Today I actually feel HALF human.....

...which makes a huge change from the way I have felt since Sunday night! Got home from camp (which was fantastic by the way), and just crashed. Really crashed. On Monday morning I felt like a big bag of nasty stuff, but being the trooper that I am, I toddled off to work anyway. By 11am I was coughing uncontrollably, and absolutely exhausted, so off home I went. In fact, the practice manager told me to 'piss off home' !!!

I am not usually one to moan about feeling like shite, but I have to say that this bug that's doing the rounds at the moment is NASTY. Even I considered the male "I'm dying" whinge! Oh dear. Sad but true.

After getting some antibiotics from the doc on Tuesday for a chest infection, and being put off work until Thursday (today), I pretty much spent this week in bed, either sleeping or coughing. Or coughing some more. And maybe coughing! Ha ha ha.

Back to work for moi today, and I have to confess it was a bit of a struggle draggin my butt there tbh. But off I went, lemonade, nurofen, antibiotics and cough suppressant in hand. Gotta admit it's not the best look. However, I have decided you can't win whatever you do - some people told me I looked and sounded like crap and should have stayed at home, and others hardly said boo because I had been away, and less staff means more work for the rest of them. Typical workplace attitude. Anyone else have that problem? I mean, if the doc sends you home, and you really do feel like rubbish, there's no point going to work is there? Seriously. Some people just have nothing better to complain about. Seriously. How 'Grey's Anatomy' do I sound? SERIOUSLY!

Anyhoo, camp was a hoot - our table had a few laughs. There was me, Nic (who I met at my first ever Raincliff), Nic's sister Fiona, and another newbie, Amanda. I supplied halo's for us all to wear, and the name 'Scrap Angels' kinda stuck. We ended up wearing them ALL weekend (except to bed of course!), even on a trip to the Opihi Vineyard, which actually ended up being a trip to the Point pub, for a drink with a rude name (oops). I got Rach to take some pics of us Angels together, and I scrapped a layout on the Sunday at camp, although it's not quite finished - I need to add some more bling!!!




And of course there was the obligatory camp photo as well....



The only other thing that I got done was my wedding book, which doesn't sound like much, but was in fact about 12 hours work in the making, covering and decorating seven chipboard pages and the chipboard folder they sat in.

Oh and I'm pleased to announce that Rach completed her challenge, earning her prize for doing some original work rather than scrap-lifting! Fantastic! I gave her a mini tote with a couple of small canvases in it and a heap of mini chocolate bars, which I don't think lasted long :) Bo on the other hand... No prizes for her, shame shame shame!

And speaking of scrapbooking (what else?!) I have registered for the morning class that Nic Howard is teaching at Scrapbook Art in Chch next month, and am really looking forward to that. D and I are going to stay up there for the night, J will spend the weekend with Granny Rose and Grandad Jim. We haven't been away for a night for AGES.....

Anyway, back to the task at hand.... The rest of my week has just gone in a flash, and tomorrow it's Friday again. Incredible. Ma and Pa will be driving down from Christchurch at the moment, having just flown back from holidaying with Kay and Clarke in Bli Bli. Hope they don't find it too cold back here! They're coming for tea tomorrow so we can catch up, which will be cool.

D has the boys here tonight playing poker, and from the yahoo-ing that is going on, I suspect he hasn't gone 'out' yet, so that's a good thing!

So while they have been doing the 'guy' thing, I have been doing my nails, and they look FAB. Not something I do very often, but man they look cool. Check this out...

Newsflash, newsflash - important announcement to follow.... D won the poker! Yeah!

So, that's about it from me, it's now after 11pm, and this kiwi needs to GET TO BED! Hope you've enjoyed this little catch-up.

Let me know what YOU'VE been up to yeah?

Toodles peeps, B x

Cards Galore!

Yep, I've been making heaps and heaps of cards - last Sunday I made a few tri-fold cards that hold shut with magnetic clasps, cute little bunny ones....

...and yesterday (Saturday) Nic came up mid-morning to finish the Christmas layout she started last weekend, and I started making some way cool acetate cards. Although I didn't get many made for a start, cos I was getting a lot of 'help' from J, you know "mum, can I do this?", "mum, can you do that?", "mum, can i have something to eat?", "mum, can I watch tv?", "mum, muuuum, MUUUMM" Arrrggghh!!!!! Now Nic can see why I don't get a lot of scrapping done in between crop days! Anyhoo, I shot out just before tea and grabbed some more acetate from Rach, and made a whole lot more in front of the telly last night. Now I have a whole stock pile of them for future use! Awesome :) They look sweet, huh?.....

