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:

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:

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:

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)

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:

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!

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:

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

I hope you all have a great week xx