Happy New Year.

Christmas Eve saw us catching up with friends at a local pub, before Donna and I headed into town to join in with Carol singing and mass at the iconic Christchurch Cathedral. The carols were great with the Dean of the cathedral sharing a great sense of humour. It was a packed out night and hugely multi cultural. At one point he had any German speakers (and there were quite a few) standing up, singing Silent Night in their native tongue. That was beautiful. He had women sing one verse of a carol and then the men, another...and then 'well, the women won that one!" LOL.

Santa Lyall got me some body shop stuff, my Project Life kit, and a cook book. Santa Donna got us all tickets to The Topp Twins, in January. Santa Dad gave us money, which has promptly been put towards a new camera. We did hit the shops today to do a bit more camera shopping (I've been researching for a while), but with the rocking and rolling, that soon came to an end. And Santa Dad, the glass you got Lyall, you know, the one with the bell to ring when he want's a drink refill. Yeah, thanks for that LOL.

Darcy and Danny enjoyed the Christmas festivities, with Darcy grabbing any present she could fit in her mouth and running off with the most mischievious look on her face. Dan preferred to chase her for a while and then curl up under the tree.

I've spent this afternoon putting together next year's project life, but haven't got it finished yet. The carpets have been visited by the Rug Doctor, the skirting boards and walls have been cleaned in half the house - am planning on finishing that tomorrow. Hoping Lyall will be here to help, but he might get called into work if they need diggers and stuff in town for the clean up, as that is what his company hire out. I'm sure he'd be sad about missing out on cleaning lol.

I won't be around the computer for New Year's so, have a great night, whether you will be snuggled up in your bed at home or out celebrating. All the best for the coming year, may it bring all that you wish for.

Christmas bells, those Christmas bells...

We’ve had a busy day out today. We had the company of two children and so we hit Riccarton Market and then visited the Spreydon Baptist Church, who each year put together a Christmas Grotto. The kids of course got caught up in the magic of Christmas visiting this. This was followed by a visit to Chipmunks (we offered them that or swimming and they chose Chipmunks…much easier for us, we could sit there with a drink and some magazines lol.) Before heading back to their house for a dinner of fish and chips (we had babysat so Mum and Dad could get all their Christmas shopping done), we took the dogs to the river for a swim.

My twinnie sent me a text earlier in the week to let me know The Stamping Ground, which is a scrapbooking shop in Christchurch, is shutting down this week, so on Saturday I headed out there to pick up a few bargains. Papers were forty percent off and embellishments and other bits and bobs were all half price. So, yes, I did pick up a few things lol.

Duckie continues to grow like a weed and is starting to moult and get adult feathers. Like all growing babies she is eating us out of house and home. Talk about spoilt rotten – I’ve been buying this duck bags of watercress and lettuce mix lol. But that’s only because we have finished all the lettuce in our vege garden’s and the next lot aren’t yet ready to pick. She spends a good chunk of the day and evening wandering round the lawn or looking forlornly at us through the French doors.

I have once again succumbed to Project Life and my kit is sitting on the floor unopened and will remain so until Christmas day. I haven’t made a single Christmas card this year, so my apologies for not sending any out. Talk about slack eh lol.

My hometown list is going good, and yep Janine, of course I will put on there High Tea lol. Are you coming to join me???

Right I’d better get off the computer, have a shower and hit the sack. Have a great week everyone.

It's the final countdown...(so have you got that song in your head now???)

“A trip to Bunning’s is needed,” my husband said. So off to Bunnings we headed. About six hours later we came home. The boot was full of Bunning’s ‘stuff’, but alas I also managed to buy a new dress (my one and only dress in my wardrobe lol) and cherries, raspberries and strawberries. The dogs had, had a swim and a run, but our trip to Bunning’s had turned into a full day out and about. We returned home to find our mail at our front door. There was a pizza box in that lot of mail. “Hmm don’t remember ordering anything…” and I hadn’t. The lovely Mrs Frizz has spoilt me rotten. A beautiful, to be treasured forever, advent calendar, made up of little handmade boxes, festooned with ribbons and lace, with little treats inside (I did open one lol). Now I know advent calendars are traditionally opened each day – however with no littlies in the house anymore, the unwrapping of presents on Christmas day is over all too soon, so I’m going to keep these lovelies till the big day and then savour every one of them. Maybe I could open one an hour? Hmm might take too long….Maybe two an hour. Now that sounds like a plan! So once again Michelle, thank you very much – they look gorgeous, and would have been a lot of work. And Angelgurl, I’m thinking that this is what you ‘knew’ that I didn’t ‘know’ ROFL.


