Living my dream

Grateful

I've been reading alot about being grateful recently. How even if you don't feel it, by making it a concious thing, it becomes real. So I decided to give it a go. Here's what I'm grateful for today.

• For surviving the day with 2 kids home from school.

• For listening to my answerphone messages and actually ringing those people back. Two friends that I treasure, and made my day a better day today.

• A husband who knew I might be getting to the end of my tether and came home early tonight.

• A warm fire that I can see and smell and hear crackling, in the hearth.

• A million memories recorded in my scrapbooks, and the million more I will record at some stage.

• For children who enjoy cuddling, talking, expressing themselves.

• For a tv set that kept said children entertained for a lot of today.

• A pantry stocked with food, a supermarket just down the road and money to purchase more whenever we run out.

• Good neighbours that give us bottles of sauce when our kids need it for sausage rolls.

• A big back yard and a wonderful view. I never get bored looking out our windows and often loose 10-15 mins by doing so.

• A weekend to look forward to. Cropping in Hamilton and running on Sunday.

• Health. While the kids have colds and I'm tired, we are generally very healthy.

There's a lot there huh?! I'm one lucky lady!

t

The chooks & our 'other' family members.

I haven't talked about our chooks for a while. They have been very quietly getting on with their lives (laying less eggs now as its winter and there's not enough sun!). Enjoying their new found freedom in that we open their gate to let them out most days. Well, until they decided that we were taking too long and the big chooks started to fly out. Jeepers! When they did this, they also decided that their nesting box wasn't good enough and they are now laying in the hedge. Which is fine. But its the hedge between our one bad neighbour and us. I hope he doesn't realise they are doing that! We may never have an egg again. LOL.

Anyway, these gorgeous silly chooks are now flying out each morning, laying their eggs, then wandering around the property. The last week, they've been really adventurous, coming right up to the house, and clucking about. Telling us they're ready to go back. Which is just as well, as I fear they wouldn't last too long if they got into Andy's vege garden.

But the good news is that they have become a little like dogs, in that as soon as we go out there and call 'chook, chook, chook'. They come running from where they are, follow us back to their house, and as we open the gate for them they happily wander back in.

Its delightful to watch. I really must get a video/photographs of it. And, more importantly, oh so easy.

Our tadpoles, haven't had quite such a nice ending. Two happily turned into frogs, and then they started to die. First one, then another two. Then the last one. It was incredibly sad as we had grown quite attached to them. I don't think we'll be getting anymore quite yet. But a really wonderful experience for the children. They loved seeing them grow and change. Apart from the ending it was well worth it.

And Toast, well, lets just say he's enjoying winter......

 

Hmmmm, what a mess. Can you tell the kids had just gotten changed into their PJ's?

Later....

So still catching up

And back to last week. It wasn't the easiest. But hey, we're in another week. So that's gotta be good right. Wed Dan was sick. One vomit early in the morning, slight fever and extremely tired. Meant he didn't go to daycare. For the first hour he was nearly asleep on the couch, within the next hour he was sitting on my knee, then he was starting to want to sit by himself. Another hour later, he was sitting on the floor. Another hour later, he was walking around the room and by evening he was running circles around the twins. Talk about fast working virus!

Thurs another hiccup. Not major, but meant my two days off, became no days off. LOL. And unfortunately I had work to do. Bugga.

I did see the cardiologist though and that was good. Seems the 'bradycardia' I get under trauma, can be quite normal for some people. And its not so much 'bradycardia' as fainting. ROFL. So next time it happens I just need to get my feet up in the air. LOL.

I still need to have one of those harness things for 24 hours. Will be good to ensure everything is totally fine.

So nearly up to this week. But in the meantime, thought I'd show you a quick LO I did on Thur/Fri last week. It was intended for an article I'm writing, but hey, I didn't like it, so did another. Much happier with the end result.

 

The photo was taken by Fiona Pierson at Daniels daycare.

As you can see, its an ok LO, but not 'great'. But as I'm discovering with alot of stuff I do, it doesn't always have to be perfect. Yeah, right! LOL! So, yep, that LO is the 'dodgy' first one.

And tonight we took the kids out for dinner. Sarah received an endeavour certificate at the schools full assembly. She was so proud to tell us she was the first name called out in front of everyone! She received it for being "a friendly and responsible member of room 1". How cool is that?! 

