Tuesday 30 April 2013

Project Life: Week 17 and an insert

Hi everyone :)

It seems like months ago since last Monday and as I put together this weeks pages I couldn’t believe how much has happened and changed in such a short time.

Here’s an overview of the past week:Full_1

On Monday morning Mikayla, Toby and I woke up at Mum’s/Grandma’s house.  In fact, Toby got up with Grandma at 4.30am to have breakfast with her before she left for work (that boy never misses a chance for a free meal!)

Before we left Grandma’s house he wrote her a letter for when she came home… yes he really is quite clever at times!  Here’s what it said:

Dear Grandma

Thank you for letter me and Mumma and Mikayla come to stay for the night.  I did like getting up early with you this morning.  But I did need a little nap after you left.

Your phone has been going ‘ding’ ‘ding’ all the time and it did make me go crazy!

I did try to leave you a present on the lawn but Mumma did throw it away.  She said you would not like it.  But you WOULD like it eh Grandma!

Mumma did put Rusty outside and I did say “Ha” “Ha” because he did say “Ha” “Ha” to me through the window last night AND this morning!

Mumma and Mikayla decided not to have a shower at your house so that you didn’t have to wash the towels.  But Grandma, they does smell POO-TANG and they is going to be in the car with ME!!

I’ve got to go now cause they is ready!

I love you lots and lots Grandma and I’m glad I came over for your birthday.  You is glad I came too eh Grandma!

Love from Toby ‘lick’ ‘lick’

P.S. Mumma did use your internet but don’t tell her I told you ok!

Clearly my son has no sense of loyalty whatsoever since he was quite willing to tell on me about the internet!

On Monday afternoon Toby got a text from Grandma:

Thank you Toby so much for your lovely letter.  Your Mumma has taught you well.  I feel sorry for you in the car with no showers BUT I’m very pleased Mumma got rid of your present.  Don’t want to appear ungrateful.  Love you, Grandma

It’s amazing how much fun we have with Toby in the family! LOL

Here’s a close up of the beginning of the week:LEFT copy_1

When we left Mum’s we went down to the Education Resource Centre and I bought some new borders and letters for my classroom.  Then we carried on back to Rotorua and ended up having a real ‘retail therapy’ day.

We went down to the recycling centre and after dropping off all our paper, cardboard and other things we stopped into the second hand store there where I managed to get a big box of Mason jars, jam jars and sauce bottles for the awesome price of just $10

Then we headed to another second hand store where I happened to spot a really pretty sugar bowl and milk jug set.  I’ve been thinking about organising a ‘high tea’ one day and I knew I wanted something really pretty but pink just isn’t really my thing so this set will be perfect.

Mikayla came with me to the chiropractors and took some photos for me and then we headed to The Warehouse where I scored a foot spa that I know will get a good workout and Mikayla picked up a really groovy chair for her room along with the 'In-Styler’ she has been coveting for a while.

Here’s a close up of the second part of my week:Right copy_1

Toby has been a bit ‘POO-TANG’ himself lately so Mikayla gave him a bath and he was very keen to get the towel off her.  Apparently it’s much more fun to shake himself off in the lounge because he gets more attention that way!

On Wednesday it really hit me that Matthew had passed away after a tragic accident.  They never teach you how to deal with something like that at teachers’ college and to be honest I feel like I’m floundering in the dark a bit.  I’m really pleased that I take so many photos in my classroom because I’ve got some really lovely photos of Matthew that I know his family will want to have.

On Thursday, Carey and I went around to the house to see Matthew and spend some time with his family.  We also spent a bit of time with Barb and her family.  Carey and I have both worked closely with Barb for a number of years (and in fact she works in my classroom this year).  For her to loose her grandson in such a tragic way has been unbelievable.

On Thursday and Friday Mikayla was an absolute legend helping me get organised for the Scrapbook Dreams retreat.  She cut felt and hessian, die cut tags, packaged classes and generally did a million jobs.  The best part of working with her is that we know each other so well that we barely had to talk about what needed doing… we just got on and did it.

