Living my dream

Stampin' Up! Prize winners & other stuff

Hi.

Well I'm finally settling into some sort of normality. Boohoo. LOL. And thought I'd better get those prize winners up from my Stampin' Up! posts prior to my trip.

Thanks to everyone for your comments! It was fun to see what you came up with.

So for post one:

Winner - number 15 - Kimmie

Prize: DSP paper and Ink Pad

Comment: OH NO Christmas already!! Have to day I love the SU patterned paper. So fun to use :)

Post two:

Winner - number 3 - Penny

Prize: Stampin Scrub and Mist

Comment: Ha ha . . I like to impress ;) Cool idea Trina :)

Post three:

Winner - number 11 - Kris

Prize:Rich Regals a4 paper and Ink Pad

Comment: Love the tag idea!

One of our traditions is DH and our boys putting up the Christmas tree together at the beginning of December. The boys can't wait until it is time for this, I'm sure they would do it in Feb if they could!

Can you please send me an email to: trinamcclune (@) xtra (dot) co (dot) nz, and I'll pass to Stampin' Up! for your prizes to be sent out.

Make sure you check out the SU website. You can find so many wonderful stamp sets, inks, papers, and more just at the click of a button. Awesome!!!!

Ok, so I mentioned the other day I did an article which was in the latest copy of For Keeps Creative Paper. It was about old photos. And ensuring that we still scrapped them. Here are the LO's I created for it.....

Pictures of me as a child growing up in Te Aroha.

Finally this LO was done using some gorgeous Heidi Grace papers. The two photos are of Andy and Daniel. Very similar little men.

Plus here is a LO done for the colour expose section....silver.....

For the dreamer title I used a raw chipboard. Covered it in glitter, then covered it in dimensional magic for a glossy shine.

More glitter used here in the middle of the flower.

The flower itself was inked with another flower in silver ink. Its an old MM paper flower that were the height of popularity when I first started scrapping.

In fact you'll see lots of older product on this LO!

I've often had discussions with people about getting published and how its a perception that you'll only get published if you use new product. This LO is a prime example of how untrue that is. Most of the embellishments on this LO are over 3 years old. And the papers are probably about the same? Nice to use up some of that stuff too!

Now if you're after another good read, make sure you check out the new SBO Ezine. Its out now and has so many different LO's for you to look at, learn from and enjoy. Here's a glimpse at its cover....

Later....

PS: Heres the link to the ezine: http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/e-zine/Default.html

More pics.....

So I've started going through the pics we took and thought I'd share a few more....

Here are the some from the pink dolphin tour....

Not sure if I mentioned it but the lady who took the tour has been doing so for 11 years and she told us the tour we just did rated in her top 5 tours of all that time. I didn't believe her at first, but she was really excited when we saw the dolphins. Apparently you normally only see a few at a time, but we saw heaps. Plus they stayed by the boat, swimming around it and under it and stuff alot, for a long time. Plus we saw a baby.

They start off grey, then as they grow older turn pink. So the teenagers are 'spotted', the older Mums and Dads are pink and the babies are totally grey. Made it easy to work out which ones were what age.

Next is one of Andy in front of a paddy field. We both love this pic.

Then this is a picture of something we saw alot.

Along the road side, on top of houses, in the middle of the road, wherever there was space produce would be set out to dry. Here you can see rice and chilli. It was beautiful. The colours of the chilli in particular really stood out.

And last something which I'm still not sure what its for. See if you can guess....

Eeeeeew yuk. Dried Lizards. Seriously. What are they for? Not for eating, surely?

So that's it for another night.

If you're still up and about. Head on over to the Fiskars Blog. Tonights the night where its all happening for "The Girls Night In" supporting breast cancer awareness. Come and check it out.

Later.

Home, safe and sound.

Yep, our flight touched down at 11am this morning. It was a great flight. The kids were brilliant. Not a single peep the whole 11 hours. Yeah! Dan slept most of the time, and M&S weren't far behind. It sure made the flight easy.