This was followed by Lyall’s work Christmas dinner out. That was a nice relaxing night, and a lovely meal.


Today has been a ‘list’ day. We got up and have written a list of all the things we want to do around the house. We’ve drawn up plans for landscaping our property. Now all we need to do is win Lotto so we can put them all into place!


I was reading Mandy’s blog, and she had her list up for all the hometown things she’d like to do. It’s given me inspiration to do one as well. So if you live in Canterbury or have visited and there’s something you think I need on my list – let me know. Doesn’t have to be just Christchurch, can be Canterbury wide.


The countdown has started. Five days of work left. Mmm bliss. Holiday time. Might be heading to Queenstown for a few days. Not quite sure yet. Want to buy me some chickens for the ole Ponderosa here. Got to make the duck a bigger house. Oh, got a list of things to do lol.
Have a great week people.

Happy birthday Katie girl!

Look, there's a Christmas present under my tree already lol! Of course my black cat would choose the one white spot in the house as her new favourite spot...isn't that such a 'cat' thing to do?! Hey, at least she goes with the black/white/silver theme I have going on...no clashing here lol!

The other photos show a wee cherub who turns four this week, and had her party, which of course featured a lot of pink, today. Was a lovely relaxed affair (well as relaxed as it can be with ten girls and three boys hooning around...), but it was sunny and a few parents stayed, so it was nice meeting other locals. And the yellow paddock? I see it from my front door every morning and just think 'wow, that's so cool' so had to record it for prosperity! And for PL!

Doggies had a good swim down the river this morning. Why is it river swimming brings looks and actions of joy, but when Mum brings you home and bath's you, you have to hang your head like it's the worst thing in the world? Dogs, I tell ya!

I have been busy scrapping...but since the challenge deadlines haven't yet been reached, it's best I don't put them up here yet. However for your viewing pleasure and for pure inspiration, go and check out this lovely lady who is super talented. I'm sure you will love her blog - her work is amazing.

Right, better go and get duck out of the bath and have myself some dinner. Speaking of which, have you tried the new Kapiti yoghurt? Have only had the butterscotch one, but oh my...would be happy for it to shift permanently into my fridge lol. Enjoy your week everyone.

Duckie, duckie

Yep, sorry about that, but I can’t resist the photos of the cute little duckling lol. Soon it will have grown and I won’t bore you with those photos…The good news is, one of the Mum’s at work has lent me their chick raising hutch, so my little duckling (Grace – so it better turn out to be a girl!) can stay outside during the day. This means I can now get back into my scraproom for a few hours each night if I so desire – she is coming in at night still but is in the lounge for a few hours before being put to bed in my scraproom. So today I spent time doing a sketch from over at SBO – if you’re looking for a great sketch for some inspiration, Jane has one up for the Friday night sketch, and it’s a beaut, better still you have till the 9th of December to upload it – so I should manage to finish it by then LOL.

Not a lot else happening in my neck of the woods at the moment…busy walking dogs, caring for ducks, baking for Lyall. Hmm baking for Lyall…my car started playing up on Monday – the orange lights on the dash all came on. Lyall took it for a drive and said it will be the computer chip so will have to go into Nissan for diagnosis. Off I duly went the next day…and then my car stopped twice in the middle of traffic at four thirty in the afternoon in the city. Not fun. I didn’t want to drive it any further (to Moorhouse Ave, for those in CHCH). My knight in shining armour came to my rescue and in his third week of his new job they had no probs with him whipping off early and even said ‘take the car transporter’. However he and I swapped cars and he rode the brake and accelerator and got it down to Nissan. Two days later, and one cam sensor later and the car is all good again. So I’ve done some baking for his boss/workmates to say thanks.

Right off to my scraproom – have a fantastic week everyone.

