Queen’s Birthday Honours: Tony Pope

Sometimes in life you meet people who inspire you and Tony Pope is one such person.  Many years ago I had a brain aneursym and I didn't know if I would ever be able to teach full time again.  Through a lot of determination it did happen... but Tony was the Principal who took a risk in hiring me. 

I remember him offering me a full time teaching position and having to tell him that I wasn't sure if I was up to it.  He simply said... do your best and if it's not working come and see me and we'll make some adjustments.  So I took on the position and never looked back.

I worked with Tony for a number of years and he became not only my Principal but also a mentor and friend.  I'm so very proud to know him and it was wonderful to see him get acknowledged in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Former Rotorua principal Tony Pope is made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Check out this newspaper article to get all the details.

At the end of each school year Tony used to do a speech for the students moving onto Intermediate school and almost every year he included this great quote from John Wesley:

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

― John Wesley

I don't know how many of the kids remember this quote but it's stayed with me and continues to inspire me.

December Daily: Dec 11 and a fun event

On Friday I had a pretty busy day.  I started off working at Base School for the morning and then headed out to Owhata for the rest of the afternoon.  It's been quite good getting to know all the different kids, teacher aides and teachers at the school.

After school I had an appointment to get a manicure and Dougal begged me to come along.  I really enjoy having my nails done and it's a lovely bit of pampering at the end of a busy couple of weeks.  Dougal was very attentive to what was going on and made little comments about how his nails could 'use a little trim'.  I told him that Daddy would do them just like he does Toby's but that wasn't good enough for Dougal.  He went on... and on... and on about his nails needing a 'buff and polish' and in the end Aleisha said she'd do them for him... Dougal certainly knows how to get his own way!  Lots of people get 'mani pedis' but Dougal gets a 'pedi pedi'!

While we were having our nails done Aleisha's son was washing her car... I jokingly said I'd pay him $5 to wash my car and quick as a flash he got stuck into it!  By the time my nails were done my car looked fabulous!

Then it was time to get home because Mum had arranged to come over and go out for dinner with me.  When she arrived she gave me a gorgeous Christmas card.  In fact I'd seen it a couple of weeks earlier and commented that I really liked it... little did I know that she'd made it for us anyway!

Mum got to have her first look at the art studio and she was very impressed with what Michael has achieved.  It is definitely my favourite part of our home at the moment!  We decided to have a glass of cider before heading out and we had a great catch up.  Then we headed out to Brew since I was keen to have the mussels in Thai broth again.  We were really lucky to get a table but it must have been our night because they had a little corner table that was just perfect for us.  I had the mussels and Mum got a chicken satay pasta which was also yummy... I know cause I sneaked a little bit from her plate LOL

After dinner we went to Lady Jane's Ice Cream Parlour and got ourselves a little dessert cone each and we went across the road to the park.  What a lovely way to end our meal.

As we were heading home I told Mum that there was Carols by Candlelight on at Kuirau Park and we decided to go and join in.  When we arrived I heard a little snuffling going on in the car and couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from.  Mum heard it too and when we got the blanket out of the back of the car it revealed one small stowaway! 

It's a good job we didn't know Dougal was there earlier because we would have turned around and taken him home again... but since we were already out we decided to let him join us for some festive singing.  Everyone was in a wonderful mood and there were loads of people without it feeling crowded.  We bought ourselves a couple of candles and found a space on the grass.

Dougal kept asking when he could light his candle but with daylight savings we had to wait until almost 9pm before it was dark enough to make it worthwhile.  We had such a lovely night and not long after we got home it actually started to rain so we were most definitely pretty lucky!

Dougal was so excited that he got to hold his own candle that he forgot to sing!  He sat up with a huge grin on his face and kept looking at his candle... sometimes it's the little things that really make life worthwhile!

For the creative pieces on the first page I used a small photo of a fisherman Santa complete with a net and starfish walking stick... and then I simply added the date star.  For the lower piece on the first page I made a little white poinsettia and then added some small green stars to an offcut of patterned paper.

On the Carols insert I added some music printed on vellum along with the die cut words 'Christmas twinkle' cut from glitter cardstock.  For the piece in the lower pocket I cut a Tim Holtz lantern and added some holly.

