Living my dream

This weeks tins are full of

Ginger crunch, white chocolate chip bickies, and eccles cakes.....

And since we're talking about food. Check out our desert tonight....

An (albeit small) watermelon grown by Sarah in her garden! It was beautiful and juicy. And pretty darn amazing coming straight from the garden still warm. Yum.

And dinner tonight was fish. Not this one that Matt caught yesterday while fishing with friends....

But some from Andy's charter trip on Thurs night. He caught some lovely snapper and learnt lots from the charter man.

So you can see its been a pretty big 'foodie' weekend for us.

Hope you've had a good one.
  
 

Sunday's weekly challenge

Ok, so this idea isn't new, but I was inspired by some info/links that Nicki sent me last week. Check this out.... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004084452_webstarbucks20m.html

So your challenge should you choose to accept it is to pay for something for somebody else, just like the above.

Now it doesn't have to be big! It might be a coffee at Starbucks, something at a drivethrough, the paper the next guy at the dairy is getting, someones photos at the photo kiosk, movie tickets or popcorn. It doesn't have to be much. In fact its often the smaller things that make a difference in someone elses life.

Whadda ya recon? You up for it? Dare ya.

Saturday Sketch Day

Here is this weeks sketch. A little bit 'normal' but hopefully a good jump start for another LO.

Have a good Sat.
 

Colour

Because Andy is colour blind, we have a standing joke that he doesn't know his colours. In reality, he's blimmin good at colours. He just can't see green and red when they are together.

So when I saw this colour acuity test on the web, I thought it would be perfect to have some fun, and get a definitive answer as to who sees colour better.

Colour test

To get a score of 0 is to get the perfect score.

 

I won't give you our actual scores, but lets just say I was kinda happy with the final result. Grin.

 

Take a look!

Being a mother

I saw something on Sophia's blog JUST NOW, and had to share it. I love it.

I wish I knew how to embed you tube videos on my own blog. But I don't. So if you wanna see what I'm talking about, take a look above.

If you're having a 'down' Mummy day, take a look.

If you're having an 'up' Mummy day, take a look.

If you are just curious take a look. I'm glad I did.

T

PS: I did a Prima LO today without using any flowers! OMG! Can you believe it. Its even a BOY LO. But can't show you just yet. You'll have to wait to see it on the Addicted to Craft blog .... soon.

Prima BAP sketch

Thought I'd show you my version of this month's Prima BAP sketch:

and a couple of close ups:

and

and

LOVING the new Prima lines. Sigh.
  
 
 

Oh to be young

Thought I'd show you how Dan and I spent our morning....

Me: Dan can I take a photo

Dan: Only if you give me a kiss.

Water + sand = a very happy boy

Add some boats, and this wee boy is in 7th heaven.

Love the drips and clarity of this one.

Ahhhhhh, my boy and I had a lovely morning sheltered under a big ole umbrella, protected from that bright yellow thing in the sky.

Oh the joy and innocence of living each moment. What a lovely morning. Sigh.
 
 
 
 

Food glorious food

I'm trying to do some baking each weekend to put in the kids lunchboxes. So far its working. But I'm not promising that it'll last long! Grin.

Today I made yo-yo's, a chocolate slice and a pink swirly thing from Sarah's cook book. The kids were too busy with their beados to help. Maybe next week.

Then we had my Dad and Pene over for dinner. Dan and I went around the garden picking salad goodies to make into a salad.

We had an apple cucumber, 2 x different lettuces, 2 x different tomatoes, 2 x different peppers, beans, purple carrots, oh and sprouts that Andy grows too. This pic was before I finished it.

We've had a slow, but relaxing weekend. Was nice. Hope you've had a good one too.
 
 

Sunday's weekly challenge

Your challenge this week is to post someone something unexpected.

It could be a letter to say hi, a 'rak' (random act of kindness), a gift voucher, a card, a photo, anything you want. Just because you can. Just to make someone smile.

Dare ya.

Saturday sketch day

We all know Feb is the 'love' month, so I decided to create a sketch based on hearts.