Peep, peep, peep!

Saturday and I got to catch up with Vicki and family – we spent a lovely relaxing day scrapping away, and I managed to get a bit more done on a three layouts that have been sitting on my desk, like forever, mocking me lol. I had the best of intentions to finish them the next day…more about that later.

Saturday night saw Lyall and I at a party catching up with some good friends who had come down from Auckland. Before I met Lyall, I was good friends with a couple, Grant and Katrina. They split up over time, but I’ve remained really good friends with Grant and his family – and two of his brothers have subsequently shifted down here. One of them, Wayne was having the party/barbie on Saturday night, so I got to catch up with his parents, and another brother, and meet more rellies. So all in all it was a lovely night, even if the weather meant we ended up in the garage lol.

During the night, on Saturday night/Sunday morning, Danny dog, kept whimpering, so Donna and I ended up taking him to the emergency vet on Sunday morning. Just a little tummy upset which painkillers and anti nausea drugs fixed. We got home about ten ish and so Lyall and I headed out to get chicken mesh for the new chicken coop. I also took the opportunity to put in photos at Harvey Norman so as to update PL. And I ran into Vicki. The photos were going to take an hour. So we went and checked out Noel Leeming. And Vicki and Andrew were in there. And we went to the next shop and they followed us in. They were stalking us ROFLMAO!! Finally our hubby’s got to meet so that was good! Lyall and I even managed to get some Christmas shopping done.

Long story short, we ended up home about four ish and Chrissie, Mike and the kids were here, and after a drink or two they decided they needed to see the chicken coop out in the garage, and we were standing there yakking and their rottie was lying on the grass, when this wee duckling comes hooning over peeping away. Chrissie grabbed the dog before the dog spotted the duck lol and Lyall managed to grab the duckling. We spent the next hour walking up and down the street trying to find the Mum but to no avail. So by about seven thirty that night after talking to bird rescue, we decided to hand rear it ourselves. So cooped up in my scraproom is a wee duckling. He or she is doing extremely well, as it darn well should as I went and brought it special duck rearing food at twenty dollars a bag lol. It’s in our dog crate, with a hottie, and a soft toy, towels and it’s food. It’s had a swim in our bath and it comes out of the crate for an hour and a half in the morning and about four/five hours at night. I thought it would be a matter of a couple of months and then it would be on it’s merry way, but the lady at the feed shack said “do you know that if you’re a good Mum they stay around for about a year, and then whoosh, they are suddenly gone”. Nope, didn’t know that! Dan and Darce have rubbed noses/beaks but as yet Tui isn’t aware that it’s in the room…I’d like to keep it that way.

So for the next few weeks there isn’t going to be much going on in my scraproom. Once it can regulate it’s body temperature (right now it needs a hottie and the heater going to keep warm and it can’t yet dry itself as it doesn’t have oil on it’s feathers – the Mother ducks do that for them), then it can come out of my room, but at the moment, that’s where it’s living. Let’s hope it just keeps on growing and getting stronger, the lovely wee thing. Messy, but lovely lol.

Have a good week people.