Have to say that I'm loving the watercolour pencils that I bought about ten years ago and hardly ever used, now that I have some cute stamps to colour in! The Stampin Up! blender pen is mighty handy - find it better to used than my cheap water-pen - a little less watery if ya know what I mean!

AND I'm pretty excited about going to Chch next month - Scrapbook Art is holding two Nic Howard classes in their new store, and I'm itching to go to at least one of them. Bring it on! I'm off to go and phone in a booking now :)

Well, that's about it from me, I'm going to go away and think about Raincliff layout ideas.... Raincliff in FIVE MORE SLEEPS! Yeah!

Toodles peeps, B x

Ahhh, Sunday :)

Yep, gotta love Sundays. To be fair, Saturday is my day to have a lie in, but J usually sleeps later on a Sunday than on a Saturday, so it's not a bad deal! It wasn't always that way, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles at the moment. I didn't have to get up until 8.15am this morning, so I'm happy with that.

Last night we got to have a good catch up with Darran and Heath, which was awesome. It seems like AGES since we have had a bit of chillout time with them. Oliver slept happily in the portacot in our bedroom, and we talked and watched "The Heartbreak Kid" on DVD. Funny movie man. Very funny. Ben Stiller is hilarious!

At the moment J is watching a terrible Thai copy of Kung Fu Panda that they brought him back from their holiday, and although it's one of those crap ones filmed in the movie theatre on a handycam, he doesn't give two hoots - he's glued to it!

I am about to have a dabble in some cardmaking me thinks, found some really cool ideas at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ that I printed out. AND I found the folded flowers I have been making - apparently called 'Dahlia Fold' flowers. Cool. You guys should totally check out this site, esp. the resources section with step by step instructions on how to make some damned amazing cards. I plan to dazzle you all with my brilliance shortly, (when in fact they will be card-lifted, if there is such a thing) ha ha ha!

Okey dokes, time to go do something anyways. Might go make a fresh cuppa first. What are you lot all up to today? Let me know.....

Toodles, B x

RAINCLIFF CHALLENGE FOR BO AND RACH

Yep, you read it right - this is a challenge, I am laying down the gauntlet here! Although I am nice enough to give you fair warning first so you aren't 'sprung' with it out at camp....

OK, the challenge is (from me to you two).....

Design and complete an original two page layout, no kits, no copying, no Nic-lifting! I want others to see that you CAN do what I do, all on your own, because I KNOW you can do it!

I promise (and this shall be witnessed by your fellow stalkers) that IF you rise to the challenge and complete your assigned task, I will make it worth your while - there will be (small) pressies to be had!

So..... are you up to it?

Toodles, B x

BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!! YUM YUM YUM!!!!!!!

OK, so here's the pics of my cake - for Darryl's birthday on the 11th of July, I took Jake to the supermarket to pick out some lollies to go on a birthday cake for his Dad (of his choosing), and back then we assembled a quick cake from a supermarket sponge, whipped cream, chocolate icing and jellybeans! This time, for my birthday, Darryl assembled the cake and made the icing etc all on his own. Jake helped add the pebbles on top then of course posed for the obligatory photo (of course!) See.....

So of course we finished the night off with a yummy piggy piece of birthday cake!!! The rest of the week flew by in a flash - work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep etc. Thursday night I made some more eclair cases (mini ones this time) to have for supper the next night.

Friday night I held a Stampin Up! party, and had a LOT of ladies come over for a glass of wine and to check out the products that are on offer. They have some fab stuff, but tbh it's not cheap. That's why it's a really good reason to have a party, because just like Tupperware parties and other party plans etc, you get a hostess gift for having the party, as well as a percentage of sales to spend on more product of your choice. A great way to get some the the stuff you like without all the cost! So to all the ladies that came and had a glass of wine and a bit of a play at the table with some of the product, thankyou, thankyou, THANKYOU! The only problem with party-plan stuff of course is you choose what you want on the night, and then have to wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive. I want to play with my new goodies NOW!!!!!

