Living my dream

Twins birthday party

Well, its all over. Today we had the 'big 5 year old party' for Matt and Sarah.

I was so excited about it. We'd been organising for a week and it was finally here.

My biggest regret of the day was not taking enough photos. Sigh. Too busy actually living it. Yay!

But here is my favourite (just love that fairy skirt hanging down over the pony), plus the two cakes I made for them:

  

  

  

   

 

The weather was incredible. In fact a little too incredible. Thankfully we had lots of sunscreen and shade.

Their actual birthday was wonderful too. We brought them Coco Pops to have for breakfast. A real treat! Plus we went to McDonalds for lunch. Another big treat. The rest of the day we hung out at home. Did some baking. Made toffee apples, the cakes etc. The kids love to bake, so what better way to spend your birthday?

And we've got to admit we're looking forward to next weekend when we've got nothing on. Unless you count getting a Xmas tree, going out on the boat diving and maybe a Xmas parade? LOL! Me thinks it might only get worse as we get closer to Xmas. Eeeeeek. LOL!

Ok, I'm shattered, so gonna run. Hope you had as good a weekend as we did.

29th November 2008 / Sat sketches

Happy birthday Matt and Sarah. This time 5 years ago you were just half an hour old (born 5.35am). I had been induced at 8am the morning before, so we were tired. But so relieved to have you here safe and sound after an emergency c-section.

You have grown so much in this time. Literally, figuratively, any way you want to say it. Well, you didn't really have much choice did you?! LOL.

Your Dad and I are extraordinarily proud of you. You make us smile, and cry. You make us think. We are grateful to have you in our lives.

 

 

 

And true to form, nothing runs smoothly in this house. These pictures were taken on a camera which has decided to read the light all wrong. My pictures are either all way over exposed, or underexposed. ARGH! Thankfully the old one is still at Andy's work and we've got it for today. Whew.

While I'm talking birthdays, take a look at the goodie bags I put together yesterday, using Fiskars tools and paper. Simple, but cute. 32 of them. What the?! LOL.

 

 

And last but not least for today. The Saturday sketches.....

SBO:

 

Fiskars:

 

Have a fabulous day!

Old LO share

I did these LO's a little while ago. They were for a competition, and I forgot to post once it was all over. So here's a wee look....

 

 

 

 

Even though I didn't place anywhere in the competition, I really enjoyed creating these. I had fun with them and I'm stoked to have them in my albums now.

When I was creating for this comp, I got so inspired by just creating for the sake of it, I actually did more than I needed to. Here are a couple of others...

 

This one was probably my favourite of them all, but I decided it was too 'cliche' when it came to the comp, so it didn't get sent in. I still love it.

 

 

All of these LO's were done in July and August. It seems so long ago. But funnily enough, I still love the LO's, still love the photos, still love the papers. I hope that in years to come, I will still feel the same way.

Other stuff.....

Its been really busy here getting ready for the party. We've been up late every night, just pottering. Mowing lawns, tidying the garden, cleaning up the sleepout, putting all my stray scrapping stuff away. You know, stuff that takes a while, so that we're not stressed about it on the day.

They had another small party today at Connect Cafe which is the mothers group I help run on a Friday morning. It was lovely. When the kids reach 5, they are given a cake, and small pressies to thank them for being part of the group and to wish them well in the future. Its lovely.

So today I'm putting together the goodie bags, and starting to bake.

Linn is taking the kids for a little while which will be nice. Gives me a bit more space, and certainly saves time when doing this stuff. They are going to be baking some gingerbread men and on Sunday morning we'll ice and decorate them together.

Its a great time of year to be doing this stuff. With Xmas coming up it really feels like party time.

Ok, well must go start organising. Have a great Friday.

T

5th Birthdays, broken (?) toe, another LO

Yep, I've been talking about the twins 5th birthday on and off for a while now, but this week its actually happening. The first of 3 celebrations happened at daycare this morning. Oh man it was lovely. Tune soppy music.... LOL. I just felt so happy to be there and yet so sad. They have loved their daycare so much. The teachers are absolutely fabulous and they couldn't have asked for a better start. They will miss it next year.