My sister has this tradition in their family that when a special certificate is received, they go out for dinner. We decided this was a great tradition and have started using it ourselves. The thing is the kids try to put it on when they bring home all sorts of certificates (including home made ones!). But the rule we have is that they must be the endeavour certificates.

Ok, just looked out the window and saw the skytowers amazing new lights. They're red and blue and are flashing with cool patterns. Like it.

Later.

Last Sunday....

With the twins first disco coming up, we devoted Sunday to finding and creating their costumes. It was an 'outer space' theme, which is fine for boys. But the girls were all a little confused about what they could be. Sarah initially wanted to be a space boy, but decided on a space girl. Meaning she could have a gorgeous new glittery skirt and top.

We tried to find something to fit said theme and nothing. Matt saw a transformer costume which was perfect and we got him that, plus Dan something similar. Easy. But after looking around a heap of shops decided that really I needed to get out the sewing machine and try something myself. WHAT THE?! I mean seriously! I can use my sewing skills (or lack thereof) on a LO, but a real honest to goodness skirt?

So we went into Spotlight. Found the perfect cheap gold glittery material and set about making her skirt. She designed it all and told me how long things were going to be and where things would go on it. It was pretty cool. And I set about cutting, pinning and stitching.

I really had no idea even when to start and decided after 15 mins just staring at all the material to just start. And it worked. Ok, so I had to unstitch the elastic as I put that in far too early, but after I worked that out. It was all good!

And the best thing....she loves it. Enough so that even after the disco on Friday night, she wore it all morning yesterday. Whew!

As we were on the 'space' theme, we decided on the way home from buying the costumes to stop in at the video shop and get out the original 'Star Wars'. It was a little bit scary, but mostly good and we were there to tell them what was going on, why Darth Vader was so noisy and what that thing in the garbage was (an alien!). They totally enjoyed the ideas presented in it. And it got us talking about some of my own experiences with Star Wars and the drawing competition I came third in on the radio by drawing that scene from the garbage!!!

So that was Sunday. Whewee. A big, wonderful, different, successful day.

Last Saturday...

 We made our way out to some reles an hours drive away to have a mid-winter Xmas get together. It was a great day. The kids got to hang out with some 'newish' (to them anyway) cousins or second cousins twice removed (or something equally far out!). It was nice to see them meet new relatives and get alond so nicely with them all. It was equally nice for me to meet more of Andy's reles. We took a coleslaw using a cabbage from the garden. Was nice. Andy does a great coleslaw!!!!

After lunch, and a huge array of wonderful deserts which the kids went back for 'thirds' of (eeek!), we went for a walk around the beach and had a play at the playground. It was FREEZING. But really refreshing and to be honest, I loved it.

 

Funny thing is that a good scrapping friend Lucy is part of Andy's family and she and her family were there. There's a really good story that goes with finding out how she is family, maybe I'll tell that another time. But its always nice to catch up with her and her family!

As usual for a Saturday the kids played rugby first thing. And this week was extra special. Both Matt and Sarah got 2 tries each!!! Did I already tell you this? LOL! Yeah, proud Mum here! LOL. So neat to see as a Mum standing on the sideline. And its great to see the team growing each week as they get more confident with catching the ball, passing it, staying within the field etc. They have a fantastic coach and Matt has been lucky to have two such amazing men as coaches in his first two seasons of sport.

So that pretty much was it.

Later.

Innovations issue 1 share

Now that issue 2 is out, thought I'd share what I created for issue 1. The following were for my article titled 'Fabulous Frames'

In this LO I used frames as an embellishment. By filling them with buttons I created a unique and fun accent.

 

I just adored this paper! So pretty. Here you can see frames being used in several ways. The layered squares of paper create unconcious frames to ground the LO, then I've added ready made bling circle frames to highlight areas of the LO that are important.

 

In the LO above, I've used transparencies, rubons and stamped frames to create interesting accents around the corners of one of the photos. This is a quick and easy way to make your own embellishment, at the same time as adding layering and dimension to your LO.

I've also used punched holes to subtly highlight the bottom photo.

