Crop for a Cause 2012 - Tickets on sale NOW!

Yes, that's right, they're here, and ready to be purchased.... in fact quite a few have sold already, so get in quick if you're keen on coming.  I promise it'll be worth your while!  Tickets this time are $36 each, and can be purchased direct from me.  Contact details are as follows:

Email:    dazbeck@vodafone.co.nz 

Text:      021 423 257

Phone:   03 686 2009

Keep an eye out on the Crop blog here.  More details will be added over the next day or so about some of our wonderful event sponsors, and Crop news as it comes to hand over the following 6 weeks.

So, what have I been up to? Well, 6 weeks ago I did this... (if you're on FB you will have already seen this photo, but not the explanation)

Yep, that's right, those are some serious CANKLES!  You heard it here first, doing housework such as folding and putting away laundry late at night can be hazardous to your health... but only if you manage to throw yourself down three small steps and simultaneously sprain both ankles and one knee, shatter one end of a laundry basket with your calf, and hit your shoulder and head at the same time on said steps when landing.

Definitely not my finest moment.  Don't try this at home folks.  Especially when it happens at 9.45pm, your son is asleep and your husband is out.  It took me more than 20 minutes to stop seeing stars and drag myself along the floor to get my phone and text D to come home and help me get up off the floor.  I started physio last week as my leg is still giving me a bit of crap, so my knee and ankle are now strapped within an inch of their life, and I await news this week whether or not I have to go for another x-ray or a scan etc, as the physio thinks I may have disrupted the fibula (that's the skinnier bone running from ankle to knee).  Oh joy. 

Not to mention that the day before said stair-throwing incident, D handed his notice in at work starting a 4 week long debacle that I am not going to go into here.  I am pleased that is over, and can honestly say that he is in a far better workplace now.  Oh and J complained of earache which a doctor's visit confirmed was an eardrum on the verge of bursting.  Bloody Hell, what a week that was.... and that was all in the first two days of the week! 

Now, with all that out of the way, what ELSE have we been up to?  Well, I have just realised how long it has been since I have shown you that I still scrapbook!  So here's a bit of a catchup on layouts of late...

 

 

 

August also meant it was Cupcake Day for the SPCA again... Due on Monday 27th, but I chose to do mine on the Friday beforehand, so that I wasn't coming home and frosting a gazillion cupcakes straight after camp like last year...  I made and sold 104 cupcakes in four different flavours - chocolate and raspberry with chocolate fudge frosting, banana chocolate chip with chocolate fudge frosting, orange with kahlua frosting and vanilla and passionfruit with lemon buttercream.  All up, combined with a casual clothes day at work, I raised a total of $458.40 for the SPCA.  WAHOO!!!  Happy with that!  As usual, I was so busy making, frosting and selling cupcakes that I never even got a picture of them, or me selling them either.  Maybe next time?

And then there was Raincliff Camp with Embellish It - a first camp for Jo, and my second time teaching.  Camp was a blast, as usual.  Tablemates Sue, Nic, Becs, Brenda, Kathryn, Sarah and my Mum Rosie were all very good company for the weekend!  I started out my Friday night making some cute teapot and teacup bookends...  Not a bad wee project while others were taking Jo's card class.

Then on Saturday morning I had a play with this layout.  (Sorry about the blurry pic, but I took these in a hurry on my phone)  Pretty simple but I didn't have a lot of time, I needed to get prepped for my class...

So here were some of the sneak peeks of my class.  I just LOVE how this layout turned out.

And the finished product: 

Then we did a very quick layout two:

And two super simple cards...

Not bad huh, two layouts and two cards in two hours.  

All done with the very boyish Kaisercraft Attitude range of papers.

After teaching, I chilled out for a bit, then had tea and got started in on another layout... Seeing as I had recently done Just like My Dad, I though it only fair to do a Just like my Mum layout...

Then on Sunday morning I got a card made for Father's Day, using a super cute template purchased from Paper Compulsions .  I ended up making two of these puppies - one for each Dad. 

 

And that was it, Camp over and done with yet again!  As usual I came home, showed my boys what I had done, then snuck off for a nana nap to catch up on all that lost sleep!!!

And, last but not least, I went to a class being taught by my lovely friend Trina with Mum.  Three layouts in One Class.  Not bad :)  Here's what I ended up with...

And yes, I know I still have to add the rest of the date to the first layout... Have to wait until I can find out what year we did that West Coast trip :)

Righto, that's it from me.  Time for beddy-byes.  That 'nuff for you Bridgette?  I think I deserve a medal for this post, it's so friggin long!  Sorry peeps.

Layouts designed, stash to swap and the couch is here!

Yes, I have been busy creating!  I am teaching a two-layout class at Raincliff for Embellish It next month.  Here's a couple of sneak peeks:

The layouts use the funky new Kaisercraft Attitude range - very boy themed, and lots of fun to play with.  Make sure you let Jo know as soon as possible if you are keen to do the class, numbers may well be limited.  Email her at sales@embellishit.co.nz  - I promise you won't be disappointed :)

And, thanks to the lovely Mandy B, I am taking part in a 'swap your stash' trade this week... we all get partnered up and swap some of our stash with a partner, to pass on what we have not used, and get some yummy scrappy goodness in return.  I'll let you know what I end up with next week!

And last but not least, my couch is here!  I had the cutest little two seater on layby, awaiting my birthday, so that my family could all chip in towards the cost of it for me... and we picked it up last weekend!  But, if you want to see what it looks like, you'll have to visit!  I promise that it will be very comfortable for coffee/tea/other refreshments!  If you are an out of towner and really keen to see what it's like, drop me a comment and I'll email you a pic.  You local lot can get off your butts and visit!

