Project Life: Week 25

Hi everyone :)

As usual at the end of the school term life has gone into overdrive all of a sudden.  There seems to be more to do and less time to do it in.

This week I’ve done another insert so here’s this week with the insert:

And without the insert:

On Monday we had the the Duffy Theatre people visit… three very talented and enthusiastic actors who had the kids completely spellbound!

I also went to collect some firewood with our caretaker… they’d just felled a HUGE tree up at the local cemetery and I was too intimidated to go on my own so Dan came with me.

Here’s a look at the beginning of this week:

After seeing the ads for Mammoth Yoghurt… you know, the one for men made by a man… I decided it was time to try it and I have to say that’s I’m a real convert!  I love the lemon and passionfruit flavour… and this yoghurt is super thick and creamy!

In Room 4 we’ve been doing some fun stuff to end the term… with more planned for next week!  This week I shared one of my all time favourite childhood stories with them… Bad Jelly the Witch!  The kids really got into the story and they particularly enjoyed listening to Spike Milligan reading it on the CD I played for them.

Here’s a look at the second half of my week:

This week and next week all the Year 6 students in our school (approx 90 kids) are having swimming lessons every afternoon.  To make sure that they don’t miss out on their lessons by forgetting their togs and towels we’ve been hanging them over the radiators to get dry. 

While the Year 6’s (and three of the senior teachers) are down at the aquatic centre the Year 5’s have been distributed amongst the rest of us so in Room 4 we’ve been doing some artwork for Matariki.  It’s going really well and hopefully we’ll get it all done by Wednesday afternoon.

If finally got around to using the self-service petrol at Pak’n’Save.  I had a 25 cent off voucher that I wanted to use so I bit the bullet and actually it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Sometimes trying something new really freaks me out!

There’s also a few photos in there that were taken at my nieces birthday party.  Kody wanted to show me her work sample book… and then she read a story to Grandma.  It definitely brought back memories of when my own girls were that small.

Mum made sure to get a photo of me and Katey eating our lunch at the kids table too.  We were mostly unaware of it as we were having a good catch up LOL

Here’s my creativity for the week:

I used a night sky photo and die cut the 25 from some left over paper I had from another project.  The bling represents the seven stars of Matariki.

And now for the insert… my wee niece had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday and she had a wonderful time… although I think she found it a bit overwhelming at times.

Katey made her a really cool monkey cake which Jessy (her big sister) thought was awesome as well!  There were LOTS of presents to unwrap and then later on when it went a bit quieter she enjoys actually playing with some of her new gifts.

 

Everyone (including Auntie) was pretty taken with her spinning top.  It has a wee train inside that goes around and the little signs raise and lower as the train passes.

Sammy’s big sisters were quite interested in the little house I gave her and wanted to push all the buttons and try everything out. 

Sammy loved her new fluffy jacket, dolls pram and new doll… she was keen to play with them all afternoon!

So that’s been my week… pretty busy but so many wonderful memories!

I hope you all have a great week xx

Log your Memory: Week 25

Hi everyone :)

I’m back on track with the Log your Memory project!  This weeks prompt was all about cars… specifically the cars you’ve owned.  I’ve never been a ‘brand’ girl… and that shows up in my layout too… I’ve owned a Ford, Holden, Mitsubishi (x2) and Toyota (x2) LOL

Here’s my layout for this weeks prompt:

If you click on the photo you’ll be able to read the journaling so I won’t bore you by re-writing it all here… but looking back on it I’ve had two cars that I’ve really loved.

The first was my Ford Laser Sport. 

This isn’t the one I owned but it looked just like that… although from memory I also had cool hubcaps!  I really loved that car!!  I remember buying it in Hamilton just after I’d moved to Karapiro and I thought it was the best car ever made.  It was compact, speedy, looked good and I felt a bit like a rally driver when I was in it because it had the coolest drivers wheel I’d ever seen!

I used to put the girls in the back (they were only little)… put in all our gear and we’d be off on another adventure.  I remember one time when I wanted to ‘get away’… we literally had breakfast, packed the car and were off to my Auntie Lynn’s place in Kerikeri… 396km according to the AA distances website.  It really was the perfect car for me at that stage of my life.

The second car I really loved was my RVR:

Again, this isn’t the one I owned but mine looked just like it!  I loved that I had central everything… central locking, central windows and it suited me perfectly.  It had a CD player which we really wanted on our long trips!  It had an all important tow bar and the bull bars at the front really made me feel safe.  I also liked the fact that I was up higher off the ground. 

This car had buckets of space!  I used to take the girls away camping and we could fit all of us, our gear, tent, camping equipment etc. and still have loads of space. 

