I wasn't sure how the body would be today, as I spent yesterday having fun, with this kind soul...

I did think that muscles that haven't been used in a long time might be feeling the effects today, but fortunately no :-) With having our own land the thought often crosses my mind on whether to take up riding again, and when the sun is shining, or the cool autumn mornings are here, with their stunning days I am all for it...then the cold of winter hits and I'm glad I don't have one LOL (though I still have to feed all the other animals, so what's one more I guess??).

On an entirely different note, I'm finding that although I write these posts in paragraphs, if I don't put a photo in between, then blogger runs all my words together. That does make it just a tad difficult to read. So sorry about all the photos from now on. Some might even just be random photos, totally unrelated to what I'm writing, but at least you can read my posts easier lol.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, may it be a joyful day, filled with fun, family, love and laughter.

Summers here, and that means very little time spent in the scraproom right now. The garden is looking good, and the dogs are enjoying their walks in the cool of the evening, but inspiration for creating has up and left the building ;-) I'm sure once the school holidays start, that will change and I'll get busy putting together the lovely Christmas album that Brendy kindly sent me. Project Life will also be underway in just a few short weeks and I plan on being pretty creative with that. Funny, I started simple with PL and now a few years down the track am wanting to get a bit more creative with it. Wonder how many people started out creative and are now going simple LOL. Trust me to do things backwards ;-) This morning before it warmed up too much we headed down the beach with the dogs and here they are enjoying their morning run.

Other than scrapbooking in the holidays, we've also got a few visitors arriving, and I'm really looking forward to that. Especially looking forward to doing the whole Christmas dinner thing as usually we'd just throw the barbie on, but this time I've raided Pinterest and have a few more ideas. I'm also hoping to start painting the inside of our house, but we'll see how that goes, as some of it will rely on Lyall and he has to work. What are your Christmas plans? Have a great week!

Three weeks of term left...

It's been one of those weekends. One of those weekends where you get everything done on your to do list, plus a bit more! I love those weekends :-) We are now one duck down. Our wee paradise duck is now living with two other ducklings with Janet at bird rescue - he or she is much happier with some company, and the other ducklings I had, were just plain mean and nasty to it. The swimming lessons are continuing and each year Darcy 'helps' with this lol. I probably shouldn't have the ducks getting used to dogs as they will self release back to the wild, but it's darn good for the dogs to know not to touch the ducks. Dan and Darcy have been brought up with them, and so are good. Archies is just plain scared of them LOL.

I've got Project Life for next year done and dusted so am back scrapbooking the traditional way. Scrappin Patch have a throw a layout together competition in celebration of Adrienne's husbands birthday. He put together the recipe for the layout. One of the more unusual things was a dart shape. Not the easiest of things I tell you. Still it got me back scrapping and it's more photos scrapped and more story told.

Cute work story....We had walked to our local school to watch their choir and kapahaka group perform (and they were both excellent), the wee girl sitting next to me said, "hey look, she's got the same hair as me!" as she pointed to one of the older girls with bright red hair. I guess she hasn't seen a lot of red heads around. Have a great week.

A couple of weeks ago, friends turned up on our doorstep with two wee ducklings. Mother duck and her babes had wandered into their backyard. They have dogs, big dogs, soon Mother duck was down one baby and the noise alerted our friends to the fact something was up in their backyard. The dogs had killed one duckling, Mumma duck had taken off with who knows how many ducklings, and our friends managed to rescue two ducklings which they brought around to our house. So my usual Spring occupation of duckling care starts again.

A few days after the first lot of ducklings arrived, I was out walking the dogs and as I looked down I saw a wee bird with it's beak wide open looking back up. I checked around for Mum and Dad and any others - found one dead bird, but no sign of parents, so this wee one came home with me as well. I had to sit it in the glove box to drive home - three dogs and one baby bird aren't the ideal mix lol.

Growing fast isn't she? My neighbour was over visiting and noticed the feathered new comers...then that afternoon presented me with anothre duckling. Her Grandkids had accidently scared away Mum and siblings when playing in a boat down at a local river. Lyall and I headed back there to see if we could find Mum, but to no avail. We tried again the next day, but still no luck.

