Wednesday 29 February 2012

Log Your Memory: Week 9

Here’s the final prompt for February… and the last of the ‘Personal Style’ challenges which I’m quite happy about.

This weeks prompt at Log Your Memory is self-portraits, professional portraits, avatars and that sort of thing.

I’ve only been a part of a professional sitting once and we had a photo taken of Granny, Mum and me and my sisters.  I was about 18 when it was taken and it certainly isn’t my favourite photo in the world.

I decided to do my layout about two different times in my life… one where I felt fit, strong and resilient… plus I had some photos taken by one of my girlfriends that I wanted to scrap for myself. 

Here’s the layout:Week 9

It’s a very ‘different’ side to me… and one that I don’t show very often.  My girlfriend had access to one of the first digital cameras… the kind that used a floppy disk!  My girls had gone to Australia for a week with their Auntie and Uncle so we decided to spend an afternoon playing with the camera.

The photos are quiet pixelated… digital photography has come a LONG way since then.  I’m still quite proud of the fact that I actually used to look like that… it’s amazing what going to the gym every day for 6 months can do!

This is my personal favourite:MVC-016S

These days I prefer to be behind the camera catching the moments and memories.  If I take a self-portrait it’s usually with my face hidden… it’s just where I’m at with it I guess.

I’ve been losing a bit of weight taking Toby for walks but since creating this layout on the weekend I’m thinking that maybe it’s time to make ‘getting fit’ a priority.

I hope your week is going well and I’ll be back sometime tomorrow with a Scrapbook Dreams update :)

Sunday 26 February 2012

Project Life: Week 8 and a couple of FREEBIES

It’s a gorgeous day here today so Mikayla and I thought we might take Toby out for a play at one of his favourite places this afternoon :)

When I shared my Week 7 pages with you I mentioned that I had created a 6 x 12 insert but I didn’t have it printed… well now it’s all printed and in my album :)

Here’s a look at the front side of the insert:Insert (1)_2

My sister made such a cool invitation that I really wanted to include it on the insert… minus the address and phone numbers :)  I love that I’ve been able to include lots of the birthday photos on this insert.

On the back I’ve included more photos along with some journaling about the day:Insert (2)_1

So pleased with how it turned out!

This week has been really eventful… lots of things happening and it’s been one of those ‘out of the ordinary’ weeks.  Here’s my double spread:Full_1

We had a GREAT start to the week at school because they brought the REAL Webb Ellis Trophy!  We were one of only four schools in Rotorua to have a visit from them… definitely a great upside to being a teacher :)

Here’s a better look at the left side:Left_1

On Tuesday night I had a new night class group start and then we found out the Masterchef was starting that night as well so we brought all the goodies up into the lounge and did our class in front of the TV… Mr Toby was really happy about it because everyone was at his height!!!

The best part of the week was Dad and Jan arriving on Wednesday.  I hadn’t seen Dad for 14 months and it was so good to be able to talk, laugh, joke and spend time with him.  He hadn’t met Toby either but they became very good friends in a short amount of time.

I made a yummy tagine for dinner while they were here and we all sat at the table chatting over dinner.  Dad had a funny grin on his face and when I looked under the table there was Toby sitting on Grandad’s feet!!!

Toby followed Grandad all over the place and he even sat outside the toilet door and waited for him… very cute!  Dad left on Friday morning and on Friday afternoon when I got home from work Toby rushed out the front to see Grandad (he was staying in his flash caravan on our driveway) but there was no caravan and no Grandad… poor Toby was very confused about where Grandad had gone!

Here’s the right side of this weeks layout:Right_1

Even though Grandad was gone on Friday afternoon our driveway and front lawn wasn’t completely empty… we had the men (lots of men actually) digging up our front lawns to lay new cabling.  Toby was quite excited about what was going on.

Later on Nina and Dion came over for a visit.  Dion absolutely adores Toby and Toby loves that Dion will play outside with him… although he’s still not great about ‘fetching’.  Dion spent some time playing on his ipod and Toby was VERY interested in what he was doing… you could almost hear him ask to have a turn!