So yesterday afternoon when their friend Alice was here we all made cupcakes to take to daycare. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Then this morning, we made icing (gosh I love butter icing!) and I iced them, then the kids decorated them. I was so proud of the job they did too! Don't they look great?!

 

Then at morning tea, I met them and watched them have their celebration including crowns, singing 'happy birthday' and them handing out the cupcakes.

 

They even sang happy birthday twice. After all there are two of them, but people often forget that when it comes to these sorts of occassions. This is Matts turn. Sarah had gone first.

I LOVE the expression on Matts face!

So its going to be an interesting few days for us. Especially as yesterday I went searching for a white tag in the sleepout only to kick my toe on the weight machine and well, its darn sore, and PURPLE! Yep. I think I may have broken the end of it. But unless its the big toe, there's not a lot you can do about it, so I'm taking arnica and hoping it heals quickly so I can run around over the next few days.

Luckily it doesn't stop me scrapping. LOL. I finished this LO last night. I found the quote on a quote site somewhere and decided it fitted the photo really nicely. And that it was enough for my journaling and title.

 

- and theres that white tag too! At least it got used! LOL.

I've used more Pink Paislee papers (Yummo!), and see all those gorgeous words? They are made from some new Basic Grey chipboard. They are small enough that you can use them like this for journaling. They come in alsorts of colours and I got mine from SBO. Totally adore them! Best part is I've still got a heap left in the packet to keep using. Yay!!!!

Alrighty so I'm off now. Must go back to daycare to pick up my precious children.

Have a great rest of the day and don't forget my secret santa post below. We've got a few keen people already signed up. Yay! I'm really looking forward to it. Will keep it open til the end of the weekend, then we'll be organising who is who's secret santa.

Later.

Secret Santa

Ok, so I was sitting here today thinking about the old days when I used to work and we had secret santas. Then over the last couple of years I've been involved in some secret santas with online friends. But not this year.....yet.

So who's in?

The idea is to let me know if you're keen by email or in the comment section, then I'll draw names out of a hat to match people up.

All you need to do is make/buy something for I dunno, say less than $7 (?) and send it to your santa before 15th December.

How bout I leave this idea open until the end of the weekend and then we'll go with it.

Even if there's just a couple of people I'm sure we can get something working. Just for fun.

Hmmmmm, see the recurring 'just for fun' theme going on?

'K waiting....waiting....waiting for those comments.

RAK winner and another LO

Hi. Well, its that time, so without further ado, here is my winner:

 Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

28

Timestamp: 2008-11-24 06:17:15 UTC

Number 28 is Nik with this comment:

What has scrapping given to me...An outlet for my emotions to be expressed in..and the opportunity to "meet" some incredible woman online and IRL!!

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your thoughts on scrapping and what its given you. I loved reading all your 'confessions'.

Nik, send me an email and I'll get this RAK off to you asap.

So I've been creating some more. Actually its quite nice doing some scrapping just cause. For myself. I've been using papers and stuff that I choose to. Fun.

So here is my latest LO:

 

The gorgeous Pink Paislee papers were prefect for these photos. Just the right colours. Divine. Plus got out some of the new Prima flowers too. Cor, can't help myself using my favourite products. Also used the cherryArte chipboard negative as a template for the leaves. Doing that quite a bit lately, but they are so perfect to fill in gaps I want filling.

So what did you get up to today with your kids in this horrible weather? Ours got their hair cut. Gotta look smart for those birthday photos. LOL. Plus then we spent some time at home. Making some cards, and playing. The kids even 'found' a toy so we put that together and they played with that a bit too.

I'm currently reading a book by Ian and Mary Grant called 'Growing Great Girls'. Its been really wonderful reading it and helping to give me tools to deal with my girl. She and I are so similar but my problem was knowing how she's feeling but how to make her feel better. This book has helped me do it.

Anyway, one of the benefits of me reading it, is to remember to have fun and mix up the 'normal' a little bit. So tonight when the kids had a bath, I put green food colouring in and they had a 'green' bath. They thought it was the bees knees. And I felt like a good Mum.

So that's us for this wet windy day. Here's hoping tomorrow is a little nicer.

Later.