The weekend just disappeared (as they do). We did the big grocery shop on Sat morning, then Jake through a wobbly and put himself to bed without eating his lunch. He had a rough week with his asthmatic cough last week - sleeping in the dining room on his trundler bed every night, and coughing until he was sick several evenings that week. Anyway, it made him helluva grumpy and seeing as he put himself to bed, we decided to let him sleep. He hasnt had a daytime sleep for nearly a year, so it's a rare thing! He ended up sleeping for just over two hours, but man was he a much nicer little boy to deal with when he got up!

Clayton and Kaia came round for tea that night - Clayton had a few drinks with D and Kaia played happily with J (she loved his Hot Wheels cars, so much so that after she left J asked if he could buy her some for Christmas, ha ha ha!) Anyway, the kids ended up playing until about half eight/nine-ish, so lucky wee manny had his sleep earlier in the day.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), we woke at 9am on Sunday. We were supposed to be at a church in Temuka by 9.45am for Darryl's sister Bronwyn's christening of her two boys - 2 and a half year old Alex, and 5 month old Cameron. Incredibly, we made it ON TIME! Nice! After the christening, we had a nice relaxed finger food lunch out at Bron's with the rest of the immediate family, getting home about late afternoon Sunday.

THEN, on Sunday night I made a jam-pan full of pumpkin soup to put in the freezer in lunch-sized lots for my lunches for the forseeable future. Hard work bloody well cutting up all that pumpkin, but SO worth it in the end :)

Mmmm, what next? Well, Monday I took J to see Dr Rob about his damn cough, because I am SO over cleaning up sick every night and changing beds repeatedly. There are only SO many sets of jammies and SO many sets of sheets that you can have, you know? Fortunately Rob was sympathetic to our cause and suggested a stronger preventative inhaler to be taken all the time, rather than just when he's symptomatic. We're crossing our fingers that this helps a lot, not only are we sick of it, but of course it's hard on J too.

Anyhoo, I think that's about the size of it - our last week/ten days all updated in two (rather long-winded) posts! I hope that this keeps all friends, family and stalkers happy! I promise to try and update maybe every other day from now on, then I won't have to spend all night doing it, ha ha ha!

Hope you are all happy, healthy and warm, cos by hell it's nasty out there at the moment... I'm off to brainstorm some layout ideas for Raincliff, then get some sleep (of course!). Tomorrow's gym day again, and Friday to boot (yeah!), bring on another weekend! Perhaps if the weather stays like this I might get some of the onerous indoor jobs done over the weekend (like cleaning out J's bedroom, and listing some things on TradeMe for sale).

Oh well, keep warm and cosy peeps, catch ya later! Toodles, B x

BAD BLOGGER!

That's right, my name is Beck and I'm a bad blogger.....!!! I even got told that in the middle of The Warehouse at lunchtime today, didn't I, Bridgette?! Ha ha ha. Unfortunate problem is, she's right. Oops. Sorry. I suck. My bad.

So.... where were we? I think my last post was the night before my birthday when I was making chocolate eclairs, yeah?

Well, I finished making those and headed off to bed at about 11pm. The next morning my boys gave me cuddles and kisses and pressies - what a great way to start the day! D gave me a new charm for my Pandora bracelet (a handbag with a pink CZ set in it), and money to spend at my upcoming Stampin Up! party. J picked out his pressie for me all by himself, and chose pretty well considering -he chose a pink bead set and a pink bead bracelet. Mmm, do ya think there's a theme here?

So I headed off to work for the day, carting a truckload of eclairs and a gluten free chocolate cake with me. I spent the first half hour at work creaming eclairs and putting them in the fridge for our morning tea. It was a nice day actually. Daph at work also has a birthday on the same day as me, although hers this year was the big 5-0! I had pre-organised with the other secretaries to chip in and buy her a bunch of flowers for her fiftieth, and she seemed stoked with them. They looked fantastic - I ordered them from Absolute Flowers in Stafford Street, just asking for something with pink in it and for them to 'make it funky' - it was just awesome - pink gerberas and yellow lillies with tortured willow and greenery, wrapped in bright pink paper etc. Highly recommended! Because I was still relieving for Florence that day, we actually sat side by side for the day, which was quite nice.

Morning tea was delicious - we always shout together on our birthdays for the other staff. Daph had ordered club sammies from May's and had bought savouries from Couplands, so we had heaps to eat - yummo! Lucky I was toddling off to the gym during lunch huh? Ha ha ha. Did I tell you I had joined one? I now go to Timaru Woman gym - it's fab. Anyhoo, my day was as a work day usually is, except D sent me some lovely flowers for my birthday - pink flowers with lillies and jonquils in (I love scented flowers). What a spoilt girl I am!