On Friday night we borrowed the school trailer and took all the stands down to the hall and then started working on the displays.  We finally finished just after 1am and as we were walking towards the door Mikayla rattled the keys at me so I knew she had them.  I flicked off the lights, set the alarm and shut the hall door (which I’d pre-locked earlier in the evening).  Then I asked her for the keys…. and she said she’d put them on the counter by the alarm!!!  So there we were… 1am, dark outside, no keys and Toby was in the car.  Thankfully I had my phone on me and we rang the security company who very kindly came down and let us back into the hall!

And now for the inserts! Here’s the front of the insert (6 x 12 size)

insert front copy_1

I’ll have to pay Mum a ‘photographers fee’ soon since I used a few of her shots!  We had an awesome bunch of ladies at the retreat and there were so many wonderful layouts and projects to share with each other.

Here’s the back of the insert:

insert back copy_1

Usually we finish the retreats at 2pm and everyone says that they’d like to have more time so this time we planned on staying until 5pm.  The funny thing was that at 2.15 the only people left were Karen and Bridgette!  They decided to scrap for as long as possible which worked out great for us because it meant that we could pack up and take the stands home without having to lock the hall up!

It’s been a very full-on week but before I go I just want to share two layouts with you.

The first one is Karen’s layout from one of the classes.  She used the class kit as the basis for her layout and then changed lots of things on it and I think it looks amazing!

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The second layout is the Challenge Pack winner created by Sheree!  Mikayla chose the winner since she didn’t know who had made each layout and this one really appealed to her:IMG_7364_1

I can totally see why it appealed too because it was absolutely stunning.  Congrats Sheree!

I hope you all have a great week xx

Friday 26 April 2013

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

I don’t know about you guys but I really need a ‘Feel Good’ this Friday.  On Monday I found a gorgeous little milk jug and sugar bowl with pansy flowers all over it.  When I told Mum about it she said… “You and your pansies”.  What can I say… I’ve always liked their beautiful colour and they seem to be such a pretty flower.

I did a bit of Google searching and came up with some lovely pictures for this weeks layout:week 17 - pansies copy

According to Wikipedia the name 'pansy' is derived from the French word pensée meaning "thought", and was so named because the flower resembles a human face.

I must admit that I do love their beautiful little ‘faces’ and at the moment I’m thinking a lot of ‘thoughts’ about Matthew, his family and my kids at school.  The funeral is on Monday and it’s probably a really good thing that I’m doing the scrap retreat this weekend as it means I’m too busy packaging, organising and sorting to let my mind drift too far away.

I’d better go as the courier has just been and I have a whole heap of goodies that require my attention.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend xx

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Some tragic news

Hi everyone

Sometimes life is really, really unfair… and right now is one of those times.  On Monday night I got a very heart-breaking phone call.  One of my students had just passed away in a tragic accident.  To be honest it just doesn’t seem real.

Matthew was washing his jersey in a bucket of water and using ‘kid logic’ he decided that it would dry quicker if he put it in front of the fan… so he plugged it in… with wet hands… and he got electrocuted. 

Just before the school holidays start we remind the children to be careful on their bikes and scooters.  We remind them to watch out for people hanging around the skate parks and things like that.  But sometimes the dangers are so much closer to home.

IMG_6080

Matthew was a neat kid… always up to mischief… and yes he drove me insane at times… but he was also creative and funny and a big part of our class family since he came into Room 4 last year.

This afternoon Matthew will be coming home until the funeral and to be honest I feel like I need to go and see him and say goodbye.  But how to you say goodbye to a ten-year old?  As I said, sometimes life is really, really unfair!

Monday 22 April 2013

Project Life: Week 16

Hi everyone :)

I’m a little late with this post but I have a really good reason!  It was Mum’s birthday yesterday and I wanted to surprise her by taking her out for dinner.  After talking to Loreen’s husband, Keith, I decided that ‘The Flying Burrito Brothers’ in Tauranga sounded like a good place to go for dinner… and it was AWESOME! 

They had a wonderful atmosphere, fantastic service and staff and best of all the food was delicious, quick to arrive and reasonably priced.  I couldn’t fit the ‘food’ photos in this weeks pages so I’ll share them here instead. 

We started off by ordering  PLATO GORDO -an entree platter to share.  There were so many little treats on the platter and everything tasted good… and we ate everything… even the jalapeno chilli's which were corn crusted and filled with a jalapeno spiced cheese!

IMG_7255

Each item came in it’s only little dish so we could swap them around and get to try everything.  After sharing that we decided to skip straight to desert because we knew we’d be too full otherwise.

