Saturday 28 February 2015

Project Life – Week 6

I’m back again with another update. This time I’ve got Week 6 – the first week of February 2015.

Here’s a look at the overview:FULL_1

School started on Monday morning at Glenholme and it was a really good day!  The kids all wear a school uniform and it does make taking a class photo so much nicer!  As per usual I also did artwork with my kids on the first day.  These kids were really careful with the paints and no paint got onto their uniforms!

Here’s a close up of the start of the week:LEFT_1

Krystal and Mike have persuaded me to watch Game of Thrones.  Krystal has the first two seasons on DVD and I have to say that I’m really getting hooked on the story! 

I’ve also been busy unpacking some more boxes.  One of the good finds this week was locating my Project Life albums including the album I’m going to use for 2015… it’s a little bit different than my previous albums… but this year is a little bit different from previous years too!

I’ve found quite a few of my books and put them into the bookcase that got damaged and it has taken the focus away from the top molding.  I’m super pleased with the photos of my girls that are framed and on display too.

Mike and I have also been moving around some furniture to make things more workable for us. I’m loving how we’ve got the lounge arranged and it’s super nice to be using the big room with lots of light!

Here’s a look at the second part of the week:RIGHT_1

The week at school absolutely flew past and before I knew it we were up to Thursday night so Mike and I decided to go to the night market.  We had a bit of a look around and then made our way down Eat Street looking for somewhere to have dinner but nothing particularly appealed. 

We ended up right down by the lakefront so we decided to get a pizza from Pizza Hut and have an impromptu picnic instead.  It was actually the perfect end to the day and then it was time to get packing to head off to Wellington on Friday! (Waitangi Day)

We had an awesome trip to Wellington including stopping off at Flatbush for a delicious breakfast on the way down.  460 kilometers later we hit our destination!  We stayed with Mike’s cousin and her kids and they were keen to take us to the Buddhist Monastery just up the road from where they live.  There were a LOT of steps but it was so worth it to get to the top!

On Saturday we headed into Wellington on the train and went to Te Papa.  I’ve wanted to have a good look around Te Papa for YEARS and when I told Mike he said we should just ‘Do it'!’ so that’s how the trip came about. 

Here’s the front page of the insert:

Wellington front_1

We got off the train and wandered up the street looking for somewhere to have breakfast and in the end we both decided that McDonald’s sounded good.  The best part was that we sat upstairs and had an awesome view!

We also headed to an underground market and I spotted an artists store where she was selling the most gorgeous prints of NZ birds.  We really loved the Kiwi with the night scene and I knew it would look perfect in the lounge.

Then it was on to Te Papa and all the amazing exhibits!

There was a big dinosaur exhibit that Mike was really interested in and of course the Waitangi exhibit was a big focus for me. 

After we’d spent several hours at Te Papa we carried on into Wellington and Mike showed me the Harley store.  Unfortunately for him it was closed so he just had to make do with drooling from the window!

Wellington back_1

On Saturday night we went to James and Esther’s for dinner and helped them celebrate their wedding anniversary.  James did a great job on the bbq and Esther made some delicious side dishes and salads… followed by dessert!

On Sunday morning we headed back to Rotorua and had a couple of stops along the way including a very late breakfast in Waiouru, stopping for some ‘essential’ lavender supplies in Bulls and visiting my cousin in Taupo.  We even stopped on the Desert Road so that I could take some photos… totally loving my new camera!

So that was Week 6 xx

Monday 23 February 2015

Project Life – Week 5

Hello again… I’ve managed to complete another week in my Project Life album!  Here’s an overview of Week 5 – January 26th – February 1st

FULL_1

On Monday, Mike and Tracey (his cousin) got back from Whangarei and Toby and I were pretty pleased to see him again.  We spent most of the afternoon hanging out together before taking Toby for a gentle walk (due to my calf muscle) and then we had dinner.

I’m finding it really nice to cook for someone other than just me and we’ve got a nice little routine going which includes doing the dishes together each night.

My herb garden is starting to take off now and we’ve actually been able to eat some fresh chillies and a capsicum that were homegrown as well.

Here’s a closer look at the start of the week:LEFT_1

I’ve spent a bit of time this week organising my classroom.  It’s always interesting when you start teaching in a new classroom.  You have to try and work out the ‘traffic flow’, furniture placement, display areas, teaching and mat areas as well as where to keep all the resources.

I managed to get most of it sorted out and then I bought some new fabric to go up on the walls of my classroom.  It makes the classroom instantly more colourful and has the added bonus of backing the kids work really well. 

You might remember that in Week 4 I printed off a whole heap of colour photos for my Hobbiton wall frame.  After putting all the photos in place I decided that I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would so I re-printed all the photos in black and white and now I really love the new frame.  Somehow the photos seem a lot more dramatic in black and white!

Here’s a close up of the second part of my week:RIGHT_1

We started off our school year with a two day noho marae.  As a ‘newbie’ to the staff, it was a really good way to get to know everyone PLUS we had some amazing tutors for the two days who shared so much of their knowledge with us.  We did a long walk on the second day and visited lots of places including the government gardens, museum and the hospital.  It’s amazing where all the local treasures end up and I learnt so much from the experience.