Meanwhile Nina and I got out her cricut that she bought when we went to SENZ last year.  She still had her Gypsy wrapped up in all the packaging so we got it out and had a play… it’s really cool!  Nina has discovered that she’s got ‘more on it than she’ll ever use’ and she’s super happy with it!

After that I got out my new cameo and I showed her how it works… we cut out a film strip and a HUGE old fashioned bike (it measures approx 8 x 11 inches!!!)  We were both really impressed with the clean cut we got and had fun listening to all it’s funny little ‘chirping’ noises while it worked… clearly it doesn’t take much to keep us entertained!

Here’s my creative card for the week:Creativity_1

This was made using a resist technique.  Basically you stamp and then emboss your image with clear embossing powder (I did mine on kraft cardstock) and then you ink all over it.  The embossing resists the ink and shows the original kraft colour through the ink.  Really neat technique and super easy to do!

After having so much fun with Toby on Friday night, Dion asked if he could come and stay for the night so he came back last night.  We watched a cool movie (The Indian in the Cupboard) and had popcorn and chips and then this morning Mikayla and I made this for breakfast:IMG_5865

Yummy pancakes with blackberries, ice cream, whipped cream, icing sugar and maple syrup…. can you FEEL the calories???

We sat outside in the sun and ate and chatted… perfect start to the day and even Toby managed to get some:IMG_5866

Now for something just for YOU!  You’ve probably noticed that I use lots of words on my photos.  Some are words that I’ve typed in but lots are PNG files… and lots of them were free on other blogs!  This week I had two particular things I wanted for photos and couldn’t find what I was looking for so I had a go at making my own… so I thought I’d work out how to give them to you to use as well.

The first one says: When I wished for a man… this wasn’t what I had in mind!When I wished for a man by Shell

This is a PNG word art file with a transparent background (no shadows):  DOWNLOAD HERE

The second one says: When is it my turn?When is it my turn by Shell

This is a PNG word art file with a transparent background (no shadows): DOWNLOAD HERE

I hope you get some use out of them :)

Hope you all have a GREAT week xx

Friday 24 February 2012

Log Your Memory: Week 8

Hi everyone :)

Well it certainly isn’t Wednesday anymore but I have a very good reason for uploading this post a couple of days late… my Dad is visiting.  He’s been here for a couple of days and we’ve had the best time just catching up and spending time together.  We haven’t seen each other for 14 months so there’s been lots of talk about and it’s so much nicer to do that in person.  You’ll be able to see some of what went on when I upload my Project Life on Sunday :)

The Week 8 challenge at Log Your Memory was all about accessories, perfumes and products and I’ve discovered that I’m a real ‘creature of habit’:Week 8

My accessories are all silver… and they all have special meaning to me.  I have my watch which is silver with inlaid paua… which also happens to be the only piece of jewellery that I remove at the end of the day.  I constantly wear my medic alert bracelet as well as three silver bangles.  One signifies gaining my Diploma of Teaching… one signifies gaining my degree and one was given to me by someone.  I also have my silver Russian wedding ring.  I’ve been wearing that ring for over 17 years now and it represent myself and my girls.  I liked the fact that the three circles are all complete but all interlinked… just like us.

I’ve always liked musky perfumes so I’ve got a couple of those plus I’ve got a little range of hair products to help me try and keep the curls and tangles under control!

Finally there is a little makeup.  I’ve never really been a ‘girly girl’ but in the last 6 months I’ve been putting on a bit of Thin Lizzy along with some mascara and eye liner for school each day.  Most people don’t even notice but it does make me feel good :)

So there you have it… a little late but still completed!

I hope you’re all having a great week and I’ll catch up with you again on Sunday xx

Sunday 19 February 2012

Project Life: Week 7

It’s been another busy week in our household and once again I’m so pleased that I’m creating a ‘visual diary’ of all that happens. 

Here’s my pages for the week:Full_1

We started off the week with Mikayla deciding to go back to Waiariki this year… but not to become a chef.  She passed her course last year but decided that it wasn’t really for her so now she’s signed up to do Fashion Technology.  It looks pretty interesting!

