Living my dream

Rugby & League

Oh my goodness, what a night last night was for the boys of Rugby / League.

We were lucky enough to be at the NZ / France game last night. Wow! What an atmosphere. There were a TON of French supporters there which kinda freaked me out when they all started singing. I mean it was deafening and I thought to myself, self, why doesn't NZ have a 'chant' or 'song' so we could make some noise? I mean seriously!

But it made the stadium just rock. It was amazing. I still don't know how my daughter managed to sleep the second half away on my lap though?! LOL.

Matt suddenly 'woke up' when the donut guy came around! Too funny. And to give him his fair dues, he did try to wake Sarah to give her one, but she was out to it.

So highlights:

"Ole" whenever anyone scored. LOVED it. And no matter that Sarah was sleeping, this Mum screamed Ole with everyone else each time.

Seeing that first All Black try. After all that time defending, it was amazing to see them take the first opportunity that came along and score.

Watching Dan Carter before the game. Anyone that watches the Small Blacks rugby on Sunday mornings during winter knows that Dan Carter (or DC to the kids) gives them little tips and pieces of advice. One of them at some point was a 'game' he played to practise, improve his skills, practise. And he was doing it last night. It was cool to see he does what he suggests.

Spider cam. Man oh man is that thing cool! I LOVE it. Both watching it move around the stadium and seeing the coverage on the telly.

Seeing the All Blacks live. Gosh haven't seen them live in ages. Was amazing. And I forget just how big they are. Conrad Smith was one that really surprised me.

Sitting with my husband at a game. Was so nice.

And then we caught a double decker bus back to the Shore (how cool!) and put the kids to bed, and watched the Warriers win their way into the grand final next week. So so so so cool. They rocked the game and sure did deserve the win! Well done boys! Well done!

 
Here's Sarah and I on the bus on the way to the game. Love the photo, but how come my iphone photos are so grainy?

 

If you were building a home

what would your 'must have's' be for it?

I've been compiling a 'scrapbook' (nothing like my 'real' scrapbooks) for years now. Photos and notes on what my 'dream home' would look like. I recon I've got a fair few things covered. Hmmmm, we shall see. LOL.

But to be fair, I haven't really lived in that many houses. I keep thinking back to our last house and how easy it was to live in, and that's what we'd like for this next one. But what are the things that will make it like that?

If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear them! Fill me in on your wish list, or what would make your home perfect for you. 

Apart from me being nosey, you might just help us. Grin. 

Anger or thanks?

I was going to put a post up about my horrible couple of weeks. Lots of anger. My poor family. I guess it's the compilation of months and months and more months of illness, tiredness and frustration. But then I got thinking, who wants to hear about that? And it just makes it more true. So instead. I'm gonna write about something I'm thankful for. Hey, after all, "Thankful Thursday" sounds better than "Angry Thursday". ROFL!

So when I thought about what I'm thankful for my daughter Sarah was the first thing that popped into my mind. She's had a hard week herself. She's been challenged by her homework this week which was to write a 2 min speech which she is presenting to the class today.

At first there was lots of tears and tantrums. Lots of "I can't" instead of "I can". And I have to admit it didn't help me hearing the defeatism. I got frustrated! Sigh.

But each day she would try again. Until two days ago she finished writing it, and read it out to us.

I was sooooo proud of her. She had done a fantastic job. And she didn't give up. Together we put her speech onto cue cards and she practised a couple more times. Even via skype to our friends in Australia.

This morning, she raced off to school with her prop. One chicken called 'Blah'. I should have taken photos, but to be honest, just didn't think to. Maybe when I go to pick her up.

Anyway, when I think of her, I think of these things, and they make me thankful for the wonderful girl she is growing into.

She is kind.

She is considerate.

She is smart.

She is appreciative.

She loves to hang out with me. Baking. Reading. Playing.

She is a peacemaker.

She has a great smile.

She is a good friend.

She is wonderfully organised.

She is my girl and I love her to bits.

