Sunday catch up

As you can see the new kitchen is in. Nope, it's not clean, apparently they come back and clean it all and adjust all the draws - they have a little 'thing' in them like the air thingies (yeah I know, real technical LOL!) that are on the top of heavy doors. Basically if you go to slam them, they stop about an inch from closing and them close slow. Stops little fingers getting jammed and also doesn't make a big slamming noise. Comes standard with the kitchen, not something we particularly asked for, but cool all the same. Next is the tiling, and that wonderful hubby of mine has already made a start. He's not one for sitting still for long (unless there's a screen to look at LOL!).

I managed to get a couple of layouts done this weekend. I somersaulted (triple of course), spun and did numerous other moves to come up with my Olympic layout for gymnastics...and I also did the last of my BOM for this month. Looking forward to see what you've got for us for next month Tanya and Hannah...What I can't believe is how fast the month goes... The Olympics must be playing on my mind, 'cos I had the wierdest dream last night. A group of Chinese scrapbookers (do they scrapbook in China???) were flying to NZ and crashed, and the sea was littered with bits of paper and medals. You had to hand them into these guards from Myanmar (???) and then they would bow to you three times. And that was the end of my dream. Wierd, very very weird. Myanmar, where on Earth did I come up with that in my subconciousness??? Made my husband laugh anyway...

Dad and my step mum Pat, came over for a kitchen inspection and to have lunch today, so leftover smoked fish on fresh white bread (mmm healthy eh!) and bacon and egg pie for dinner. Gotta love it when you just grab from the fridge and it's done!

Enjoy your week girls...

Terrific Tuesday

Wednesday's going to be a busy one, so I'm posting this a day early!

Woo Hoot for having a very cool Dad! He's that handsome one in the photo with a paintbrush in his hand. Last night Lyall was painting the ceiling in the kitchen and I was washing the window frames ready for painting. Bang, crash, we were in each other's way, so I gave Dad a call to see what he was up to today. He popped over and not only did the window frames, both coats, but also got a coat on the walls. Lyall arrived home from work and he's one happy chappy, he's down there doing the second coat now...before he goes to bed, as he's starting at three thirty tommorrow morning, trying to get everything done at work as he's taking Thursday off because that's the big day. So Dad thanks, love you lots!

Couldn't resist this photo of Milo with his big labrador eyes!

The chesse layout is my entry for cycling in the Olympics over at sketchbook, and will also be going into my BOM, and the other circle layout is my pet one for my BOM.

Woo hoot for weekends. Last weekend it was lovely catching up with good friends and having a change of scene. This weekend is one of the quietest I've had for a while and I can't wait for just a bit of time to catch up on some things...so what are on your plans this coming weekend?

My weekend...

Saturday morning saw us on our way to Tauranga to catch up with the people in the photo. Lyall decided to stay home and get a bit more done on the kitchen, so my sister came for a drive down instead. We also took down my good friend Tracey with her son (my Godson) and dropped them off at friends - picking them up the next day and taking them home. Hence a stop off or two at a park or two was part of the trip! The girls in the photo and I have known each other for a few years now...we all worked together about six years or so ago, and two of them I had worked with previous to that. We get together each year for a catch up, and have a lovely relaxed time. And yes, I did stop at a scrapbooking shop in Tauranga...but I only brought a few things. Really I did.

I have half an Olympic/BOM layout sitting on my desk, so best I get stuck into getting that finished. Enjoy the start of your week.

It's Wednesday...

Well so far this morning it's only rained once...!

I've gotta be thankful for a hard working and very handy husband. He's been coming home from work each night and getting stuck into the kitchen, three cheers for him!

I'm off this weekend to see friends in Tauranga, so I'm looking forward to a catch up. Also getting hypnotised this weekend, to see if thats going to help with the flying. Figure it can't do any harm.

Cycling. Gotta love that Megan has chosen circles for the first Olympic event...you know me and circles LOL!

I'm sure there's a lot more I could write down, but then I'll be late for work - so I'm out of here! Have a great Wednesday whatever you may be up to.

Ummm no title really LOL!