Along with going back to polytech she’s made up her mind to move back into the house… she’s actually been ‘camping’ inside for the last month but still with the caravan as a ‘backup’.  Now she’s decided that she quite likes being in the house LOL

Here’s the left side:Left_1

I’ve also done a bit of a focus about getting my classroom into this weeks pages.  I had one of the tutors from last weeks course come to do an observation of my teaching so it seemed like a good time to get some photos. 

Mikayla and Toby are getting on better than ever… although now that Mikayla is going back to polytech they won’t be able to spend quite as much time together.

The second half of the week was super exciting!!!  I finally took the plunge and bought myself a Silhouette Cameo :)  I’m going to have so much fun with it!

Here’s the second half of the week:Right_1

Thankfully the Cameo arrived after work on Friday so I was able to have a bit of a play… very cool!  Plus there was a $10 download card included with it so I’ve been checking out the cutting files available.

On Saturday we had my youngest nephew’s 4th birthday party.  He really wanted a ‘pirate party’ and the day was awesome!!!  Everyone was wearing pirates hats and quite a few people got dressed up… even Toby wore a red bandana to join in the fun!

Towards the end of the day a car almost knocked Simon’s bike over so Katey decided to move it.  She literally only moved it from one side of her vehicle to the other but all the kids came to watch so Tracey and I growled at her about wearing no helmet!  The kids all thought that it was funny to see their Mum/Auntie getting a growling from her sisters’… especially since she used to be a police officer LOL

Here’s my wee piece of creativity for this weeks pages:creativity_1

I used some Tim Holtz Kraft Resist… love that stuff!  The XOXO was cut on the Cameo (as was the ‘love’ on the $10 download card) and then I added the date with the tiny attacher along with some bling.

I’ve also done a 6 x 12 insert page for this week.  It’s all about Reece’s birthday party but  it’s not printed yet so I’ll share it with you on Wednesday.

Here’s a wee story from the birthday… I took Reece down to the beach for a walk with Toby.  Mr Toby kept on trying to jump up and lick Reece and he asked why Toby did that.  I explained that Toby was still a puppy and he was learning not to do it, to which Reece replied… “When will Toby be a GUY?”  Very cute!DSCF0313_1

Here’s one more little 'Reece’ quote:  We were walking back to the cars from the beach (about 200 metres) and although Tracey had done her best to get Reece into the water he wasn’t having it.  As we walked up the dunes he turns and says to me… “Well that was a nice day at the beach”… out of the mouths of babes!

I hope you all had a great weekend xx

Friday 17 February 2012

Scrapbook Dreams February Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone Smile

It’s already the middle of February which means it’s time for the sketch challenge at Scrapbook Dreams!

This month we’ve got a fantastic sketch for you with lots of possibilities:February sketch

I really enjoyed using this sketch.  I changed the placement of a couple of things to suit what I wanted but here’s what I’ve come up with:Just-beautiful blog

The photo is of my niece and was taken on Christmas Day.  As soon as I saw this photo I knew that I wanted to use it for a layout.  I’ve used some pretty Prima papers for the background and squares.  Then I cut up some more of the paper to create some rolled flowers… super easy and love the little bling centres.

Our Guest Designer this month is Erin… who is also my Mum… and she’s created this gorgeous layout about her Grandmother.  When she emailed me the layout I was under strict instructions not to look at it until we were on the phone together… but she didn’t warn me that the layout was of Nana!  When I saw it the old ‘floodgates’ opened so she got a good ‘first reaction’ to her layout:Queen of Hearts

Erin has used lots of soft pinks and green which were Nana’s favourite colours and she certainly got the title right because Nana really was the Queen of Hearts!

If you’d like to join in this months challenge we’d love to see what you come up with! 

Happy Scrapping xx

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Log Your Memory: Week 7

This weeks prompt at Log your Memory is bags, luggage, hand bags, wallets and briefcases.

There was a question asking if designer labels are important when you purchase your bags… designer labels???  I’ve heard of Prada but what else is there???  Clearly I don’t own anything designer labelled LOL

There were lots of other questions this week but the one I chose was all about what was actually IN your bag.