Check out these delicious plates:IMG_7260

Mikayla had CHURROS which are Mexican style donuts… but these were not like any donut I’d ever tried (yes we shared our desserts around too!)  They were crisp, light and really ‘melt in the mouth’!

IMG_7257

Mum had BANANA CHIMICHANGAS – which were bananas wrapped in a tortilla and fried with cinnamon and sugar.  Amazing flavours!!

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And I had AZTEC TREASURE – layered chocolate cake smothered in chocolate ganache and then covered in a chocolate sauce… a chocolate lovers dream!

IMG_7258

I have to say we had a brilliant night… and I even went online this morning and left them a review. There was also a little ‘serenading’ happening… but more about that later!

So on with my week!  We had our final week of the term and it was a real push to get everything I wanted to get done finished but somehow by Friday most of it was actually done.  Here’s an overview of the week:FULL_1

This term we’ve been learning about ‘Communication’ and we’ve done a variety of things including making letterboxes, writing formal letters and learning a bit of Morse code.  We also decided to make her own paper.  You might remember that last week we had a ‘ripping’ good time… well this week we turned all our paper pulp into real paper and the kids were fascinated with it!

They’ve decided to turn them into treasure maps so we can put them up on our class wall.  Unfortunately we didn’t get the maps finished but we can still re-visit them early next term.

After my success with making jam I decided that I’d have a go at making plum relish… YUM!  It’s got a bit of chilli in it and it does pack a little bit of a punch but it’s super nice with cheese!

And while we’re on the subject of food… Peter (the Principal) still owed me a cake for taking over the NZEI rep job and this week he actually came through with something for me.  It wasn’t a cake… but it was delicious!  It was all broken into shards (a bit like peanut brittle).  There was a layer of caramel, a layer of chocolate and a layer of something else… I could taste a little salt but couldn’t figure out what it was.  At morning tea time I asked him and he laughed!  It turns out that it’s Salada crackers… honest!  There is even an online recipe if you want to try it out!

LEFT_1

Later on in the week we had a Duffy Assembly and the kids were thrilled to each receive two books to keep.  It’s a fantastic programme that really benefits our kids a lot!

On Friday we had a great last day of term.  We watched the DVD of James and the Giant Peach since we’d read the book as a class during the term and the kids really enjoyed it although they were a little disappointed that the ‘cloud men’ weren’t part of the movie.

I made some little owl cakes for the kids but was a bit let down by how they turned out.  The cakes rose too much and I had to cut the backs off to get them to sit right and unfortunately the detail of the owls was lost.  The kids didn’t mind too much though because I put some icing, pebbles and icing sugar on them.  If you know of a good cake mix that doesn’t rise too much and gives great detail when they come out of the moulds then I’d love to hear from you!

On Friday afternoon we did the second part of our letterbox activity that we didn’t get to finish when Whaea Charlie was with us.  Trey decided to be my helper and get it all organised and he did a great job!  It was really neat to see him get stuck into it… although at one point he decided that teaching was a ‘breeze’ and he could sit back with his feet up!  If only!! 

RIGHT_1

Which brings me to the end of the week and Mum’s birthday again.  Since it was her first birthday without Richard I really didn’t want her to be by herself for the evening so going out for dinner looked like a possible option.  Thankfully she was keen on the idea! 

As I said earlier, we had a great night.  Remember I said there was some ‘serenading’?  Well,  just after we got our desserts Jose came over with a HUGE sombrero for Mum to wear and then he grabbed his guitar and sang her happy birthday.  She was pretty tickled by the whole thing!

As we came home she kept saying ‘thank you’ over and over because she really had had a great night.  I was so pleased that Mikayla, Toby and I could all be with her.

Toby thought it was pretty cool to stay over at Grandma’s house too!  He especially liked it when I made up the sofa bed and put ‘our’ blanket on it.  He snuggled up there for the night and made himself quite at home.

So that’s been my week.  I’m doing this post from Mum’s place (i.e. pinching her internet) because I want to go to the education centre here in Tauranga before heading home.  I’ve got a few things for school I want to get LOL

I hope you all have a fantastic week xx 

p.s. If you do have a recipe that would be good to make in my owl tins I really would love to hear from you!!