 
PS: And her speech, it went really well!

another LO

Our kids are lucky. They live in the middle of NZ's largest city, but have some 'farm' animals as pets.

Sometimes they like to get them out to feed them, hang out with them, watch them in the main part of the garden.

I took some photos this weekend, and here's a LO I did using them, and this weeks colour palette (number 76) over at The Color Room.

 
I've used Prima this time round. Some new (ledger & other) papers, plus a couple of older papers too.

Plus, don't you adore the fence mask? I LOVE it.

Here's some close up's....

 
and

 
and

 
Off to get the kids in the rain. Grin.

 

Sunday Shake Up

Tomorrow morning, treat yourself or your child to something 'unexpected' for breakfast.

Throw some sprinkles on their toast, hide some ice-cream in the bottom of their cereal, or make a chocolate chip sandwich then sit back and watch and enjoy the fun this gives.

Take some time out of the normal routine to start the week off with a smile.

Dare ya.

New and old go so well together.

Hi Trina here!

With Prima and Tattered Angels teaming up this month, I thought I'd show you a LO I've made using the two together.

I also wanted to show how versatile Prima is as this LO has new papers, but older collection embellishments. I adore how you can mix and match Prima products!

First here's my LO: 
(you can probably pick that I've been inspired by my fellow DT member Finn's gorgeous style in this LO).

Let me show you how I created it.

I started off with a piece of Prima's new Printery collection paper "Negative". I stamped it with Prima's clear recital stamp. 
You'll notice how it's not 'pefect' and has been overlaid.

Next I added some muslin.

Once it was in the right place I colored it using Tattered Angels Dark Denim. 
Because I only wanted the muslin to be colored, I sprayed the glimmermist onto a scrap piece of paper, then used a scrap piece of muslin to transfer the medium. 
Once this was done, I decided the LO needed some of the blue in the photo to come through so added a few sprays of the Bell Bottom Jeans.

I then started adding my clusters and embellishments. To do this I usually grab out all the product I can find in the right color ways. I then pile them on my desk next to where I'm working and start picking, placing, & discarding until I'm happy. 
The above close up shows how I decided to add some more muslin. I realised the LO needed some balance so added it under my smaller photo. 
I am using quite a lot of dies at the moment. It allows me to add layers of dimension without the LO becoming literally too thick.

In this case after pulling all my flowers out, I realised I wanted to add more color to match the misting I'd done earlier. I picked some Prima Innocense flowers then misted with Glimmermist Bell Bottom Jeans. 
I've misted quite heavily in this instance to get a fuller coverage of color on the flowers. 
And then finally I usually add the last touches of Say It In Crystals, stitching, title etc.

It seems pretty straight forward, but usually takes me a day to complete a LO including choosing & printing photos. Still I love the process.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I put together this LO.

Supplies used:

843502 - Printery Negative

843526 - Printery Page Four

843540 - Printery Love Ledger

550080 - Alphabet Stickers

544225 - Alphabet Stickers

535315 - SIIC

543778 - Orchard Mix Frost

537791 - Athena Flowrs Blue Belle

536312 - Clear Stamps 4x6 Recital

539467 - Cancan Flirt

540180 - Innoscence Collection

Cottage Blossoms

Tattered Angels Glimmermist Bell Bottom Jeans and Dark Denim

Other: Cheery Lynn Die, Fiskars small circle punch, Tim Holtz Sizzix Ticket Die, Stitching, Black Ink

Another new LO

This time a challenge over at the Websters Ning InspireMe.

This month's challenge is to use some of their Dazzle gems. I gave it a go. Here's what I came up with.

 
The journaling reads:

Mum, are you a puffer fish today? The perfect word to describe how I feel some days. Just like a puffer fish. All annoyed, so I get spikes and puff up. Leave me alone I’m saying. And while it’s a great word to help the kids understand how Mummy is, I also hate it. I hate the fact that my illnesses this year have left me with no patience (like I had any to start with?! LOL), that I’m tired all the time. That I can’t handle things that used to be easy.