It really is starting to feel like Christmas now xx

Project Life: Week 31

Hi again… I’ve got Week 31 which was July 27th – August 2nd.  Mike’s been pretty busy with another D.I.Y. project.  This time he’s creating an art studio for me.  It’s consuming quite a bit of time after work and on the weekends but he’s making pretty quick progress.

Here’s an overview of the week:

The Council have been working in the park behind our house cutting down all the eucalyptus trees because they’re causing all sorts of problems… blocking out sunlight and interfering with TV reception and power lines.  While it’s been quite interesting to watch it hasn’t been much fun to listen to because each time another tree falls Toby starts barking again!

We’ve had the fire going 24/7 for the past few weeks so when we woke up to embers in the fire the other day Mike decided that it was time to clear out the fire box a bit.  It certainly helped the fire to run more efficiently.

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

I got a lovely surprise this week in the mail.  Esther sent me an ice cream cookbook which is going to be very useful… especially once summer arrives!

Mike had a day off this week due to bad weather so he spent the day working in the garage.  He’d already had a big clean out and the next job was putting up a wall right down the middle of the garage to separate it into two halves.  He did a great job and recycled as much as he could.  By the end of the day he even had the workbench and shelving moved over to ‘his’ side of the garage.

We did stop for some lunch at some point and I had a Jester’s pie which was really delicious!

The rest of the week went by in a bit of a blur although we did have Tracey and Danny around for a pizza dinner one night which was a great way to end the day!

On Saturday Mum invited us over to Tauranga to see the brand new Hairy Maclary sculptures down at the waterfront but Mike was itching to get back into the garage project so I went over on my own and left the boys at home.

The sculptures were absolutely awesome!  We met up with my sister Katey and her family down at the waterfront and they even brought their dog, Murphy.  I did consider bringing Toby but to be honest he tends to get a bit overwhelmed when there’s too many dogs and people around him so he was better off staying at home with Dad. 

It was a pretty nice day in Tauranga and there were loads of people out looking at the sculptures and just enjoying the park.  Here’s an insert I made for my album:

The girls loved climbing over all the sculptures and Jessie was really taken by the stilt walkers!  They even had a doggie ‘selfie’ stand and Murphy had his photo taken.  While we were down at the park someone handed me a voucher for lunch at ‘American Rye’ and it included FREE meals for all the kids to celebrate Hairy Maclary Day!  Since we had four kids with us we decided that it was an awesome idea.  In fact it really was awesome and we all decided that we’d go back again… GREAT food and GREAT service! Here’s the back of my insert which totally focuses on lunch… and some camera fun!

While all this was going on in Tauranga, Mike was very busy back in Rotorua working away on his project.  I was telling Mum all about it as we were driving back to her place and I suddenly noticed a cabinet outside a store that was exactly the look I was thinking about so I stopped and took a photo… turns out Mike thinks it’s pretty cool as well so I might be giving my desk a bit of a makeover!

Here’s a close up of the rest of the week:

By the time I got home on Saturday night Mike had a total wall up dividing the garage and he even had the ceiling started.  I was really wondering HOW he’d gotten the Gib up on the ceiling so on Sunday he showed me… there’s nothing like a bit of kiwi ingenuity!

Mike is really loving putting his D.I.Y. skills to good use and he’s certainly not work shy that’s for sure.  He’s put in a new power socket unit with four outlets so I’ll be able to have my heat gun, glue gun, computer and silhouette cameo all going at the same time!  He’s also put in EIGHT lights which will give me excellent lighting for creating!  I’m getting quite excited about my new crafting space.

We do take out time to just relax together as well and one of our current favourite shows is ‘Banished’.  It’s set in Australia in 1788 and it’s got a great story line.  Mike’s favourite argument is ‘why don’t they hunt for food instead of relying on their rotten rice?’… I guess we’ll just have to keep watching and see what happens next.

So that was our week 31.  I hope you’re all staying safe and warm xx

December Daily: Dec 12 and 13

Hi everyone :)

I’ve got a ‘double date’ post this time around! 