Righto, time for bed.  Hope to catch up with some of you on Saturday at the Embellish It Crop at the Highfield School Hall this weekend.... If you're not up to a full day of scrapping, call in for a chat and a browse through the shop :)

Toodles,

So so proud :)

Yes I am.... VERY proud of Jacob at the moment.  He entered the Mitre 10 Mega Muffin Bake Off at the weekend, and was awarded third place!  There were a LOT of entries, so he did very very well.  I only found out about the competition by chance when I grabbed a flyer off the counter last week.  I mentioned it to Jacob and he sounded a little keen, but not excited about it...until Sunday morning when he said 'Get up Mum, I have muffins to bake!'.  I found a suitable recipe for him, and he did it all by himself.  The only things I had to help with was putting the tray in and out of the oven, and squeezing the piping bag for him.  Here's the pics, for proof:

Reading the recipe

Lightly beating the egg

Chopping up the cooking chocolate

In the cases, and ready to go in the oven

Setting the timer

Making the fudge frosting while the muffins bake

The piece of paper he put his name on to go with his entry

Tada!  The finished product

Yes, that icing is piped on.  I squeezed the piping bag for him and he directed the nozzle and told me when to start and stop.  I have a pretty large piping bag, and it's a bit big for little hands!

So anyway, we had to drop his entry in before midday. We called into Nanny's on the way there to show them how good his muffins looked, then dropped them off just before closing.  Back we went at 3pm for the judging/prizegiving.  There were a LOT of people there, and heaps of entries.  We were so excited when his name was called out for third prize!  He won a $25 Mitre 10 Mega voucher for his efforts.... which was spent before we left the store, of course!  He bought himself a giant tennis ball (the size of a soccer ball), a ratchet screwdriver set, and a glass for me to etch for him.  Not a bad effort!

I recently etched glasses for Daz for his birthday - I gave him the glass, and J gave him the beer mug, each of them filled with lollies and wrapped in cellophane to look purdy.  The etching is a copy of his personalised plate that we got him for Christmas last year for KITT.

I am doing these to order.... $15 for the glass, and $20 for the beer mug.  Just drop me an email if you are interested.

Righto, time to get lunches packed and get out the door....

Toodles!

It's pretty much finished!!!

I have spent part of this week and some of this weekend moving my gear back into the spare room - my craft room!  The only thing left to come is a cute little couch, which is on lay-by for my birthday.  Come take a look...  I've now got lots of goodies and trinkets on the door shelf...

...and some cool vinyl transfers on the wall.  Made 'em myself.  Nice huh?  

The wall unit is nearly full...

  

The first section is now home to a whole lot of embellishments and my iPod and iPig...

The middle section holds my ribbons up top, and papers/cardstock below...

And the last section is where I have my stamps, Stampin Up inks, Copic Markers and my printer...

...not to mention some MORE vinyl on this wall...

...last but not least is this little desk next to my trestle table, home to the sewing machine and all my fabrics and patterns,etc.

So that's it, tour complete.  It doesn't take long, but it sure is pretty :)  I'll be spending some time in there this week, as I have a class to design for Embellish It's upcoming camp out at Raincliff in August, my second teaching gig.  Maybe I'll even manage to arrange an 'opening' soon.... anyone interesting in watching a ribbon cutting?  Ba ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Oh, if anyone is interested in being hooked up with a little bit of vinyl decor at their place, I'm going to be making up some samples soon.  Let me know if you're keen?

Toodles,

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

...well it is for ME anyway.  Let me explain...   

For the last wee while we have been redecorating our spare bedroom, turning it into a craft room, just for me.  I have a lovely hubby who has been toiling away sanding, varnishing, plastering, sanding again, undercoating and  painting, painting, painting, all for me :)  I helped a little with the polyfilla, sanding and painting, but he has done the lions share.  And it's starting to look soooo good!

I guess it started a while ago when I found a picture on the internet of a super cool shelf made from an old door.  I showed D, and he liked it as much as I did.  Next thing I know, we have a discounted door in our hallway, ready to be cut in half and turned into a shelf!  Then we managed to score some gorgeous timber blinds exactly the right size for our window from TradeMe for a bargain $30.  See how it was all falling into place?  Then TradeMe struck again - I found a set of shelving that was just the right size to go on the wall, and it's $140 price tag was less than the cost of materials for D to make it himself, so off to Christchurch we went one Friday evening, just to pick up my shelf.  D spent a weekend sanding back and re-varnishing the wooden windowsills, restoring them to their former glory.  Then I finally decided on a colour scheme, and the undercoating and painting began...  and this is how it looks so far:

I forgot to mention that the boys bought me a cute little chandelier light-shade for Mother's Day, which you can see in one of the photos.  The large shelf in the last photo is my wall unit, at the undercoat stage.  If you look closely you can see the light put out underneath it by the three cabinet lights set into the bottom of the unit, to shine onto my desk as I work.  And there are two sets of double plugs wired in there too, so that I can put my printer on one of the shelves, and my iPig for playing music on.  There are three shelves to go back into the wall unit, after it has been painted... PINK of course!  The shelf colour is Dulux Colours of New Zealand NAPIER, and ironically, the wall colour is Dulux Colours of New Zealand CAROLINE BAY!!!  For those of you who aren't locals, Caroline Bay is the main beach here in Timaru.  Cool huh?

So, there is a bit more painting to be done (thanks darling, mwaaaaah), and once the paint has had time to harden off, I can start stacking my scrapping and sewing gear back into the room, and get creating!  Wahooooo!  I am SO excited!  Mum thinks I should have an 'opening', complete with ribbon cutting ceremony, once it's done.  Hmmm, maybe...!  We'll have to stand in there like sardines though, it's not an overly huge room :)  Could be fun... Well, definitely cosy anyway!

Righto, that's it from me for now.  Time for bed.

Toodles,