It gives the kids some definition to something they may not otherwise understand. It lets them know it’s not their fault. That Mum is just not coping as well as she normally would. They know that when I’m a puffer fish, you just need to give me a little bit of space. And that’s a good thing, for all of us.

No one said being a Mum was easy, but it’s these little things that make it less stressful. It’s the tools we all make for ourselves that help us get through each hard day so we can enjoy the ones that aren’t so hard. I love my kids! And this funny name “Puffer fish” has been a blessing to us all.

 
Sarah took the photo of me, and promptly annouced that she didn't like it cause I look too grumpy. Grin.

 
I used a mix of Websters and Prima. Loving these two mfts together right now.

 
and last one

 
Challenge yourself to have a go. There are plenty of websites out there with different ideas on what you could create.

T

Lord, please give me Skeeters courage each and every day.

Food

Food glorious food. Yeah right! I have a love hate relationship with food as you know. Right now I'm hating it. Well, actually I'm liking the bad stuff too flippin much. All that hard work last year, gone out the window. Not quite, but 2/3rds worth. Sigh.

I'm trying to be realistic, with all my sicknesses this year it's hard to have the energy to prepare and serve myself 'good' food. I mean does anyone with no energy want to prepare, and make a chicken salad or steak and salad when they could have a peanut butter sandwich?

No.

But there are a couple of things that I'm trying.

1). To be realistic. To acknowledge my addiction to food. To acknowledge the bad habits formed as I grew up. To acknowledge the issues I had surrounding food (did I tell you the story of how I first met cheese? I was a baby and sitting in my high chair when my Mum cut some cheese and brought it over to give to me. Apparently I just started shuddering with horror). As I grew up I didn't like alot of food. But especially textures. i.e. cream. It's all 'squishy', or custard: slimy and squishy. To acknowledge this and accept it's part of me, I'm hoping I'll stop fighting these things and go with it more.

2). To bring more variety into our meals. I could quite happily eat the same 3-4 meals for the rest of my life. BORING! So over the last few months I've been trying to add in new and interesting meals, not only for me, but so the kids get used to this too. And it's actually quite alot of fun! Shaking head. I know! LOL.

So anyway, thought I'd share a couple of places I'm getting great receipes.

The first is Taste it has tons and tons of receipes, all the ones I've made have been great, easy and have good instructions and great reviews from other people to help you made small adjustments, or not.

The second is The Foodtown Magazine 

 
See those little puddings on the front cover? Don't they look scrumptious? Uh huh! Dan was sooooo keen to make these so we did in the weekend. D . I . V . I . N . E!!!!!

Which reminds me of the story of him 'making' them on Sat morning when he started to make them all by himself. He got out the brown sugar, created a small round mound on a plate, got a lemon ready to cut and had the golden syrup ready to pour on the sugar mound which is right about when I found him. Hmmmmmm, I had to tell him they were more than just sugar and well, more sugar! He was not impressed.

Tonight we made Sesame Chicken strips from the magazine. Instead of eggs to help the crumbs stay on, we used buttermilk. It was BEAUTIFUL!

And on this page, there are several more receipes that I'm keen to try.

Just wanted to share.

Later.

Playing around

I've been playing around with this weeks palette over at the Color Room and came up with this LO.

 
Purple and I have never really been that close when it comes to scrapbooking, so it was a challenging palette this week, but I gave it my best shot and think I like what I ended up with.

These photos are from soooooo long ago. It brought back all those early twin memories. Chasing two babies around. Trying to keep them both entertained while one was going one way and the other, the other way. It was fun. But challenging. Still is to be honest. LOL.

I used Websters Pages Papers, along with some vanilla and kraft cardstock, Prima embellishments and a couple of dies (they seem to be my new scrappy 'thing'. Grin).

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

 
Crystals, flowers, resin.... ahhhhh, I'm in heaven. LOL.