So we're home. I can't believe two weeks has gone just like that. It feels like we've never been away. How is that possible?

I've been writing down more stuff in my diary, and was thinking about the translation of any language into another. It can lead to some interesting interpretations. So here are some signs that tickled our fancy while away......

This sign was half way up a mountain. Washing hair and a foot massage would be nice, but not so sure about wash foof? And air? Hehehe.

Outside the Ming Tombs. I'm curious what they're wanting us to get ready for? Eeeeeek. hehehe.

I've seen numerous signs like this around the world, asking people to stay off the grass, but gotta love the way this one is put. Very cute.

And this one is for anyone who likes a wee beavy at the end of a long day. When we were in Beijing 10 years ago, there was nothing at the great wall. Nothing. Now theres everything there including a bar. What the?! LOL.

Over the last couple of days Andy and I were discussing what our next 'adventure' holiday destination will be. So far we've come up with the following to choose from: India, Egypt, Africa, Russia, Malaysia, the Artic and South America. It won't be for another 2-3 years, but nothing stopping us planning and/or dreaming right? Any suggestions greatly received.

As you've seen from the blog posts over the past little while we had a ball. Now its time to get back into reality. Work out what is important first up. Get the masses of washing done. rarara. LOL.

But I did have a quick look through the latest FK Creative Paper which was in the pile of mail sitting here. I've got an article plus another LO in it. Yippeee. I'll show you in the next couple of days.

And will organise the winners of the Stampin' Up! prizes in the next couple of days too.

Have a good one.

T

PS: Oh and heres a family photo on the wall. Wow. Just here on Sunday. That's like two days ago. It was freezing, and windy. But we got to walk it, see it. Be part of it. So cool.

 

PS: The kids were in bed tonight at 5.30pm. Yeah! LOL. Lets hope they sleep through.

Snippets from my diary

Thought I'd share some snippets from my diary. From different days, different times, but interesting....

• I managed to buy the book I left on the plane NZ-HK when we left HK, only to leave it on another plane (thankfully I'd finished it). Gotta laugh right. I've never left anything on a plane before and on this trip leave one thing twice. LOL.
• Today we managed to go on most major types of transport....plane, taxi, boat, train. Cool!
• I jumped on the scales for a quick look and it stopped at 60kgs. ROFL. It made me happy, even if they were broken.
• Sarahs favourite part of the day 'the humungeous boat ride and eating rice'.
• Dan said one word today and one word only 'no, no, no, no, no'. Sigh.
• You know you're high in a hotel when your ears pop in the elevator
• Its funny what is considered 'clear blue sky', it looked white to me?
• Getting out of the elevator today there were a heap of staff standing around like they were guards and I got pointed off in another direction as a group of important looking men walked past. I heard one of the hotel staff say to one of the 'important looking men' your highness, so goodness only knows who it was and what they were doing in our hotel?
• This morning I laughed until I cried. One of those silly things that had the whole family in stitches. One of those 'you had to be there' moments, but made the day good.

Hope you guys are all well. Loved hearing from you via the comments. Missing all the normal stuff I do, but loving the new experiences here. Back to reality in a few days. And I'm sure then I'll be missing this even more.

Later.

Xian

Wow. Seeing the terracotta warriers have been a dream of Andy and I's for many years. We were going to see them a few years back one Easter, but didn't have enough time. Today we got to see them. It was just as good as I hoped if not better.

We watched a 10 minute video to learn more about it which was great. It showed us just how they came to be covered over and how they were found.

We even saw one of the men who was digging the well who found the first piece of warrier. Amazing.

Here are some shots.....

Pit 1. The biggest pit and quite amazing. If you come here, make sure you see this pit last. Its first on the traditional tour, but we did it last after reading about it in the Lonely Planet. It really is the best look so building our way up to it was well worth it.

I took so many more pics than this. I was worried none would turn out. LOL! Thankfully they did.