Food from the garden

Today we were able to harvest our first boysonberries from the bush we planted a couple of months ago. They were sooooo nice...

 

 

We all tried one. And the result was

Matt: "I only want to taste the juice" - what the ?

Sarah: spat it out

Dan: Ate in one big bite. Yum.

Andy and I: YUMMO!

Hmmmm, I can see this being an acquired taste for my kiddos.

And 2mins later I went looking for Dan who'd disappeared. Guess where I found him. Under that netting. It was so funny. He was just about to pick another UNRIPE berry. So funny. I guess he'll learn. LOL.

 

Totally adore this photo!

We also had strawberries (picked in the rain! LOL) for desert....

 

This photo hasn't even really been changed. They are really this red! And so yummy.

Its been a good weekend, but I've been really tired lately. And even had a nana nap this afternoon.

As for Dan's sleeping. Its all been going really well. No major dramas. In fact its just like its always been except the house is much tidier and they kids are all in together. Yay!

And last call for the RAK. I'll be picking a winner tomorrow. So go leave a comment on the post and you might be in to win.

Later.

T

Saturday Sketch Day & a couple of LO's

And another Saturday rolls around. LOL.

Here are my sketches for this week:

SBO:

 

Fiskars:

 

I also did a LO this week which was surprisingly quick. I was talking to a friend last weekend about how long it takes us to scrap and how we should just 'stick it down'. So I decided to do that with this LO. And funnily enough I'm actually quite happy with it.

Journaling:

I sat with my friends trying to pick a photo to scrap and moaned ‘this photo is too cliched. It’s too scrapbooky’.

They asked me if I had a photo like this in my albums already?

Was it a part of my story?

I said ‘No, not yet’.

Then what’s the problem they asked?

And they were right!

So here it is. My beautiful man &

our adored son’s hands.

I love this picture.

Just love it.

Products used:

Prima & Stampin' Up! patterned papers.

Prima ribbon, chipboard, journal page and crystals.

American Crafts Thickers

Stampin’ Up! alpha stamps

 

I'm still not convinced the journaling space is right. Maybe it should be smaller or in a different space? But hey, it only took 1.5 hours, so its gotta be good right? LOL.

 

And here's one I did last night. I recently had a few new photos printed off and just had to play with this one. I know there's a reflection of the window he's looking through on the photo, but I just adore his smile.

Products used:

Prima patterned paper

Prima Say it with Studs

Hambly transparency

Heidi Swapp alpha

Felt

cherryArte chipboard negative (template)

Fiskars Threading water punch

Kindy glitz & thread

 

Alrighty, off to do stuff. Lots of organising happening this weekend/week. Next weekend is the twins 5th party. Whooohoooo.

Later.

PS: Don't forget to leave a comment on my RAK post. You could be the lucky winner!

RAK

I have a heap of stuff to give away.....

Odds and sods

Napkins

The whole kit and kaboodle

This rak is being given as a whole unit (see above). There is a HEAP of stuff in it:

Latest FK Creative scrapbooking (yep, the Xmas issue)

Up2Scraps Latest issue

A Fiskars Apron

Fiskars border punch

Fiskars stamp sets (x 2)

Fiskars patterned paper

Junkitz patterned paper

Junkitz rubons

Junkits mini album

Napkins

Tags

Odds and sods (as per picture above)

I'm guessing the retail value is just over $100. But you get it for free. Why? Because I'm getting into the Xmas spirit and am trying to "pay it forward".

You see scrapping has been really good for me. You'll have noticed if you read my previous post that I've made some pretty good friends through this hobby. And that's something that's changed my life forever. But its done more than that. Its given me some down time when the kids get too much. Its given me mini holidays when I go to things like scrap camp or Autumn Escape. Its given me a creative outlet and its gotten me back into the work force (in a little way).

Yes, there are the downsides, like spending too much time online (eeeek. LOL). But there is far more good than bad.

So this is just because. You don't have to do anything to be put in the draw to win this huge amount of goodies, except leave a comment :) . In a few days I'll do a random draw and pick someones name out to win all this loveliness. You can be from NZ or international.

I'd love to hear what scrapping has done to change you or your life. But only cause I'm curious.

So get to it, leave me a comment. You just never know it could be you!