So here’s my layout for this week:Week 7

Remember that you can click on the photo to enlarge it and read the text but basically I have:

  • my wallet… it’s certainly not new but I like it
  • little digital camera… super, super handy!
  • cell phone… with Toby’s photo of course :)
  • keys… I discarded anything I didn’t need but I still have a lot of keys… and my school ones are BIG!
  • memory sticks… I usually have 2 or 3 in my bag
  • MP3 player… if it’s in my bag I can’t misplace it!
  • chocolate… after taking the photos I ate both of those mini bars…. a chocolate fix was just what I needed LOL
  • pens… lots and lots of pens and I still can’t find one when I need it!!

I have a ‘secret’ compartment in my bag which I use to keep my external hard drive and spare car key.

After being burgled and the thieves taking off with my laptop AND my external hard drive I decided that I was never, ever going to go through having to start from scratch again so now I keep my external drive with me all the time.  I do a back up every week (well at the end of most weeks) and then just pop it back in my bag.

My theory is that if my computer got stolen at least I can replace all the information, emails, photos etc.  It definitely gives me ‘peace of mind’ to have it with me.

And if you know me, you’ll know that I went through a REALLY bad patch of locking my keys in the car… in a three week period I did it not once, not twice, not even three times but a grand total of FIVE LOCKOUTS!!!  Just ridiculous!!  So now my spare is with me too… let’s just hope I don’t lock my whole bag in the car LOL

So that’s my bag contents… what do you carry in your bag???

Sunday 12 February 2012

Project Life: Week 6

Gosh it’s been busy today! I was expecting to teach two layout classes this morning (which I actually did do) but two of the participants decided they’d like to carry on so we did another layout this afternoon! It’s been a great day though :)

Here’s my spread for this week:Full_1

I have to say that it was wonderful to have Monday at home (due to Waitangi Day). It seemed to make the week start really well and I got to spend more time with Toby and Mikayla.

Here’s the left side:Left_1

Mikayla introduced Toby to dandelions… they had so much fun together and I took a massive 90 photos in just a few minutes!!! All the photos turned out really well except for this one:sports mode copy_1

The journaling says it all really!

Mikayla decided to give Toby a bath on Monday and he LOVED it!!! She even managed to get him outside without him shaking himself inside. Then she decided to dye her hair. Toby was totally taken with what she was doing and kept sniffing at her and then sneezing… clearly he didn’t like the smell of the dye LOL

Here’s the right side:Right_1

Mikayla and I went to the night market on Thursday and had dinner while we were there. I had a BIG mussel fritter and thought that was huge until I saw Mikayla’s burger… WOW!

On Friday afternoon I took Toby to the vet to get weighed and my ‘little’ boy now weighs in at 27.8kg!!! He has grown so much! Today we got his ‘baby’ book out and looked at the difference. To give you some idea here he is when we adopted him at a mere 2.2kg:37_1

I can’t help but smile every time I look at this photo… so cute and fluffy :)

Yesterday Toby and I went over to Hamilton to visit Krystal and we had a picnic at the dog park. Such a great afternoon and Toby actually got in the river voluntarily to fetch a stick… and he did it over and over and over again! I was such a proud Mumma watching him fetch those sticks :)

And here’s my creative piece for the week:Creativity_1

I created a filmstrip of photos taken while Mikayla and Toby were playing with the dandelions and then printed them out quite small. I kept it fairly clean this week with just some stamping and a sticker strip… although I did manage to sneak some baby staples in there.

So that’s my week… still lots happening and absolutely loving doing this project!

I hope you all have a great week xx

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Log Your Memory: Week 6

The Log your Memory theme for February is ‘Personal Style’ which, quite frankly, daunts me because I don’t know how much style I have! However after going through some OLD photo albums I’ve been able to do this weeks prompt which is makeovers, hairstyles, manicures etc

I’m sure some of you are going to get a bit of a shock with these photos because you’ve always known me to have long hair… but the reality is that I’ve spent the majority of my life as a ‘short hair’ person.

Here’s this weeks layout:Week 6

When I was three years old my sister was born (I’m the eldest of three girls) and the day before my sister had her christening I disappeared for a while… all was quiet… and then I reappeared minus ONE pigtail! My poor Mum nearly had kittens!!! Of course she had to cut the other one off as well to even it all up.