This afternoon we had some down time for the kids after a couple of full on days. They watched the videos we've been taking and loved it. They really like to see themselves and their family on 'tape'.

Tomorrow morning first thing we'll be off to Beijing. The great wall and zoo are our main aims here. Can't wait to show the kids some Pandas.

Have a great one!

Hangzhou

Hangzhou is a beautiful Chinese city. It is right on a large lake called the West Lake. This lake is very shallow, but people come from all around to see it, and get married by it....

We were there on a Tuesday, but saw many weddings and many of them were waiting to use the same spot for their photos. We just don't realise how many people are here in China. In Shanghai we were told there were around 20 million people thats nearly 5 times the size of our whole country. Amazing.

We visited a temple where we got some beautiful shots of the carvings in the stone mountain and caves.

Prior to this we'd been to the park alongside the lake to watch the early morning Tai chi. It was so peaceful. As usual we got inundated with people interested in our children if we stopped. So we kept going as much as we could.

In the afternoon Andy took the kids to the hotel pool while I went for a bike ride. Was cool fun once I actually managed to hire a bike. What a mission. I went to the rental place, but they pointed me somewhere else kinda saying I needed something. So I went down the road. I found some people getting the bikes and saw they had cards and asked where I got them, they said to follow them, so I did, back to the place I had come from. Sigh. LOL. After they all talked some, they pointed back in the direction we'd just walked from and they told me 4 blocks. So off I trotted again. I finally found the place to buy a card from and they asked me to fill out a form. Sure I said, give it to me. It was all in Chinese. LOL. So there I am standing there hot as, trying to communicate with the travel bureau. It wasn't working. So I was lucky when a young guy speaking English helped me. But guess what it wasn't going to be that easy. I needed my passport. Like yeah, I just carry that around with me. LOL. So back to the hotel to get my passport. I stopped to see the kids and Andy and see whether it was still worth me trying. This is what I saw....

Gosh my kids love water! And it was great to see themselves relaxed and happy after a morning of Mummy and Daddy's type of sightseeing. They've been good. But we've also had some 'fun' with Matt.

Anyway, Andy encouraged me to go for a bike ride. Get reengergised. So I went upstairs, found my passport and went back down the street for the 5th time. LOL.

It worked! I got my bike. But true to form, even the biggest/highest bike was way too small. Nevermind! I took off and went around the lake. It was great fun. When I came back I gave back my card and got all my money back. I couldn't believe it. I got ALL my money back. So renting the bike for approx an hour cost me nothing. How cool is that?

So that was a day in Hangzhou. A wonderful place.

Will go load a post about Xian next. Got some cool photos to show.

Shanghai

Here's some pics from Shanghai.

I've still got a few pics to download from the last couple of days. We're now in Hangzhou, but first thing tomorrow morning we're off to Xian to see the Terracotta warriers amongst other things. Can't wait.

The view from our window in Shanghai. Amazing. Especially at night....

The view from our window again. Sun setting (I think?)

So many lights, so many tv screens, so many people. Just light everywhere. Quite stunning.

This is a typical photo that we're ending up with. We stop to take a photo of our kids and are soon surrounded by many others, often wanting photos with one or more of us. The twins are starting to fight it now (totally understandable). But when its another child they are generally fine.

The twins love the different things they see on the back of bikes. This is pretty typical.

This is a close up of the tv tower in Shanghai. Its a really cool looking building and we loved the pink colour! Very cool.

We've just finished dinner with Meng Wei. One of Andy's friends here in China. The kids and he hit it off so well. Especially Matt. It was a real treat for us all.

This afternoon I hired a bike (after a lot of rigmarole! Sigh), and went for a cycle while Andy took the kids to the hotel pool. It was amazing. But I'm still surprised to be back safe and sound after taking my life into my own hands on the roads here. LOL.

Ok, gotta go pack for tomorrow. Its gonna be an early one. Hope you guys are all well.

