Taupo Catch-up... (WARNING, PHOTO HEAVY!)

Okay, track back to April 16th... and my trip to Taupo for Nic and Lucy's Autumn Escape.

I was up at 5.30am and off to the Timaru Airport for check-in by 6.15am. Then onto a TINY little plane, winging my way to Wellington. Luckily, being so damn early, I slept most of the way. Not really loving the little planes to be honest. And arriving in Welly? Holy Moley - I nearly crapped my pants. The biggest problem with a tiny plane (other than it being so tiny) is that you can see out the front windscreen, just like the pilot can. And I could see the runway, then it would disappear away off to one side as we lurched in the turbulence, then it was back again, then it disappeared again.... you get the picture? Aaarrggghhh! The landing (if you could call it that) was a bit rough - I hit my head on the side of the plane. Ouch! Man, was I glad to get into the terminal. I had three hours to kill (which I spent half of sleeping, and the other half checking emails and blogs using the free wi-fi - nice!)

Then, onto ANOTHER little plane to flit across to Taupo. My first views of Lake Taupo...




Luckily for me, the fabulous Trina picked me up from Taupo airport, and after a quick stop at a supermarket for some wine(!), we were at the Wairakei Resort:






Down the corridor to where my room was...



And finally arriving in my room. Time to unpack my tote! You see, I had to check my tote and tool bag as my luggage, and take my clothing in my carry-on bag. All around the wrong way!




Lovely comfy bed, complete with Donovan's chocolates, Lebe shampoo and conditioner samples, and Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Capsules.






So here's what the tables looked like in the Crop Room... we all were pre-assigned places to sit, and were greeted by a pizza box full of sponsored product each:



Oh, and the Candy Bar:



We had a dessert bowl on our table that we were free to refill as often as we liked with any or all of the lovely goodies at the Candy Bar. Apparently, over the course of the weekend, us 130 ladies got through 50kg of lollies!!!! Not bad huh? Teehee!


After familiarising ourselves with our surroundings, it was time for lunch - savouries, tuna bake, beautiful sandwiches made on bagels and french sticks, cheeses, crackers, fruit, cake, tea/coffee. A HUGE spread. Yummo!


First class of the weekend was at 4pm - Rachel Tucker's Sew Me Mini Album:





Here's the finished book:

Rachel had gone to a lot of trouble - there was even a felt needle book for each of us in with our class kit, complete with threaded needles, all set and ready to go.

After my mammoth lunch, I wasn't REALLY hungry for a huge dinner, so Jo and I popped over to the Wild Bean Cafe across the road and grabbed a quick, cheap tea. I had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich and chips for $6. Bargain!

Then, class number two - The Apron Class, taught by Rachel Tucker, and Nic Howard. Everything was just so well prepared and lovingly packaged up... it seemed a shame to unwrap it all :( But it was heaps of fun playing with it all! Our class kits:

Rachel had to stand on a chair at the beginning of class to get us all started - she's so dainty! Not to mention hellishly clever and creative. Love that.

With each of our kits, there was a cutesy cupcake pincushion, wrapped up like a real cupcake in cellophane. Rachel had handmade all of these beforehand - 20 of them in all. She must have been such a busy girl making them. Knowing how much work was involved, we all appreciated them, very much.

Here's all the goodies that were hiding in the class kit...

Oh, and proof that our Rach can sew - by hand even!

Just look at that concentration on her face! Ha ha ha!

I think that the Apron Class was probably my favourite - it's not even something I will wear, really, just look at admiringly and remember the fun I had making it! Love love love it!

After a bit more scrapping, and finishing off my Mini Album, we were off to bed at midnight when the Crop Room closed for the day.

Saturday morning, after a MASSIVE cooked buffet breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, spaghetti, toast and orange juice, it was off to my third class for the weekend... Nic Howard's double layout class, at 8.30am! It was a typical, simple but effective, Nic class. Awesome. Here's Nic sitting in Rachel's seat between Bo and I, pretending to actually DO something:

And here's Lucy, doing what she does best - being cheeky and issuing orders over the mike... who the hell let that woman have a microphone?!!! Just kidding :)

In between classes for each of us, we got together and tried to get some photos of us 'hanging out' in the Wairakei grounds. There is a bit of a story that goes with that... we borrowed a tripod, and started to get ready. My camera doesn't have a self timer setting on it, so it was no use. We tried Jo's camera, and the results are below... The minor problem being that we could only find timer settings with either a 2 second delay (not long enough), or up to 10 bursts, one after the other. Thinking we had it set on ONE shot to be taken after 10 seconds, we posed beautifully... and then the camera kept clicking, and clicking, and clicking!