 

This was probably one of my favourite LO's created for Innovations issue 1. I loved creating the base frames from white bazill and stamps, then layering them inside each other. Additionally I created frames for tiny photos to give more weight to the main photo.

I also created a LO for the 'My Hero' gallery. Its one of my friend and scrapping hero/mentor Nic Howard. It tell the story of how we met and how our friendship grew over the years.

 

The photo was taken by our friend Tana, unfortunately the resolution was dodge, so when I printed it, it came out all funny, so I decided to play with it a little to make it look like it was meant to be a bit pixelated and slightly unusual colours.

Hey, I missed doing my updates yesterday, so will try and get some more done today. One down!

Later.

Saturday Sketch Day

I can't believe I haven't blogged for a whole week. Well, actually I can. But its unusual huh? I guess I've had a week that I'd rather do without. Nothing major, just unexpected humps in the daily grind.

So for now, I'm gonna give you the sketch and hopefully later today I'm gonna do some more updates. So much to share.

This week, I've gone for a circle shape. Shapes that are different to the 'normal' square are popular LO shapes at the moment, so why not try a sketch like it too....

 

As you can see I've added heaps of flowers which I'm LOVING right now. Plus a pile of different photos. I'm thinking this could actually be a good sketch for me for last nights big event - the kids first disco. But that story can wait til later.....

Saturday sketch day

Made it. Just. LOL.

 

Rugby first thing again this morning. Gosh its getting to be a really fun time. The kids are really understanding the game more and having fun with what they learn at practise. And a few of them are starting to score tries now! Yeah! Sarah and Matt both got 2 tries each today. Such joy as a parent to see that!

Then we had a fab day out with the McClune side of the family. Got to catch up with cousin Lucy (who just happens to be a friend I knew through scrapping, before we knew we were 'family'. Funny story! Must scrap it one day) plus other people from Andy's side of the family. Its really cool. I especially love seeing the kids all hanging out, looking after each other and growing into friends.

We came back home and sold Andy's old car. Just like that. Can't believe it actually.

So all in all a productive day.

However, I'm shattered. Again. LOL. I'm planning on watching the rugby and getting some sleep. Go the All Blacks!

For Keeps Creative Paper Issue 79

FK just arrived in my mailbox this morning. I got quite a shock. I knew it was out in Aussie, but wasn't expecting to see it here for a while.

Anyway, I quickly opened it up and this is what I saw....

 

I've been scrapbooking for a few years now. And have always dreamed of having my work on the cover of a magazine. Now, this month, its on two. I'm extremely lucky and grateful to the people who have given me opportunities to do this.

And wanna hear a funny story about this work? I sent it in, and it went missing. Just vanished. Eeeek. We waited and waited, but it didn't turn up, so I redid it and this is what came about. The LO and mini album are totally new and different. The other items are 'pretty close' to the originals.

Remind me to show you them one day.

Hope you're enjoying that sun out there!

Later.

T

Catch up....

On Friday, the crysalis that was stuck to my desk turned black. The kids came running to me excitedly saying "mum, we can see the orange wings". There was fabulous energy in their excitement.

That afternoon, look what I found....

 

The excitement when they arrived home was incredible. They were totally amazed and inspired by it. We gave it some honey water to drink and it seemed to go along well. Sat was nice and sunny so we put it outside. I hope it survived.

On Sat we went to their cousins birthday and they got to watch the first part of the All Blacks game with a group of their friends. It was pretty cool. Wonderful photos as memories. What a shame they lost.

Thankfully, Andy had arrived home Sat morning. He's been traveling a bit (3 out of the last 5 weeks) and the kids and I miss him. It was good for us all.

Last night the kids had a few friends over and it was lovely. Very noisy. LOL. But really nice to have one of Sarah's girl friends too. More often we have the boys around as Sarah and Matt get on with them. Whereas Matt has started to be all silly and say he doesn't like girls. What the? So it was nice for Matt to have a friend around and Sarah too.

After they left, and Andy got home, Sarah showed him her second wiggly tooth. It was really really loose. Like holding on by a thread. Earlier, on the tramp, she knocked it and there was a little blood. So I'm figuring it must have got loose then and was literally waiting to fall out. I said jokingly to Sarah, pull it out. And she did! So of course we had to then get it ready for the tooth fairy.

 

 

Last night I managed to get a birthday card finished.