T

A few pics

Thanks for your birthday wishes guys.

Yep, today I turn another year older. Its been an interesting day. We've been to the markets and bargained our hearts out. I was even given the honour of being told I bargain like a Shanghai person! Go me. LOL.

So some pics....

Sarah in the Long Yi Village. Half way up the hill.

A close up of the terraces. They start at approx 380m and go to about 880m on the mountains. For someone like me who is a little afraid of heights the road up was, um, AWFUL! LOL.

Eating lunch at the top of the world. Real village fried rice. Yummo!

A close up of the dragons on the boat we were on on the Li River.

Our bamboo boat trip.

Wow

Thats my word for the week. Wow.

I've been to China several times for work. I would go to a place called Guangzhou and visit the trade fairs and the night spots. That was about it. Andy and I did a quick trip to Beijing, but nothing like what we are seeing now. It is incredible. It is amazing. It is like everything I imagined, but didn't realise was.

This trip is also proving to be just what I hoped for, for the kids. They are taking everything in, learning little bits of a different language (real little! LOL), meeting new and different people. Seeing great stuff. I hope that through my photos and eventually scrapbooks, they'll have something to actually remember, but by being here themselves, it will open their eyes to the possibility of well anything.

So today we went down the Li River. Its just outside the city of Guilin. It was a 4 hour boat trip through beautiful valleys. With the 'traditional' looking landscape you see in many postcards, and paintings. We saw lots of water buffalo, lots of people washing their clothes in the river. Lots of people doing 'stuff'. It was so interesting. After that we went on a tour to a little village called the dragon village and also went on a bamboo boat trip where we got to wander through rice paddies and get 'up close' to the water buffalo. We then saw the cormorants fishing. One bird even caught two fish at one time. Stunning stuff.

The other day we saw the pink dolphins. I will have to put more photos up when I get time, but it too was incredible. The lady taking the tour has been doing so for 11 years. And she said the trip we did was in her top 5 of trips. There were so many dolphins (normally you only see 3-4), they stayed for so long and came so close to the boat (plus there was a baby), that it was one of those rare and special trips.

Well I'd better go. I have a bit of a reprieve while Andy gives the kids their dinner I've taken off back to the room. Matt and I weren't gelling. LOL. So I've got some time off (I'm hoping for good behaviour, but in hindsight, probably not. LOL).

Hope you guys are all well.

If I've got time before the kids get back I'll upload some pics in a seperate post.

Later.

Hong Kong/Disneyland

Wow, we are here and it is amazing. I didn't think we'd have a computer, but turns out we do. So guess what? Here I am. LOL.

Today and yesterday we spent time at Disneyland Hong Kong. It was everything I hoped and more. The kids took it all in their stride and could go on just about every ride. They even got over their fear of 'characters'. Check this out.....

I'd love to share more photos but not right now.

Tonight we took the kids to the fireworks display over the castle at Disneyland and they were incredible. Seriously everything has been incredible.

Even the 11 hour plane ride. Just one small cry from Dan when he couldn't settle around 2am.

We're off on a dolphin cruise tomorrow, so wish us luck. Maybe we'll get to see the famous pink dolphins.

Ok, its later here and we need to get up early. Have a good one. I'll try and post more when I can. Later.

T

Leaving on a jet plane....

Don't know when I'll be back again....well actually I do, but I love singing that song when I'm about to go to the airport. LOL.

Today the kids, hubby and I are off on a big adventure. We're going to Hong Kong and China. We're going to Disneyland, to see the pink dolphins in Hong Kong (only ones in the world!), we're going to the Great Wall, the terracotta warriers, the Li river, Beijing, Shanghai and many other places along the way. Beware when I do come back as I'll have photo upon photo. LOL.

In the meantime my blog may be left a bit berefit (no internet connection while we're away. Its a real holiday!).

But keep leaving me comments for the SU giveaways cause when I get back I plan on doing the draws. 3 lucky people will win some yummo goodies!