T

PS: Dan's first night in the bed was really good. There was a little bit of chatter but not toooo much. Then Matt and Sarah fell asleep, then Dan about 20 mins later. He didn't get out once (long may that last!).

When we went to check around 9pm there was a nasty smell in the room. Bumma. He'd done a poo so we had to get him up to change his nappy, but he hardly woke and went back to bed without so much as a murmour.

He did wake around 2.30am. But after a quick stroke of his head and a 'nigh nigh's' from me. He was sound asleep again.

Lets hope it lasts like this for a long time.

This is how I found them this morning when it was time to get up:

 

Its been a 'milestone' day at the McClunes

And this is what we've done tonight to celebrate...

Our baby boy has gone into a big boy bed.

For some time now Dan has been trying to get into Matt and/or Sarahs bed at night to sleep there. He'll often try it in our bed too. He will ask for a bed and to be 'tucked in'. So we thought while he's keen we should really take advantage of it and buy a bed and get him into it.

So on Monday the kids and I went and brought Dan his bed (the same as Matt and Sarahs) and organised for it to be delivered today. And it was.

We had already discussed with the kids what they'd like to do. As we've just got three bedrooms (and one of them REALLY big) we suggested that they might all like to room in together giving us a spare room as a 'play' room plus we'll put our pull out bed there (instead of the sleep out) giving us a proper spare room for visitors.

They were really keen on this idea. So we thought we'll try it out. I mean worst case scenario, we just move him back into his room.

So today the kids and I went out to buy new sheets, pillows (M&S needed new ones too), plus a duvet cover. Our rule is they get to choose their own one. And I remember when Sarah chose hers how disappointed I was. She choose a bright blue Nemo one when I was hoping for a lovely pink fairy one. LOL. Anyway. Dan predictably choose a Thomas the Tank Engine one (and its pretty cool too!) so everyone was happy.

Unfortunately, Dan threw a few wobblies along the way. He doesn't enjoy walking by himself at the moment and he's just tooooo heavy to carry too far. Note to self, remember buggy. LOL. But we got there.

I had spent the whole day cleaning out the twins room, literally throwing out 2 sackfuls of junk. You know all that plastic cr*p that seems to accumulate?! Yep, all that. Plus the million and one jigsaws that we were missing pieces for etc etc.

So at the end of the day, this is what the kids room now looks like (just put Dan's bed the other way around - as per photo above)...

I'm stoked. It now means there are no toys in there to play with (oh, except their dress ups in that box under Sarahs' bed). So hopefully first thing in the morning won't be a nightmare to then clean up.

We then took down Dan's cot. And put all the toys and their furniture into Dan's old room. It looks great. And is so much easier to access now there isn't so much of it.

It did mean I wasn't able to do any of 'my' stuff today (read scrapping). LOL. But that's ok! There's always more time for that! And its such a feeling of achievement to get this done.

And best news....so far. Two are asleep and one (Dan) is still chatting away happily IN his bed. So its not even been a drama. YET. LOL. Will let you know how it is in a couple of days.

We also had a huge weekend. Friday night I went and spent some time with friends for another friends birthday. I was looking forward to it as I'm always keen to hang out with these ladies. They make me laugh and I can really be myself around them. Over the last four years, they have become true friends. Not 'just' scrapping friends or online friends. And I'm always grateful for that.

So for this friend I made a birthday cake. We all know how much she loves trains so what better than a train cake for a special lady?

Gosh I had fun making this! I have to admit to stealing her photo off her blog as I was running out of time and couldn't be bothered trawling through all my files. LOL. And think it worked out really well. Good practise for next week anyway. Eeeeeek. LOL.

Then over the weekend we had the family working bee at my Mum's place. Building her a deck just above the ground to carry on from the patio. I liked it best when all the bearers, joists etc had been put on and Vonny and I could start hammering the decking on. Love that part. We didn't quite get it finished, but I guess we'll do that this weekend.

