Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Here's my submission for round two

Okay so my round one entry for Peppermint Creative's Next Top Digi Scrapper was very black!, but I liked it and still do! So this one is certainly a whole lot brighter! Very lime green in fact, not a typical colour I work with, but I liked how it went with the photo, in point of fact I drew the background colour out of the photo itself! And I like how it clashes full on with the purple of Dannielles Tshirt.

So what do you think???????



Mama, I got a owie! supply list

Stitching & Journal Tab – Spring Jellybean kit by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative)
Staple – For My Father kit by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative)
I & e (owie!)– Alpha white vellum by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative)
W recoloured (owie) – Grunge stamped alpha by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative)
! (owie!) - Grunge stamped alpha by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative)

Font (Mama, got and journaling) Mead Bold

a – Kiwi (Shabby Princess)
O (owie) – chipboard alpha by Megan Leeson (blog freebie)
i (owie) – basic chipboard alpha by Dani Mogstad (designs by dani)
Swirl (recoloured) – Holiday Magic kit (Shabby Princess)

Journalling reads-
these little words are being heard more often these days.You are such an adventurous little girl, a real daredevil!This time you had run nose first into a door frame, your nose wasn't seriously hurt though you did score a beauty of a bruise on your forehead! Dannielle - April 2006

Monday, June 26, 2006

I entered a competition

A digital scrapping one at that! After trying to figure out what should be a really basic task this morning I am seriously wondering where my head was at entering this competition! But enter I have, and I have completed the first of the five layouts required. Now the voting begins, and since my layout is sooooo completely different to anything else there I am really not expecting much to come from it.




Nearly forgot to add the credits
Font; Garamond
black background - by me
everything else from www.PeppermintCreative.com

Anyway for what its worth there is my layout, very different, very black and quite a simple graphic design to it. NOT everyones cup of tea thats for sure. I guess we just have to wait and see how the voting goes now!


Busy weekend again this weekend, Chris and I have got all the wallpaper with the exception of the border up in the girls room, now we just need to leave it a couple of days to dry completely and get some border paste and the job will be done!

Trip into town with Dannielle on Friday with a stop at Spotlight proved to be very worthwhile! They had 50% off selected nets, and the net swags we had in our room and the girls room were looking very worse for wear. Looking much better now with new sunfilter accross each window! The beauty of these was that the hems and the tops were already done so all I had to do was overlock down each side, and that took only a matter of minutes. So new net curtains and it didn't cost an arm and a leg either! Gotta be a bonus.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Another layout and redecoration update

Okay so this digi thing is catching on! Quite enjoying it to tell you the honest truth, its sure stretching my brain some though!

But is that really a bad thing? I remember my Nana saying that you should learn something new every day that it keeps your brain exercised! Well she would be so proud of me right now! My brain is looking the well exercised brain thats for sure!

Anyway enough of that babble you are here to check out what we have been up to well this is part of it. I took the photo at my next door neighbours place, they have to most deliciously thick and soft lawn and this soft summer lazing look was just what I was after. Took the photo in January along with about 1oo others! Okay maybe excessive but they weren't all of Dannielle!




Papers - Flower Garden & Passionate Purple from Chelseys Dream kit - Michelle Coleman www.scrapartist.com
Word Art - Daniela Puess Love and Affection Kit
Silver Pin - je t adore kit by Isabelle Cyr aka zazou
Stitching - Ivonne (downloaded from Scrapbook Bytes)



Redecorating, yep its still going on here! Though this is going to be the last room till at least summer! You know you can really get way over redecorating, the sanding down, the painting, things everywhere, and not being able to find what you are looking for right when you need it!

We are doing the girls room at the moment, they have been moved into the newly done spare room which means we have a clear, or should I say relatively clear floor space to work with. Now if you all remember their room had the most awful brown wallpapered ceiling (you know looks like craft paper or that brown wrapping paper that you get to post parcels around the place!)
And on the walls the most truly hideous brown bamboo leaf design paper! What can I say but dark, dull and totally dreary.


Well all that hideousness got well and truly attacked yesterday and is now a sanded back waiting for the new paper to go up, but gotta do the ceiling first look. Took Chris and I all day to sand those walls and ceiling back! And the dust! Icky fine, clog up at any hint of moisture and talk about taste terrible! It is just not possible to sand back something and NOT swallow half of it!
Then late afternoon we got the first coat of brilliant white ceiling paint on! What a difference even that has made. It is going to look so stunningly awesome when its finished!

And yes I do say so myself!

