Happy birthday

Someone I know would be another year older today if she was in New Zealand ... but she doesn't live in New Zealand, she lives in Texas in the big ol' US of A. So she has to wait another day.

Today is 31 July - but y'all knew that ... but it's not over there yet ...

Happy birthday to YOU
Happy birthday to YOU
Happy birthday to my big sister Terry
Happy birthday to YOU

A big hug from me, your little sister at the bottom of the world

And another birthday greeting goes out as well ...

Happy birthday to YOU
Happy birthday to YOU
Happy birthday to little Miss Rory [on her third birthday]
Happy birthday to YOU

Your birthday box is somewhere in transit between here and there.

Thinking of you both with love.

Mail man has been - woo hoo ...

The pigeon carrier was probably more than a little exhausted when he arrived this side of the ditch - I mean to say, it's quite a way between here and there - ROFL.

The poor mail man was driving down the road this morning, I was driving to work ... I stopped, he stopped and we had a wee natter in the middle of the road [as you do ... NOT!!!!!. Asked him if he had any parcels for me, especially from Australia ... you're at ... aren't you ??? my response ... YES ... well yes I do he says. I'm thinking woo hoo ... I've got mail.

Think raining to yourself and it was ... he had to get out of the van and bring me my parcel over - I so DO NOT DO RAIN - my hair gets curlier and curlier when it is wet ... I'm honest!!!!! You can stop laughing now - lol.

Anyway, thank you Mr Mail Man ... and woo hoo - thank you to the Little Scrapbook Shop in Australia - the biggest little shop on the web - check them out here www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au ... my goodies have arrived and I am absolutely delighted - I'm stoked, I'm rapt - woo hoo. AND ... I will be back!!!!


Thank you ...

Another CJ round

Another CJ about to be housed with someone else. I've decided that I want to keep my pages, do you think that the CJ owner will miss them ... lol.

I sometimes do a sneak peek and sometimes I don't. This time I put the double page up, cos I love it. The rightful CJ owner doesn't normally look at my blog, well not that I am aware of, so I think that I am reasonably safe posting this and if she does mosey on over and have a look, I'm thinking that it is just about time to be back at her place, so she is going to see it sooner, rather than later.

That's my reasoning for sharing this one now anyway ... I love the colour combination, the pearls, the Prima's [funny that], the fibres, love it all ...

So now, we're nearly there ... I'm thinking I'm about to get my last CJ in this round this week and then it should be time for mine to make it back to me ... I can make a nice coffee, sit down and read it ... that's if I can wait ...

It's been a very creative process, some CJ's I have enjoyed more than others, some have been very challenging and I can honestly say that I have put my heart and soul into the majority of them ... in many of them I have scrapped pages that I haven't even scrapped yet for myself ... some of them are on my to do list.

Back to work tomorrow ... night.

Sunday morning

has now been and gone ... funny that! LOL.

Nathan is in the South Town under 65kg rugby team and he is playing in a Sunday competition. Unfortunately the weather last weekend was not conducive for playing rugby and it was cancelled. This morning though arrived with drizzly rain, not pleasant at all, but the rugby was still on. DH was on rugby duty today and away to Drummond they went.

Nathan was sporting a few scuff marks on the body from yesterday's school boys rugby and from playing rugby today he is a hell of a lot more battered and bruised. In fact his poor body ... I feel sorry for the wee man.

He gets home from rugby today, heads up to the bathroom and runs the bath for himself. I gave him a yoddle about half an hour later and asked him how he was getting on. Told him that I would put some 'rub' stuff on his sore leg when he got out of the bath - he yells out to me, but it hurts everywhere ... after I stopped laughing [couldn't help myself] I'm thinking that I had better buy some more anti-flamme rub stuff from the chemist this week.

So come tomorrow this young lad is going to be covered in bruises and looking very colourful ... I'm thinking - OUCH!!!!!


Now for something to share with you - one of those proud Mum moments that come along and I wasn't there either ... but these things happen.

After the game today, the speeches were being held and wait for it ... player of the day award goes to ... my son [well that should be our son - but you know what I mean]!!!!! Woo hoo.

Nathan was presented with a certificate, beanie cap, drink bottle.

So not only was I not there, DH didn't have the camera either ... when will he learn!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

Well done young man, we're proud of you. Love you.

Round one ... done!

Right then, round one challenge done and dusted ... here's my take on the challenge in the first round of the the amazing scrapbooking journey over with the girls at www.countrypapercraft.com.au. It was a lot of fun putting it together.

This layout will be winging its way over the ditch to Tess to add to her scrapping albums of her grandchildren. I have now completed two layouts for Tess in the photo swap. Tess, hope you like this one. Something way different for me.