Phew...it's been a busy week or two.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me. You can see by the collage that my Dad and Step-Mum have been down for a visit. Good ole Christchurch turned the weather on and the aftershocks off. They went home last night, and we got hit by an aftershock at two ish this morning and then woke up to a howling northwesterly and it’s now lightly raining lol. Dad, you’ll be glad you went home yesterday…Lyall flew in from Auckland early this morning and it was quite a fun ride lol.
We’ve had a lovely time round and about the city and picturesque north Canterbury. The dogs have been out with us on most of these visits, having fun in the rivers and being spoilt rotten by Dad. He even went and brought them new toys each lol. He also brought his daughters new stuff too lol. So it wasn’t only the dogs that got spoilt. He did a bit of Christmas shopping, and I’ve hidden away Lyall’s Christmas present from his father in law! He better not be a snoop and go looking! Pat did some shoe and clothes shopping, that was fun, she’ll have to come down here more often lol. Oh and I also caught up with one of my cousin’s. Turn’s out he’s often in Christchurch so will be coming to stay with us when he can – some of his visits are fleeting, in and out the same day, but some he stays overnight for – so is looking forward to a home cooked meal. He said “I try and sleep in my bed once a week.” Bugger that, too much travelling for my liking. I’m to much of a home body.
It’s about this time of the year that apartment living once again looks good, as hayfever takes hold (and some days when you’re dropping family at the airport the other ‘hayfever’ is worse lol!). I’m now not mowing lawns again till next year when all the grass has stopped seeding. Being out on the ride on has certainly worsened this.
Tomorrow sees me hand in my appraisal at work. They are quite a time consuming document. Aye Mandy lol! They aren’t particularly hard work as you gather lots of evidence during the year, but they do take a bit of time to put together and a lot of typing and printing. I’m so glad that’s out of the way (still the discussion bit to go, but I have no concerns about that). What this all means though, is now I can get back into some scrapping. I can’t create when theres too many other things going on. The lovely Andrea over at Scrapbook Outlet, sent me and email last week asking if I wanted a blue or pink Slice as they were due in anyday. I initially chose the pink because I thought the blue was that greeney blue – you know quite dark, as in the colour of the original Slice, and I’m not a huge fan of it. However when checking out accessories at SBO it turns out it’s the most delicious light blue. However the pink one is on it’s way…”no worries” said Andrea. Once it’s here, she will send me a return courier ticket and then send up the blue one. Talk about fantastic service. Looking forward to finally opening that box lol…then adding to it with a few more bits and bobs. Hmmm wonder if Lyall needs some Christmas shopping ideas????
You know how our dogs go to dog obedience on a Monday night? Well Lyall comes to and he works a border collie named Molly. Tomorrow night is his last night with Molly as her owner’s return from Oz. They asked for some photos and we wanted some as well, so last week took the camera with us and snapped away. So that’s the dog he’s with in the collage. He’s going to miss his Molly girl, I tell you.
Have a good week everyone.

This Sunday...

Have just jumped on here super quick as we have friends over - the males are out on the deck under the umbrella with a bourban or three in there hands. The females are inside and one in particular is trying hard to beat her six year old on the Wii!! There are extra dogs around, including a rotti, who is super well behaved and the cat is locked in the bedroom away from the bedlam! I figured if I didn't get on here now then it wasn't going to happen lol

We spent a couple of hours this morning at a local school that was having a big plant sale and have brought a heap of new big trees for the property. Now there is much deliberation about which ones should go where. Talk about some bargains though...we got home and checked out comparable prices on the net, three of our threes retail for over a hundred dollars each and we got them for between ten and twenty five dollars each. Pretty darn happy about that.

Have done a scraplift (see layout above - thanks Charmaine Koch). Think I am all challenged out for a while. Have got a busy few weeks so will do another scraplift or two before getting back into the swing of things well and truly.

Right off to join the boys outside...

Mmmmm the bliss of a long weekend. A long weekend that is sunny. Time spent weeding and walking dogs and having a bbq for dinner with friends. And lunch with other friends…Weekends where it’s warm enough for the dogs to be swimming in the river.

Now I have a favour to ask. Could you please check in your wardrobes and under your beds for my scrapping mojo. It’s up and left. I’ve hunted high and low. I’ve looked online and I’ve looked in magazines. I’ve even looked in the fridge and pantry…But I can’t find it lol. Twinnie I think we need a day scrapping together, then it might come back. I have lots of papers pulled out and photos to go with them. But they are sitting there mocking me…Oh well been here before, I know it will change, just don’t know when.

Hmm not really a lot to say this week…right, off to pour a cold coke and head into my scraproom with the best of intentions… Have a good week everybody.

