Another stunning day here in paradise (like the rest of the country!) so we headed on out to the kite day at New Brighton beach. What a feast for the eyes that was. Lots of fab kites, enought people to make it fun, but not so many that you couldn't get a car park. Loved watching the toddlers sit in the waves, oblivious to all the kites around them... This was my favourite kite:

Is that not seriously cute???!

These were some of the other very cool kites, flying in a beautiful clear blue sky. I'd certainly head off to see this again next year.

We had friends over yesterday and the kids were wanting to earn money, so I put them to work, because I'm all for child labour LOL. They had a ball picking up pine cones and were more than happy with the three dollars I paid them each - mainly because that was all the change I could scrape up in my purse. Funny how the love getting lots of little coins - it kind of seems like 'more' money to them at this age! Funny too, as the wee girl Katie, kept hanging on to the electric fence and telling us how she wasn't getting a shock - strange child :-)

Look at that, I've even managed to get into the scrap room! This is my take on the sketch challenge for Scrappin Patch. And don't die of shock (especially you Vicki lol), but I've started on a mini album!! That's a big thing for me, I'm not known for my off the page prowess LOL. Have a wonderful, sunny week people.

So it's the last day of my summer holidays. Back to work tomorrow, but I imagine we'll be fairly quiet. School doesn't go back for another week or two, so lots of kids won't come simply for that reason. Some parents won't have read their newsletters and will not know we are back until about Wednesday when they run into their friends in the supermarket! Always nice to go back to low numbers and have them gradually increase :-)

On this stunning summers day, Lyall and I headed off to spend a bit of time being entertained by the buskers at the Christchurch Busker's festival. What a wonderful way to spend the day. Next year we are taking a picnic! Would have been just glorious to sit there (like many others did) with their fab looking picnics, under the shade of the trees, lapping up the humour and the skills of those doing the acts. Of course there was no shortage of food and you can see what we had for lunch!

So what have you been up to on this beautiful Sunday? Have a wonderful week!

With my last week at home in the offing, I've been busy weeding gardens, watering everything in sight (paddocks, gardens, lawns...)selling hay, selling a car (yep Dad, the Holden has sold!). There has been a ton of washing done - yay for Northwest winds - they dry your washing in about twenty minutes, I kid you not. Now I need a holiday ;-)

I've finished a simple layout, that has been sitting unfinished on my desk for a while, when other things took priority. Glad to have that done and dusted. I've got stuck into Project Life, and am loving it. So glad I didn't do it last year, as I'm all excited and refreshed and pleased to be doing it this year.

My Dad has been down visiting, but is now home in his own bed - we of course miss him terribly, but the dogs miss him the most. Every morning, he'd have the mob on his bed with him....dogs, and cat :-) My cousin has been down for a few days. He'd been to Kaikoura before visiting us and then Kaikoura had a couple of small tornado's. He stayed with us and while here, Christchurch had a few too many fires and a flash flood/river surge. He is now heading South. He apologies in advance to Timaru, Dunedin and Queenstown LOL.

As you can see the dogs have been having fun and finding places in the shade to rest...And that's something we should all live by I reckon! Have a great week.

One of my lovely Christmas presents came from Brendy. She sent me a mini album and a a few other scrappy goodies. So I've been playing with my new album and filling it up with photos and stories of my Elf, Harvey's visit prior to Christmas.

I have joined the ranks of those who think about and live by a word for the year. My chosen word this year is action. Usually something like the above mini album would sit there for many a month before it got done. Not because I procrastinate, but because I prioritise, and scrapbooking comes way down on the list of priorities. My word action has many meanings for me. It means to do it now, put it into action so to speak...fit more into my day. It means to be more active. Get out and about more. Just do it, as Vicki would say :-) It means to action some of those things on my bucket list. I've always been a great list writer and then I systematically work through the lsit. I've found this week, there is no list, because I'm just doing it as it comes to mind. Hope I can keep this pace up when I'm back at work ;-)

We have new babies, and gosh they are small. Can't believe our 'big boys' were once that tiny.

This was us last night at nine...the dogs were really feeling the heat, so we took them off for a swim at the river. They aren't used to three walks in a day! They cooled down, had a play and then boy did they sleep! They weren't that keen on getting out of bed this morning. I got up and read...they stayed in bed with Lyall LOL.

We shot up to Oxford this morning and had brekky at the Farmers market, before catching up with a friend of Dad's, which was just lovely. With Project Life back up and running for me this year, I've been busy with the camera - and then playing with the photos, figuring out what I want in my album. Even had to go and buy a new printer when my old one gave up the ghost on the second journalling card! Have a wonderful week people.

A new year...a chance for reflection on the previous one. What to do different this coming year? What challlenges do I want to meet? All things I've been thinking about over the last couple of days. And been adding things to my to do list :-) I've also loved reading everyones positive posts. While we all go through rough patches, it's how we deal with them that shows what sort of a person we are, don't you think? As well as all that brain power being used ;-) Muscles have been used as well! Our hay has been cut and baled, and lucky for us we have had a few visitors. Those said visitors have had to work for the keep LOL!

Of course we couldn't make them just work, we had to have a few drinks to celebrate the new year and the hay making side of things.

We enjoyed each others company, round the bbq,with good food and drink, but no loud music playing so we could actually converse (oh I must be getting old LOL). We also thought we'd better shout them a few brews at the local ale house after all their hard work, and here we are enjoying that, last night.

From left to right is, my sister Donna, our Dad Ken, me, my hubby Lyall, his brother Garth and my sister in law Maureen. Have a wonderful week.

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!