Sharryn my partner in crime for this scrapping journey has put together an absolutely awesome layout and it's now on my 'to scraplift' list ... and I'm not technologically savvy enough to put the link thing in here, so you will have to pop over and have a look in their gallery. It's an awesome layout.

So the 'Downunder Mates' - Sharryn and Mrs Frizz are now officially underway.

One more sleep and we find out what's on the 'to do list' for the second round challenge. I say, bring it on ... lol.

Photo shoot

When my youngest sister was down from Christchurch visiting last month, we scrapped, we were creative and had fun. Tracy left me a whole lot of pics that I said that I would scan ... well they sat in a pile on the floor in my scrap room and they sat and they sat.

Last night I thought to myself, this is it ... time to scan and that's exactly what I did ... it took me bleedin' hours. Some of them didn't turn out too flash either, just quietly.

This photo is of me ... I kid you not ... I was 14 months old ... my Nana had written on the back of the photo ...

Our wee pet Michelle
taken 96 Grace Street
December 1965

A wee cutie ... that's me ... there aren't too many photos of me when I was young ... it was probably quite expensive back then to get photos taken and the household budget probably didn't stretch to photos. I must have been on a family trip south visiting my grandparents.




And now ... time to share one of the pics from the big photo shoot last month - still not happy with the way that this has scanned, the quality leaves a lot to be desired ... will have another play AGAIN at some stage ... scanning these pics is very time consuming ... [so this note is for Tracy - do not print this pic off - the quality is shocking].

I'm thinking that I like the idea of taking a photo of the photo to see what it turns out like ... but that is going to have to wait until there is a little natural daylight and as I leave to go to work when it is a little on the dark side and don't get home until it is a little on the dark side - it is going to have to wait until this weekend.






On that note ... later ...


Oops, before I hit that publish post button ... just about forgot - have to send birthday greetings to a special wee friend of mine ...

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to my wee friend MAX [on his first birthday]
Happy birthday to you

I tried to phone him today to have a wee natter on the phone, but wouldn't you know it, he was having a wee sleep ...

Hope you had a wonderful day wee man ...

A big hug and a sloppy kiss - love Shell
xx

What do you do ...

when you have had the kids getting their photos taken at Pixi Foto - you turn up for your appointment a couple of weeks later to have a look at all the photos ... you go away, you visit again and have another look and still can't make up your mind what photos you want to buy ...

You do what I did and buy the lot ... $365.00 later and you have quite a selection, not that many, but quite a few.

It's still daylight robbery really - they charge you $135.00 for a set of pics - one 20 x 25 cm photo and then a selection of the same photo in different sizes - you get one 13 x 18 cm photo and four 6.5 x 9 cm photos.

They take however many different poses and charge you accordingly. They throw in a huge discount, and whereas my whole selection of photos would have been in excess of $1,000, I purchased them all for $365.00.

I did get a big free photo a bigger size, but that one was their choice, they make the decision on what photo to print off for you - the freebie was from a promotion where you paid $5.00 for a sitting fee and got the big pic for free.

Now I know it is my own choice as to whether or not I want to purchase any photos at all and at the end of the day I don't have to buy any ... but when you see them and they all look stunning, you just have to get them all, otherwise individually, they cost a small fortune. Crazy really.

But what made me angry - they aren't digital photos ... I have tried to scan the bigger photos and they haven't scanned very well at all for some reason. I'm more than a little bit peeved off really.

Made me think to myself have they put something in the photos so that I can't scan them properly. No idea really.

So that's my wee b.i.t.c.h. for the day ...

Time to share

a layout of my niece, Trekessa ... in the weekend I was visiting the girls over at CPC - see the link in my side bar. They were having a cyber crop, now admittedly I didn't get the chance to do all the challenges, but I did manage to finish one tonight, albeit a little rushed.

The challenge was to use the word 'magic' somewhere on your layout - whether it be journalling, a title, or whatever.

I did just that - magic of the masquerade. This pic was taken the night Trekessa went to the masquerade ball for her local church group.

I've used Chatterbox papers, bazzill cardstock, pressed petal alpha, HS alphas, beads, ribbon and a white gel pen.

The layout is a straight scraplift [circle-wise]. I saw this in a mag that I had been reading and loved it ... thought to myself, yep, that's what I am going to do and so I did.

Better go and text my sister and tell her I've loaded the layout so that she can have a wee peek as well.

My apologies for the photo - the pic itself isn't the best - the lighting was atrocious ...

It's cold again ...

