Happy birthday Scrappin Patch!

Yep, the framing is well on it's way and Donna's new house is starting to take shape. We've been checking out colours (even though there's no walls yet LOL), but you know, these things take time :-)

This wee darling is growing at a super rate of knots. I'm loving watching her develop and it's fun handling a little chick each day.

This layout is for Scrappin Patch's October challenge. You have to try something you haven't tried before. That's not hard - I've quite a few things in my scrap room that just sit there looking pretty LOL. Kind of like ornaments really! Anyway, I mixed up some gel medium with some mica powder and with the help of a Crafters Template came up with this. I also pulled out the dimensional magic. Now of course I've used that before, but I am still on the same bottle of it, that I brought way back in the dark ages when I first started scrapbooking :-)

Vicki and I had a nice day yesterday out at Scrappin Patch's birthday crop. Luckily Adrienne didn't have us dressed in birthday hats...but where was the Pass the Parcel Adrienne??? Or the musical chairs LOL?! We did have a yummy chocolate birthday cake. And I was the lucky one whose name was drawn out and I won a handy prize - it was from the challenge we were given when we arrived - this must be the scrappers version of a goodie bag LOL.

I now have about five layouts at various stages of completion, so I should really get off the computer and go and do them.

Have a great week everyone.

Yep we won the Rugby World Cup!

Okay, so how tired are you today? I'm not a late night kind of a girl (just ask anybody whose been on a retreat with me LOL) so staying up to watch us win the world cup and then being far too abuzz to sleep has made for a lazy kind of a day.

I wonder if it will be quiet at work tomorrow - will lots of families head into the ticker tape parade? Hope they do as the AB's deserve a good turn out!

However the garden is looking nice and green after we got the most rain in a single day, for the last two years...

Not much creating happening at my house this last week. Having my hubby home has not helped that - with specialist appointments etc the days kind of got eaten up before I knew it. Still lucky he had all this done during the school holidays, made it much easier for me, no relievers needed for work. Speaking of work, being home for the holidays has meant that I've nearly got my appraisal done for this year - and that's always a good thing isn't it Mandy lol!

This little cutie is rapidly growing up. Even better she's old enough to be outside with Mum and the other girls now on a fulltime basis - no swapping cages over so that they get a run, away from the rest. Chickens can be a little nasty to each other, so you have to be a bit careful.

All those teeth look rather vicious don't they! Fortunately it's all in good fun. Darcy girl has a habit of taking hold of any new toy and lying on it. Dan likes to get hold of the toy and run off with it. Archie prefers the grab and then destruct method of play :-) This tennis ball lasted about five minutes with Arch - it was soon shredded and then a hole made. I often visit the Salvation Army shop and buy the soft toys for fifty cents each. If I'm lucky they survive a few days. The ladies there must think I'm mad, as I go through the toy barrels picking out the teddies with things that can't be pulled off (like no button eyes etc). Archie can decimate a fifteen dollar toy just as quick as a fifty cent one!

Have a fantastic short week.

New babies in the house.

Before we shifted down here, Donna said 'I want two Kune Kune's'. Lyall wanted three cows and me, a few chickens (and I keep suggesting a horse or two wouldn't go amiss LOL). So today we toddled off and saw these cuties...

and in a few weeks we'll be picking two of them up. Donna wanted two boys and as there were only two boys in the litter, then the decision on which ones to choose was kind of made for her. Nope they won't ever be bacon or roast - they'll live a life of luxury as pets here at our mad house. Kune kune's are similar to dogs - relatively easy to train, (eg will sit on command etc and can be toilet trained easily apparently).

A few weeks ago I put six fertile eggs under my one broody hen. She broke two in the first couple of days. She stood on another one on day 19 (they hatch on day 21 of incubation) and so that was then dead. One hatched out on day 21 and is a happy, healthy, gorgeous wee soul. I left the last two eggs in with her till today when I decided nothing more was going to happen, and so I broke them open, to find that while brought as fertile eggs, they turned out not to be. Hmmm not such a great track record lol.

