Edible Lego anyone?

A while back we ordered a lego brick cookie roller, and it arrived the week before last. So on Saturday morning, J and I churned out a batch of biccies. The cookie cutter made such small cookies, we cut them out in pairs, so they kinda look like dominos now, but they sure do taste good! Mmm, mmm :)

Before...

After...

YUM-O!

Going, going gone!

Ok, so the Pink iPod is gone. Too easy. The White iPig is still up for grabs - $50 or four free hours Jake-sitting... Just sayin!

Right - off to get tea on, and then commiserate the FINAL final of ER. Ever. Can't believe it. So. Not. Cool. It has been one of my favourite shows over the years. I'm tempted to find a collectors set of the whole lot from Season One, and ration myself out an ER supply for the next few years!!! Sad, but true.

One of my friends is coming up to watch the finale with me, and we're going to crack open the wine. Anyone else wanna join in?! Oohh - you could Skype in! Ha ha ha! Skype username dazbeckjake if you're interested!

Ok - spuds to scrape and washing to deal to.

Toodles, B x

iPod anyone?

Here's an opportunity for my lovely blog-readers out there...

With my Christmas bonus this year I shouted myself an iPod Touch, so I now have an iPod Nano going spare. I was going to list it on TradeMe (and still might), but thought I'd give you lot first dibs on it.

The 8GB 4th Generation iPod Nano was released on Sept 2008, and D bought me this one not long after, so it's less than 18 months old. They retailed for $250NZ at the time, but I see they're going on TradeMe for around the $100 mark, give or take. It's a lovely HOT PINK colour (of course), and comes with everything you see below:

The original case; iPod earbuds, unopened (I had my own pink ones already); USB docking cable; plastic 'bling' case (missing two little rhinestones on the right hand side); and an FM tuner, which allows you to play your iPod through any nearby radio using an FM frequency.

About the only problem with it is that there are a couple of tiny 'pressure marks' on the screen, which you can JUST see here. I have had a screen protector on it since the day I got it, so it's really in pretty good nick.

So... for $100, it's YOURS. And I'll courier it to you for free (within NZ). I will leave this offer open until next Friday, 29th January.

If you want, I'll even leave my music on there (which you CAN delete when you dock it onto your own PC), and a couple movies... Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Proposal, and The Reader.

AND, for those local yokels who know me, they know that I have a pink iPig speaker that I bring to crop days. It has unreal sound, and is just fab. I ordered a second one, and they sent me a white one by mistake. So I have a WHITE IPIG going too - $50. You will be AMAZED by the quality - it has 5 speakers, including an integrated 4" sub-woofer and 360 degree sound. Any device can be connected to it via it's headphone dock with the supplied cable. If you have no idea what I am talking about, this is what he looks like:

Righto, I'm off to laugh at the idiots on American Idol that think they can sing! Toodles, B x

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Mark your diaries and your calendars NOW. Save Saturday the 22nd of May 2010 for me, ok? Don't ask questions, JUST DO IT!

What's this all about I hear you say? Well, here's a sneak peek:


More later....

Toodles, B x

One little, two little, three little milestones...

Ok, so who's now humming the tune of 'Ten Little Indians' to themselves? Ha ha ha!

Three little (very little actually) milestones of late:

* A first attempt at digi-scrapping. Very quick and easy. And, tbh, probably a cheaper way to scrapbook. BUT - not as much fun! I do like the end result, but I'm not converting over just yet. Although it is good to develop a few more skills in photoshop.

* A layout in my lovely new We Are Memory Keepers D-Ring Album that I got from my dealer, Rach. I have wanted one of these for AGES. It's a lovely shade of blue, and it's leather, so easy-clean when little (or not so little) fingers make marks on it. Let's face it, we want people to pick up our albums and look at them don't we? The cloth covered ones just don't cut the mustard for me... too easy to get marks on them that are hard to get off.

* A decent bit of handwriting on a layout - I tend to type my journalling most times.




And that's about it from me for now folks....

Toodles, B x

Coffee and a Creative Catch-up...

This week I am back at work. J is in a Sport SC Holiday Programme this week, and spending next week while I am at work with a friend of his (thanks to his generous Mum offering to have him for me), so last Friday was really our last day of holidays together. I thought we ought to mark the occasion by going out for morning tea:


Mmm - LOOOVE The Golden Harvest... esp. their hot chocolates :) Highly recommended!