The blue and whit layout is my warm up for the Olympics! Honduras is my country. I had a lot of fun with this layout, I pulled out the beads and after covering the big butterfly in paper, covered it in beads, and the little butterflies having been covered in paper have a few beads and some rub ons to give them a little added something. However my spelling went haywire and I spelt popsicle wrong. Gave me a good laugh that did, and I can soon sort it out, but I don't think I will, 'cos it kind of appeals to my sense of humour! The circle layout is one for my BOM, on what my personal style is. I'm a casual girl, through and through, never happier than in jeans and fluffy socks! That's not to say I can't get dressed up with the best of them, but I don't need a ton of makeup and three changes of clothes before I'll leave the house.

We went to the Stardome today, and it was a great trip. You go into a room with a dome like ceiling and they play a movie about the planets, but it's aimed at this age group so they sat there like there, being very well behaved and having a wonderful time. Then into another room to try on the glasses that make the lights into prisms, before heading up to the big telescope and watching them open up the roof (they love that). The actual experience takes about an hour and a half and it takes us forty five minutes each way in the bus, so it leaves us with about a twenty minute window to have a run around at the park next to the Stardome before we head in, and to give them all morning tea.

I've come home tonight and dinner is ready, lunch tomorrow is sorted, my fridge has been cleaned, and my lounge rearranged, how cool is that! I told you, I could so get used to this!

A few people have asked about our move South. The plan is when the renovations on the house are finished we will then put it on the market, if it sells for what we want then we move, if not we will give it a break (after a few months of course) and then put it back on the market. We know our market well so I'm confident we won't have too much of a problem selling, and we are looking at a realistic price (less than what the agents are telling us we should list it at). We love Invercargill and that's where it's most likely we will shift to, but we also like just North of Christchurch, an area called Fernside, and it depends on whats for sale where when we sell up here. There are a number of reasons for us selling. Our little seaside village where we have lived for the last fifteen years has been found by greater Auckland and we now have seven new subdivisions on the go, with another really big one in the pipeline and a supermarket to go in. It's no longer the lifestyle that we shifted out here for. By moving south we can get a bit of land and also be in a position where both of us will have the choice of working or not, (or part time etc) whereas that's not an option up. But Mandy I don't think I'll be working in the snow LOL...probably freezing cold wind...but not snow! (That might be fun for a day or two, but I know the novelty of being wet and cold would soon wear off ROFL!). We are patient, and know that sooner or later, it will all work out, it's just a matter of time...

Sunday catch up

I managed to finish a layout today, but now the camera batteries are flat...and yep I know I should have spares charged, but I don't. Only if I'm going away do I get myself that organised LOL! And there's another half done layout on my desk waiting for bits to dry before I stick 'em down.

My kitchen now has new gib on the walls. Hubby is down there stopping it, then it can be sanded. Then I get to play painter again. Only a week and a half to go now, and then you won't have to put up with me talking about my kitchen ever again! ROFL. Then just carpet and tiles to do, dress the house, sell it, and move South...just in time for summer I hope LOL! (Or at least in summer!)

We are off on a trip tommorrow, off to the Stardome Observatory, and with all the rain we are having it will be nice to get out and about for a morning. Trouble is it's not just the kids who are shattered after a trip!

Right I'm sure there's a drink, and some lollies calling me, while I wait for these embellishments to dry...so enjoy what's left of your day.

My naughty dog!

Just look at that face...Now it's no secret that my animals are a little bit spoilt. I have no problems with them being inside, and you know the cat sleeps in bed with us. However I do draw the line at the dog being allowed on the furniture (bit mean really, because the cats allowed!). He's hairy and as he's got older he's starting to get that old dog kind of smell. Not so nice, but I'm not about to kick him out - he's given us a lot of great years of enjoyment and unconditional love, so there's got to be some payback in his later years. Anyway, I digress...the last two mornings I've got up, had my shower, and then come downstairs to find him on the couch. Today I snuck back down with my camera (he's a bit hard of hearing now, so I can sneak around without him noticing). And I just had to share...look at those cute 'poor me' eyes! Somehow I think he knows what's going on alright!