Girls are off at kindy at the moment, the first time for Dannielle in two weeks, first there was the Queens birthday holiday then last Monday it snowed! So while it has been quiet here I have been catching up on Toy Library stuff (finished that for a little bit again!) and updating here. In between taking what seems like a thousand phone calls! Oh and trying to sort things out for the trip to Dunedin on the 30th. Toy Library conference and four of the committee are going, this will be my second conference and am rather looking forward to it. Means Chris will get to spend some quality time with the girls for the weekend!





Sunday, June 18, 2006

Just finished this little beauty

Dannielle in early December last year, oh my word how she is growing, she is really losing the babyness about her. This is my baby growing up!




Layout created using Chelsey's Dream Kit by Michelle Coleman www.scrapartist.com with the exception of the "d" which was created by Megan Leeson and shared so generously on her blog www.meganleeson.blogspot.com

The next photo I took in late December 2005, our girl is a thinker thats for sure, she sat resting on her arms watching the Santa who was in the last carriage of the miniature train we were riding. This photo in its colour version won an acceptance at Camera Club.



Created using Andrea Burns Sample kit www.thedigichick.com with the exception of the chipboard monograms which were created by Dani Mogstad www.designbydani.com/blog/

Friday, June 16, 2006

Wanna see just how much snow we got hit with?


Okay so this is from a completely different perspective. A friend sent this satellite photo through to me today, I have added some towns to it so that you can better understand where we are in relation to the whole mess!

See Collingwood up there, well that is the furthest north you can go in the South Island (and yes Chris and I have been there!) and it appears to be one of the few places that was not hit hard by snow. Mind the West Coast didn't do too badly either, (Greymouth, Westport etc) and see Invercargill down there at the bottom well that is the furthest south you can go on the South Island (and yes we have been there too!)
Leeston is about halfway between Ashburton and Christchurch, we got the snow lighter than Ashburton but heavier than Christchurch!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Family - a layout



Family Stamp (and line of circles) - Family Kit by Jan Crowley at the Digi Chick

Background - Cream from Andrea Burns Sample kit

Doodles - Dawn Moore

Journalling reads

A group of people who love and are loved unconditionally!

December 2005

Okay so there it is what do you think? Different for me, brown is not usually my colour, but I kinda like it. Anyway thats one more idea out of my head, now onto the next!

On the news front, Chris was home till about 1 this afternoon, he had meetings late this evening so while I am puttering away here he is hard at work. Oh and he heard the other day the big training programme he was doing this past year (Black Belt management training - no not martial arts!) has finished his project was accepted outright, no reworking/rewording of it at all. So he is now officially a black belt!

So anyway since you all know that we are redecorating here you will not be shocked to hear that we moved the girls out of their bedroom this morning and into the spare room for a short time while we tackle their room. Not quite as big a move as we had first imagined but since all the excess stuff from the spare room had been moved out before the final painting and wallpapering session in there we had a fairly easy task.

Will be getting stuck into sanding this weekend, so anyone who feels like popping by and lending us a hand, feel free.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

And another layout




Inked overlay from Letters from the heart kit by Denise Bailey for Scrap2gether
Word Art - Lovely in Lilac NSD kit by Heather Roselli for the DigiChick
Arrow Doodle (recoloured) by Dawn Moore

Journalling reads
Okay so you are not exactly keen on "no" or snow as everyone else calls it.You quite like your "no" on the mountains and always point it out. But you are really not that keen on having it right on your doorstep.

Imagine your surprise when you saw the snow laying heavily on our lawn. You were quite content to just stay snuggled up inside where it was nice andwarm, but when Anya decided she wanted to go outside and play in it you decided to bundle up and join her.You figured out quite quickly how to make a snowball and girl for a wee thing you have got a good arm on you! You got me with snowballs several times.

12 June 2006

Thought I would share some layouts


Pattern Paper - Laura Alpuche - Lovely in Lilac NSD Kit from the Digi Chick
Cardstock - AngeDawn - Lovely in Lilac NSD Kit from the Digi Chick
Font - Black Jack Regular
Doodles by Dawn Moore (thanks Dawn)

Journalling reads
It's rather funny really, another one of us who peeps her tongue out when she is concentrating on something.And I would bet you didn't even realise you were doing it! I do the exact same thing, Grandad Bus does as well and he got it from his Mum, your Great Nana Shrimpton.





Font - Susie's Hand
Paper - Minigrowth from New Growth kit by Tia Bennett
"enjoy" - web freebie rubon words by Katie Pertiet for Designer Digitals

Journalling reads:
Trips to the ducky park are one of your all time favourite things to do!You happily run round after them tossing bread to them, though at times I do wonder whether its the other way round.