 
I know that Valentines is a 'commercial' event. We 'shouldn't' need a day to remind us to tell those we love, that we love them. But you might like to use this sketch to pop a LO about someone you love in your album. Just because you can.

The news is out

Remember how I said I was excited about something in the weekend? And that I'd let you know by the end of this weekend? Welllllllll, I can let you know early.

I have made it onto the Addicted to Craft DT for 2010.

I'm pretty darn excited (hmmmm, understatement!). They have picked a great group of girls who are amazingly talented and have a huge range of products that I know I'm going to love. Especially Prima!!!!

In case you didn't know, Addicted to Craft is a large wholesaler in Australia. They have some amazing product lines such as Prima (as already mentioned), My Minds Eye, October Afternoon, and many more.

I'm really really thrilled to be part of the team and can't wait to get started working with this company and team. Thanks so much for giving me this opportunity!

I think I forgot to mention this

For Xmas I got one of those very cool life jackets that are 'thin' and comfortable. If you need to use them, you pull a rip cord and it 'blows up', a bit like a life jacket on a plane. I LOVE my new life jacket. I almost forget I'm wearing it when I'm on the boat.

While I was out at my crop on Saturday. Andy took the kids out on the boat. When I got home I found this on my desk.

\

Apparently while the kids were waiting for Andy to get ready Matt played with it and it 'blew up'. Andy said the first thing he knew was when he heard this 'hissing' and looked up to see Matt standing there with a terrified look on his face and the life jacket inflating. I can just imagine the scene.

They got it fixed at the local boat shop on their return and all is well. But Andy was pretty annoyed. You see we've told the kids not to play with that little cord hanging down, but lookee what happened, Matt played. Something was broken. Money was spent fixing it. Time was wasted. Matt had done something he knew he shouldn't. And thus the letter.

I was pretty impressed actually. And yep, I'm guessing this will one day be put onto a LO.

Its Thurs and I'm looking forward to telly tonight. I've been scrapping my little heart out lately. I've created 3 LO's and a card with the new Prima lines since Sat. So loving them!!! and I'm thinking tonight I might take some time off.

But for now I'm off to plant my 'blue' flowering plants in the garden so we attract more bees and butterflies. Later.

 

Preserving children

Take one large grass field, half a dozen children, 2 or 3 small dogs, a pinch of stream and some pebbles. Mix the children and dogs well together, put them in the field, stirring constantly. Pour the stream over the pebbles, sprinkle the fields with flowers. Spread over all a deep blue sky, allow to play until throroughly dirty. Then remove to the bathtub.

I found this in the 5th Edition of the Martinborough cook book and just love it. Thought you might like it too.

Happy birthday to my beloved

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Andy

Happy birthday to you.

Luv ya babe!

And it was an early start. The kids as part of City Nippers were down at the beach at 6.45am to be on 'Sunrise', one of the early morning breakfast shows here in NZ.

Matt had a wonderful time. And was even 'interviewed'. Vonny, if you'd watched the telly, you would have heard him screaming a mile away!

I took some pics. Funny that....

and

The kids were a little late getting to school, and the first thing they had to do was go for a run. I watched Matt take off and realised just how tired he was from City Nippers. Poor wee thing. He's also got swimming (at school) later and then tennis this afternoon. I can see tired grumpy kids tonight, and an early night!

Have a good one.
 
 

This weeks challenge

is to say 'hi' to a neighbour.

It might be in the form of a wave and smile, or maybe an actual 'hi, how are you' as you hang out the washing, or even take across some of those extra veges you don't need.

We moved 3 years ago from a place with 8 neighbours to this place with 5. We only knew 2 of our neighbours in the old house. At this place we know all 5 of our immediate neighbours, and some even babysit for us. We also know many along the street. The street party helps with that. But so does all the smiles and waves as we move around doing our daily business. It has made our lives fuller. And I LOVE our neighbourhood community.

Give it a try. Its taken us 3 years, but it had to start somewhere. And that first smile/wave certainly helped.