After work, Darran, Heath and Oliver called in for a coffee (and brought me a pressie, yay! Awesome coffee mug, coffees, and Juno on DVD), then I shot out to pick up some Thai takeaways for tea, and by the time I got home, Ma and Pa were waiting for me. They gave me another charm for my Pandora bracelet, and some scrummy pink scrap stuff. Yup, definitely a theme developing here me thinks!

Nanny and Grandad called in to see me at work to drop in my card which was cool, so I got a quick cuddle with them in the middle of the day. I put the money they gave me and the Prezzy Card that Sarah sent down towards two other new charms for my bracelet, so I now have a total of 6 charms on my bracelet - it's looking real good now. I picked out the rose one and the ball of hearts myself with my birthday money, the round channel one with pink CZs set into it was from Ma and Pa, and the other two Darryl got me when he bought me the bracelet for our wedding anniversary earlier in the year.

I also got lots of birthday text messages too which was awesome, so I had a fab day all in all. Sarah even sang me Happy Birthday on my voicemail! Not necessarily the high point of the day vocally, but brought a smile to my dial all the same :D. Gotta love sisters!

I nearly forgot to tell you about the totally awesome birthday cake that my boys made me - I have photos somewhere, so I'll go hunt them out :)

Back soon, Toodles, B x

Mmm mmm, it's that time of year again!

Yup, it's that time of year - time to shout morning tea at work, time to make my usual (and now expected after 12 years) chocolate eclairs! So, at the moment my kitchen is a bomb site, and there are iced eclairs taking over half the bench, and I have a pile of dishes to do, but I wouldn't have it any other way! See the sort of mess I get myself into???......

And later in the week will not be much better, (when I play hostess at my Stampin Up! party) although the likes of an antipasto platter makes much less mess! I have already bought some goodies to make a couple of platters, all the things I like to eat but never buy - hummus, salami, pate, nice cheeses, and yummy crackers! See, my fridge looks a bit different to normal...

...full of bottles of cream (for me to whip tomorrow), and platter-goodies. Yum! If I get the time on Friday afternoon I think I'll make some mini eclairs for supper. Would it surprise you to know that this is Darryl's favourite time of the year?! Ha ha ha. I hardly ever make eclairs these days, because of course, you have to EAT them! Not that that's usually much of a problem :)

Oh well, time to get off to beddy-byes, will probably talk to some of you tomorrow no doubt! Byeeeeeeeeee

Toodles, B x

The Sleepover...

Yes, a sleepover! I was rather hoping that the two boys would be well knackered and go to sleep very quickly... I wasn't far wrong. We got home and the boys watched Ben 10 (their absolute favourite program), then we had fish and chips for tea. J decided Arthur just HAD to have fish and chips with us, because Arthur had told him that he'd never had crinkle cut chippies before! After tea they had a bath together. Some of the water even managed to stay in the bath, ha ha ha! Talk about cheeky monkeys!

So after their bath is was time for jammies and bed, they were read a couple of books, and it was lights out. They were allowed to talk for about half an hour, then were told it was time to sleep, and they did! Nice!

They woke about 7am, and I told them to keep quiet for just a little bit longer, so they turned on the bedroom light, got into bed together, and talked talked talked for the next half hour! I got up at half seven and got them up and dressed, and lit the fire. They ate their breakfast and then got to watch the rest of Ben 10 that I recorded last night off the telly. Since then they have played with J's toys, and drawn some really cool pictures. We are off to see Nanny for morning tea in a tick, then Arthur's auntie is picking him up at half twelve to go home. J has had a fabulous time playing with his friend, I think he'll miss him when he goes home.

Well, that's it from me, you are officially now up-to-date! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Isn't it nice to see the sunshine today?

Catch you later peoples, Toodles, B x

Off to the SNOW!!!

Yeehaaaa - off we go! We were going to go to Dobson and take J and his friend Arthur to go tobogganing for a bit of a laugh, but Dobson was closed, so we drove on to Round Hill (at the head of Lake Tekapo). We hired the boys a couple of shiny new toboggans from the Ski Shack at Fairlie (only $5 each - bargain!). The road was pretty long in to the ski-field, and my poor wee car really only just made it up the big climb to get there, but make it we did, and the boys had a blast! Here they are ready to take off:




... and this is them on their way down the slope!