By the weekend I was ready to chill out with Mike and we started off the weekend with breakfast out at one of my favourite places (Third Place).  We invited Krystal to join us and it was nice to spend some quality time together.  After breakfast we had to go and do our recycling and Krystal decided to hang out with us some more… then we all went into my classroom to finish off the wall displays and after that Krystal took us out to a local blueberry picking place.  They make their own blueberry frozen yoghurt and it was DIVINE!

We spent most of Sunday doing jobs around the house and then we went to a family dinner at Krystal’s.  Once a fortnight Krystal, Chris and their flatmates invite their families around for dinner.  It’s quite nice to catch up with the other parents plus we all get to share a meal with our children.

One thing I have found is that Krystal and I have been sharing lots of foodie ideas lately… which I think is great!  She gave Mike and I a taste of her chocolate Baileys and we’re total converts… it was super delicious and we’ve since bought a bottle for ourselves!

And that brings us to the end of January! 

Project Life–Week 4

Sometimes you blink and weeks have literally passed you by!  I’m now playing the ‘catch up’ game but thankfully I’ve been filling out my calendar regularly and taking photos so it’s not as bad as it might have been.

Here’s an overview of Week 4 – January 19th – 25thFULL_1

The week started off with a couple of ups and downs.  I won an auction on Trade Me to buy a gorgeous bookcase for the family room (UP) and the sellers had given me the measurements so I knew the trailer would work brilliantly (UP).  When I went to pick up the bookcase it wouldn’t actually fit lying down on the trailer because they’d forgotten to measure the top molding detail area (DOWN).  Thankfully the sellers husband said he could loan me some rope and tie it down for me (UP) but unfortunately a few minutes up the road his rope tying skills came into serious question when the top molding broke and the bookcase crashed down into the trailer (MAJOR DOWN!). 

The molding can probably be replaced but for now I’m using the bookcase and trying not to notice the top molding too much!

Here’s a closer look at the start of the week:LEFT_1

Ever since I moved back to Rotorua I’ve been spending time trying to make the place look good again and that includes the lawns.  When the kids moved out they hadn’t mowed the lawns in weeks and the back got done on a high setting with no catcher so it’s been a mission to bring it under control.  I did discover though that mowing lawns greatly upped my steps and ‘active minutes’ on my Fit bit!

Last year I started buying a lot of books… it’s amazing what you can afford when you stop smoking!  Love That Dog was a book I borrowed from my friend Marie in Gisborne and I really loved it… even though it had me in tears by the end of it.  When I got back to Rotorua I ordered it through a local bookseller and it arrived almost straight away!

I also bought myself a really pretty phone cover.  Last year I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy 3 and discovered that I can do quite a lot with it… it’s especially useful at school!  I’ve had a couple of covers but I really wanted something pretty and the pink butterflies on this one really caught my eye!

This year I’ve discovered that I really love white as an accent colour around my home so I’ve been working on getting some framed photos up.  In the end I went for black and white photos in white frames and I seriously love how it’s turning out!  It did take a couple of goes at the printing to work out which settings I liked the best but it was worth it when I saw the final results.

Here’s a closer look at the second half of the week:RIGHT_1

I picked up my new school laptop this week and I felt super lucky when they also provided me with a brand new backpack to transport it to and from school.  Certainly makes my life a whole lot easier that’s for sure!

Just as I was about to head back to school, my personal life went through a dramatic change as well!  I met someone… and it turns out he’s someone really important to me. 

If you’d asked me to make a list of what/who I was looking for I could have done that and to be honest Mike wouldn’t have ticked any of the boxes on my list but he is exactly the right person for me. 

Our first date was taking Toby for a walk at the Redwoods dog exercise park and Toby made a big deal of checking him out!  In the end we had three dates over three consecutive evenings… all involving taking Toby for a walk, followed by dinner and talking… we even went to the sculpture symposium!

On the Saturday morning, Mike and his cousin went up to Whangarei to visit family for the long weekend and he accidentally left his hat and sunglasses behind at my place when he called in for a visit.  Toby spent most of the weekend walking past Mike’s hat and looking at me as if to say “When’s he coming back again Mumma?”  He was pretty pleased to see him when he got back on the Monday afternoon… but that’s jumping ahead of myself!

Meanwhile, I was also working hard on getting my fitness up… hence taking Toby for walks at the dog exercise park!  On Sunday morning I took Toby for a road walk and about 10 minutes into my walk I pulled my calf muscle!  OUCH!!  I hoped that it would ease off if I kept going but that didn’t quite go to plan.  In the end I cut my walk a little short and came home to put my leg up with ice on the muscles.

I spent most of Sunday hobbling around and feeling pretty crippled.  Since I’m currently trying to catch up with my Project Life album I can tell you that my leg was quite sore for about 4 days and then it improved really quickly.

So that was Week 4 of 2015!