Oh and just in case your thinking, 'well it's more comfortable than the floor'. He has a cot mattress on the floor (complete with winter sheet) and a single bed in the garage which we chopped the legs off so he could get up and down on it easily - and yep that has a sheet, and blankets for him...boy he has a tough life!

Woo Hoot Wednesday!

A bit of Lyall photography here folks!

Yep, it's just a random photo...I can't really remember what Auckland city looks like. One, because it's been about a year since I was last in there and two, because it won't stop raining it doesn't look like this at the momement ROFL!

My Wednesday list...

It would be good if I liked coffee...cos saying that I enjoy my first glass of water for the day just doesn't have the same kind of ring to it...

All my SENZ classes are booked, two on Friday, one on Saturday, one on Sunday.

With each passing day the kitchen getting put in is getting closer...

Having a live in housekeeper...with my sister staying with us, I'm coming home to dinner cooked, washing done, the vacumn (or luxing for you Mrs Frizz!!)being thrown over the carpet (not that there's much carpet left in this house at the moment LOL!)
I could get used to this way of life...very easily!

Up2Scrap in my letterbox yesterday...great to see some freinds names (oh and their layouts of course!)...Mrs Frizz, Michelle W, Tanya Leigh...

And of a completely different note...Mandy, another fundraiser we do for Christmas is to buy the pre framed canvas sets when they are on special (it's about three for ten dollars I think) then the kids dye them, and when that's dry they use black PVA to paint with. Parent's buy these for ten dollars each, they make great presents for Grandma etc and look awesome - and it's a good little fundraiser.

Have a great Wednesday my friends!

I give up...

Just for today that is. I thought I would finish the last two half done layouts from the Waikato crop before starting on my BOM pages for this month. So I'd nearly finished the first one, when in came my darling wee cat and jumped up on to my scrapping table (she happens to have a little bed up here as I do enjoy her serene company), however today she came in on her grubby little feet, and layout number one now has muddy footprints as embellishments. Yep, I can hide them, but it's just not the same. Layout number two involved a few flowers, and some flying glue. You get the picture. Hmmm will have to put my thinking cap on for saving that one. Neither are going to make it to blog publication LOL!

On a good note, my sister and I went out for an hour or so yesterday and she went and got her hair cut - stuff like that always makes you feel a bit better and when we came home I put a dye through it. No more grey now LOL. I came home poorer, as Farmers had all their Sheridan stuff half price, and we are now the owners of a new duvet. Extra pillowcases. Two cushions. And so my darling said...'what, more pillows (meaning the cushions) don't we have enough?' No honey if I thought we did, I wouldn't have brought them. Of course I wouldn't have...The others don't go with the new duvet...okay enough about that!

Now not only do I have no dishwasher (actually that's not so bad, as having my sister stay, she's been doing the dishes...!!)but now I have no kitchen bench, zippo, none, not even a smidgen of a bench. I have to prepare everything on the dining room table, which is also doubling as our pantry. It's going to be a long two weeks until the new kitchens in. Count down to the 26th of August. The upside of this is we had a big bin here all week, so I've been hauling bricks and now we can get out the back door again...

Hope you've all had the weekend that you hoped for and that the week is a good one.

Hee hee hee guess you would like to know what those photos are about! The first one is my goodie bag from Craftee Creations... Somehow I think I won, because a few of you were kind enough to pop over to her blog and comment. I've now introduced Helena (the lovely owner of the shop) to bloglines, pagemaps, and sketchbook...

The layout of Lyall was one that I was finishin off from Waikato crop. I've actually finished another three, but they looked shocking when I took a photo so aren't uploading them until I take a better shot. The other one, is the sketchbook friday night challenge.

Thought you might like a better photo of Milo in his jacket, so took my camera when I walked him yesterday - can you see the little smile on his face?

My nephew and his partner dropped over yesterday and this is his new baby. Dad, bet you didn't know Russ had a new car...it's a year younger than his last one, but the same model. He loves Toyota Supra's, is in a club etc and according to him will always own one. (However from his very wise aunty, that may change if they have kids LOL!!)

Oh no!