Luckily we've got someone staying here to look after the cat, chooks, worms and well our home. So hopefully they'll still love us when we get back.

Have fun!

T

Stampin' Up! Project 3

Still thinking Xmas, so what about some tags that you can attach to those special Xmas pressies?

Again keeping it simple so you can create a heap all in one sitting.

Just use some DSP - Dashing, and of course the gorgeous Xmas stamp set 'Crazy for Xmas', throw some 'Old Olive' ink at it and you're done.

Leave me a comment and I'll put your name in the draw to win some SU goodies.

Tell me about your Xmas traditions. Would love to hear about them!

Girls night in

Did you know that October is Breast Cancer awareness month? It sure is. If you live in Auckland, you'll see the sky tower is pink. You'll notice the Tim Tam's are pink again, and there are ads on the tv talking about what women can do to check for this disease.

Its a nasty nasty disease. I as most of you will have also, have had close contact with many forms of cancer. My grandfather died of cancer. My grandmother had breast cancer. My father is in remission for cancer and a very very close friend has recently been given bad news about his cancer. It invades all our lives. Every single day.

So to help fight this disease why don't you join us on the Fiskars ANZ blog in the lead up to the 30th October? We'll be having lots of games, giveaways, and other fun ideas (but I can't tell you everything or it'll spoil the surprise). Then on the 30th we're having a big party on the ANZ Blog to really rak things up. To have some fun and show this nasty disease where to go.

We've set up an account in conjunction with the cancer council in Australia so you can donate money. All you have to do is click here and it'll take you through to the link where you can help us raise money, and you don't have to wait until the 30th, you can do it right now! (nothing like a bit of pressure right?! LOL).

We'll also be having silent auctions of product and other 'things' so again, keep an eye on the Fiskars ANZ blog so you don't miss out.

If you're a store owner, or are part of a DT that could donate something that could be used in our auctions please email us here. And Lyn will get in touch with you to arrange what needs to happen.

Thanks guys, I know that this is not only going to help raise money for a very worthy cause, but we're all gonna have a lot of fun along the way.

C U on the blog on the 30th!

Stampin' Up! project two

I've created another card using the same set of papers - DSP Dashing. This time using a traditional stripe. I love this type of paper. It can be used for Xmas type projects or anything else that needs a dash of red in it. On the reverse side is another gorgeous pattern. Love how SU papers are double sided. Too cool.

Anyway, here is the card.

I wanted to create another simple one that could be recreated easily and quickly.

I love the stamp I've used inside. And this looks alot more complicated than it really is (so you can impress your friends, LOL).

Check out the Stampin' Up! catalogue online! Its well worth it.

But in the meantime leave me a comment here and I'll put you in the draw to win some SU goodies!

Trina.

Stampin' Up! new product/giveaways

Yep, I've been given the go ahead to give some more gorgeous SU product away. Starting today I'll have 3 giveaways for some lucky readers.

And whats the reason? Well what other than Xmas stamps and papers ready for Xmas time? Yeah! Perfect timing for World Card Making day today as well!

So I had a wee look through the gorgeous Dashing range of SU papers and decided to go traditional. I've picked out some lovely green and red papers, some shiny silver embossing powder and a variety of inks to make this card.....

I've deliberately kept it very 'simple' so if I was using this as a template it wouldn't take long to make all your cards ready for sending that first week of December.

Here's a close up look.....

What you'll need to make this card:

SU DSP Dashing

SU Crazy for Christmas stamp set

SU silver embossing powder

SU Old Olive & Real Red ink (and boy that real red ink, really is real! My new favourite red ink)

SU Bold Brights A4 paper

Versamark ink pad

Over the next few days I'll be putting up other ideas for using these papers/stamp set and giving you the chance to win.

All you need to do is leave me a comment on any post and let me know what you're favourite SU product is. I'll do a draw before the end of the week.