 
Of course I did a bit of hand cutting too.

 
Then added some stitching and a white tag to complete my LO.

Recently I've been doing a bit more scrapping just for me and I'm really enjoying it.

Oh, forgot to say thanks to everyone who sponsored our kids in the Fact-a-thon at school! All three of them won first place (well Matt and Sarah tied for first in the middle school) for the most sponsors. They won $70 worth of gift vouchers each. Not only were they stunned and excited, but so were we. I mean $70 to a child is like a million $ to us. Grin. I see a visit to The Warehouse where we can buy some more Star Wars lego for Dan, a nerf gun for Matt and Sarah, well she's still deciding! Grin. So thank you very much!

Thank goodness today was better than yesterday

Because today we had Dan's first class get together at our place.

And if it had been yesterday it would have been a disaster. I didn't cope with yesterday at all. LOL!

Anyway, today was a new day. I cleaned up the house and I baked some cupcakes.

 
And then it was 3pm and we were picking up the kids and coming back here. It was lovely. The class is a great mix of boys and girls and the mothers are all lovely. Again, we've been totally blessed with the class our child has found himself in.

I normally take photos (don't I always?), but well it was all a bit frantic today and with the wet the kids were in and out, then back in, and outside again.

As usual the chooks were out, and the kids liked seeing them. But Toast our cat seems to be the big hit with alot of the kids constantly.

And then just a moment ago I realised I hadn't put the chooks away. So out Andy and I went chasing chooks. Yes, we haven't had a chasing chooks story in a while have we? But this one ends pretty quickly and simply with them having found their way 'home' without help. Ahhhh, they're good chooks.

Thought I'd share an older LO

Just cause I can.  
Well, it's not thaaaaaat old, just earlier this year.

Love that picture of my youngest son Daniel.

And today I need to be reminded how lovely he is after today's performances. Mum's you know what I mean! ;)

Have a good one.

T

Sunday Shake up

I was going through Andy's and my phones today and found a ton of photos and videos we'd been taking. They made me laugh, and they made me smile to remember those moments.

As you scrappers know photos give us so many memories, but seeing these videos with us in action, hearing the voices, it really gave me another sense of what was going on.

So today my challenge to you is to go out and take some videos of the things you do. The people in your life. The things you want to remember and grin about.

Here's a couple of mine from recent times that I want to share....

 

Dan doing a jump. He did it perfectly the two times before Andy videoed, but I actually like this anyway! Grin.

 

And some more skiing.

And then the kids with their uncle Aer at the rugby on Friday night. For someone who 'DIDN'T want to go' Sarah looks like she's having a great time!

 

Let's hope this works!

Sat Nov 5th - classes at The Papercraft Room

Are you going to be in Wanganui on Sat Nov 5th?

Then you're in for a scrappy treat!

I'm heading your way to teach 2 classes for Doreen at the Papercraft room.

I'm super excited because I get to design and play with my favourite products to bring you classes that I know you will love.

Using Prima and Websters as my base for the classes, you will come away with some fun LO's and nifty techniques that you can use again and again.

One class will be another version of my fabulous 3in1 class that everyone loves. 3 LO's in just the one class (but all new LO's, of course!). What better way to spend a couple of scrappy hours?!

My other class will be all about texture, depth, dimension and layers. Lots of techniques, and quite possibly the use of The Vagabond. The Tim Holtz electrical version of the Cuttlebug.

If you're interested in coming, please contact Doreen. She'll book you in.

Watch out for sneak peeks coming up in the next few weeks.

See you there!

Our Rugby World Cup Opening in photos

What a huge night last night was. Such fun. Such tension. Such an event for little people (and big for that matter!).

We had 13 people here, and another 4 at the game. Apart from the lack of buses leaving Eden Park, the night, according to us was a HUGE success.

Here's how we celebrated the RWC.....

 
Andy, Matt and Sarah ready and off to the game...

 
The fireworks, from start to finish...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wee bit of a difference to this morning's view....