There is the odd photo of me after that with ‘top of the shoulder’ length hair but mostly it’s short. When I was in the 5th form I had actually grown it out a little bit and perms were all the fashion so I decided to get my hair permed… BAD choice… VERY BAD choice! I went to a proper hairdresser and when I got home it was pretty curly… much more than I was expecting. Over the next 24 hours my hair started to BREAK OFF!!! Within 2 days I had SPIKES!! Not what a timid 15-16 year old with glasses really wants!

The funny thing was I really grew to like the spikes… in fact I used to get Mum to cut it every fortnight on a Saturday night and then I’d dye it! That stayed my look for a few years. The spikes had obviously gone a bit ‘flat’ in this photo!2

When I got engaged (I’d just turned 18!) I decided to grow my hair for the wedding. After a couple of years it had grown out quite a lot and was again down to my shoulders. Then, THREE DAYS before the wedding I got it all cut off again and trust me it was SHORT! The spikes on top were no more than 1.5 inches and the back was a ‘number 2’!

My sister picked me up from the hairdressers and I remember her exact words… “Oh God…. Mum’s going to KILL you!!! That night we had a ‘girls only’ dinner at a local restaurant. I walked in with my newly cut hair and saw the reaction on my Mum’s face… her eyes glistened and the look said “What have you DONE!!!!” But to her credit… or maybe she was just REALLY angry… she never said a word! I look back on those wedding photos now and still love the short hair.4

I grew it out a bit after that and my hair was around my shoulders again when Mikayla was born and then my marriage ended. One day in a fit of anger and depression I went to the hair dresser and got a BOWL cut… what the hell was I thinking??? Never, never, never a good look as the photo shows!3

Since then I’ve had it varying lengths but never actually long until in my late 30’s I decided to grow it ‘just a bit’… and the more I grew it the more I liked it.

For the past two years I’ve been going to the hairdresser EVERY six weeks. I have it layered because my hair is REALLY thick and it gets heavy. I’ve been getting foils done too and I actually take pretty good care of it. Untitled-1 copy I love that it makes me feel more feminine to have long hair… I love that I can achieve lots of different ‘looks’ with just hair ties and clips… and I love that on a ‘bad hair day’ there is always the pony tail option!

So that’s it… for me, it’s not ‘just’ hair!

I’m not going to ask anything deep and meaningful like “What does your hair say about you?” but if you feel like sharing some styling tips or hairdresser nightmares I’d love to hear them!

Have a great week xx

Sunday 5 February 2012

Project Life: Week 5

This has been a very full week… but not quite as many photo opportunities.  We went back to school on Tuesday and I’m pleased to say that I’ve got a really nice class… it’s so nice to actually be able to ‘teach’ again instead of doing mostly behaviour management.

Here’s my full spread for the week:Full_1

I spent 5 1/2 hours cleaning out all the clutter in my classroom last Sunday… and by the end of it I had 5 LARGE rubbish bags and two BIG boxes to go to the landfill.  I work well for ‘rewards’ so I promised myself that if I got everything done I could buy myself some new clothes for school. 

I’m not really all that interested in fashion but I came away from the shops with some really lovely work clothes and only ONE item that was black!!

Here’s the left side of the spread:Left_1

I’ve also decided that this year I’m going to have flowers on my desk.  It’s been so nice to sit there in the afternoon marking kids work and smell the gorgeous flowers :)

The poor blinded lion in the bottom right photo belongs to Mr Toby.  He used to ‘love’ his lion on a regular basis IYKWIM… mostly at 7pm on a Friday night!  Since he’s had his wee operation he’s not so much into the whole ‘loving’ thing and he’s taken to de-stuffing his lion.  We find little bits of stuffing and fluff all over the place.  This week Toby managed to remove the eyes, including the large shanks, from lion so now he really has been ‘blinded by love’!

Here’s the right side of the spread:Right_1

Poor Toby has done it really hard this week.  He’s resisted me going to work EVERY morning and in fact he spent about 3 HOURS sitting on my bed and looking out the window on Tuesday just waiting for me to come home.

