Life is good!

I love having school holidays... apart from getting more time to scrap it's also a great time to catch up with family and friends as well as getting all those jobs you've been putting off done! These holidays have started with a real 'bang' so here's the news:

I'm going to be an Auntie again!!! My sis is pregnant with her third baby and if you're a regular reader she's already got Mr 5 and Miss 18 months and the newest addition to the family is due to arrive in February. Anyway, I was over in Tauranga (at the scrapbooking store!) on Tuesday morning when who should stop in but my sister... she was on her way to her scan so Miss 15 and I got to tag along!!! It's so much more exciting these days than when I had my own... now they give you little scan photos and you can get a video too. So the news is that I'm going to be an 'Auntie Uncle' LOL... in other words she's having another boy! It's so exciting :) Congrats Trac!!!

The other great piece of news is that Miss Krystal (15) has been studying the road code for the last few months and she finally went to sit her learners licence yesterday and PASSED!!! I'm so thrilled for her! She was determined to pass the test the first time and she's done it! Now I'm going to have to scrap some 'L' plates for the car... I wonder if they'll let me have flourishes???

Right, onto the scrapping installment: Neen's second challenge on her Music in Me blog is based on Gwen Stefani's 'The Real Thing'. There are some really great entries so far! I decided to do mine about the Abbey Road concert we went to in January. For those of you that don't know, Abbey Road is a Beatles tribute band... and they sound just like them! British accents, wigs, clothes and yes they really do actually play their own instruments!

Thanks for the challenge Neen :) I've been meaning to scrap those photos for ages and your challenge was just what I needed to get it done!

I've also been working on a really special album for someone close to me. I decided to use the Basic Grey Periphery papers and have to say that I really love them. They work so well for a masculine theme but they'd work easily as well for heritage. There's 14 pages in total (each page is 8 x 11 inches) and when I finished them I bound them all with rings and then added the Periphery fibres. I'm so pleased with how it's turned out!

Next is a thank you :) In my last post I showed you the canvas I did for the Glamour Girls canvas swap. Here's what I got in return from Ann. Thank you so much Ann! You've given me lots of good ideas :)

Right I'm back off to scrap... Miss 12 is doing her final hockey tournament of the season at the moment and I've got a special album in the making for her so best I get on with it. Hope you're all having a great week :)

Whew! What a Week!

The last week has really flown by! We had our last week of term and I was really busy doing assessments for the senior school... that's over 200 children! But I got there in the end. I've also completed lots of projects this week (check out my 'Deck of Me' blog in the side bar!) and caught up on photographing others so here goes...

First of all is the layout I created for the NZ Dares blog challenge. The theme this time was anything to do with TV. These days I find I get really bored watching TV but I do remember being a kid and loving Sesame Street! Plus it was the very first programme I ever saw in colour so that became my layout. I had heaps of fun with this challenge... I hardly ever use bright colours! Would love to know what you think of it!!!

Next is a canvas swap for Glamour Girls. We each started with a 8 x 10 inch canvas and the only guidelines were that it had to include torn text and at least one stamped image. I had a huge amount of fun with this one... although it's really difficult to create a canvas for someone else when you've never met them and don't know what colours they like. I used some Stampbord, a Style Stone, a domino, some magic mesh, stickers and UTEE as well of lots and lots of ink. And while I'm on the subject of Glamour Girls... we recently did an ATC swap using the theme Paua. There were lots of different results and I've picked up some great new ideas:

Here's another ATC collection to share. These one's are from the August swap for SBO. The theme was vintage and the results were just fantastic!

And yet another ATC swap. This one was from the August swap for Scrapbook Essentials. The theme this time was animals and we all had very different takes on the same theme... check out the results:

I've also been working on a really special album using the Basic Grey Periphery papers. They're so gorgeous and I promise to share the finished album as soon as it's done. I'm off to get some more scrapping done :)

Tile Swap

Time to share something cool!!! During August I did a 3 x 3 inch tile swap through Glamour Girl Stamps. We each made nine tiles using the theme of black and silver. After we sent them in Debbie sorted them out so that we had a mixture and then we got our little treasures back. This was our first tile swap using this size and the finished results were just AMAZING!