So this lot have been living in my lounge and for the first week they were all coming to work with me. Now just the wee finch comes to work as she still needs to be fed every two hours - the kids are just amazed at how she eats. So my apologies on many of your blogs, I am reading them, but sometimes commenting and sometimes not - because these feathered friends take up a bit of time, still it won't be long and they will all have grown and be looking after themselves. Other news, I'll try comment moderation - it will remove the need to do word verification, and I'll see how that goes. Have a great week everyone.

As you know, my friend Annie came and stayed this week. It was a quick visit, she arrived at five thrity Sunday night, and left at five thirty Monday night. However, you can fit a fair bit into that time!

We went for a drive out to Sumner, then headed into town. As you can see from the photos we had a stunning day weather wise. It was great to see the amount of tourists in town. Interesting to chat to an Aussie couple who haven't visited since the earthquakes and were trying to get their bearings from the buildings etc that they previously remembered. I wasn't the best person to talk to, as most of them aren't in my memory bank either lol.

When you look around town, you are met by cranes, diggers etc all busy at work. You also feel like your the odd one out as every second person is wearing a high visibility vest.

To end the day, we headed to the dog park (yep, she has dogs as well - and chooks, cows, sheep, goats and a few other assorted birds).

Thanks to everyone who leaves comments on my blog, I really do appreciate it. I never used to have th word verification thing on here, but with a bit of spam being received I added it in. Is it a pain? I could do comment moderation if that was less of a pain for you? Tell me what your preferance is and I'll go with the majority. Have a great week.

October is nearly over!

Most jobs these days require you to an appraisal. My hubby brings home his appraisal to do once a year. It is a multiple choice set up, you choose from A, B or C, for about twenty questions, and that's it, your done. Mine has a little more to it than that. Right now I'm up to about page eighteen of full on writing. So instead of being on the computer trying to get it finished, I thought I'd blog LOL. Let's just say a little procrastination never hurt ;-) As you know I'm keen as pie to get back into Project Life next year. If I don't have things organised then it won't happen. That's just how I work. I thought I could use up my old cards that have sat there the last three years by just giving them a bit of an update with papers etc. For some reason I didn't think that would take long. I was wrong. It's taking quite a while really ;-) Each day I'm doing about six or eight cards, so I am making headway, and more importantly I'm enjoying it. But I will be glad when I can tick it off my list and do some more twelve by twelve scrapping. No, I can't do both. LOL. I like to finish one project before starting another...

Although Spring weather is still making it's presence felt, we are starting to see some signs that summer isn't to far away. The sunshades are up at work, we are all wearing our sunhats and around home we are starting to see our cherry and peach trees with these on them...

Oh and a photo of one of my chickens! Not sure why Faith ended up here, but hey, there she is lol. I'm sure I've said it before, but I love living where there are still lots of roadside stalls. At the moment there are quite a few selling paeony roses. I think they are the most gorgeous flower. And the bonus for me, as someone who gets shocking hayfever, they don't set me off.

Once I've done a bit more on that appraisal, I'm going to head on out and buy me some more, I chucked out the last lot yesterday. One of my best friends arives tonight, for a short but sweet stay, so I'll pop some in her room and some in the lounge. I'm so looking forward to catching up with her...it's all her fault that I got into scrapbooking in the first place LOL. Lucky I booked tomorrow off (no pay for that, but oh well), so we can head on out, cameras in hand and have a fun day. Have a great week everyone.

Like the rest of the country it was freezing here yesterday. After spending the morning at work Lyall came home and hit the couch, to watch a movie. With the fire roaring, it didn't take too long before he was joined by these two...and then they all fell asleep ;-)

With that wee cold snap, we woke up to this...

I never mind mowing the lawns when that's my view. Other critters enjoying the sunny day around this place are:

Darcy, Digby and Fergus have all had a busy morning. Of course the dogs have had their usual run at the small dog park, but then it was time to shift the cows and pigs. The pigs must follow you as you change the electric fencing, just in case you have food hidden somewhere, or if not then you might get a scratch or a brush from your human lol. I've been busy in my scrap room making lots of variations on these:

Yep, thats me getting ready for Project Life next year...and using up my scrap bits of paper stash. Doesn't seem to be making much of a dent in that pile though ;-) Whatever your up to this week, here's hoping it's a good one for you.