December 12

Yesterday was a significant day at school because it we held our Year 6 Leaving Ceremony last night.  It’s a pretty formal occasion as it’s pretty much a graduation ceremony to farewell our senior students off to intermediate schools for 2014.

Krystal actually spent most of the day with me and we got heaps done around the classroom.  We had a rehearsal for the school prize giving and the kids also found out which classes they were going to be in next year.

When school finished for the day the kids left with all their good work from the year including all their artwork and then Krystal and I headed home so that I could get ready for the ceremony.

Since Krystal was here I thought she might straighten my hair for me because she’s quite good at it.  We got the hair straightener turned on and went to get a couple of things and THEN… I heard a yelp!  Yes you guessed it… Dougal!

Dougal decided that he wanted his hair straightened too… but his fur is so short that there was nothing to be straightened.  Not to be outdone by this little fact he decided to straighten his EAR instead!

The silly boy ended up spending the rest of the night with blocks of ice on his ear and whining that his ear was sore… honestly… what did he THINK was going to happen??

Meanwhile, Krystal straightened my hair and then I got changed and headed back to school.  Most of my Year 6 students turned up on time so I took the opportunity to grab a couple of photos with them.  Then we did a ‘silly’ photo and it ended up being my favourite LOL

I also got ‘blind-sided’ at the ceremony.  We’d practiced everything and it all went off very smoothly until the end.  In a little ‘change to the programme’ Glenn did a thank you and farewell speech for me.  I honestly wasn’t expecting that at the leavers ceremony.  I was all prepared for that to happen in the staffroom on Monday.

Then he called me up on to the stage and presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  Luckily he saw my eyes glistening and didn’t ask me to do a speech!

It was a really memorable night :)

December 13

This morning I got a photo of my flowers and as soon as I put them down Toby came rushing up to investigate.  This boy seriously loves pink and he quite likes flowers as well!

We had our final assembly and school prize giving today and it went really well.  It was so nice to see our top students being acknowledged in their various fields… academics… cultural… sporting… and the arts.  The kids have worked hard to achieve their goals.

Although school doesn’t officially end until lunchtime on Monday many of the students had their final day today and I received some lovely gifts… plenty of chocolate and other tasty treats along with a large box with doughnuts in it… kind of like the sort you see on police programmes LOL

I brought home another load of stuff from school today so I was busy bringing things in from the car when I heard Toby yelling for help… of course I had my arms full and he was getting more and more urgent so I rushed inside to find… Dougal had been ‘attacked’ by a chocolate doughnut!!  Well it is Friday the 13th after all!

Dougal was trying to wrestle the doughnut off his snout but the doughnut was staying firm!  In all honesty I almost didn’t save him just to teach him a lesson… but that just seemed too mean.  I’m really hoping that he has learnt to keep his nose out of other peoples’ business… after all he’s still got a sore ear from last night!

Tonight I went out for dinner with my team and we had a fabulous meal at Lone Star.  I really enjoyed chatting with everyone and we were all much more relaxed than we’ve been in ages… and then I got ‘blind-sided’… AGAIN!

They got together and bought me a stunning greenstone… and they’ve even had Auntie Bubby bless it for me already.  I was absolutely blown away!  Glenn said that the one they’ve chosen signifies ‘New Beginnings’ and 2014 is certainly going to be all about that!

I’ll share a photo of the greenstone with you tomorrow as the lighting is shocking right now… but a HUGE thank you to the wonderful team of teachers that I’ve had the privilege to work with in senior school this year… I’m really going to miss you guys xx

Project Life: Week 48

Hi everyone :)

I think I’ve got my photo problem sorted out now so I can go back to blogging ‘properly’ again!  This week there has been LOTS happening!  In fact, as I put my pages together I was a little overwhelmed by how much as happened!

Here’s an overview of my week:

We had more tent building this week and the kids have now worked out how to put the tent up correctly.  They also had a lesson on how to pack the tent away so that everything fitted inside the bag!