Another thing that I roped J into helping me with was driving around Timaru and scouting for interesting numbers for a little project I was working on - a perpetual calendar for my office. It's like a changeable piece of artwork really. Very cool. I think it's turned out just awesome:

The idea being, of course, that each month I change around the numbers to represent that current month. So it really is a changing piece of art. What do you think? Like it? Oh well, I do anyway, and I suppose that's the main thing!

Toodles, B x

So, what've ya been up to?

Last time I posted, I went mad and did about six posts all in the one night... I think one and one only will do for tonight! What have you lot been up to lately?

I took J to the movies last week to see The Fantastic Mr Fox. Don't rush out to see it yourselves.... the only highlight was that Mr Fox was voiced by George Clooney ;) The rest of it was pretty much C...R...A...P. What a waste of money. At least J enjoyed it I suppose. Gosh it's expensive to go to the movies nowadays - SO much cheaper to wait a little bit and see it on DVD. I must be getting old!!!

On Wednesday I took J to the museum for a look around, and signed him up as an Explorer Kid while we were there. They have monthly meetings/sessions for the kids on a variety of topics that the kids choose. Sounds kinda cool. You local yokels may have seen his photo in Thursday's Timaru Herald - we had only been there 5 minutes when a reporter came in wanting to photograph a child enjoying the museum displays... seeing as we were the only ones there, we were it! Oh and the display he had his photo taken in? A red phone booth with an old black dial phone in it. When I said we used to have a phone like that when I was little, he said "but it's an old-fashioned phone Mum, that's why it's in the museum, it's OLD" Lovely. Made to feel old(er) by my 6 year old son! Fab.

Today I did some very exciting grocery shopping in the morning while D was working, then we took J to West End Park to play on his motorbike this afternoon. We took some food and drink, and other than a couple quick 'pit-stops', he spent nearly two hours straight on his bike! Good to see him enjoying it so much.

Tonight after tea I made this:



...Fruit Salad Jam. Well sort of... I couldn't find any passionfruit at the supermarket, and D asked me to leave the bananas out, but it does still have apricots, peaches and pineapple in it. Yummo! Heather, one of these jars has your name on it hon :)

My only other accomplishment of late was a little bit of sewing on Thursday:

A cupcake pincushion! It is WAY cuter IRL, honest. I have had the kit for a while to make, and finally decided to get off my butt and make it. I bought it at Annie's Country Quilt Store in Ashburton ages ago. Now THAT is a super cool little store... seriously.

Well peeps, not a lot else to share really... the holidays are pretty much over for me - back to work full time this week, and J goes into a holiday program for the week. It'll be good for him to get a bit of routine back into his day, and we are both over each other and the holidays, so it'll be good for the two of us too!

I'm gonna head off and watch the rest of the movie... catch ya later!

Toodles, B x

A Fairlie short getaway...

Yup, as mentioned earlier, we spent three nights in Fairlie (about 45 mins drive from Timaru, and about 2 minutes drive from Lake Opuha) at the Fairlie Top 10 Holiday Park (which by the way is highly recommended as being very clean and tidy with nice friendly owners) from New Year's Day.

The weather was a bit ordinary - two stinking hot Nor'West days which meant that the lake was too rough for ski-ing, and one cold, rainy day. Bugga. We stayed in our tent (so it has now officially been christened, having to withstand some NASTY wind and rain) which remained standing - phew! D's parents were up there next door to us in their caravan, and D's sister came up a couple times on day trips with her three kiddos.

On the Sunday, we decided to put the boat in, even though it was very windy, and hope that it soon died down. Here's J with cousin Brianna 'spinning discs' as we boogied our way down the road in Zippee (my car).

We didn't have much luck with the wind, but D did have fun in his Dad's boat giving me, his Ma and Pa an unexpected bath on shore. Well I knew what he was up to, coming into shore so hot in the boat, and I'm pretty sure his Dad did too, but his Mother had no idea... oops! Check it:

Look at the size of the smile in his dial! Someone was very pleased with his-self!

And when it wasn't raining (although sometimes even when it was), this was what J was doing....

Over and over and over and over again. And again. Get the picture?! He rode so much he got blisters on his hands, but he never complained about them, not even once. What a tough dude!