Having said all that I’m pretty happy with my new car… I’ve got a tow bar again which is super important to me and I’ve got lots of space too.  It’s just right for all the things I do. 

So that’s the prompt for this week… pretty happy with how it turned out in the end.

Have a great week and drive safe xxx

Project Life: Week 24

Hi everyone :)

It’s been a particularly cold day here in Rotorua and for some reason the boiler at school wasn’t working properly so my classroom has been like an ice box all day!  I’ve actually managed to get some photos of my Project Life pages for this week… although I’m not too happy with how the photos turned out… it’s one of the ‘joys’ of short daylight hours I guess :(

Here’s a look at the full week:

The week actually started off with some great creativity!  I was making tags for one of the birthday activities at Scrapbook Dreams.  I’m super happy with how they all turned out.  We also started the week with the lounge looking more like a laundrette… another of the ‘joys’ of winter.

Tuesday morning was so cold that my car completely frosted up.  Toby was determined to hop in the car… and quite frankly it was easier to let him sit in it while I defrosted the windows.  He wasn’t such a happy boy when I left him behind and went to work though!

Here’s a closer look at the start of my week:

I got a few photos of my classroom… the Arbor Day artwork… the classroom at the end of the day… and our next big project which is going to be a HUGE water cycle diagram on the wall.  The kids have been busy painting and so far we’ve got the mountain and the sun on the wall… it’s a work in progress!

Of course there was also the final of Masterchef which had me gripping my seat.  Mum and I were watching it in our respective homes… texting each other and trying to pick the winner.  Well done to Chelsea who cooked really well on the day!

Here’s the second half of my week:

On Thursday’s I’m the hockey coach for our senior sports afternoon.  Thankfully I actually know how to play as my sisters’ and I all played hockey right through to high school level.  I gave my camera to one of the kids and asked her to take some photos and she did!  86 photos in about 20 minutes!!!  Mum would be proud of her!  Along with some great hockey photos there were also some of the kids pulling faces and being silly so I decided to include them in this weeks pages.

On Saturday morning Mr Toby managed to get an old pillow and within a few minutes we had ‘snow’ all over the lounge!  It’s amazing how much fluff is inside a pillow!  Here’s what my lounge looked like by the time he was finished:

Toby wasn’t too happy when I started cleaning up after him either!  He kept trying to steal the fluff off me and ‘save’ it from the fire!

On Sunday I headed over to Loreen’s to help her put up a Christmas tree for her mid-winter Christmas party which is in another two weeks.  We had a great time getting out all the ornaments and arranging them on the tree… of course I took photos but you can’t see the decorated tree just yet!

After going out for lunch we took Toby to Pilot Bay for a bit of a walk around which he totally loved… it also turns out that Loreen takes a pretty good photo!  It’s not often that I manage to get photos with both me and Toby in them. 

When it came time for us to leave Mr Onyx decided to hop into the car.  He jumped straight onto the drivers seat and I was sure he’d come back out that way too… but NO… he actually climbed through to the back seat!  Toby’s never done that before and he was quite impressed!!!  Then Onyx decided that he wasn’t getting out so out came the camera again LOL

Here’s my creativity for the week:

I enjoyed making my tags using the London Bus photos so much that I had another one printed a bit smaller and used it on my card.  I kept the embellishments all the same too and love how it turned out.  I’m not quite over the whole London Bus thing yet so you may see more of them yet LOL

So that’s Week 24 done… hard to believe that we’re almost half way through 2012 already.  I’m really loving documenting my year this way… I’ll definitely be doing the entire year!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great week xx

Project Life has been delayed

Hi everyone :)

Yesterday I was super organised and got most of my Project Life photos chosen and printed off for the week… then today I headed over to Loreen’s and thought I might be back in the early afternoon… ahh nope!  I only got home a little while ago.

Having said that, I’ve had a wonderful day catching up with my friend… getting things organised for her mid-winter Christmas which is going to be fabulous!!  We also went out for lunch… totally yummy!… and we did a spot of shopping as well!

The sun was still shining when I packed up my stuff and Mr Onyx decided that he’d like to check out Toby’s car!

Here’s the wee stowaway… doesn’t he look proud of himself!!!

Of course Toby couldn’t let Onyx have all the limelight so he hopped in the car with him!

So now I’m back home but it’s too late to get decent photos of my pages so I’ll be back tomorrow with a proper update.

Enjoy your Sunday night everyone xxx

Scrapbook Dreams sketch challenge

Hi everyone :)

This week we announced our mid month sketch challenge.  It’s a lovely sketch… just perfect for so many different photos!