Today and about now I should have been driving to Mossburn - a drive which is probably 45 minutes to an hour away by road. Nathan was to be playing rugby for South Town up at Mossburn in the first round of a Sunday rugby competition. Instead I'm at home.

The road conditions are apparently more than a little treacherous and the rugby paddock is frozen solid so I'm told. One of the local transport company's up that way has even pulled their trucks off the road, so I'm thinking that it must be pretty bad.

I rang through for a road report and listened to a voice recording - extreme caution, ice and snow ... ewwwhhhh ... not road conditions that anyone particularly likes to drive in, you have to have eyes in the back of your head and look out for the other twits on the road that don't drive to the conditions.

But any way, I don't have to do that now.

So I get to stay home, Nathan doesn't play rugby today and I can scrap ... what more could a girl ask for ... [might have to throw in a little housework as well - but I can cope - lol] ...

Keep warm and enjoy your day.

Show and tell

I have been involved in a photo swap where you scrap someone else's photos. Tess from over the ditch sent me some beautiful photos of her grandchildren and I mean these pics are just gorgeous. Anyway I have finished one layout and now it is time to share.

I'm still working on another layout and will share that one as well when I'm done.

So, Tess ... here is young Emily ... hope you like it ...






And it's Saturday, funny that. Nathan and Russell went away to Saturday rugby this morning and wouldn't you know it ... I'm not there and our young man scores two tries - two of them ... and not a camera in sight!!! Typical ... Number three was just about happening thing as well, but they nabbed him ...

Congratulations young man - we're proud of you.

How cute is this little thing ...

It's called a blinkie ... check this out ... I hope it is going to do the blinkie thing ...







Sharryn and I have teamed up over at http://www.countrypapercraft.com.au/ and we are a team in the amazing scrapbook journey ... you've got until Saturday to sign up - check out the rulz and regulations over at CPC - should be a whole lot of fun ...


Just have to go and check out my blinkie to see if it is doing its thing ... brb.



Well I'm back and my blinkie is refusing to be co-operative.


Edited to add ...

My blinkie is now doing the blinkie thing - one of my work colleagues - Nadine - did a little tweaking and now my blinkie is doing what it is supposed to do - BLINK - funny that..

Another weekend just about kaput

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm thinking to myself, these weekends just go way too fast ... I mean hello, you just to wind down and relax and it's time to head back to work. Mind you in saying that I enjoy going to work, I enjoy my job and I truly mean that. I believe that if you aren't happy where you work you need to move on, quite simple really. You put so much time, energy and effort into your where you work that you need to be happy. Anyway, enough of that.





My scrapping buddy came out to visit yesterday and brought her delightful grand-daughter with her for a visit. I took quite a few pics, but I'm thinking that Jules will probably put a couple up on her blog. Wee Brooke is an adorable wee button and I emphasise the wee. She's a right wee cutie. To think that she is now six months old - time flies.





Creativity this weekend ... well I can't share a great deal.





I can tell you that I have one Secret Santa gift now finished, boxed, labelled and sitting on my bench to be posted over the ditch tomorrow. Safe travels and may my Secret Santa recipient enjoy the spoils when the box arrives safely over the ditch in foreign parts of Australia. To a place where I have yet to venture and that's all I will say on the subject.





This afternoon I have put together two 8x8 layouts and a tag. This CJ round was all about romance. Sometimes we put together a page or two and actually don't want to give them away - that's me today. Love the way that these pages have come together. Considering I only picked out the pics yesterday, I had no idea what I was going to do with them an hour or two ago and voila - all come together just beautifully, even if I do say so myself ... lol.





So here's a wee sneak peek ...





So this CJ is ready to be passed on tomorrow and I have met yet another deadline ... woo hoo. I'm thinking that we must have one round to go, perhaps two max ... and then I will be getting my CJ back - can't wait ... I'm thinking that I am going to be needing a chef - a right master in the kitchen, to whip up a few of the dessert recipes that will be heading back to me. Hmmmmm ... hmmmmm.

If you have been playing BINGO over with the girls on the Aussie Pub Calls blog ... hope you are doing okay. I started off with a hiss and a roar and that's it ... I've come to a complete and utter standstill. Perhaps tonight I might be able to mark another letter [or two] off my word. Here's to hoping.

Right that's it from me ... all this creativity for others ... it's about time I had a little creativity that I can keep myself ... time to go and play again.

Keep warm.

Thank you

I have been involved in a swap with some new friends from over the ditch at www.countrypapercraft.com.au scrapping someone else's pics. Tess scrapped my pics for me. Awesome, can't wait to see the layouts in real life when the pigeon carrier drops them off to me. These pics are of Russell and Nathan on their jetboat experience with the team at Shotover Jet in Queenstown when we were on holiday up there at Easter this year.