Oh and the other funny thing... at the camping ground we realised that it was one of the few times that we had almost all of the family FORDS in one place, at one time. So we HAD to take a picture!!! The only one missing is my Mother-in-law's Telstar. We managed to cover most of the Ford bases with this lot though.... a Territory (D's sister, Bron), a Fairmont (D's Dad), a Focus (moi), and an XR6 (D):

Not a bad looking line-up huh?! Tee hee hee. Definitely a layout just waiting to happen. Seriously.

Right, that's enough blogging for me for today... I have a card to make for a little man who's turning SIX tomorrow. Where did that six years go? Incredible!

Talk laters, B x

Just like Jake...

Before Christmas we had some of our friends round for tea one night. Their wee man Oliver likes to copy whatever Jake gets up to...they were outside playing on the trampoline, then started acting up a bit when I got the camera out. Oh, when looking at the images below, imagine the 'grrrr' sounds that go with it!!!

When I see these photos, all I think of is that Tordon Man ad that was on telly a few years ago, you remember that one? Ha ha ha!

Toodles, B x

Mr and Mrs B....

After getting permission from the newly married Mrs B (of course), I am pleased to present a selection of their wedding pics, taken by moi...

Their brief to me was casual, relaxed and fun. I think we got that, for sure! But it's a bit of a bugger when the bridal car runs outta gas though, huh?...

...ha ha ha, just jokes, she works at Shell, so that just had to be done!

Thanks to Mr and Mrs B for letting me be a part of their special day - it was fun! B x

ANOTHER birthday?!

Yup, J had ANOTHER birthday party to go to - on December 20th, no less! Talk about a busy time of year.

Here's the card I threw together on the day of the party for his wee classmate Kyver. Funnily enough, Kyver's Mum and Dad started in our antenatal class with us when we were expecting J. It was hard case when we realised that they were going to be in the same class together at school some 5 years later.

As you can see the monster theme continues. He seems to be the most user-friendly and quick little beastie to make atm. Suits me! Besides, you can't do a card covered in flowers, butterflies and bling for a boy now, can you?! Ha ha ha.

Toodles, B x

Chrissy Cards...

I never did get around to taking photos of the first two sets of Chrissy cards I made, darn it, but here's a couple pics of the last batch I made....

Kind of a throw-back to our connection with all things with wheels - cars, motorbikes etc. (The little cogs are meant to look like Christmas ornaments, in case it isn't obvious, teehee)

So I made about half my last batch of cards with cogs/sprockets on, and half with various buttons on... probably more 'ornament-like' I guess. My mum liked those ones the best.

So that's that. I think in total I made about 40 cards this year, and to be honest, if I'd had enough time I could have sent more... so to those of you who didn't get one, maybe next Christmas! I'll have to start making them in October next time me thinks.... ha ha ha!

Ok, off to get some other photos ready to post...

Toodles, B x

Twas a night or two before Christmas....

...and as I was about to switch the lights off and head to bed, guess who I found curled up on the stairs next to my ceramic cat and my wooden cat... Buzzy Boy!

It was weird cause it's not somewhere he's ever sat before... he tends to go for the comfy cushioned seats, not the carpet. And once I started talking to him about how cute he was, he started pulling out all the cutesy poses, see:

And then cute turned to nutty, and he began to eat the tree..... Mmm.

Time for bed, young man!

Apologies for the blog post being a bit delayed, I have a few lined up for you tonight, just the first of many :)

See y'all again soon! B x

Reporting live from...

.....Fairlie! Now you didn't expect that now, did you?!

Yes, coming to you from the Fairlie Top 10 Holiday Park. Where it is blowing a howling Nor'wester, and at 8am it's already 24 degrees. Fortunately the tent stayed up all night, although it's occupants didn't sleep much, too hot and too windy, darn it!

Seeing as it is SO windy and we can't get the boat out, we might jump in the car and tootle up to Tekapo for a looksie. It is nice just chillin though, and J is enjoying a bit of independence... He has spent almost all his time here scooting around on
his bike like Evil Kneivel. Seriously! This morning while I was in the camp kitchen cooking toast, he asked if he could go back to the tent to get dressed, and he reappeared moments later dressed and ON HIS BIKE!!! Surprise, surprise!

I think he likes to be able to do what he wants, we just leave him to it and enjoy the peace, ha ha ha!!!

Well my friends, I hope that 2010 has started off well for you too. May we all be happy and healthy for the year ahead.

Seeing as it's a bit early for a drink, I might go find sumfin else to do..... now where'd I put that book?

Toodles, B x

Hiya...

Well howdy campers and Happy New Year!

Sent from my iPod Touch :)