Darryl's Mum and Dad, and sister Bronwyn and her tribe all came too, although the Listers were late (how unusual!!!). D even convinced his mother to have a go on the toboggan, so I just HAD to take photos, it's probably the only time it would ever happen!

.... and they're off!

.... yup, that's DEFINITELY a look of terror on Nana's face! Oh dear....

Then (unfortunately) it was MY turn. Yes, this is me, looking extremely enthusiastic I might add, about to head off down the slope on the toboggan. Can I say in my defence that in fact my tailbone is still sore from the fall I had in the snow about a month ago, so this was NOT very comfortable!

Look out J, I'm coming!

The boys were so good and had so much fun together that D suggested we ask if Arthur could come home with us and stay the night. The boys (of course) were pretty keen! We had a cuppa with Lisa (Arthur's mum) and checked if it was ok, which it was of course, and then packed him up to come with us for the night. More on the sleepover soon....

Toodles, B x

D's birthday... (July 11th)

Friday was D's 35th birthday. On the Thursday night, he went out to poker night with the boys, and as soon as he had left, J and I got busy decorating a cake for him in the kitchen. Unfortunately what with work and stuff, I had run out of time to actually bake a cake, but I did manage to get to Woolworths and buy a sponge, some cream and J chose some lollies to go on the top. So we rushed around making chocolate icing, and chocolate whipped cream. I layered the sponge with jam and cream, then J covered the top of the cake with chocolate buttons and jellybeans before the icing could set, and we were all done! We hid it in the fridge, then J finally went off to bed, about an hour later than usual! The next morning, there was great excitement! Jake yelled from his bedroom 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY'. It was SO funny! He had hidden all of the presents in his room, and insisted on carrying them out one by one all by himself. WE gave D a Riders HQ voucher and the V8 Supercars Monopoly game. A Chip Foose T-Shirt is still on its way from the States. J picked out his own pressies for his Dad, I had given him $20 to spend at The Warehouse, and he did really well with what he chose.... He got D a lolly jar for his desk, which he filled with jellybeans and jelly dinosaurs, a penholder and a photoframe, also for his desk at work. Not bad huh? Here's the boys together after our tea, blowing out the candles and getting ready to eat the cake.....

Only a mother could love that face! Oh and by the way, for a shop-bought cake, it was scrummy!

Toodles, B x

Trying to be 'grown up' !!!

I have been doing a lot of spring cleaning lately (yes, I know it's actually winter, and no, I'm not pregnant!). I decided to get rid of a lot of the clutter (read 'crap'), and get some grown up things to decorate our lounge with... I found some cool stuff at Ma's work, and now our mantelpiece looks great (instead of cluttered and dusty!). See.....

I'm stoked with it - I just have to get around the rest of the lounge now! Ha ha ha. Always something to do huh? Never a dull moment in this place!

Oh and post-script to the Op Shop concert.... We got home, and when we walked in the door, I could smell vomit. NOT GOOD. Literally minutes before we arrived home, J had puked all over his bed, his carpet, his self and his Granny. (Sorry Mum!) Mum had scraped up a lot of it, and settled him out in the lounge in front of the fire, but I had to spend the next wee while cleaning sheets and carpet etc - luvverly (NOT). Unfortunate end to a great night. And about half an hour after we came home, D started being sick too. Oh great! D was crook for a couple of days - he was home sick that Thursday and Friday, and J stayed with him because he did the same thing again the next night too (although this time he managed to get an different bit of carpet - good one!)

Anyhoo, that covers us being all grown up (for the next five minutes I reckon!).

Toodles, B x

How to use chopsticks....

Not like this anyway!......

From the proceeds of the wedding I did on the 28th, I decided to take my boys out for tea, cos I figured J would just LOVE to play with the frosty boy machine at Chengs. A couple of random pics were taken during the first course:

....then J was OFF to the Frosty Boy machine. What a laugh! Once I showed him how it worked when I got myself some, he was into it! D wasnt even allowed to get his own, J had to pour it for him:

Then J decided he was ready for seconds (of course!) - and back he went!

...and dont forget both the chocolate sauce AND the caramel sauce (yes, BOTH at the same time... mmm, interesting combination I guess!) SO, once you have sorted out the getting of the dessert, nect you work on the eating of the dessert, like so:

Yeah, I know, butter wouldn't melt, right? NOT!!!! We had a lovely tea, and J has asked SEVERAL times since if we can go back there again. Gee I wonder why?! Ha ha ha.

Toodles, B x