It’s the school holidays again!

Term 3 has whizzed by in the blink of an eye and it’s the school holidays again.  I had planned on going to Rotorua on the first Tuesday of the holidays but things didn’t go quite to plan. 

Over the weekend Mum got a virus/stomach bug that really knocked her around.  She couldn’t keep food down and was downright miserable.  I knew she was really sick when she rang in sick to work for three days in a row so Toby and I decided to head over to her place and take care of her.

We (in other words me) packed up the car and headed off to Tauranga on Monday and got to Mum’s in time to have dinner… or at least Toby and I had dinner. 

The next morning I booked Mum into her doctor and took her down there.  Turns out she was ‘over the worst of it’ according to the doctor but he did give her some anti-nausea meds which really helped.

Since we were out and about I decided to visit a few of my favourite stores that I haven’t been able to get to since the last holidays. 

First up we went to Spotlight and I bought a couple of little things with the idea that I might actually create a December Daily album this year!

Next up was the Culinary Council in the Gate Pa shopping centre… I absolutely adore this place and always come away with new ideas and things to try!

I love finding cookie cutters and this time I bought a pear and a funky heart:

Then I spotted a cool pot mitt… really needed one of these!

Then I found a silicone mold and cutter set to make little flowers to go on my cupcakes:

I also found a fabulous cloth for Christmas… I’m going to use it to line a basket for bread rolls to go in… fancy schmancy LOL

Then Mum found a couple she liked… one of the ones she picked was PERFECT for me but it was the last one… so after a bit of haggling and coercion I managed to snaffle it for myself!  Thanks Mum!

I also found a great little chocolate making tray featuring sea creatures… yep more embellishments for my cupcakes!

Next we headed off to Mum’s work to drop off her medical certificate and then on the way home I realised I hadn’t bought any icing to make flowers so I went back for another look at the Culinary Council.

After we got back to Mum’s I immediately tried out my new flower maker and it worked BRILLIANTLY!!

Oh yeah… we did make one other stop!  We called into Warehouse Stationery to pick Mum up a new set of Cuttlebug plates… just the regular size.  I had bought a couple of my new dies with me and they needed long plates so I was going to buy them and then I realised I would have to buy the spacer plate as well.  Oh dear… it was starting to get a bit costly.  Then Mum said she would buy them because she had one die at home that needed the long plates.

That night we got out the Cuttlebug, my new die and some cardstock and as it turns out I didn’t need the spacer plate at all because the die was the thick kind… oops!  Oh well, at least Mum has the plates she needs now.

We started by cutting everything out with the die and then we had to tape all the tabs… we even managed to watch a bit of MKR while we were working.  Toby was quite happy snuggled up on his bed too!

Ta da!!!  A luminary light… no decoration on this one… we just wanted to see how it all worked.

The next morning Mum found a balloon in her garden… no idea where it came from… anyway she brought it in for Toby.  Toby was less than impressed because he’s been caught out with balloons before and got a hell of a fright when a red one popped on him.

He was super funny prancing all around it and I couldn’t resist taking a wee video of him.  Very entertaining!

Toby and the scary balloon at Grandma’s house

So that’s the start of my holidays!