Oh dear!!!! Oh and did I mention that although we were staying in Taupo, it smelled a lot like what I imagine Rotorua smells like... decidedly sulphuric! There is quite a lot of geothermal activity in and around Taupo apparently. You learn something new all the time. Here we are next to one of the geothermal 'outlets' in the grounds...

And checking out the loungers by the pool...

My last class of the weekend was one taken by Kelly Goree - a cute little firecracker from the US. It was a two hour class where we made three double page boy-themed layouts. They were pretty simple layouts, finished off using sticker accents from the same paper range, 'Max and Whiskers' by Basic Grey. Fun to do, but not REALLY my cup of tea, layout wise.

After tea I spent the rest of the evening finishing off my layouts and sewing the strawberries to go on my apron. Sunday morning was spent working on a layout of my own,

...then packing for the flights home again... Time to wrap up my tote again:

Then after lunch, I was off...

... heading back home via Wellington again on two more TINY planes!

And that, my friends, is that. Back home to my boys :)

Toodles, B x

Daddy-Jim

It was my Dad's birthday at the end of last month. We bought him a bottle of Jim Beam and gave him that on the day, then I finished this off and gave it to him at work a few days later... it's like a cross between a present and a birthday card. My Dad is cool :)

Sadly though, when making this for him I realised that I don't have any recent photos of just me and my Dad together. There are the obligatory entire family ones taken every year or so, at special birthdays/anniversaries etc, but I don't have any of just me and him. I'm going to have to remedy that!

Keas... We Care, We Share, We Discover, We Grow

J has officially been invested as a Kea Scout with his Highfield Mountainview Troup. I had to rush off to Postie Plus the first week of term and buy the polo and sweatshirt for his uniform.

He was so funny, really excited about the whole investing process. He phoned my Dad and asked him if he would like to come and watch, and D's parents too. In the end, at the ceremony, he had all four grandparents, both D and I, and his Auntie Gemma there watching.

Here he is promising to be a happy Kea Scout:

Shaking hands with Scouter Debbie:

Receiving his scarf and Kea woggle from Scouter Erin:

And receiving his certificate and uniform badges from Scouter Penni:

Also, luckily for J, he was also awarded the trophy for Kea Star of the Week - given out each week to the Kea who has behaved the best all evening. What great timing, to get a trophy with so much of the family there to see!

One very happy little Kea Scout at OUR house that night!

Blog Candy - ya gotta be in to win!

Pop along to this site and check out the fab blog candy they are giving away.... Look:

BIG NEWS GIVEAWAY CANDY!!!

What’s in the candy???

24 Ciao Copic Markers in a Copic fold up fabric case
I hand picked the colours which I think would be a great beginner set for anyone starting out with copics.
W-1, E00, E02, E11, E31, E33, E37, R20, R27, R29, YR04, YR07,
Y11, Y15, G21, G28, BG15, BG49, B00, B95, B97, BV00, V17 and Blender 0

10 A4 sheets of X-Press It blending paper

Papermania Rose clear stamp set
Clear flourish stamp (great for backgrounds)
Wags ‘n Whiskers unmounted stamp – Angel Whispers
7 colours of hand made paper. 5 sheets each.
3 ply wood stars
5 Silver skeleton leaves
1 sheet of gold edged flower and leaf stickers
I sheet of silver hearts, flower and star stickers
1 sheet 3 dimensional square stickers
Basic Kaisercraft Love/dream circle rub ons
140 x 305mm rub on sheet – doilies
140 x 305mm rub on sheet – grunge floral
4 mini spring boards
5 lengths of my favourite lace
Length of Rhinestone chain
Papermania Mini Gem Brads
Rhinestone buckle
3 min pearl ribbon sliders
6 Prima bling flower centres
1 pack of Prima Pearls
Small bunch of flowers
2 packs of heavy silk flowers
Small selection of Prima Ornement de Floraz flowers
1 pack of Prima glitter Roses

Check out the projects they have showcased - which is your favourite? Mine is the Pop-Up Card. Seriously - go and check it out, like I said, you've got to be in to win :)

Just a quickie...