It meant the kids had two very late nights. Which caught up with Dan on Monday afternoon when he basically just tried to go to sleep on the couch. I went to give him a wee cuddle and he was burning up. So I got out the thermometer and his temp was 39.2! Woah! We got all his clothes off and he basically went to bed. Woke a couple of times, but not too bad. But nothing since. He seems to be fine. Just tired. No other symptoms. Anyone else had anything like this? Seemed strange. But he's fine now. Happy as Larry with his new bed and eating and carrying on just like normal. But this is what he looked like the other day. Very sad....

Ok, now if you've got this far you deserve a medal. But wait, there's more.....

LOL. Always wanted to say that. Hehehe.

On Monday morning we decided to make some pinecone birdfeeders. Really easy to make. Just grab a couple of pinecones, spread peanut butter over them, then roll in bird seed. Hang in your favourite bird watching tree and wait for the birds.

Today we noticed all the bird seed and 99% of the peanut butter was gone.

I had noticed alot (and I mean ALOT) more bird song around the last couple of days, but wow, how cool that it worked. The kids are all keen to refill them on the weekend.

Check it out, is so quick and easy and so much fun for the kids....

Ok, I think that's enough for now. Cor blimey. I'd be about asleep by now if I wasn't writing all this, but hey, gotta get it down. Recorded for the future. Ya know?

So will be back soon with a new LO share and a rak. All this cleaning up has got me inspired to do the same with my scrap area. Hmmmmmm, lots of goodies ready for a new home. Stay tuned.

T

Newish LO's

A while back Donna and I went down to Hamilton to scrap with our friend Vicky. It was a lovely Saturday of relaxed scrapping. I finished one LO and when I got home just needed to do some journaling for the other. Well, its taken me all this time to sort out the journaling, LOL. But its finally done.

I was also sent a link to a cool youtube video clip yesterday which got me making some christmas stars in some new Heidi Grace Xmas paper.

All you need is 6x2" squares of paper and you're away. I only used single sided paper, but if you use double sided paper it looks even better.

 

It took me approx 10 minutes to make this little beauty and that includes finding and choosing the paper.

Such a cheap and quick way to make something really cute for your Xmas tree. Would be especially fun with your kids.

Got heaps more to share, but might do that later.

Have a great Tues.

T

Saturday Sketch Day

Hi. Welcome back to my Saturday sketches. Sorry I missed last weeks. Life just caught up with me.

But here are the two I've designed for Fiskars and SBO this week......

Fiskars:

Nice and simple. Giving you enough time to do a quick LO, then get out and enjoy that summer sun!

SBO:

Again, relatively simple, but with lots of options for multiple photos/pp/journaling. Different sized photos, well anything you want really.

Have a great Saturday!

T

SCKC Camps (Southern Cross Kids Camps)

Do you guys remember last year when we did a drive for the SCKC camps to create pages for mini scrapbooks for underpriviledged children who attended the camps? Yep? Cool.

Well its that time of year again. We are doing another drive for this coming years camps (2009). We have one camp here in NZ, plus 8 in Australia. We need something like 6300 pages to fill the books needed. Sounds like a huge ask doesn't it?! Wow! But I know how kind and generous you all are and what we all achieved last year.

The good news is that we already have enough to fill one camps books. The next problem is we need more pages ASAP to get ready for the camps happening in Jan 2009.

So who's willing to help out again?

All you need to do is make 1 or more 6x6 pages with a space for a small photo (I think 5x3)and send them to me or Nic (if you're in NZ) or Julie (if you're in Australia). If you'd like to see Jules post about it, click here.

If you've got any questions, please email me at the link above. I'll help out with any questions.

If you would like to get your local crop or shop involved, again, just let them see this and Jule's blog, or email me for more details.

I know we can do this!

Hey, the other day we were talking about swan plants and whether they are dangerous. Well Mandy sent me a cool link showing me all about it. Thought you might like to see too. click here if you do.

Ok, must go. Dinner of steak and roast potatoes coming up.

Later.

Finally

Finally I finished my Dare LO. The dare ended last night, but hey, better late than never right?

The lovely Jo Kneller hosted this dare and challenged us to use birds on our LO's. It was sponsored by Tarisota with not one but two amazing kits to give away so I sure hope you had a chance to enter?

I know its too late, but go check out the prizes here. They are so pretty, I wish I could enter!