Busy busy busy

Thursday night saw me at work till late as we were having a parents evening. It also brought home just how affected by the earthquake some people are. The facilitator for the evening lives about fifteen minutes away from us in a newish subdivision called Northwoods. Her experience of the earthquake was that she had drawers etc toppling over and trapping her in her bedroom. Lots of mess but next to no damage fortunately. However she isn’t coping at all well. She’s now taking sleeping pills and still startling at any loud noise. For the first couple of weeks after the earthquake most Cantabrians were in that boat – hear a plane or a train or any sort of rumble and you actually would hold your breath for a second, while you waited to see what happened and could figure out ‘is it a plane?’ or is it an aftershock? But this lessens over time and for most of us we’ve got back to being able to quickly differentiate which is which (we still get lots of rumbling – sometimes accompanied by a shake but often just the Earth making some sounds…). However when we shut the sliding doors on Thursday night this person was really startled and I was surprised. She also said she’s thinking quite irrationally – like “hope the Waimak bridge doesn’t break while I’m crossing it” For those who don’t know, the Waimak bridge didn’t sustain an ounce of damage in the biggie, it’s not going anywhere soon I don’t think! I’ve known this person for more than ten years, and she’s a really strong, capable woman, who flies all around the world talking about her subject, so I guess I was really surprised to see her in this light. I know she’ll be fine and it will all work out the end, but surprised all the same.


Here at home, most of you will know, but Dad you don’t lol, that I won a Slice over at SBO. So huge thanks to SBO and to Making Memories. Totally looking forward to it arriving (in a few weeks) and will have to start looking into cartridges to buy…What a shame, I’ll have to do some shopping LOL. Gaye, (and any other friends who read this who might have one that I don't know about lol) I will need your advice on what’s good and all those little tips you’ve found out through using yours. The angel canvas was the last in the challenges for this competition. I have done a couple of layouts in the last week or so, but my memory card with them on is now saying ‘read error’ so it will be binned and I’ve chucked another one in the camera – however I can’t be bothered pulling out the layouts from the albums and photographing them again lol.


We’ve had a visitor here this week. A seven month old yellow lab. He is the most adorable, clever and friendly chap. Our dog trainer, Julie, phoned us last weekend to let us know that one of her clients in town was looking at rehoming a labby and she thought we would make a good match (Lyall would love another lab). So we brought him home and he would not leave poor Danny alone. Darcy didn’t think much of this and kept attacking him (she’s like a toddler and thinks Danny belongs to her!). Now this lab was great didn’t bat an eye but didn’t leave him either. And in the end we decided it just wasn’t fair on any of them. The labby needs some other big dogs he can roll around with and hit with his big feet – he would swipe our littlies and send them flying lol – but all he was doing was playing. Unfortunately he hadn’t had a lot of dog experience so while good and friendly he didn’t know when to stop – couldn’t read the other dogs signals. So we returned him home and he’s now looking for somewhere else to live. So that has kept us busy as we were giving him big long runs in the hope of wearing out some of his puppy exuberance to make him a bit less likely to ‘love’ Dan so much! Oh and he can open doors lol. Just stands on his hind legs and hits the door handle with his foot – damn clever at seven months! I did say this would come in handy – he could let the other dogs in and out, save us doing it! I must say, we all felt terrible taking him back (even though it was a trial) – I didn’t think I would EVER do that. I hope he finds a fantastic home, because he will make a great family pet for someone.

Now the photo of the garage - Dad asked if I could put one on here - he wants to see where it is in relation to the house lol. There you go Daddeo.


Right, speaking of dogs, I’m off to the river to give them a swim and a run. Have a great weekend.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Lots of spring cleaning going on – you know, the sort where you drag everything out of the pantry, and then put it back on different shelves just to confuse people lol. Same with lots of other cupboards…why is it once you’ve cleaned them and have everything lined up ever so nice and tidy that they don’t stay that way???

I can now see that there are plants growing in the garden and not just weeds. There is a new rule in our household. Everyday you must put two buckets of weeds into the trailer, and that way it shouldn’t turn back into a jungle lol. It might not anyway, it’s been so dry that I’ve actually had to start watering the lawn (but we are wondering are the little cracks from no rain or from the earthquake?). Have even planted the vege garden, so long may this fabulous weather remain (with the odd wet day just to give us a break from too much sun…sorry Aucklander’s I know how wet spring is up North lol.)

Have been out shopping with Beryl. And scrapping with Vicki, Gaye, Jules, Barbz, and Luana. We celebrated Vicki’s and Julie’s birthdays with cupcakes and yummo banana cake. Have tried drowning, burning, jumping on the little people that Andrea from SBO sent us as our mystery product. And no they weren’t forms of distressing, just me not being an OTP person found them a real challenge to turn into anything that resembled something that you’d actually like to look at lol. So they have taken up lots of time while I played and played more, and ripped off stuff and then played more lol.

