Sunday 1 June 2014

It’s been quite a week!

So much has happened during the past week… and for the first time this year I’ve actually ALMOST FELT like I wanted to give Project Life a go again.  I’ve even opened up my Photoshop programme for the first time in months!

Last weekend I went on a day trip up the coast.  I have previously lived in Gisborne – in fact my daughter Mikayla (now 19) was born here in Gisborne but we moved away just before her 2nd birthday, but I’d never actually seen much of the coast.  So last Saturday we set off and went up to Tolaga Bay (45 km northeast of Gisborne).  Tolaga Bay has New Zealand’s longest wharf and we walked all the way to the end of it:

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It’s actually a pretty nice walk and the scenery looking back towards the bay is pretty stunning:

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Next it was back into the car and a drive 30 km north until we got to Tokomaru Bay.  I’d never been to Tokomaru before but it was beautiful!  It’s got a really different ‘feel’ to Tolaga.  I was really captivated by the old brick buildings out by the historic wharf but forgot to take any photos… obviously living in the moment!

I did get some great shots out on the wharf itself though:

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Then we started to head back towards Gisborne but we took a little detour to have a look at Anaru Bay.  The colours of the sky were gorgeous but unfortunately my phone decided to ‘fix’ the colours for me so they didn’t come out quite as brilliantly as I’d hoped they would:

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You definitely have to be willing to take a few detours on the coast to get to some of the more special places… but so worth it!

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Within ten minutes of taking this photo it was practically dark and we travelled back to Gisborne without seeing any more sights.  Fabulous day out!

I’ve been visiting the markets quite regularly since I moved here and most weekends I buy myself some flowers for the dining room table but just lately there haven’t been many flowers available and it seems that others are quicker at getting them so I resorted to buying some from the local supermarket… and they really brightened the place up a bit!

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On Monday night I was involved in a Pub Quiz night at ‘The Rivers’ raising money for the local Breast Cancer foundation.  All up there were 18 teams involved and the place was pretty packed. 

We put in a couple of teams from school and some of us met up at The Rivers early and had dinner before the Quiz.  Totally loved my steak sandwich! 

There were some pretty gnarly questions but by the end of the night my team had come SECOND!!! We were pretty pleased with ourselves!

On Wednesday it was Miss Krystal’s birthday… can’t believe my girl is now 22!  I thought she might like to receive some flowers from me this year so I organised with my girlfriend Chris to deliver them for me.  Krystal definitely got a lovely surprise when she got home to find them waiting for her… and a big THANK YOU to Chris for helping me out – and sending me the photo of the flowers xx

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During the week I had a parcel of goodies arrive for me… some lovely little Tim Holtz stamps.  These stamps would have come in handy when I was doing ATC’s!  Most of them are only around an inch high/wide and they’re really detailed!

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I also got the rest of the Distress Paints!  I’ve now got all the colours and I’m looking forward to using them.

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On Friday we had Alphabet Day at school and my class got the letter ‘S’… one of my favourite letters!  We brainstormed all sorts of things we could come as and then on the day we had Smurfs… Laughing Samoan’s… Singers… Spies… Santa… Soccer players… and a small band of Soldiers!

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It was super cold when I got home on Friday… not quite as cold as Rotorua but there was a definite nip in the air.  It certainly reminded me that I hadn’t organised any firewood yet so I got onto the newsletter my nephew had brought home from school which had a school fundraiser for firewood and yesterday my firewood arrived!

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My nephew is coming around later on today to earn himself some money stacking my wood in the garage for me!  In the meantime I’ve used a little bit of the wood to light the fire and the house is now toasty and warm… although Mr Toby thinks that it is completely for HIS benefit!

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Gosh this almost feels like a Project Life blog post :)  I hope you’re all having a fabulous Queen’s Birthday weekend…stay safe and warm xx