Finally it felt like summer here. We had Sarah's friend Sam over after daycare yesterday and we hung out in the garden. Picking strawberries for afternoon tea, feeding the chickens and ducks/ducklings. It was great. Then when Sam's Mum came with her sister to pick her up we got out the sprinkler and let them run around under that for a good 20 mins. It was so warm and lovely. I loved hearing the laughter of 5 kids running around our garden.

It meant I didn't get to go do the food shopping. We let our supplies run down before we went to China, then when we got back, we didn't really have time, so we've been popping in and out of the supermarket for this and that since. So when I missed another chance, I realised it still had to be done so took off to the shops once the kids were in bed. Thank goodness for 24 hour shopping!

Unfortunately our bank balance didn't thank me. I just about fell over with how much it cost, but considering we haven't been food shopping in over 6 weeks, it was actually really cheap. LOL!

So finally we have food in the house. LOL.

And finally another part of my travel goal has been realised. I read somewhere about a family who has a wall chart of the world in their house. And on it are lots of pins showing where they've been. I've been thinking about it for ages and realised I really wanted to do something similar.

So in the weekend Andy brought home a map, I brought a corkboard a few days ago and once all the invites were done and dusted I sat down and started putting it together.

It still isn't quite finished. And its not on the wall yet, but wow, its been eyeopening.

I thought I'd been to quite a few parts of the world (and I have). But yesterday seeing my pink pins dotted around, I realised just how little I've really seen. And that is scary for someone like me with a travel bug. LOL!

I'm not sure if you can see the pins? The black ones are where we have travelled as a family. The yellow ones are places that either a) Andy and I have travelled together or b) We've both been to. The green ones are places Andy has travelled. The pink ones are places I've travelled.

I ran out of pink pins, so still need to fill in a few gaps in Europe and Africa. But it really reiterated to me just how big and amazing this world of ours is. I can't wait to see more of it.

Ok, speaking of this world. I'd better get back to the real world. Have a great day.

T

The last few days

The last few days have been full on.

Friends over, doctors visits, making invitations. It never stops. And its only going to get worse....did you know its only 42 days til Xmas? Oh my goodness. I can feel the panic starting to happen as I talk to other Mums and friends. Oh what fun! LOL! I sooooo love this time of year.

We've been very excited by other 'nature news' from the McClune household. Finally last week a mother duck emerged from her nest with 8 little ducklings. Then this week, another one was added. 9 ducklings. How cool is that?! They are so darn cute. And she is a very good Mummy. Constantly on the lookout for what might be around. So we've been spending quite a bit of time down the bottom of the section feeding them bread and corn (chicken food is great!) and just hanging out with them......

See Mummy duck head up, alert looking out for Toast (our cat). Good Mummy.

Here we are feeding them.

Tides out, so not looking particularly attractive. But hey.

And the kids turn 5 at the end of the month. Wow, like another friend of mine, I'm in the throes of talking to the school, organising school visits, thinking about uniforms, etc etc etc. Its a really exciting time, but I feel the nerves too. I wonder how the kids feel? Due to timing, they will be starting next year. Along with 5 other children who are holding off until the new year. Nice!

But of course we are having a party. Gosh I love kids parties (but thats a whole other story!), and we have arranged for Old McDonalds Farm to come. We figured with our 'lifestyle' it would be a good fit. LOL.

I've been busy arranging invitations. It took me far too long as I couldn't work out what would be quick and easy to make. Cutting out animals seemed way too hard (with 40 odd invites I needed something QUICK!). I finally settled on a barn as the cover of the invitation, then inside is like a book with two pages. One for a transparent picture of the kids, and one for the party details. I got the barn image off the internet. From the Ben and Jerry's website. Its soooooo cool. Check it out here. Now Ben and Jerry's are another addiction for me. Not available here, but if you ever go to the States, you MUST try their chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream. OMG! To die for.

Anyway, here are some pics of the invites....

I've gotta say I'm really stoked with the way they turned out.

Ok, better go. I've got to finish my dare for No 8 Wired! Cor, its taken me forever to do this one. LOL. If you haven't done it this fortnight. Check it out. Tarisota are putting up two prizes and well, we all know how amazing their kits are, so give it a go. You never know!

T