Darcy has been spayed, and while initially really sore with us needing a trip back to the vet for more/different drugs for her, she has now come through it and is back to her normal exuberant self. Great to see her bouncing around again but also lovely to be back into our walks each day. Love how she just adores life. And chasing birds…

The garage is finally finished. Clever old husband of mine putting that up and now he has salvaged some metal thingies and is making a work bench or three in there.

Right off to vacumn the house and get the ironing done. Off to work tomorrow for set up day.

This week

Not much happening in my little world at the moment…

Happy to be on holiday and doing all those little jobs that us teacher’s put off until term break.

One week to go until SBO Kiwiana completion is over – have really enjoyed this one, so it will be missed.

These two layouts – one for the challenge at Scrapbox, though I notice it didn’t go up on their blog so not sure what’s happened there – still it’s another layout done. The other one is for SBO – using Maori design elements. We had to have some weaving and a koru design on there. Rather like my take on this one lol. Lots of amazing layouts for the judges to choose from.

Right, got dogs to walk (or get blown away – she’s fairly gusty out our way at the moment) and layouts to do…

Have a great week everybody.

In my little world...

As I sit here and type this I can see my washing flying around on the clothes line. I love spring days where you can hang washing on the line and it's dry about twenty minutes later. Better still, it's my sheets - and I've also got the blankets, duvet inner and pillows out there, so can't wait to jump into a really sunkissed, wind blown freshly made bed tonight. Love that.

Been busy scrapping today as we head towards the last couple of weeks of the SBO competition. Really like the layout that I've done for this week using Maori design as inspiration and including either paper weaving or koru designs or both. Will pop it up here next weekend as it doesn't go up on the website till the end of this week.
The sailing one on here, was for last weeks competition.

Looking forward to this last week of term and a couple of weeks off. Time to catch up with friends, clean out cupboards, sort out clothes etc. And planning on getting Miss Darcy speyed, now that I feel like she can cope with an operation fine.

I had a phone call for Rachel at Embellish It during the week and lucky ole me, won fourth prize in her daughters raffle. For those who don't know, her daughter, as part of a school project set about raising money for the Leukemia Foundation, and decided a raffle was a great way of doing this - she sold all the tickets, which was a fantastic effort, and as well as supporting a great cause, I get a prize lol. Will pop a photo of it on here once Mr/Mrs Courier has been.

Have you heard? Eighty percent of Christchurch's children come from broken homes...and the other twenty percent are falling through the cracks... And did you know that McDonalds has brought out a new meal? The McChristchurch? Comes with a free shake. Yep, I know, but really they're so bad,it's actually funny lol.

Lyall is going to be doing a bit of relief driving for a couple of companies,so that's all good. Should give him the variety he craves. Shame it starts this week, he hasn't made a dent in my list yet ROFL. However with him working it means we can afford to pay for the battery for my car lol. Two hundred and forty five dollars later yesterday - who knew that car batteries cost that? Well he did, but it's been many a year since I've needed to buy one lol. I could of got a fair bit of Prima for that, don't you know!

Well it's a beautiful sunny day here, so I'm going to hit the garden for a wee while (hoping I don't find any tigers out in the jungle that is now my garden lol), and then off to give the dogs a run.

Have a great week.

This week...