Tess emailed me her pics last night and after work tonight I had them printed off. So will have a play with them at some stage this weekend. They are going to be cool pics to scrap, will share the layout[s] when I have been creative. I want to start them now, but I have a 'to do list' to finish first.

I have to complete a secret Santa present and have it away in the mail on Monday next week, so that really is high on the list of priorities, plus I have a CJ that is due on Monday as well ... crikey, just busy enough really. But hey, it's all fun and I love being creative.

On that note, time to go and play.

Must remember to check in later tonight on the Aussie Pub Calls blog to check out the first two letters in their bingo competition. Good luck ladies.

It's cold outside ...

I said that I would load pics onto my blog later today and here I am ... now for whatever reason I can't type a heading or title ... talk about frustrating ...





This pic was taken while I was slip sliding around trying to walk on our deck ... pretty scary stuff really and I truly thought that I was going to land on my butt ...

This pic was taken standing out by the roundabout in our driveway ... note that the water is frozen in each tier of the fountain ... I told you it was cold ...

This pic was taken standing out in the driveway and by the time I took a few more pics this morning I was frozen ... took quite some time for me to thaw out ... the things I do.

One of my friends told me it was -5 degrees Celsius at 8:00 am this morning ... now that's cold.

On that note ... keep warm everyone ...

It's cold ...





You know it's cold when you wake up a couple of times during the night cold and you sleep in a water bed ...





You know how cold it really is when you get up in the morning and the inside of some of the windows have ice on them ... true. I kid you not ...





Just in case you don't know by reading this ... it is bloody cold ... plain and simple really.





I went outside this morning and took some pics to share with you.


And I have now been sitting here for absolutely ages and blogger is not co-operating now that I am trying to load my frosty looking pics ... will try to upload them later.


I've got to go out and about and brave the elements shortly.


Whatever you are doing, hope you are enjoying yourself and keeping warm.


Later ...

Thank you ...

Thank you to the Little Scrapbook Shop ...

Have a look at their website here http://www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au/ and have a look at what Cath and the team have available ...

I will be going back to have a 'wee' nosey, as I'm going shopping ... woo hoo ...

Remember I told you about how fantastic Michelle is with what she is doing with the Aussie Pub Calls blog, well she put out a may day call as unfortunately I missed out on my winning prize with another website ... you know what ... I didn't name that website either in my last post ... this is my blog and I'm thinking to myself that I should be able to put whatever I want to on my blog [within reason - lol].

So ... I'm sure most of you that read my blog will know by now ... Scrapbooks and More didn't honour my winning prize voucher a couple of months ago. No point in going over to that website to have a look, waste of time and energy - apparently they closed up shop. Remember back to one of the competitions on the Aussie Pub Calls blog and you had to go hunting for a whole lot of different coloured Aussie Pub Calls logos on various sites. Boy-oh-boy did I spend some time searching. Some of those logos were well and truly hidden - ROFLMAO ... My scrapping buddy Christi helped as well and for that ... thank you Christi. Between the two of us we found those little critters ... but it was all fun!!!! Majorly frustrating looking for a couple of them ... but we got there.

But anyway, this post shouldn't really be about 'them' ... it should be about ...

To the gang [said in the nicest possible way] over at the Little Scrapbook Shop ... thank you ... again. I know that I sound as though I am repeating myself ... I'm stoked, I'm absolutely rapt ... thank you ... again.


Cathy and the team have sent me a replacement voucher so that I can go shopping with them. How cool is that? That's why I am absolutely stoked ... so I will be going surfing on their website and shopping. I've got warm fuzzies ...


Well that's it from me ... we had a cracker frost overnight and it is bleedin' freezing. Nice blue skies though, but it is so very cold.


Guess what though ... I don't have to go out in it ... don't have to go out and freeze my butt off ... I'm going shopping though, in the warmth. I'm going to spend some time with the girls over at www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au.


Sure hope that the pigeon carrier has a tail wind when he heads over the ditch with my goodies.


See ya ...

A big thank you ...

A really big thank you ...

What happens ...

when you enter a competition and you find out you have won ... well there are those of us that would jump up and down, do a little dance and think or yell out woo hoo ...

Well I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that when I received an email a few months back to say that I had won one of the competitions on the Aussie Pub Calls blog ... woo hoo I thought to myself. I was excited knowing that I was going to be going shopping on line and then knowing that I was going to be receiving a parcel of goodies in the mail. What's not to be excited about ...