Our Guest Designer this month is Janeen and she’s created a fabulous layout using the cutest photos:

Thanks for being our Guest Designer this month xx

If you’d like to take part in this challenge simply create a layout using the sketch for inspiration and upload it into our June gallery (or email me a photo and I’ll upload it for you)

Birthday Activity #3

This week we’ve got another birthday activity for you :)

This week we're going square with a twist! You need to create a square project... either a layout, card or something of your choice... but it must be square.

And here's the twist... we've got a colour theme for you:

Yes it's my own personal favourite: red, white, black and craft!

4 x 4 cards are really popular and if you've never tried them here's the perfect opportunity :)

Simply create your SQUARE project using our colour theme and upload it into the gallery.

p.s. we've had a few people ask about deadlines for these activities... you have all the time you need as we're going to give you an extra 4 days after the end of the month to upload your projects!

Happy crafting  everyone xx

Log your Memory and some tags :)

Hi everyone :)

I’m playing the ‘catch up’ game again this week with two layouts for Log your Memory.  June is the month of Transportation prompts and I don’t quite seem to have the ‘right’ photos so I’ve been doing a bit of hunting on the internet to help me out.

Week 23: Maps and Directions

One of the prompts this week asked if you needed maps or directions to get around town.  In general my answer would be no as I tend to go to the same places day after day.  However if you asked me to find my way to a specific place I’d need to check out the maps in the front of my local phone book.

Most days I’ll start off at home and go straight to work (bottom star to top star on the map).  It’s only a 5-6 minute drive which is very handy.  If I need something from the dairy there’s one on the way (middle star) plus there’s a handy butchery, chemist and produce store there as well.

I go the the public library around once a week, buy my groceries at Pak’n’Save and then if there’s anything else I need there’s  Central Mall which is home to The Warehouse, Take Note, Warehouse Stationery and Number One Shoes as well as loads of other shops.

As I said in my journaling, I’m a ‘creature of habit’… but it works for me :)

Week 24: Petrol Costs

Let’s face it… petrol has become quite expensive.  For some the costs are just getting too high and I know a few people who own bigger cars that have either sold them for something more economical to run or they now walk/bike more than they used to.

Krystal walks everywhere in Hamilton… she even finds it quicker (and cheaper) than using the buses in general… although she does love it when family goes over to visit and she can get rides to the supermarket to do a bigger grocery shop than normal LOL

For me, I’ve gotten over it.  If I want to go and visit Krystal or Mum I just tend to do it and then save money in other areas of my budget. 

Getting to and from work each day doesn’t drop my petrol tank by very much which means that I’m able to do trips to Tauranga or Hamilton when I want to.

The one thing that HAS changed is that I pay more attention to those little petrol vouchers you get at the supermarket.   In fact a couple of weeks ago Mikayla and I did a BIG grocery purchase and got a massive 30 cents per litre off petrol!!!  Now that’s got to be good!

So that’s my Log your Memory all updated again!

Now for something different… at Scrapbook Dreams we’re celebrating our 4th birthday and we’ve got ‘Birthday Activities’ you can participate in.  This weeks activity is to make a series of 4 themed tags using any theme you like.  You can see all the details HERE.

I decided to do my tags around the theme of London buses and here’s what I came up with:

I started by cutting black tags and ‘Admit One’ tags from the MME range.  Then I used some Tattered Angels Chalkboard glimmer mists (Chalk & Decadence) on the backgrounds.  You can’t see it but they’ve got a nice bit of sparkle on them. 

Next I stamped with some white paint to put the swirly designs on.  The subway art and bus photos are all from the internet and I cut and ripped them before adhering them. 

I actually printed each bus twice and cut just the bus out of the second print which is popped up with foam squares for a bit of dimension.

The creamy text ribbon is from Graphic 45 and the pearls are some I’ve had in my stash for ages.  I almost forgot about the lace… that was ‘borrowed’ from Mum’s stash… I’m sure she won’t have missed it LOL

Here’s a close up of each tag:

   

If you click on the photos they’ll come up bigger :)

So that’s all from me… I hope you have a wonderful week and I’ll see you back here later xx

Project Life: Week 23

Hi everyone :) 

Yes I missed posting my layout for Log your Memory this week.  I’ll do a double post on Wednesday to catch up.

Here’s a look at this week:

My week started off with a great uplifting email from the Brave Girls club… I so love their daily emails!  I also finished my latest book from Lesley Pearse… Gypsy.  GREAT story!

On Monday I went into town to pick up my new DVD player which I got from cashing in some of my Fly Buys points that were about to expire and while I was there I bought an electric blanket.  I’m loving it… Toby’s loving it and I can’t believe that I resisted getting one for so long!!!