Saturday 20 April 2013

One Little Word–March update

Hi everyone :)

I just realised this morning that I haven’t actually blogged about my March pages for One Little Word and yet they’ve been in my album for a while now.

March title for blog copy_1

In March, Ali asked us to TAKE ACTION!  We had to select one thing (little or big) that we could do to move forward with our word. 

I decided that being really organised at school would be a BIG action that I could break down into steps during the month making it much more likely to actually be achievable.  It also helped that I was having a student teacher during this time and quite frankly sometimes two heads are better than one!

I started off with a ‘title page’ for March outlining the prompt and why it was important to me:

Monthly intention in detail copy1

It’s funny how the monthly intentions I set in January seem to be fitting perfectly with each prompt because it was a bit ‘unexpected’ that I would have a student teacher right at this time. 

It was also ‘unexpected’ that the FOTS (Friends of the School) group would choose this month to give each teacher a budget to spend on their classroom.  That budget (which HAD to be used in Term 1) meant that I was able to purchase folders, clear pockets, labels, laminating pockets and a variety of other organisational materials… such a cool bonus!

Ali provided us with a cool template to use to work out what we were going to do as well as when and how we would do it.   The template also included a place to ‘document’ your progress as you went.

I had to adjust the template a bit to fit my needs but it worked out brilliantly. 

progress in march copy_1

I broke things down into the school weeks with each week having it’s own focus to concentrate on… first math, then reading and then writing.  The idea was that by the final week everything would be coming together and I’d be working ‘smarter instead of harder’.

As it turned out I actually achieved far more than I had intended.  It definitely did feel manageable most of the time and by the end of March it was all going strong!

Since I’m such a visual person I decided to include a ‘photo evidence’ page in my album as well.

Photo evidence copy_1

The really awesome thing is that it has been easy (although still quite time consuming) to keep everything going through April.  My weekly planning sheets are all in their folders… my planner is still really quick to do once the planning sheets are finished… and the kids really love the task boards!

This prompt has been fantastic to work on… and the difference it has made in my school life has been incredible.  It’s also been a bit ‘unexpected’ how much impact my One Little Word – CHOICES – has had on my professional life.  It’s been hugely positive thank goodness!

So there’s my update… enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Friday 19 April 2013

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

Well it’s Friday again… and for lots of kids they’re enjoying the start of the school holidays. 

We’ve all been looking forward to the end of the term as it’s been HOT, long and very, very busy but somehow when the bell rang this afternoon it just didn’t have the ‘end of term’ feeling to it.  Maybe it will feel like the holidays when Monday comes and I don’t have to go to school.

This week my brain has been buzzing with all sorts of preserving ideas because I’ve had a lot of fruit around me at school and as I was looking at recipes online I realised how pretty lots of preserves are so this weeks Feel Good Friday is dedicated to the ‘old fashioned’ art of preserving:

week 16 - preserves copy

Last weekend I made some plum jam which was really yummy… and I’ve been having it on toast!  Then on Tuesday I came home and made plum relish with a little bit more than a hint of chilli and it’s absolutely divine with cheese!  I really want some ‘left over’ cold meat to see what it’s like with that.

Right now I’ve got quite a lot of pears, apples and oranges as well as lots of plums in my kitchen so I think there may be some more preserving happening in my kitchen.

In the meantime, I hope this weeks layout makes you feel just as good as it did me.

Have a great weekend everyone xx

Sunday 14 April 2013

Project Life: Week 15 and a layout!

Hi everyone :)

Well it’s Sunday afternoon again… the weeks seem to be going by quicker and quicker lately.  This week I’ve been busy at school (nothing unusual about that)… busy with night classes (nothing unusual about that either)… but I’ve also been busy making jam!  Yes I made some plum jam yesterday and I’ve already tried it and it’s delicious LOL

Here’s an overview of my week:Full_1

My week actually didn’t get off to a great start.  On Tuesday morning I woke up to a ‘metallic’ smell and as soon as I turned on the light I got the shock of my life!  Toby had clawed at his throat and made his whole neck bleed… wasn’t quite as bad once he let me clean him up a bit but it definitely required an emergency trip to the vet.  It turned out that he’d gotten some sort of infection and he’s been on antibiotic and steroid tablets all week along with getting special cream rubbed into his neck three times a day. 