 

I used a Hambly transparency, a Making Memories journaling spot, and I've hand cut the swirls out of some Prima flocked paper.

And i guess that's about it. Phew.

Goodbye from me, Fiskars

I have recently handed in my resignation as Lead Ambassador NZ for Fiskars.

I have been with them for over 2 years and have thoroughly enjoyed my time working with and growing the product knowledge here in NZ and via the ANZ blog.

Unfortunately, with my illness's this year and my goal to run 10 km in the Auckland Marathon have meant a new direction is needed and I've decided its time to put my energies into another format.

The NZ team I've worked with are amazing. A truely talented group of ladies who put their passion into their work and share it on the ANZ blog frequently. You girls rock, and have certainly made my job a whole lot easier.

Dawn and Lyn the Aussie Lead Ambassadors are fantastic people who have supported and encouraged me along the way and together we've built a wonderful blog for people to gain inspiration, learn news and 'go to' for anything Fiskars related.

I will miss them and all.

Thanks Fiskars for an amazing opportunity.

T

Another boy LO and a sketch for the weekend

I did it. I created another boy LO. Thats two in a row! Yay!

 

 

I used some denim from a pair of Matt's jeans that had huge holes in the knees. I figured this was one pair of jeans that Dan wasn't going to wear! LOL.

Unfortunately I got 'told off' by Matt as he apparently 'loved those holes'. Oh dear. So I've made sure to keep the hole from the other leg. I'm not sure what he wants to do with it. Hmmmm. LOL.

One of the things we say to Dan is how he has 'kissable cheeks' so I wanted to put it on a page.

Other things I've used:

A gorgeous black die cut from Scrapbook Studio - thanks Lisa!

A Hambly transparency. Gosh I love them!

Lots of Prima goodness - papers.

Now I just need to do some pages for Matt. Catch him up on a few. LOL.

Maybe I could use this sketch I've done? I know, I missed Saturday again. Eeeek. But hey, here it is....

 

Hope you've had a good weekend.

T

Cross country

Yes, I admit it! My name is Trina and I scream from the sidelines at sports events. I'm one of 'those' Mum's LOL. But here's the difference. I yell at ALL the kids. Luckily as I've done PMP at our school I know quite a few of the kids names, so each time someone ran past, I was yelling out 'go x'. It was funny, I got lots of little waves, and smiles. Except from my own kids, who looked straight ahead with a funny smile on their face as if I wasn't there.

And I think that's ok.

Yesterday the kids had their first cross country event. Sarah said to me in the morning that she would like to come first, second or third as they get medals. Matt told me he wanted to win.

And the starts of each race couldn't have been more different. The girls started to run and around they went. The boys ran as fast and hard as they could as if there was something chasing them that was going to kill them. Then blew a gasket about the first corner. It was hilarious. But not more so than Matt who on the second lap decided that instead of passing the guy who was coming third, he would chat to him, then loose focus and drift backwards. LOL! It was so funny to watch. He came fourth and we are so proud! Even if he is a little disappointed at not getting a medal! As a consolation, we were able to tell him he came first in all the boys of his class. I think that helped.

Sarah did great too. At the start of lap two she was coming about 6/7th. She slowly picked her way through the crowd to become 3rd. It was so exciting to watch, until up the homestraight when she decided not to run, but to kinda jog up to the finish line. She ended up being 3rd equal and was lucky to get that! But how about that! 3rd equal! So proud. And she got her medal. We stayed to watch the ceremony. Got some photos, but totally out of focus and I'm bummed. Nevermind.

There's Sarah at the back there, at the start of the second leg. Oh dear. She didn't even have her running shoes on. LOL.

 

And Matt running past trying to ignore me. LOL.

Gosh it was a great day.

So excited

Oh my goodness!!!! I can't believe it.

Check out this link.... http://prima.typepad.com/prima/

So excited.

Quick Share

I struggle to do boys pages at the moment. Reeeeeaaaaaaallllllllllllyyyyy struggle. But this one I love.

 

I threw it together yesterday. And just had fun not trying to 'do' anything special, just moving bits of paper around. I found I've missed it, so might try and do another LO today.

Wish me luck.

 

PS: can you guess what papers I've used? Yep, Prima. LOL!