Lyall has pulled out the dishwasher, whatever am I going to do!! Hope he knows how to wash dishes, 'cos I'm running on the premise, that you pulled it out, you can suffer the cosequences LOL! Okay I know there has to be some inconvenience when your putting in a new kitchen, but the new kitchen won't be here for another month...and I'm more than happy to be creative with an electric frying pan and the bbq, but no dishwasher, well that's just wrong!

As you can see I've changed my blog - I'm hoping that it might allow me to go back to just uploading the photos instead of me seeing a pile of gobbly gook - yep I'm sure that's part of the English language...

Right here goes nothing...no darn it, it's still a pile of gobbly gook...oh well back to the drawing board.

Give it a go!

I was reading Mel's blog this morning and she had this on it...with the last line reading -37. And by the way: You should do this list because its amusing and others will enjoy reading it!


1. My uncle once: Had one of those big Sambuca bottles in his lounge, and I was always amazed by it.

2. Never in my life: Will I eat garlic!

3. When I was five: Well, umm I started school...

4. High school was: Completly boring...

5. I will never forget: Well I could put in some serious ones here, but for fun...walking out on Lord of the Rings, sorry just too boring for me.

6. Once I met: Miss World - I sat opposite her in a flash Italian restaurant in Double Bay, Sydney. She taught me how to eat fettucine the proper way. Hey this was the late eighties and pasta was an unknown in the average Kiwi household!

7. There is this girl I know: Who scrapbooks. Doesn't everybody??

8. Once, at a bar: I ordered a very cool looking cocktail...and this older couple admired it, so I brought them one too.

9. By noon, I’m usually: Running around madly setting up for forty five afternoon children to arrive!

10. Last night: I went to bed and read...sorry nothing exciting in my house! But you know, feel free to make up something LOL!

11. If only I had: Unlimited funds. No it doesn't buy happiness but it sure would make life a lot less stressful...and just think of the help you could give.

12. Next time I go to church: Will be for a wedding.

13. What worries me most: Is that I have to get on a plane soon...

14. When I turn my head left I see: Lots of trees and rain, rain, rain.

15. When I turn my head right I see:My sewing machine and a wall!

16. You know I’m lying when: Now I couldn't tell you that...then you would know when I was lying LOL!

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: Big hair! You know, when you used to tease it all up, oh and of course the music, how could you not love eighties music with such classics as Da da da...ROFL

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: Juliet, well she didn't really have to do a lot...

19. By this time next year: I hope to have won Lotto...or at least sold my house and have shifted South...

20. A better name for me would be: 'Hey' or 'teacher', well I get called that when the new kids can't remember my name...

21. I have a hard time understanding: How humans can be so cruel

22. If I ever go back to school, It'll be as a teacher, not a student LOL!

23. You know I like you if: More to the point, you'd pretty quickly pick up if I didn't like you! I'm not good at hiding my emotions!

24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: Umm the person giving it to me...Don't think I'm in line to win any awards, so not really a big problem.

25. Take my advice, never: Drink and laugh at the same time. It's not pretty.

26. My ideal breakfast is: French toast, heaps of maple syrup. Cooked by someone else.

27. A song I love but do not have is: Could never choose just one...

28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: Bring a camera...and if it's summer bring your togs.

29. Why won’t people: Just get on with life and stop comparing themselves to others.

30. If you spend a night at my house: You will be spoilt rotten, but you will have a cat for company, she's too nosey for her own good.

31. I’d stop my wedding for: Maybe an earthquake...

32. The world could do without: celebrities - yep had to pinch Mel's one for this. I refuse to buy the weekly mags for this reason. Or maybe that's the medias fault...

33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: umm tough call, can't think of anything that kind of freaks me so much that I would choose the cockroach over it!

34. My favourite blonde is: My nephew - Russ

35. Paper clips are more useful than: a singing mug. Who invented something so stupid.

36. If I do anything well it’s: If I'm going to do something, I give it my best shot, otherwise, why bother?

37. And by the way: You should do this list because its amusing and others will enjoy reading it. Hee hee hee, have to agree with that.

Go on if you've got time, give it a go. I will hopefully post some layouts on here later today...