Well unfortunately some things don't pan out the way that you think they are going to ... I put through an order and the majority of the goods weren't available as the website hadn't completed a stock take from a sale. So I thought to myself, okay, nothing I can do about that, I will wait until the stock take is completed and put through another order.

That's exactly what I did. I waited another few weeks, slightly longer than that if I recall ... I bumped up the order and was going to be buying additional product as well. Well I waited and waited for an acknowledgement, was having a few problems with the website and then another flurry of emails went backwards and forwards across the Tasman over a period of weeks from when I placed that second order ...

Okay, perhaps I'm naieve [spelling?] and I truly think the best of people ... but I was starting to think to myself, something is just not quite right here ... I was proved right. All of a sudden a few of my email messages were being sent back to me with fatal errors - the website wasn't helping me either and then all of a sudden there was no point of contact available at all on the website. Alarm bells were ringing big time by now.

After much humming and haa-ing, I sent an email to Michelle, the wonder woman over at the Aussie Pub Calls blog to make her aware of the problems that I was having.

I didn't really want to annoy Michelle, but here I was a winner who really had gone from someone being so totally excited about winning, to someone who was more than a little p'd off [note that I am being soooo.... polite here] when I finally realised that I wasn't going to be getting anything.

Anyway, Michelle's wonderful. She didn't have any luck either in making contact with the website owners. Looks like they just shut up shop ... she put out an SOS mayday call to some of the sponsors of the blog ... see her note below ...

****

I want to start this post by saying how absolutely wonderful the Scrapbooking Industry is. Recently, there was an issue with prize vouchers not being honoured. Obviously this was not fair to the winners. So I emailed every sponsor (their logos appear in the sidebar) to call on them to help replace the vouchers 2 ladies had won.

I received responses from all the sponsors with all of them offering replacement vouchers and more!

These shop owners are truly wonderful, and I thank them for their generosity, and their support of Aussie Pub Calls.

Thanks Michelle

****

Now don't get confused you lot ... that message is what Michelle had on her blog ...

Too [two - lol] many Michelle's ...

Today I got home from work and I had mail ... there was an envelope with my name on it from over the big ditch.

A big thank you to Nicole from Craft Queen in Queensland - you can find them here ... www.craftqueen.com.au. There was a note from Nicole and a card full of ribbon from Craft Queen in gorgeous blues. A big thank you Nicole and I truly mean that. Awesome ...

Haven't had the chance to grab the camera and take a pic, but I wanted to post a message of my thanks quick smart.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So on that note, I will sign off for now. Take care everyone and I hope that you find a little time to be creative ... keep warm!!!

It's been a while ...

since I have updated my blog ... life is just busy enough and there truly are not enough hours in the day.


Just thought I would share my latest creations ...

I put together this layout as part of the monthly challenge at www.scrapbookessentials.co.nz - the title had to be lyrical - hence the ... Bang Bang [you shot me down] one of Cher's songs and I did the pics this way as a result of surfing and finding a template challenge over at www.foreveralways.com.au when I was surfing checking out the Aussie Pub Calls blog. I don't recall following a template before but it made me think outside the square and I so enjoy doing that. So there you have it.

These pics were taken last year - May 2006 - opening duck shooting weekend and the third pic opens to reveal Nathan holding the bounty ... dead ducks. Ewwwwhhhh ... I so do not do duck!!!!!!

This is a male bonding thing tho and he enjoys going out with his Dad duck shooting. It's scary really - I actually wonder how much each of these ducks actually costs in dollar terms. Guess it doesn't pay to think about it too much ... way too expensive.

One of the really GREAT things about duck shooting is that the boys go out and play and do their thing and I can stay home and play and do my thing - be a little creative. I was a little creative this year during duck shooting opening weekend - it's a win-win situation all round ... no complaints from me ... LOL.

These are my creations in the altered card swap with the girls over at www.countrypapercraft.com.au. One had to decorate a card or piece of cardstock the size of a playing card and have a pic on one side and details about yourself on the other. I've done mine just a wee tad different [as I do - lol] by having tags slotted in the back. These will be packaged and winging their way over the ditch tomorrow to the organiser of the swap. Hope the pigeon carrier doesn't get lost. Safe travels and I look forward to receiving my envelope containing everyone else's tags later this month.

We had a date mid July to make them and have them back to the organiser, but crikey ... those girls are on the ball and I think that I am the last one to do the 'show and tell' and get them away in the mail. So that made me get my A into G [excuse the expression] and finish them last night, albeit that I only started them on Friday night.

So now still on my list of things to do today or tomorrow is one CJ ... it will happen!!!! and finish another layout.

I'm heading into town shortly tho shopping ... to one and all - enjoy a leisurely Sunday - keep warm and dry.