Yup, just a quick note from me tonight...

I have lots to fill you in on, like my trip to Taupo, and a whole bunch of other things, but here's the thing... I haven't been too well this week. A trip to the doctor today has confirmed that the 'head-cold' I have put up with for the last two weeks was in fact a sinus infection... and then he growled at me for not looking after myself properly. Consider myself kicked in the butt. Like I really felt like THAT today. I have been at home all day with a sick 6 year old. Isn't that punishment enough? He's been off his food since Sunday (a rare thing), and has had high temps at night-time. Last night it got to 39.5 before it came down again. Doc confirmed that he has a chest infection and two sore ears. Poor wee bugger. He finally ate tea tonight, then spent the next half hour or so parked on the toilet with the runs while vomiting into an ice-cream container. I think it was combination of meds and pain relief on an empty tummy that did it. At least I hope it was that, and not something else.

So I will work on a blog update tomorrow night for you. For now, I'm off to bed.

Byeeeeee

Deb's cardmaking afternoon...

Last Saturday, Deb McRobie held another of her card making afternoons to showcase some of the latest Stampin Up! product available. We made two styles of card. Here are my two versions of the first one:

We stamped the flowers and flourishes on glossy cardstock with Versamark ink, then inked over the top with our colour of choice using a brayer. Very cool technique! We did the Soft Suede one first, using a stamp set from the new Autumn-Winter mini catalogue, and also the bird/leaves punch. I used my own materials to make the card again using Regal Rose. They look quite different in the two different colour-ways.

The second one we made was my favourite - mostly I think because of the colour scheme... Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive. We did a bit of two-step stamping, and got to play with the new Medallion stamp from the mini catalogue too - it's HUGE! Check it:

And a peek at the inside...

I really think that this card is gorgeous. And seeing as I made it without a sentiment, I can use it for pretty much anything. Fab!

And even MORE cardmaking!

This one is my favourite for the day....

Card Base: Stampin Up! Not Quite Navy Cardstock, cut out with Nestabilities Labels Eight, then embossed with Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. Flower stamp: Hero Arts Clings. Leaves: Hand-drawn, coloured with Copic Markers. Pearls: White Kaisercraft ones, coloured with Copics to match card (which I also did to the button to make it match too - love that I can do that!)

Here's a peek at the inside...

I must've written 'thank you' a zillion times on scratch paper first until I was happy with the version I used here. I don't often handwrite sentiments, I usually cheat and use a stamp! I wanted a quirky/funky look, and I just didn't have a stamp that cut the mustard, hence the writing practice!

And that's about my lot for today - not too bad considering some times I can spend hours at my table and struggle to get a card finished. I might have finally cracked my creative block, just in time for the Autumn Escape in Taupo this weekend... I am very much looking forward to that! I will have to start sorting through my scrapping stuff tonight, so that I can figure out what's going with me, and what's not. Tough decisions to be made!

More cardmaking!

We have our niece staying for a couple nights at the moment, so while J is otherwise amused, I am making the most of today and getting some cards made. Unfortunately we have two friends who have had bereavements in their family lately, so I needed to make a couple cards to send to them. I ended up with four, all the same, just different colour schemes:

The base card is kraft, then I used four Stampin Up! cardstocks as my accents - not quite navy, chocolate chip, baja breeze, and rose red. The stamped flower is one of the Hero Arts Clings, and the sentiment is also Hero Arts - from one of their clear stamp sets. I stamped the flower and sentiment with embossing ink, and then put white embossing powder on and heated with heat tool. When I say heat tool, read "Darryl's Heat Gun" !!! I then sponged some white ink in the centre of the flower, smearing a little down each petal as a highlight. Then I ruled white lines around the edges with my Uniball Signo gel pen. So simple! Cards don't always have to be fancy to be effective.

Now I just have to write in them and send them out.... That's always the hardest part.

More soon... Toodles, B x

School Hols, Hair Dye and Card-making...