Toby hates taking tablets so I ‘hide’ them into a small piece of cheese and now he’s totally convinced that cheese it a necessary part of his diet.  I had to inform him that as soon as the tablets stop so does the cheese!

Last week my Tuesday night class ladies didn’t turn up and I wondered if they’d gotten their days mixed up… sure enough this week they arrived promptly for class so this week I’ve done two night classes.

Here’s a closer look at the beginning of my week:Left_1

We had a school band from Australia come to school this week and the girls from Ivanhoe Girls Grammar in Melbourne are extremely talented.  The girls all sing and most of them play at least two instruments.  They certainly kept our kids entertained!

I realised that I’d missed the start of the NZ Masterchef Master classes this week but thanks to TV on Demand I am now all caught up.  It’s not quite the same as watching it on the TV but it’s a whole lot better than missing out completely.

My class has also started making recycled paper from our old newsletters, activity sheets and other paper from the recycling bin.  We had a ‘ripping’ good time on Wednesday afternoon getting the paper prepared to be soaked overnight.  The kids said it was heaps of fun and some of them ‘imagined’ that the paper was someone they didn’t like as they were tearing it up.  I totally get what they mean about that one!

Here’s a closer look at the end of the week:Right_1

Earlier this week, Mikayla informed me that she had RESIGNED from her job at Pak’n’Save to ‘focus on her studies’.  Please, she only works one day and two evenings per week… and her classes are only four days a week!  I remembered what Nigel Latta had said about teenagers not being ‘right in the head’ and have come to the conclusion that he’s not completely wrong!  There’s not much I can do about it now because by the time I found out about it she’d already done it… I just hope that she knows what she’s doing.

On Friday we had a Teacher Only Day and it was FULL ON!  It’s actually the first time we’ve closed the school for a TOD in over three years but they made up for it by making us work extra hard for the whole day.  We’ve got another one in the school holidays in July and I’m pretty sure that will be just as busy.

On Saturday morning Carey (who teaches next door to me) and I went out for breakfast.  Last year we went out to Third Place for eggs benedict and had such a great breakfast that we went back again and it was just as good this time around.  Great food… great company and a gorgeous view out over the lake… what more could you ask for to get your weekend off to a great start?

And then there was the jam!  Lots of gorgeous pink plum jam and it’s totally delicious!  Plum jam_1

I’m super proud of myself!  The last time I ‘tried’ to make jam Krystal was just a baby and it totally didn’t work at all and I wasted a huge amount of apricots!  This time though it was smooth sailing and lots of happy little jammy moments LOL

Now for something that I haven’t done for ages… I’ve actually got a ‘traditional’ layout to share with you.  This one is for a class I’m teaching at a retreat in two weeks time and I’m really pleased with how it all turned out!

large copy_1

The paper is from My Minds Eye and it’s really beautiful to work with.  I love the soft blues and greys and the flowers just added the perfect finishing touch:

small 2 copy_1

I also added a very cool resin embellishment that I coloured to match in with the colours on the layout:

small 1 copy_1

I’m really looking forward to the retreat and I’m hoping that the ladies are going to learn some good techniques during this class.

So that’s it from me… I hope you all have a wonderful week xx

Friday 12 April 2013

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

I don’t know what it’s like in your little corner of the world but since daylight savings ended last weekend there has been a definite nip in the air around here.

At first I thought it was physiological that I felt colder but after having to de-ice my windscreen three times this week I really don’t think it is.

The days are lovely though… nice and warm with blue skies.  It’s the late afternoon and nights that are getting me.  Toby and I have been cuddling up on the sofa with a blanket and it’s been quite comforting LOL

Last week I saw a post on Vicki’s blog about the ripple blanket she is making.  Totally love that look but my crochet skills only go as far as making ‘peggy squares’ so far… I might need to ‘up-skill’! 

After looking around the internet for a while I came across several patchwork quilts that caught my eye so here’s what I came up with for this weeks layout:week 15 - quilts copy

There are some amazing quilt artists out there!  I’ve got a whole folder of pictures that I’m quite enjoying just looking at LOL

I hope you have a great Friday and that the weekend is full of lots of good things xx

Wednesday 10 April 2013

52 Lists: Weeks 11 and 12

Hi everyone :)

I’ve been working on some more ‘lists’ using the prompts Moorea Seal puts up. 

