Project Life: Week 13 and an insert

Hi everyone :)

Well it’s been a big week and an even bigger weekend!  I’ve just spent a bit of time with Mum over Easter and we had a really awesome time together checking out some of the sights and sounds of Queen St in Auckland.

Here’s an overview of my week:

My week started off with parcels… some for me and some for Mikayla.  I received my art order for my classroom and I put most of it away before remembering to take a photo but there are some neat things to work with in it!

When I got home from work there was another parcel waiting on the doorstep and even though I hadn’t ordered anything it was a 12 x 12 size box so I got a bit excited… but it was actually for Mikayla… bah humbug!

I’ve been experiencing some major computer problems and even though I thought I’d fixed it earlier this week they seem to be back and it’s not looking too good at the moment :(

Here’s a close up of the start of my week:

I finally got all of the kids artwork mounted and ready to go on the wall.  I spent quite a bit of time cutting out geckos and turtles using the Cameo and then mounting them onto the ‘cool’ and ‘hot’ art backgrounds and kids painted.  They look really amazing along the wall and the kids are super proud of them.

I had a big tidy up this week too.  The house always gets a bit neglected towards the end of the school term when I’m super busy doing school stuff but since it’s a long term I couldn’t wait for the holidays… there’s only so much disorganisation and clutter I can take so I got Mikayla to help me with the lounge and now it looks great!

We’ve been looking at tessellating patterns for maths and Whaea Charlie got the kids to do some tessellating designs on the letterboxes they’re making and they’re starting to look quite good.

On Friday I went over to Putaruru to pick up Mum’s new ‘friend’ Felicity. Mum scored a great bargain on Trade Me and now she’ll be able to do her dressmaking with a little help from her new friend. It took us a little while to make Felicity the right size because Mum is so little but we got there in the end!

As I mentioned on Friday I was going to give making macaroons a go. Well the first batch, which were lemon flavoured, were a flop… the mix was a bit grainy… they didn’t look so good and they stuck to the tray BUT they did taste good! I made a second batch and worked on the mixture a bit more and what do you know… they turned out perfectly! I stuck them together with some chocolate ganache and they were perfect :) They are definitely a bit tricky and fiddly but oh so worth it when they work.

Here a close up of the end of my week:

On Saturday Mum and I travelled up to Auckland for the Coronation Street show.  As some of you know, my sisters and I got Mum and Richard tickets to see the show for Christmas but things have obviously changed a lot in that time so Mum asked me to go with her and we had an absolute blast!  Mum and I couldn’t resist getting a photo taken outside the ‘Rovers Return’! 

It was a huge day… we left Tauranga at 8am on Saturday morning and finally pulled up into the driveway again at 1.30am this morning…. but it was really worth it!

Even though the Easter Bunny must have been really tired she was kind enough to leave me a Ferrero Rocher bunny!  As kids we always put out our slippers in the hope that we might get an Easter egg and it worked really well.  I only had my manky old sandals with me but it still did the trick!  Note to self… I only receive Easter eggs at Mum’s so must go back again next year!

I mentioned that there was an insert for this week… it’s all about our trip to Auckland.  Here’s the first half of the day:

We met up with an old family friend in Manukau.  William and I grew up together and both families lived on farms.  Over the years we’ve kept in touch but haven’t actually seen each other in a long time so it was awesome to catch up… and the box of chocolate macaroons didn’t last too long!

Then Mum went to visit Richard and although it rained a couple of times it was good for her to have some time with him. 

Next we went to a little shopping centre and had Turkish food for lunch.  Thankfully we shared one meal between us because when it arrived it was HUGE. 

Then it was time to head into central Auckland and after finding a carpark we spent quite a lot of time looking around at the sights.  There is no way you’d even catch me going up to the top of the sky tower building and I absolutely could NOT stand on the side like we saw some people doing!

Here’s the second half of the day:

We went down to where the show was being held in the evening and I managed to get a good photo of Mum with the huge poster. 

Then Mum took me to Smith and Caughey’s for a look… boy of boy is it EXPENSIVE!  I did find the chocolate counter though (funny that!) and I bought a few little truffles to bring home.

As we were browsing around shops and side malls I happened to spot a little chocolate shop… isn’t it funny how some things just beckon to you!  Inside were some of the most beautiful chocolates I’ve ever seen… they were like mini works of art.

Mum and I bought some little bunnies for the kids for Easter and then I bought these beauties to bring home:

• Top left – lavender caramel with chocolate coating
• Top right – Blueberry, vanilla and vodka
• Bottom left – Chilli & lime
• Bottom right – Passionfruit and white chocolate

After all the shopping we found a great little pizzeria place and shared a wonderful pizza… it was one of the best I’ve had in ages!

Then it was onto the Coronation Street show… and what a show it was!  It was absolutely hilarious and ‘Ken Barlow’ (William Roache) appeared on stage to a huge amount of clapping.  It really was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and the actors did a phenomenal performance.  They covered the entire 50 years of the show… and they did it well!

After the show we went back to the car and I’m under strict instructions to tell you that I got changed in the carparking building.  While that in itself isn’t a major thing Mum would like to let you know that I actually got changed beside the car because I couldn’t be bothered to go to the bathroom… in my defence there were only about 6 cars on the whole floor and I was REALLY tired.  We had a bit of a laugh about it and then as we drove out of the car park we noticed the sign that said they had CCTV cameras…  no crimes were committed so hopefully I won’t end up on Police 10!

We finally got home this morning at 1.30am and like I said earlier the Easter bunny had left something for me.  Better still, Mum decided that I needed some pampering which came in the form of a cooked breakfast.  Here’s what I got:

French toast (made with sour dough bread), banana, bacon and maple syrup… YUMMY!

So as you can see it’s been a big couple of days! 

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope Easter has brought you some good times as well. xx