So the school hols are more than half over already - where did THAT time go?! I have been at home with J, and I had a huge list in my head of the things I was going to get done while at home. Note I said things I was going to get done... I haven't gotten many of them achieved so far, dammit.

Although, having said that, I got one thing done that wasn't even on the list - my hair! The hairdresser down the road from here is doing a half price special so that their apprentice can get experience doing colours. So I got foils and a cut for $44. Bargain!

One of my scrappin buds just moved into a new house on Friday - so exciting for her! I went for a grand tour on Saturday morning - it's just lovely, and so perfect for them. Here's the card I whipped up before I went...

What have you guys been making lately?

The Lake with no water...

Well, not very much water, anyway! We went to Fairlie for the day yesterday, to catch up with D's mum and dad while they were staying in the camping ground, and for D to do some waterskiing at Lake Opuha while we were there. Fat chance. This is us parked on the lake bed. Which would usually be under a whole lot of water. Incredible.

There is still some water in the lake , but certainly not as much as there usually is. We reckon it must be down by a couple of metres. At least. All the boat ramps are out of the water, and the only one that is remotely accessible is right at the dam site, and you need a four wheel drive to get down to it, cos it's that steep, and muddy. Yuck. Ironically, it was the only time we have ever been to Opuha when it wasn't windy. Not even a sniff of a breeze evident. And the water that was there was flat as. Just beautiful. But unfortunately impossible to get to. Cruel, that's what that is. Here's the view from the lake bed where we were parked, across to the island.

And this is what the ground was like that we were walking around on... like something on the moon, for goodness sake!

So, long story short, there was NO waterskiing for us. Some people managed, by using their giant four wheel drives to drop their boats in the water. But even if we had managed to get the boat in and out, there was no-where to 'beach'. The edges of the lake were all muddy and disgusting. Not surprising as those bits are usually underwater! Not cool man.

So that was our day yesterday. A little bit of a non-event. Bummer. And today is nothing flash weather-wise... we have the fire going for the first time. It's only 12 degrees outside. Brrrrr. It's now a lovely toasty 23 degrees in here. Looovely.

What are you guys up to? Anything exciting to share?

Toodles, B x

Like a duck to water...almost!

Those of you that know us, know that J has always been a bit reluctant when it comes to swimming. By a bit, I really mean A LOT. I took him to baby-swim classes (as all good new mothers do) when he was a little over a year old. These classes ended in tears, usually mine, after he spent the whole time screaming at me. Fun fun fun - NOT! We had to pull out before he could graduate.

Looking back, I'm guessing that the swimming wasn't fun for him because of his ears. He has since had three sets of grommets, poor boy. So he has never really enjoyed swimming.

Fast forward to March 2009, and school swimming meant he had to take part. This resulted in tears and arguments when being dropped off at school on swimming days. I couldn't even go as a parent-help to the pool, because I knew he would refuse to get in if I was there. By the time that Bluestone had it's end of year pool party in December 2009, he was happy to play in the pool with his mates (according to the teacher, as I was still not prepared to go with him and put up with the ensuing drama).

Now, in March 2010, it is school swimming time again. And this time he ASKED me to come and watch. I wasn't even sure that I wanted to go, to be honest, but I was SO proud when I got there and saw what he could do. Using a kickboard, he could kick himself across the width of the pool. All by himself. With a smile. Unheard of!

And he could put his head right under the water (as long as he had his goggles on, and was holding his nose!). See?

So here he goes, off across the pool...

It really is a pretty long way... see how tiny he looks on the far side?!

And then he did it all over again to come back to me.

Such a look of concentration!

Nearly there...

Made it! And VERY proud of himself to boot!

So I think we may have cracked that nut. Thank goodness! Hooray!!!!

My awesome grandparents...

I am very lucky at my age to still have two grandparents left - my Mum's Mum and Dad. They are the best! One of the layouts I completed at camp was a Nic Howard class kit, with a photo of them at Mum's 50th birthday party a while back. I put it in a frame and gave it to them the week after camp. They loved it (thank goodness!). Here's a pic I made them sit for, albeit a bit reluctantly!

Then I tried to take one of them with J, but it was a bit tricky... Nanny kept tickling him and he wouldn't sit still! This was the best one:

Although this one would have been better if J hadn't kicked the camera while he was laughing... it's cute, but blurry :(

My grandparents rock.