Week 11: List your essentials

Obviously we all need food, shelter, water, exercise etc… at least that’s what I teach my kids at the start of the year.  There are so many other things in our lives that are essential too… the things that make our lives ‘ours’ so here’s my list:

Week 11 copy

Week 12: List the things that feel like home

This was an interesting list to do because some of the items on my list remind me of home when I was a kid… some are from when the girls were little and some of the list are from home ‘right now’.   It would be interesting to see Krystal’s list (she’s not doing this project) now that she’s living away from ‘home’.

Week 12 copy

I hope you’re all having a great week xx

Sunday 7 April 2013

Project Life: Week 14 and another insert

Hi everyone :)

Yes I’m like the bad penny returning LOL  I’ve been busy since my post this morning sorting out photos and doing some digital stuff and somehow it’s gotten to the end of the day already.

I’ve had a really nice week… and it was nice that it started off with two days away from school due to Easter… although I did go to school for a ‘couple of hours’ on Monday (actually I was there from 8am until 2.30pm)

Here’s an overview of my week:Full_1

As I already said, I was at school on Monday and Whaea Charlie came in as well.  It’s amazing how much work you can get done without the kids (or other teachers) around.  We had the whole place to ourselves along with full access to the photocopier so it made us very happy campers!

Last week I mentioned that my computer wasn’t running very well… and quite frankly I’ve been worried sick about loosing my files and photos so after we’d finished at school I went down to Dick Smith and bought a 32GB flash drive thinking that I’d be able to fit all my photos on it… ummm NOPE!  My 2012 photo folder actually contains 18.8GB all by itself!

On Tuesday I went back to Dick Smith and bought a 1.5TB external hard drive and now I’ve got everything backed up!  I’ve got tons of room… actually I’ve got 1.5 TRILLION bytes of space for storage… super cool!

Here’s a close up of the beginning of my week:Left_1

On Monday Mikayla wanted me to watch ‘Tangled’ with her.  It’s an animated movie based on the story of Rapunzel and although we started to watch it I just couldn’t keep my eyes open so on Tuesday we finished it off.  It’s a lovely story so if you’ve got young kids, grandkids or you just like watching kids movies I highly recommend it.

For some time now Toby has been treating Mikayla as a ‘lesser person’ than himself and on Tuesday he proved it.  Mikayla was sitting on the sofa with her legs up and Toby went around and pushed her legs and sat right in front of her for a scratch!  He was quite demanding about the whole thing too!

Check out this photo:IMG_6949_1

He looks like he’s howling but in fact he’s just raising his head in pleasure of the scratching!  He’s such a boy!

On Wednesday when I got to school Ngahuia (one of the teachers) had been busy making truffles and she gave me one.  I was super pleased that I had my camera with me because the truffles were gorgeous!  They tasted pretty good too!

On Friday it was Whaea Charlie’s last day and the kids made her a really gorgeous card to farewell her.  She had mentioned that she really liked ‘practical things’ during the five weeks she was with us so instead of getting her flowers and chocolates I got her some things for when she starts teaching her own class… plastic pockets, notepads, paper clips, panadol etc… and she LOVED it!

The gift giving didn’t end there though because she bought the kids a HUGE classroom calculator and she got me a very cool lime green stapler!  Thanks heaps Charlie xx

Here’s a close up of the second half of my week:Right_1

On Friday afternoon the kids got to do the letterbox activity we spent ages preparing on Monday and it was a total success!  It really did feel like all the planning and preparation was worth it… PLUS we didn’t get time to finish the activity so I should be able to do that in the last week of term… BONUS!

On Saturday I went over to Mum’s and did some important things before heading out for a bit of lunch.  You wouldn’t believe it but we both left our cameras back at the house so I can’t show you what we had… but it was really delicious! LOL

Then we spent some time looking around a few shops.  Mum wanted to get some new tops and she’s found that even the smallest women’s sizes are not fitting her very well.  We went into the kids department and there were some tops exactly like what Mum likes so I convinced her to try one on and BINGO!  The length was perfect… the sleeves were perfect… and the neckline was perfect too! 

We also spotted a Daniel O’Donnell CD/DVD collection which had 50% off but when she went to pay for it she got two tops and the CD/DVD for only $15.49!