I’ve been so busy this week with school, Scrapbook Dreams and other things that Mikayla took over all the cooking and dishes for me… don’t you just love that!

On Saturday Toby and I went for a 6km walk with one of my friends from school and Toby was so excited to realise that Mumma wasn’t going to work!  We decided to go to a cafe for breakfast … eggs benedict with smoked salmon… YUM!!!  And let’s just say that I didn’t need to eat anything at all until dinner time!

I’ve been visiting Pinterest a bit lately and discovering Subway Art.  One of the ones that really appealed to me was this one:tumblr_lt559d77if1r4jmv7

I liked that it was all one font but done in different sizes and heights so I decided to give it a go myself.  It will be no surprise to you that my first piece of subway art was made for Mr Toby!  The actual piece is 8 x 12 inches and then I framed it… love how it turned out:Subway art_1

I’m not sure which wall I’m going to put it on yet but for now it’s sitting on the mantle in the lounge and it looks good there :)

And here’s my piece of creativity for the week:Creativity_1

I’ve used some Tim Holtz paper which I layered on white cardstock and then added the dates using my tiny attacher.  The letters and number were all cut out using Tim Holtz dies and then I added a wee arrow.

So that’s been my week… shopping, teaching, eating and art… and of course lots of cuddles with Toby!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Thursday 2 February 2012

Scrapbook Dreams Jan/Feb Challenges

Hi everyone :)

We had a huge amount of entries into our January challenge and it’s been exciting to see them all being uploaded.  In fact we had so many entries that I decided to select two winners to be Guest Designers.

Well done Donna who created this awesome layout:donna

And congratulations to Mokai who has entered our first digital layout into a challenge… great work!new-years-3

You’ll get to see more of these talented scrappers work when they are our Guest Designers in March!

February Challenge #1

It's time for a brand new challenge and we've got something neat this month. The focus is on Candid Photos! You've probably got loads of candid photos that you haven't scrapped. I know I've been taking lots more candid photos over the holidays because nobody really wants to pose for a photo LOL

In early January my one of my sisters came over and we took my nieces out for lunch. They were really gorgeous and full of giggles this day. They know I take lots of photos... but not as many as Grandma!! They were quite happy to just get on with their day and they forgot all about the camera which gave me the chance to get some really neat candid shots. Here's my layout:Giggly-girls-blog

Our Guest Designer this month is Erin... and she's my Mum... so it backfired on me a bit... because she happened to scrap a candid photo that I was in! LOL

Here's Erin's layout:Magic moment

Erin has used lots of layers, fussy cutting, dimensional magic and gorgeous pearls to create this beautiful layout.

Now it's YOUR turn to get out those candid photos and create a layout. Upload them into our February gallery and you'll get 5 points... and remember to keep commenting because every comment you put on someone's layout in our February challenge counts!

Happy scrapping xx

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Log your Memory: Week 5

This week at Log your Memory the prompt was about awards and recognition. The sample layout was about getting published and at first that’s what I thought I’d do my layout about… for those of you who don’t know I have had ONE project published. It was in the Feb/April issue of Up2Scrap 2010. You can read my post on the blog HERE… and here’s my published project:published

I was actually struggling with this prompt a bit because I really didn’t know how I was going to do it… and then I read one of the extra prompts for this week and it said: Find out what others value or appreciate about you.

All of a sudden I knew exactly what I wanted to focus on. At the end of the last school year my Principal (Tony) retired and I asked him if he would write me a reference. When I went back to school for Teacher’s Only Day on Friday there it was in my cubbyhole.Click on image to enlarge

As some of you are aware, last year was one of my worst teaching years. I had a large number of ‘behavioural’ children… LOTS of boys… and more than my fair share of challenges. I struggled for a while and then I just decided to ‘suck it up’ and get on with it.

I had a few discussions with Tony about my class during the year and he was always amazed at how well I was ‘coping’ with the class. It was tough going but I made it through.

I didn’t think to much about our conversations once the school year was over but when I read Tony’s reference letter I was amazed at the insights he had into my character and the qualities he saw in me. It was really validating to read what he had written.

Sometimes it’s just really nice to know that others’ see what you’re really about as a person.

Happy scrapping xx