I spent ages looking at mine but wanted to find a way to display them and came up with the idea of using a canvas. I used a really lovely paper from Creative Imaginations for the background and then mounted each tile on a piece of black cardstock before putting them on the paper. I painted the sides of the canvas black and then glued everything down. Here's the finished result:

It looks fantastic in real life and I hope all the girls in the swap like what I've done with it. It looks especially good at night when the lights are on because quite a few of them catch the light and they almost 'shine'. If you ever get the chance to do a swap of this kind I'd highly recommend it!

Happy Mail and getting tagged

Hi all :) It's been another busy week in our household. We had another open home this weekend which entailed the usual cleaning, tidying and sorting plus Miss 12 played her hockey tournament in Auckland this weekend. I've finally managed to find some time to blog so first of all Happy Mail :) Thanks for your comments on the last post and Hannah and Janine if you could email me (shonig@xtra.co.nz) I'll get some Happy Mail on its way to you! And speaking of Happy Mail... a big THANK YOU to Ilka who sent me some awesome flowers and embellishments (I've used some of them already!)

Earlier this week Hannah tagged me. Here's how it works:
1. Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of their first or middle name.
2. When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.
3. At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.
4. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them that they have been tagged, and to read your blog.
5. If I’ve tagged YOU (see below), please join in on the fun!


Ok here's mine:
S - scrapbooking
I love scrapbooking I usually scrap every day... either actually making a LO or project, designing something new or checking out ideas in blogs and magazines.
H - home
My home is definitely my space where I can just be me. I love being at home and having my things around me. There is definitely no place like it!
E - education
I've spent the last 10 years of my life either studying or teaching. Sometimes I can't believe that the last decade has gone so quickly!
L - laughter
Laughter really is the best medicine! (chocolate isn't bad either LOL) Sometimes it's the small things that make me laugh and sometimes it's insane little moments... like last week when Miss 15 came home and told me she'd had the best day at school... when I asked her why she told me - through the giggles - that in health they had made a giant 3D vagina and she was an ovary! Have to admit that I just couldn't stop laughing over that one and I even made her ring her Auntie to tell her... Trac was laughing hard out on the other end of the phone!
L - life
Life is wonderful! I'm so grateful for the life I have! Everyday I think of at least 3 things to be grateful for and even on the worst days in the world 3 things isn't that hard to do!

So now it's my turn to tag other bloggers... it's actually quite a lot of fun!

Here's my list:

1. Neen
2. Yolande
3. Ilka
4. Chris M
5. mrinz

All of the projects I've been working on this week are in various stages of completion... but I have updated my Deck of Me blog... really loving doing these cards so would love to hear what you think of them!

Neen's got her next challenge up on her Music in Me blog too. This weeks song is Gwen Stefani's The Real Thing!

Have a fantastic week :)

It feels like spring

Today has been the most beautiful day... even though I was feeling really grumpy this morning! News on the house sale... we had the real estate 'caravan' through today and got some really great feedback. The open home wasn't very busy but there's a big add going in the paper later on this week so hopefully next Sunday will be a little more productive. So far the main comment has been on what a wonderful room my craft room is... and it IS wonderful! It was the reason I bought the house in the first place and with windows on 3 sides it's the sunniest room (and the biggest) in the whole house... and I am going to MISS IT! Trust me... I honestly do realise how lucky I am to have this amazing room for my scrapping! Here's a couple of photos so you can see what I'm talking about:

I did manage to get some scrapping done in amongst everything else and I've done the first challenge for Neen's The Music in Me blog. She chose the song 'Ice Ice Baby' by Vanilla Ice and I was completely stumped until I remembered about these gorgeous photos of my little niece having her first taste of ice cream. She was barely 4 months old and her Dad gave her a little taste of his ice cream... but a little taste turned into his whole ice cream! Here's my LO:

Following on from making girls birthday cards I decided to make a birthday card for one of my grandmothers... she's totally into cats and bright colours so hopefully she'll like this one! Even if she doesn't I KNOW she'll keep it because this woman throws NOTHING away! She's got rubber bands by the truckload... a container of those plastic bread ties... stamps from everything... she even keeps serviettes from McD's!
I've been working on the Deck of Me challenge too! I've decided to keep them all together on a seperate blog so click here to take a look at my little creations!

And finally... I've been making 'happy mail' packs for some of my scrapping friends and I've got two saved for people who leave comments on this post :) So leave a comment here by Friday night if you'd like to go into the draw!

Reason or excuse???

Where did the last two weeks go???

I was talking to a fellow teacher the other day about the excuses kids give for various things... you know like... the dog ate my homework, Mum forgot to write the note, I gave the newsletter to Dad but he forgot to fill it in etc... and she said one of the kids in her class said: The difference between a reason and an excuse is that it sounds like a reason when we say it but it sounds like an excuse when you hear it! Hence the title for todays post: I've been really busy sounds like a great reason as to why there have been no posts from me in the last two weeks (although I have commented on other blogs!) but it probably sounds like an excuse when you read it.... I'll let you decide. In the meantime, grab a coffee, sit back and relax and I'll catch you up with what's going on.

First of all... the girls and I have come to a big decision! We moved back to Rotorua (from Katikati) in January and bought our first home after years of renting. This was going to be the best thing we'd done in a long time but it hasn't quite worked out the way we expected it to so we've put our house on the market... the sign went up yesterday and we've got an open home tomorrow afternoon. It's been a really difficult decision and we've been thinking about our options for the last 5 months but the reality is that we're not overly happy in Rotorua so we're selling up and moving on! I'll let you know how things develop...

Even though we've been really busy with getting the house ready and taking Miss 13 to hockey tournaments I have managed to get some scrapping done. I've been in a couple of ATC swaps but can't show you the results just yet cause not everyone has received theirs... pop back later in the week for some ATC eye candy! I've also just completed my first greeting card swap. The theme was girls birthdays and I tried some peel craft for the first time and really liked it! Here's the cards I made although I'm still not sure that card making is really my thing.

I also did a tile swap with Glamour Girls... basically we each made 9 tiles that were 3 x 3 inches using the theme: black and silver and then we swapped with others in the group (just like doing an ATC swap) The results are pretty amazing and I'm thinking about putting my ones on a canvas so that I can display them on the wall. Since we only had 6 people in our group we decided to make 6 of one design and 3 of another so that we all got 9 different tiles back... Here's a photo of the ones I did and I'll share the others when I've done my canvas!

Finally I've been checking out some really great blogs and stumbled (in other words I just can't help clicking all those links!) across a couple I want to share:

First is Neen's new The Music In Me blog. She's setting up 2 challenges per month based on song titles & lyrics. The first challenge is up and I've got something I'm working on but if you get a chance go and take a look cause she's done a fab job!

Also thanks to Neen's regular blog I found this Deck of Me blog. You may have heard about Emily Falconbridge (I know some of you have from reading your blogs!) Emily posts a prompt on her blog once a week and creates each 'page' on a playing card (ATC size). She's currently up to Week 35 but the prompts are amazing so I've decided to join in. If you're ever looking for some inspiration for a scrap LO this is a very cool place to go!

And finally I've been lurking on Ilka's blog for a while and loving her LO's. She's done some awesome LO's for Scrap the Teenz and with Miss 15 growing up so quickly I'm thinking about joining in. If you've got teens and you're short of ideas I'm sure you'll find plenty here to inspire you!

Right I'm off to continue doing gardens... if anyone wants to join the working bee you're very very welcome!!!