to 6 children. It was fun. But I was tired. But hey, we made the most of it. We walked up to the local cafe and had a fluffy and some morning tea which was fine except for the guy at the next table who saw a woman walk in with 6 kids and said out loud "oh God". I was mortified. But for once stood my ground, and said 'Oi!, its not that bad' and I think he got a bit embarressed for being overheard. Then we stopped at the local school on the way home for a play on their wonderful playground. Love school holidays! LOL. Then we got home, went for a wander down to see the ducks, collect some eggs and play in the mud. By the time my sister came to pick up her gorgeous girls, I was shattered, but we had fun.

I'm in the middle of doing some scrapping so must go see if I can stick it down. But take a look at No 8 Wired! Theres a new dare and we're up to number 50! yep! No 50 and still going strong. We even have some cool guest designers for this one! And a wonderful prize from Danielle Quamby. coolio.

Later.

LO's to share....

here are a couple of LO's I made a while back but forgot to share.

This one has a heap of stamping on it. The black journaling spots are stamped, as are the swirls (with embossing powder). I also stamped an image onto a transparency, then covered the back with beads so you could still see the image, but see the beads through it. And last bit of stamping was the flower which was actually from a potato. Had to give that old trick a whirl.

Those two beautiful girls are my nieces. Its been so wonderful seeing them grow up. Still can't believe they are teenagers.

Unfortunately one of my children attacked it with a red pen the other day. And there is now a great bit red mark across the main photo. I'm still to see if I can resurect it. Hmmmmm?

I created this one with some YUMMY Fiskars product from Cloud 9. Its called Chocolate chalet and so just seemed to be perfect for this LO.

This one was a record of Dan's first birthday. We got photos taken by our wedding photographer for the twins first birthday so got some done for Dan's too. We had a lot of fun with this photos session. Nat is an incredible photographer and we enjoy her company as well as the photos she takes.

Hope you're having a good week.