Last Monday I spent the day travelling by rail and sea, as I headed North to Wellington. I love travelling by train. I find it so relaxing, and with brand new carriages, it's rather luxurious as well. So I snapped a few shots on the way, and then once on the Interislander, found a nice long couch and had a wee nap for a good chunk of the very calm crossing. I was woken up by the announcement of scones fresh from the oven, with cream and jam, and with an hour to go of the journey, sat back and enjoyed one of these along with a drink.

Beverley kindly picked me up from the ferry, dropped me at Janines, and then came back later with her family and we all had tea together, thanks to Mike and Janine. The following day we (Janine, Beverley, myself, Jessi and Alexander) headed off to see the gorgeous tulips at the Botanic Gardens, before doing a bit of a tour of Miramar and Seatoun and having lunch at the Chocolate Fish Cafe, which was just gorgeous, and yes I did have a choccie fish ;-) Of course my camera battery went dead and so no photos of this... Janine I had a wee wander around town and a suburb that starts with K that I'll attempt to spell lol, Kilbirnie? I had such a relaxing time at Janine and Mikes and was spoilt rotten.

I raided her scrappy pile that was heading off to charity (sorry to the charity that was going to recieve this, but really I don't think I made much of a dent in it LOL). And I tried to read her wonderful stash of magazines and made pretty good in roads, but I think I'd need another month to get through these LOL. Lucky Janine and I share a love of reading. Wednesday I headed off to Mandys (and raided her books to read lol). We spent Thursday in professional dialogue (that's teacher talk!), visited her kindergarten and went out to an Emporium where I brought a few things for work but was concious that I needed to fit them into my one suitcase. Mandy had also organised for us to do high tea at a beautiful spot, just perfect for such a thing. We went into the city on Friday and did a tour of Parliment, which was excellent. So much hidden behind those walls. Thanks Mandy for your hospitality (and tour guiding!).

Before Mandy headed off home, and I stayed in the city, we visited the Christmas part of the shop, Kilcadie and Stains. This is like H J Smith to those who are in Southland, or Bally's to those in Chch, and Smith and Caugheys to those in Auckland. Each year the shop puts on a wonderful display of Christmas wares, which are of course for sale, but it's a magical spot to visit and view in wonderment.

Friday night through to Sunday was spent with my niece, my sister and a friend of my sisters, along with her two girls (I've known her a long time to - she was at my wedding). We shopped of course, and ate out and spent Saturday night at WOW (where I managed to catch up with Janine again for all of two minutes lol) - but with a sold out audience that was an impressive feat in itself!

And finally I headed home on Sunday. The crossing was a bit rough with quite a few sick people on board (nope, not me). But a glorious day all the same.

How lucky we are to live in such a stunning country, with such wonderful people.

The internet now plays a huge part in our lives. In our house it is used more than the phone, more than good old fashioned 'snail mail' and certainly more than texting. However like all technology it has it's good and bad days. And lately it's had more bad days than good! We don't get broadband to the gate, we use mobile broadband and so are really stuck with having to use one provider. We good use satellite but at eight hundred to set up, that's probably not going to be a happening thing. According to Telecom we should get broadband to the gate in 2020, oh well, that's not too many more years to wait!! I mean we only live on the outskirts of the second biggetst city in the country ;-) Anyway the point of this waffle?? To say sorry if you I haven't commented on your blogs for a week or two... Last week we had these gorgeous young souls over for a visit...One of my cousins is married to a Cantab, and while they live in Auckland they are frequent visitors South and so we get to catch up fairly often. A few months ago (well five to be exact) she gave birth to this young chap - Finlay - and we got to meet him for the first time last week. That's his big sister Helene, with him. She loves to raid my scrapbooking room when visiting 'Aunty Tracey'. And she's quite the artist I must say.

Like everywhere else in the country, Spring has well and truly sprung around these parts. Here's the evidence of that! It's a little difficult to resist taking photos when everything is blooming beautiful ;-)

In scrappy news, I've been busy putting together a Project Life album for next year. I've brought the Becky Higgins page protectors for the year (a whole lot of random ones as I love change) and I'm making up the cards to go in there. I know if I do it before hand then I'll enjoy the whole process, where as if I try and do them as I go along, I get too time driven and then it just doesn't work for me. Having had a break from doing Project Life this year, I'm really looking forward to getting back into it next year. Also here are my two final layouts for my guest design team spot over at Scrappin Patch.

Here's wishing you a great end of the week - Mandy, only two days to go!!

From the mountains to the sea...