Here’s a better look at the start of the week:

I decided that for Arbor Day Room 4 would do some ‘4 seasons’ artwork.  So thankful that I have the silhouette to cut out all the blossoms… 405 in total!

The kids worked on one season at a time and by lunchtime we were almost done.  I’ve mounted all the artwork but forgot to get photos of it before I hung it all up so I’ll share the finished artwork with you next time.  They really look fantastic!

We had 3 metres of firewood arrive on Tuesday afternoon… just as the rain was about to start so Mikayla and I worked very hard while Toby ‘supervised’ us putting it all in the garage.  It was a full-on 35 minutes but we got there in the end!

Before you get excited and start thinking that I’ve found a new man… the photos are of my ‘brother’… he’s actually my ex-brother-in-law but we still think of ourselves as family.  He’s just moved to Australia and now we have to catch up via Facebook rather than via phone. 

Here’s the second half of my week:

Scrapbook Dreams celebrated it’s 4th birthday this week… quite a milestone for me!  It’s been hard work but I still really love it!

I’ve also been really inspired by photos I’ve found on Flickr so I decided to include them in this weeks pages.  The vintage roses and books are really ‘speaking’ to me at the moment so you may see them in some of my artwork soon.

On Friday nights I usually get takeaways on the way home as Mikayla works Friday nights and it’s a chance for me to have some time to myself.  This week I decided to make myself homemade hamburgers… very tasty indeed!  Toby and I curled up in front of the fire and watched some TV… such a great way to start the weekend.

On Saturday I received a lovely card from my friend Jane.   She’d made the card for one of the Scrapbook Dreams birthday activities and then sent it to me… it was such a lovely surprise :)  Thank you Jane xx

Here’s my piece of creativity for the week:

I’ve had this image for such a long time and used it when I made my grungeboard album.  This weekend I was looking for something on my computer and came across it again so I had to use it.  It’s hard to tell from the photo but it’s got quite a vintage feel to it… in spite of the bling!

So that’s been my week… and now I’ve got a project to work on while I watch a movie on the new DVD… the fire is going… Toby is curled up asleep and I’ve got chocolate… what more could a girl want???

Have a great week everyone xxx

Project Life: Week 22

Yay for long weekends!  Toby and I have been enjoying having some relaxation time at home… reading books, watching movies and just generally hanging out.  I’ve been meaning to get into my scrap room and give it a good tidy up but so far all I’ve managed to do is fill up the gas bottle so that it will be warm when I eventually do it!

Here’s a look at this weeks pages:

My week started off with celebrating Miss Krystal’s 20th birthday!  I still can’t get over the idea that my little baby is now into the double decades!  Toby and I went over to Hamilton on Monday after work and took Krystal and Chris out for dinner and we had a great time catching up.  The celebrations didn’t end there because on Tuesday it was my sister’s birthday :)

Room 4 did a bit of celebrating on Tuesday as well as we had finally made it to 20 class points so we had pizza for lunch which the kids really loved.

Here’s a look at the start of my week:

This week Nina and I organised our classes for SENZ… and somehow it was much more enjoyable spending Nina’s money for her!  I’ve decided to do three classes at SENZ this year and I’m super looking forward to them.

I’ve also done another one of the Incredible Years course days… 4 down, 3 to go!  This time we worked with puppets which had lots of us out of our comfort zones but ‘Dina’ came home with me as another teacher from school wanted to borrow him. 

On Thursday night I had another teaching session with John and of course stayed to have dinner with him and Wendy which is always lovely.  This time Wendy did deep fried mozzarella for an entree which was absolutely divine!

Here’s a look at the second half of the week:

Toby and I finally made it down to the ‘canine supermarket’ at Barkers Park.  Toby was totally thrilled to be inside and kept looking at me as if to say…. ‘Hey Mumma, I’m inside the shop!’  We got him some treats which he’s already sampled and enjoyed along with some more soap for his next bath.

This morning I took Mikayla down to Pak’n’Save as she was working a shift for someone else.  We decided to go down a bit early so that we could do the groceries.  It’s certainly a good time to go because the shop was fairly quiet and there were no queues at the checkout!

I had a bit of a ‘play’ today after checking out Tim Holtz’ blog and here’s what I came up with for my piece of creativity:

I used the photo from his blog and coloured the girls dress and ribbon using Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  Then I antiqued the photo with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo.  Really like how it turned out. 

So that’s been my week… and hopefully almost definitely I’ll be in my scrap room tomorrow creating cleaning up!

Have a good week everyone xx