How cute are those two together? I love how their little paws are touching…I don’t think Darcy dog even realises we’ve had an earthquake lol, however Tui does and she’s staying close to us and meows just before any bigger aftershocks hit. I’m thinking she must be able to hear them before we do – cat’s having much more sensitive hearing than us.
I had to get a few groceries today and on the way home noticed that there are some more signs out with free range eggs for sale. So nice to be able to get them straight from the farmers gate. The hens have been off the lay because of the shorter daylight hours in winter and then stopped laying for a few days after the earthquake as well. I then returned home and have spent most of the afternoon in my scrap room. Been busy doing a layout about sports for the Kiwiana competition over at SBO. It’s turned into a wet old afternoon so it’s not a bad spot to be. Might have to crawl out of there soon though as there is some ironing to be done if I’m going to have clothes to wear to work tomorrow lol.
We might be having success with the internet. Trialling a new network for mobile broadband for a month so will see how that goes. Keep your fingers crossed – it would be great to have broadband speed, rather than dial up speed and it would be great if it doesn’t keep cutting out and actually lets us on when we want it too! If this doesn’t work our only option is satellite broadband or shifting house. Might be cheaper to shift house than pay for satellite lol. Can’t even do dial up as there are too many electric fences around…oh the joys!
My hubby is now a house husband. After months of umming and ahhing as he hated his job he finally quit last week. Stress of the events of the weekend may well have stretched him to breaking point me thinks. Might have to write him a ‘list’ or two to keep him out of trouble lol. Finally might get my kitchen/dining room/lounge ceiling painted – wahoo!!
Have a great week everybody!

Friday night Lyall arrived home from work, to find injured shag in our paddock. He duly caught it and popped it into our dog crate. After much phoning around, being passed from person to person, it was decided that we would meet Robin, a DOC ranger in at the dog park on Saturday morning with it. It was all snugly and warm in my scrapbooking room.

Meanwhile Donna, the dogs and I had headed up to Oxford so that the dogs could play in the snow. They get a run each night anyway so it might as well have an added attraction lol.

Fast forward to four thirty five in the morning…and you all know what happened next. Having never been in an earthquake before, I assumed this wasn’t a big one. Now this sounds weird, because of course we rocked and rolled like the rest of Canterbury, and things were rattling (and the bird was going mad, poor thing). I was hanging onto Darcy; Donna was in her doorway yelling ‘EARTHQUAKE’ (like a well trained teacher is meant to do lol) and Lyall was going ‘what the hell??’ I just assumed it wasn’t big because we didn’t have big gaping holes, just a few broken ornaments. Lyall and I didn’t get out of bed till it was finished. Then I realised Tui had gone outside earlier and freaked and called her in – poor cat, she came running all right!

So we all sat in the lounge, kind of laughing and kind of being freaked. We had power etc so turned on the radio…I got on Facebook; we checked on our neighbours…and then headed back to bed. And then the aftershocks started and haven’t stopped since.
I got no sleep last night; however I’ve had an afternoon nap today and feel so much better for it. And Donna made scones for lunch – nothing like a bit of comfort food.
Did the dogs let us know? Yep, just before the rumbling/roaring sound started, Danny started barking (which set Darcy off), then it rumbled then it shook.

Funniest thing? Donna said “that’s it, I’m never living by myself lol.” Loved that the phone calls and texts started soon after from near and far with everyone checking on everyone. Funny how Vicki and I both cleaned our houses Saturday morning lol – bit too much of the fight/flight response at work and had to keep busy. Lyall and I had to head out Saturday as well and get the injured bird to a vet. We couldn't get into the DOC ranger and nor could he get to us as the Northern motorway was shut. Glad to be able to hand it over to someone who knew how to care for it, or to make the decision to end it's suffering. Will find out which way it went later in the week, when I head back to the vets to pick up our dog crate.

So today has been pretty quiet. I’ve spent a bit of time in my scrap room (there were a few bits that had ended up having flying lessons – my inkpads and paints…) so they needed sorting out, and a layout to do for SBO. Given up on the last one for SP. I could do a simple one for SBO but the SP one involves a lot of work, and I just don’t have it in me to do that right now. So the photos of the layouts are some of the ones from The Embellish It camp at Raincliff last weekend, finally finished.

No work tomorrow either, the kindergarten Association has very wisely shut all kindergartens. Some will have to be shut because of damage, but with a storm expected along with more aftershocks, think this is less confusing (rather than a list of this one's open, that one's shut...).

Have a good week people.

In my little world...

It's official. I snore. Just ask my roomies on the Embellish It retreat this weekend lol. I thought a few of them were just crawling into bed in the wee hours of the morning (as you do on camp...) and that's why the torch light was shining me in the eyes...but no, it was them waking me up in the hope that I'd stop snoring. Of course I didn't know I was snoring, so it wasn't until one of the girls told me to roll over that I clicked. I then lay awake for the next few hours, lest I fall asleep and snore again. Didn't want to disturb my lovely roomies. Gave us all a good laugh this morning. But even with Coke on board for the trip home I still had to pull over and have a twenty minute shut eye lol. Mind you I'm now wide awake, have done the ironing, unpacked, got the washing on, and are typing on here, so it's not a bad thing.