A winters trip to the ducky pond in Ashburton, saw you following this wee white duck around. It was just so sweet hearing you call out to the little whiteduck "come on mummy duck come and have some bread". When I asked you how you knew it was a mummy duck and not a daddy duckyou quite matter of factly told me that it had to be a Mummy duckbecause it was white! Now how could you argue with logic like that?

Note the above layout has a white background and it doesn't show up all that well here!



Flourish overlay - Michelle Coleman at ScrapArtist
Font - Black Jack

Photo taken yesterday, journalling reads

June 12 2006, the day the snow came and didn't stop till early afternoon. What is special about that is because we live near the sea we normally only get a light fall maybe once a year. Well this particular storm or weather bomb as shey are calling it came out of absolutely no where and left a heavy layer of snow all over Canterbury and the lower South Island.

Of course the girls couldn't wait to get out and play in it.



Flourish overlay - Michelle Coleman at ScrapArtist
Font - Susie's Hand

Dannielle you are our little explorer. It gets you into some very interesting predicaments.You had to shake the tree just to see what would happen! Would you have believed me if I had told you what was going to happen? Probably not, and thats what growing up and learning is all about. You also learnt a great lesson on action and reaction. And I managed to catch you in that split second before you shook the tree. You found out really quickly what happens when you shake a snow laden tree!













Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Brrrrr its cold!

The morning after the snow and things are getting back to normal here, more traffic on the roads today than there was yesterday, though with the ice around they are somewhat slower.
No playcentre today so the girls are home, snuggled up in the warm.


When Chris got home last night the kids were keen to go back out into the snow, so we get them all bundled up again and they go out and spend some time with Daddy, then Chris ducks in for a minute and tells me he needs me and the camera outside now please.
He had got a tarpaulin out of the garage and was dragging the girls round the snow laden lawn on it. What a delightful noise that was, the girls squealing in delight and whenever Chris stopped to catch his breath it was "more Daddy, MORE!"

Anyway here are a few of the results.








And here's one of our snow laden roof, Chris had been round and knocked all the icicles off the spouting and some of the snow that was quickly filling up the spouting.



And below is a shot I took this morning while on the phone with my Mum, I happened to look out our kitchen window and here on the wee fence was snow piled up with little bits starting to melt out of it, loved the look of it with the sun shining through from behind it.

Okay so hopefully its not just me who can see the beauty of this. I know weird seeing beauty in snow, but thats me!




Monday, June 12, 2006

Some photos from our redecorating



So here is our house with its new roof on! Colour is Ironsand (coloursteel colour), and is a dark browny grey. Its wierd cause in some lights it looks quite brown while in others its quite grey! Mind you at the moment its more WHITE than anything else!


Okay so above you can see our spare room, the wallpaper colour is very similar to a Resene Paint colour "Amethyst Smoke" , very cool colour a smokey purple with crisp clean white around the door, skirting boards and window very fresh and clean looking.


And I am adding this last photo simply because it is too cute for words! Taken about 10 days ago in Ashburton Domain. Dannielle feeding a mama duck, well she swears black and blue that its a mama one! Why? Because its white of course!



And incase you are wondering if I have got anything else achieved today since I have posted heaps here, the answer is a resounding yes! I have taken photos, played with the girls, put a load of washing through and helped my Dad with some photo printing, and considering he is at the other end of the country I think I have done quite well.

So who is gonna come out of lurkdom and leave me a message?









Snow fun part two

Anya has a pretty good arm on her! and in case you are wondering NO she did not hit the camera but she did get me but good!

Dannielle just looking way to stinkin cute even with her hat tipping forward over her eyes, she was snuggled up warm in Nana Robbies jumper and Aunty Geyla's scarf though, all topped off with a polar fleece to boot, you don't want to know how many layers she had on underneath this lot though!



Okay so poor old blogger was struggling with me wanting to add so many photos and I notice I did get that one of Dannielle on twice oh well.

Now somehow I don't think we stand much chance of getting this lot picked up today do you?

snow rubbish collection today!

Snow fun

Well I can honestly say that Dannielle is well and truly over the snow now! Okay so it was great to go play outside in it for a little but but she really noticed the cold even with her many layers on. Poor wee thing her hat kept pushing forward over her eyes and even with gloves on her poor wee fingers were very cold by the time we came back inside.

Anya loved every single minute of her time outside, even made a couple of snow angels, can you imagine how wet she was when we came back inside as a result of the snow angels.