Many, many months ago (actually there was some debate about this, could hav possibly even been last year...) an idea was mooted by a very wise woman, about a catch up weekend between a group of friends, where two friends lived in Malborough and two lived in Christchuch. After many days of counting down, the weekend finally arrived and this bunch got to meet once again...

Many emails went flying backwards and forwards as accomodation ideas were discussed. Would there be a spa pool? Waiter? Tent? Then the list was narrowed down and the decision was made, and we got to stay here...

There were locals for us to visit. Very cute locals with big brown eyes. There were mountains and beaches. We took photos of lots of these things. And then we just kept taking more photos because we are scrapbookers...

And so we ate out, and we ate in. And we ate party food. And we drank water. And we drank other beverages (the ones that need to be really nice and cold to drink...) And we had real coffee and hot chocolate. There were shops for us to visit. And places we had driven past but never been into because husbands always say we are in too much of a hurry to get to the next place. We got to go to those places.

What a wonderful weekend. Must do it again.

Have a fantastic week everyone.

And this week

I'm glad it's not my job to predict the weather. This morning the weather forecast for Tuesday this week said, "snow to five hundred metres." That would mean a cold day for us, but no dramas. Then two hours later it read, "snow to sea level" hmmmm okay, will have to make sure the stock have plenty to eat, and that we've got the bbq in the garage in case we lose power, no probs, will get it sorted. Now just before writing this, "sleet in Christchurch, snow to 200m" okay, could you just make up your mind!!! I would rather have the worse case scenario and prepare accordingly. Snow to 200m means we will get it at home anyway. So once my hubby gets home from the airport (he's been in Auckland for the weekend), we'll be moving the cows and pigs, along with a few electric fences.

This month, it's my turn to be guest designer over at Scrappin Patch. I created four layouts with the goodies Adrienne sent me, and here's the first two:

Other news...

*We finally have our fireplace installed, just need the council to visit and sign it off.

*Donna has started moving stuff into her house. A few little jobs left to do, like the wardrobe rail etc. Need council to come and sign the house off as well.

*Hubby took his Mum to the SPCA this weekend and she now has a cat called Emma. Her cat Buddy got put down a few years ago, due to lots of things that happen in old age.

*Three weeks of term left.

*Have decided to do Project Life again next year, and am so looking forward to it. Glad I had a break this year.

*Sunday baking is all done. Ginger crunch, chocolate brownies and some hokey pokey.

*Am totally looking forward to catching up with some wonderful friends this weekend. Am preparing to have sore ribs from all the laughing.

Here's wishing you all a fab week.

Hanmer Springs!

You often hear of families that don't get on for one reason or another. I consider myself pretty lucky in that I love the company of both my own family and the family that I married into. Since they all come and visit often the feeling must be mutual ;-)

This last weekend has seen my brother in law and sister in law here for a visit. We spent time wandering around Christchurch (and buying a few pairs of shoes lol) before heading up to Hanmer Springs, where we soaked in the pools, had a lovely dinner out and then sat and watched a movie. On the way home we dropped them at Weka Pass railway and they took a quick train trip (it's about forty minutes) - we met them at the other end.

I've also been busy as Guest Designer over at Scrappin Patch, so keep an ey out over the next few weeks on their blog, to see what I created with the lovely goodies that Adrienne sent me.

Short and sweet post this week, so much to do! Have a great week everyone!

August

This last week has seen us living in a castle. Just look at our 'moat'!

The ducks loved it, so they came visiting. The chickens were going to have to take swimming lessons, so they spent Monday free ranging in our garage, fortunately by Tuesday it had mostly drained away, so they got to shift back to their homestead ;-) Our neighbours who have lived here more years than I've been alive, said it's the most/worst flooding they've seen, which was kind of good to know. At no point was it actually near enough to the house to be of concern. Hard work pushing a wheelbarrow through it to feed the cows and pigs though!

I have been playing with paper and associated products, but since mostly they are for challenges so I can't put them up on here yet. Seems to be a feast or a famine as the mojo comes and goes lol.

With the sun coming out these wee beasties found the best spot for a nap.

I've a busy couple of months coming up, with most weekends someone either staying with us, or us going away. Lots of wonderful time spent with wonderful people to look forward to.

And a big happy birthday to my brother who turned turned forty something on Friday!

Have a great week everyone.