If you, like me, didn't know, Rachel has Embellish It for sale. This means that this was the last weekend under Rachel's wonderful hosting. She really is the hostess with the mostess. Great company. Food like I've had at no other camp (sorry Adrienne but it's true lol). Actually the food was so yum, that I think Rachel's family should run 'foodie' weekends!! Talk about waddling home lol. Great to put some more faces to names (waving at both Diane's here!) and lovely to catch up with friends. And always inspiring to see so much talent. I got about seven or so layouts done, but most need tweaking and playing with, so will do that during the week before I upload them onto here.

Other than that, not much happening in my world. Spent a lovely day last Sunday catching up with Barbz and her workmate who she is working on coverting to the 'dark side' lol. It might not take to much convincing she enjoyed her day scrapping with us. Can't believe when I look at Project Life, just how few pages there are left, compared to how many are filled. My Photoshop lessons are now over, so that I can play with the knowledge that I've gained. Roll on the holidays so I can sort out all my photos sitting in the depths of my computer, and then I'll be away laughing. Well that's my theory anyway lol.

Have a great week people. Loving all the blossom on the trees...

And this week...

Cold day here, so the crockpots been on all day doing it's thing. Makes the house smell so darn good and warm and cosy. Gotta love that. Been snuggled away in my scraproom, and have finished a layout for over at SP, which is due in by Tuesday. Another one partly done, which is for SBO due in on Thursday. Just hoping a bit of inspiration will strike me for that one lol.

Think we'll only have the horses for another week or so - they are eating themselves out of house and home. But it is lovely taking them out their hay before work and finding them lying down, content and happy. Love that.

We don't usually do dessert in our house, but sometimes you just kind of need it. Last night was one of those nights, so custard and an apple and berry plait was whipped up. Boy it was nice. It's been a long time since I had custard and you forget how yum it is.

Enjoy your week people.

Maree, one of the girls at Donna's work was lamenting on Friday that she has to find more grazing for one of her two horses. They don't have enough grass at home and where she had been grazing her up at Oxford had now run out too. While we don't have oodles of grass here, we aren't too bad, so now have these two babies in our paddock. As Lyall said 'your totally in your element aren't you' lol. For those of you who don't know, I spent most of my teenage/young adult years riding and spend seven years working on studs (with racehorses - the ones you see at the gallops, not the trots), and prepping yearlings (one year old horses) for sale, both here and in Aussie. A lot of my job involved flying in planes with horses. It's allowed to live in both countries and to see how the other half lived. One stud I worked on in Aus, was also a vineyard (Arrowfield Stud). So we had access to a winery and we lived in a village (which was a whole bunch of three bedroom homes in a big horseshoe shape, with our own sections etc and in the middle of the horseshoe was a games building and swimming pool. It was a loooooooonggggggggg way from anywhere lol. Having these two here for a month or two reminds me of why I don't have horses anymore...I still have to go out and feed them even though it's raining and because I'm a nice person, they are getting hay morning and night and hard feed at night, so that's at least three visits in the rain lol. This morning I had them wandering around our front section (which is about an acre and a half) as it's nice and green there...I was periodically checking on them...where were they? Standing under the alcove at the front door lol. Opened the window and Izz stuck her head in for a chat lol. Hmmm maybe I don need a horse or two after all lol.

So I've been toddling along on the scrapping front and have spent a leisurely day in my scraproom today (with the horses looking in those windows too lol). Am really enjoying my creating at the moment...lots of mojo lol. Long may it last.

You know in my last post I said about two of my workmates wanting the same software I had but the third didn't? Well now the third does as well lol. I did a bit of shopping for work on Thursday. Eight hundred and eighty dollars later. Can't wait to show them a few new ideas in the art department.

It looks like it's not raining at the moment, so I'm off to chuck the last lot of todays hay in the paddock, have a good week all. Especially you Nigel lol.