I did however take my camera outside with me. How on earth could I resist this opportunity?
So here are some of the shots I got.

Snow fun



Okay so we managed to get out and have some fun in the snow! Anya was all over it, loved every single minute out in it and needed to be nearly dragged inside to get warm again. Well warm and dry to tell the truth, she made some snow angels and as a result got just a bit wet!

Dannielle however is soooo over the snow by now, definitely prefers her "no" on the mountains thank you very much! Poor little sausage was so bundled up she was having trouble moving! Though still had a pretty good aim in the snowball fight that ensued!

And yes of course I had my camera right there with me, all tucked up in a plastic bag to stop the water getting at it and under a towel when not in use. Okay so the fact that the towel was also over my head to keep some of the dang snow that was still falling off me since one of the girls had gone and got my hat then forgotten where they put it!

Anyways here are some of the photos I took.


Snow sisters



Just too stinkin cute



Snow taste test



Both girls have pretty good aims even when they have so many clothes on!

Snow photos

As promised SNOW photos and yes the snow is still falling! Looks like we could be settling in for a snowy day.


Took this photo from our bedroom which is at the front of the house, looking out to the main rd and accross to our neighbours house. How nice of him to leave a light on to add some interest to my photo.









Look how much snow has fallen already! And its still falling!
This is our birdhouse just out the back door. And there down below see the bird feeder in the tree and all the birds flocked round it. Think they might be rather happy to have that there today don't you think?




















Better go track down some breakfast and let the girls get out in it and play some, think my camera might be a bit busy today!

It's Snowing!!!!!!

That's righty you read that right it is SNOWING here and still falling!!!!!!!!! Wooooohoooo, Yipppeee and all that jazz.

Anya is desperate to be outside making snow men/girls whatever but its still dark here and she has the meanest mama in the whole wide world cause I won't let her outside just yet! And there is no kindy for them this morning, the centre has been closed for the day. Some of the teachers may not be able to make it in so the closed kindy down really early this morning.

I must admit to being a little excited myself, remember I have a newish camera and I am just waiting for daylight myself so I can get some photos of it.

Dannielle is the only one who is going to be slightly put out at seeing NO (yes thats her little word for snow), you see she likes snow on mountains but she is not all that keen on snow on her back lawn. Too cold and not all that much fun, hopefully today will change that somewhat.
Its gonna be a while before she finds out cause miss sleepy head is still tucked up in bed sound asleep.

Chris took Victoria to work today rather than the Guzzi, I wondered what he was on when he asked if I minded if he took the car rather than the bike, yeah no worries I heard the heavy rain early this morning so was kinda pleased that he wouldn't be getting soaked to the skin huh thats when he said nah I am more worried about how the bike will handle in the snow! What?!?!?! That was me out of bed right quick to check it out!

Will get photos later and post them, oh and I haven't forgotten about the photos of our newly redecorated room either, just the ones I took yesterday are a little blurry!!! so will get some more today and post them all together later.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

It's done! Yehawwwwww

Okay before you think I have gone completely dolally, let me explain. We have been redecorating.

The most sucky part of redecorating an old house without a doubt has to be the sanding down! Uhhh it has to be done and yes you end up sucking huge lung fulls of dust down, the problem is how full on do you sand back, not enough you have to do it again! Another day of sanding dust everywhere! If you do it too much you end up having to plaster in the oopsies and thus another day of sanding dust being sucked back.

We have just finished off our second room! The spare/play/computer room this time and I must say it looks totally amazing!!!!!! Even if I do say so myself! The fact that we had two days of sucking back sanding dust in that room was the downer, but now its done it was sooo worth the effort put into it.

I have taken some photos but still have to download them will do that in two flicks then add them here.

The other news, we finally got Anya's enrollment filled out. Rather proud of ourselves to tell you the truth, though I do still have to get it back to the school before this coming week is out, otherwise it might just be happening the week before she starts school which would so way not be a good look! She even has some of her uniform, we went shopping on Friday, mmmm very interesting experience that was and still more to go but that just had to wait for another day we were all getting just a tad sick of shopping.

Anyway enough rambling I will go and get these photos downloaded and track down the ones of the Roman blind I made for the kitchen and promised to post (oops sorry bout forgetting that little bit) and the new roof on our house, duh I forgot about that one too!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Wednesday and I picked up Anya's enrollment pack today

yeah at last I am finally getting my butt into gear and have finally gone and picked up an enrollment pack.