I also managed a huge bargain!  I needed to get a new duvet inner since ‘Mr Toby’ has managed to de-fluff one side of mine!  They had a really good quality one that is 50% feathers and 50% down for $290... I definitely wasn’t going to pay that much!  Then I saw the sign that said ‘marked down to $115’ so I now have a brand new duvet inner ready for winter!

I also found some neat cooking trays… one is for making little owls (perfect for brownies!) and one is for making mini little puddings (I have something planned for that one too!).  Then at the next shop I got some icing bags, non-stick spray and some nozzle holders for my icing set.

All in all it was a pretty good day!

This week I also did an insert about my One Little Word February project which I finally got finished this week.  For those of you who didn’t see my post this morning, it’s a printers tray that I’ve turned into a vision board and I’m super happy with it. 

I decided to keep the writing to a minimum on my insert because I’ve already written about it in my One Little Word album.  This insert is just to remind me when I actually got the project finished.

Here’s the front of the insert:front insert copy_1

And here’s the back of the insert:back insert copy_1

So that’s been my week.  Lots of school work… lots about the computer (which is playing up really badly tonight!) and lots of retail therapy.  It’s enough to make a grown woman giggle with pleasure!! LOL

Have a great week everyone xx

One Little Word–Finished Vision Board

Hi everyone :)

This past week I’ve been working hard to finish my vision board and by Thursday night it was all done!  I’m super thrilled with it and yesterday I finally got some photos of the completed board so I wanted to share it with you.

WARNING: Photo heavy post… but for the ‘visual’ people out there (like me LOL) I’m sure you’ll get lots of ideas from it!

Since Monday was an Easter holiday I decided that it was time to put everything else aside and finally work on my vision board.  There used to be a beading shop in Rotorua several years ago and when they closed down I bought several printers trays from them at rock bottom prices – actually they were even lower than rock bottom!

I’ve been ‘saving’ the boards to create special projects and this is the first one I’ve used.  The spaces in the printers tray were a little smaller than I wanted to the first step was to removed some of them.  This board was put together with nails so out came the tools and I got to work!

Step 1: figure out how to take the tray apart2

Step 2: remove the back of the tray1

Step 3: remove the outer frame3

Step 4: start removing slats that I didn’t need and CLEAN the tray!4

Step 5: remove rest of slats and then put the tray back together5

Step 6: work out the size of each slat and organise the photos into ‘collage sheets’ ready to be cut up!  This part alone took several hours!6

On Tuesday, which was a NZ school holiday I was able to get my photos actually printed and ready to be cut up.

Step 7: trim photos to size and adhere into spaces7

Step 8: sit back and admire first completed section (this lasted about half a minute!) Realise that the photos are sitting back to far and need to be brought forward!8

Step 9: remember that I have some foam board left over from another project that would be perfect for this job and begin to cut foam board to size9

Step 10: realise that I will need to do each gap TWICE because two pieces of foam put together works better than one piece by itself!10

Step 11: notice that the printers tray is looking a little bit dull compared to when I was cleaning it and then go and look for the Danish Oil in the garage… this took quite a while too!  Decide that ‘well ventilated’ simply means ‘leave the back door open’ and proceed to oil the entire printers tray!11

Step 12: Mikayla comes home to ask “What’s that smell?” and realise that leaving the back door open probably doesn’t qualify as ‘well ventilated’ but proceed to finish off the oiling anyway!12

Step 13: Spend the next couple of evenings trimming and cutting foam board and photos until project is finished!

p.s. it is mandatory during this process to stop and admire your work regularly and to feel the need to tell ‘uninterested’ 18 year old about every little detail as you do this! LOL

The finished board

Left side:

13

Middle section:

14

Right section:

15

The full board:16

I also wanted to include the process in my One Little Word album so here’s what I came up with for that:Finished vision board copy

One of the bonuses of using the foam board in the tray is that it actually fits really well so I didn’t need to adhere it into the tray at all. The photos are adhered to the foam board.  I’ve worked out a way to remove the foam board from the printers tray relatively easily so now I’ll be able to change the photos whenever I want to!

Now that I’ve used one of my printers trays I’ve come up with loads of ideas for the others so I’m sure you’ll see them feature here at some point.

Thanks for visiting and I’d love to hear what you think of this project :) xx