Am now keeping my fingers crossed that she turns out to be a girl (won't know until she's about five months old).


Have been busy scrapping. Here's my take on the double layout sketch over at Scrappin Patch. Not sure how many years it's been since I last did a double!

This one was for Scrapbox - you had to use more than twelve buttons. Unfortunately I missed the deadline, but heck, it's another layout done.

I have another on the go for SP and one which I've sent into the NZ Paperchase blog, so can't put that on here till the end of the month.

Now speaking of scrapbooking. I've booked for Scrappin Patch's retreat in March next year. Anybody else going?

Got my hubby home for a while now. He had a torn muscle in his shoulder, and on Thursday spent the day/night in hospital having it repaired. He's now got to keep still and watch lots of DVD's till it heals. Nice to be on school holidays with him. If he turns out not to be a good patient, I might be glad to be back at work lol.

Have a great week.

Happy birthday Lyall.

Yesterday my husband celebrated his birthday. Older yes, wiser, not sure about that :-) Being as ancient as he is, he had help opening his presents - or really just help making a mess with all the wrapping paper!

I even made his a cheescake for a birthday cake, and it was sweet, sickly but ever so yum! However it will be his workmates that benefit from the rest of it, we won't get through it and it really will need to be eaten tomorrow.

Today it my twinnies birthday - I hear she's having a great day, has been spoilt and has put her feet up, which really is how every birthday should be!

Over at Scrappin Patch we were asked to scraplift our favourite designer. One of my all time favourite designers is the extremely talented Tomoko Takahashi

Now my work is nowhere near as amazing as hers, but I had fun with all the layering, and wish I could get the fabulous details that she incorporates into her art, but I'm not that clever :-) I hope I've done Tomoko's work justice.

With a bit of rain this last week, the concrete has not been poured for Donna's house, so no more news on where we are at with that. I'm glad it's holiday time for a couple of weeks, I've got heaps I want to get done, so will be working my way through a list. Other than that, not much news here lol.

Enjoy your week people.

Sunday catch up

Yay, last week of term!! And I've been busy cleaning drawers and cupboards so none of that boring, needs to be done, cleaning stuff in my holidays LOL.

In the not too distant future both my hubby and my twinnie become a little bit wiser, so I spent an hour or so gathering some gifts for that difficult to buy for hubby of mine. It has been a good couple of months since I've been in a mall - it was quite nice, early on a Sunday morning. This was followed by a couple of hours at the dog park. Do you remember how we found that big standard poodle a while ago? Moses? Well we ran into his 'Dad' at the dog park - it was great to catch up with how they are doing. Our mob had a wonderful time in the river - just the weather for it, however our lot are so sedate compared to all the water breeds. The labs, the retrievers, the spaniels just have the best time hooning backwards and forwards, chasing sticks and each other. Such joy is contagious.

This weekend, and into next week, sees my Aunty and Uncle down from Auckland for a visit. Friday night out came a couple of my albums and the stories that those photos brought back flowed - I asked my Uncle to write some of them down in one of the albums. Apparently he has lots of stories written down at home, so is going to email them to me. It was great listening to all the stories of my Mum's younger years. And finding the skeletons in the closet lol.

So here are some layouts finally:

Vicki is guest designer over at Scrapbook Dreams. I tried to register for the gallery and am waiting to hear whether I've been accepted lol (I did this last week, so am thinking Shell doesn't like me ;-) Anyway it's too late to upload it now, but here's my take on the sketch that Vicki put up.

This one was for the Paperchase Blog - some kind of frame was asked for.

This one was for Scrapbox - you had to do a layout with something related to school.

Can't wait for the holidays - lots of scrapping and dog walking (and running around after my husband whose off for shoulder surgery in the first week).

Have a great week.