Where for? SCHOOL thats where! Anya starts school in exactly two months and two days time. Okay now I know she is growing up but when was it that she turned one? I thought that was only a few months back! But nope instead she is nearly five and nearly off to school or at least she will be if I can ever get this enrollment filled in.

And since she is nearly off to school that also means we are gonna have to go get her a school uniform! And I am sure that is not going to be a cheap or easy task! At least they have a uniform here though, makes mama's life so much easier in the morning none of this what shall I wear today? Will it mean that we can actually make it out the door on time???? Mmmm that one is still to be discovered.


Busy day today but not one ounce of paint has made it onto the door or skirting boards, instead paint was splashed around, swings were pushed, kids were read too and general fun and games at playcentre. And this afternoon well since we were all tired and the sun was shining so nicely into our room we all blobbed out on our bed and watched a movie. Slack I know but sometimes you just gotta kick back.

Now off to track something down for dinner, hopefully I can get some scrapping in tonight, heres hoping anyway.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

More redecoration

Yep its starting all over again, this time its the spare rooms turn, okay so its not just a spare room in fact it used to be Anya's room before we moved the girls into the same room.

We have the paper all ready to go and spent Sunday (the queens birthday long weekend) firstly clearing out the room, uhhh what a mammoth task that was! then yesterday sanding and getting the first coat of paint on the door and skirting boards. What a way to spend a surprisingly sunny Queens birthday Monday.

Got a second coat on today while the girls were at playcentre as well as what seemed like a hundred phone calls too just add interest to the mix. So hopefully with one more coat we will be done, then its into the wallpapering, well after we size the walls first that is.




Hey I just learnt something new here, now at least I can add photos where they should be not all shoved at the top of the thread, YIPPPPPEEEEEEE

Anyway that beautiful little girl up there is Dannielle, yeah cute ahe, okay so she was in the bath in the dregs of water, she didn't want out no way no how, she just looked too stinkin cute for her own good and what else is a mummy meant to do but get a photo of her little darling, the fact that this particular night she was being a right challenge well thats a whole nother story!

How bout we all cross fingers that the judge for camera club this month thinks so too. Its entered as a child study, has more photography don'ts than I care to think about but its cute! Looking down on a child being the biggest no no! And I have to hope that the digital lab I use did not throw a hideous blue cast over her, which seems to have been the biggest problems that the judges have been seeing lately! Remember both my girls have very English Rose skin that at times can look very translucent even casting a blue tinge to them making them look terribly horribly ill! But she does have beautiful catch lights in her eyes!

So what do you all think? A winner or not?

Monday, June 05, 2006


Hey I just found a new trick okay so as you guessed I am only just learning how this whole blog thing works and I just found I can use my all time favourite colour in the world here!


And I have discovered digi scrapping, don't get me wrong I am never gonna give up paper scrapping but this is soo easy to share with everyone and what with this blog you might all get to see more of the kidlets from now on. That is if you are at all interested in seeing them.

Okay the above layout is me and Chris one of the very first layouts I completed. Early last December we got family photos taken by my friend and fellow photographer Chris Hellyar, this is one of the results. I really like this photo and have used it heaps. Love the moodiness of the photo.

No we haven't fallen off the planet!


At last I can prove I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, though I must admit that at times it has felt like it.

Life has sure been busy here! This year is just speeding right on by us, June already. We have been busy redecorating. Oh and what a job that is, the easy bit is finally agreeing on colours, the hard bit is what comes next. Of course when you have an old house you are bound to find some dodgy bits here and there. Nothing is straight! huh that would be asking way to much straight walls.

Anyway we have got our bathroom done! Yayyyyy for us. No major changes, just a freshen up, paint, new trim etc and finally got rid of the hideous burnt gold carpet in there. Who in their right mind puts carpet in a bathroom anyway? I must admit it was warmer on the tootsies for those midnight runs to the little room but you get over that not having to keep in dry and clean.


There's only a couple of months left before Anya heads off to school for the first time. She is more than ready but I am not at all sure I am ready! After all where did the last five years go? So the big five year old birthday party will be happening here the weekend before her birthday, and as an extra special treat we will have Nana Peacock here with us, she shares Anya's birthday so we will be having a right old time of it come August.

But before Nana Pea arrives to stay we want to finish off the play/spare/computer room cause thats where all our guests get to stay. And since we have the paint and paper for Anya and Dannielle's room we want to get that done too! Not asking much, well I hope anyway.
By the time we get that lot done we will definitely be needing a break so will be leaving the kitchen till next summer before attacking that mammoth task!