On Monday night Mikayla moved out… but it’s all good!  She’s moved onto a farm about half way between Taupo and Rotorua and she’s working as a nanny.  She’s really enjoying herself and loves the four year old twins she’s taking care of.  She’s been sending Toby texts and emails including a photo of her with Jazz.  Toby didn’t like the photo of Jazz one little bit but she has assured him that he’d love her in real life LOL

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

The kids and I have been doing some more work on fractions and they loved the challenge I gave them.  It makes a great wall display because there’s so many variations and the colours are bright and colourful.

I’ve had a writing group with eight kids involved for the past couple of weeks working on a report about keeping ourselves safe in the Great Outdoors.  The kids have worked really hard and we finally published the finished report this week.  By the time we’d added a few photos it looked really impressive!  They were even more happy with the Principal said he would publish it in the school newsletter!

On Wednesday afternoon I went over to Mum’s for dinner before heading to a Remembrance Service with the funeral home who helped with Richard’s funeral.  It was a beautiful evening involving a couple of bible readings, Christmas carols, and a candle lighting ceremony.  They had a big Christmas tree there covered with all different kinds of blue baubles and they played Elvis Presley’s ‘Blue Christmas’ during the candle lighting.  At the end of the service they gave everyone a bauble off the tree to take home.  Mum and I were pleased we’d gone and it was actually a really heartfelt event.

After the service I took Mum out for dessert at our favourite Mexican restaurant and we also had some ‘virgin margaritas’… actually they stuffed up our order just a bit and our first pitcher of margaritas was definitely NOT virgin at all.  Mum can now honestly say that she’d tried tequila!!

During the evening I was also able to tell Mum that I’d been offered… and accepted… a teaching position in Gisborne for the 2014 school year.  There’s so many changes coming up and if I stop to think about it for too long it’s quite overwhelming but I’m sure when it sinks in fully I’ll be extremely happy!

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

On Thursday our Kapahaka group did a second performance in the Rotorua Festival so Carey, Chris, Deidre and I all went along.  The kids gave a really polished performance and we were all so proud of them.  Afterwards Carey and I went out for dinner to celebrate my new job and had a lovely meal.

On Friday there was a Pyjama Day at school which was organised by a couple of the girls in my class.  They asked for a gold coin donation to raise money for the Child Cancer society and they were thrilled when they raised just over $170 dollars!  I was pretty thrilled to see Matua Mike (a teacher aide in my room) get dressed up and couldn’t resist taking a photo!  Sorry Mike… I should probably have mentioned that I was going to put it on my blog LOL

On Saturday morning I went down to the local market and bought myself some flowers for my vase.  I also spotted strawberries on sale and had to get some.  It was a lovely morning and a great way to start the weekend.

The rest of my weekend has been spent finishing reports.  I know when parents get the reports they always wonder why there isn’t a lot in them but from a teachers’ point of view it’s a little different.

I have 25 kids in my class and I have to write comments for Reading, Writing and Mathematics as well as a Social Comment.  Plus I have to put in the ‘next learning steps’ and ‘how you can help at home’ comments for each curriculum area.  I tend to use all the characters I’m allowed per child which equates to:

• Reading – 605 characters
• Writing – 605 characters
• Mathematics – 605 characters
• Social comments – 405 characters

That’s a massive 2220 characters per child… multiply that by 25 children and you’ve got 55500 characters in total!  Actually I’m glad I didn’t know that while I was writing them!

After writing all our reports we have to proof read them and then get a colleague to check them before we make the final adjustments and hand them into management.  So that’s what I’ve been doing all weekend.  But they’re done now.  Hopefully management won’t require me to make too many changes before they go home to parents!

So there you have it… just another week in my life :)

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend… I’m off to open my box of new art supplies xx

Project Life: Week 47

Hi everyone :)

The weeks are flying by so quickly that they’re almost a blur.  If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that there’s been plenty of excitement and changes happening in my life recently but here’s a look at last week… the calm before the storm LOL

The week started off with lots of work happening on our Bay of Plenty travel brochures.  The kids did a really fantastic job and there was so much learning involved.

We also spent quite a bit of time putting up tents in small groups.  Some of my kids are quite good at working out the ins and outs of tents and for some it was their first time ever putting up a tent.  They certainly enjoyed the hands on activities!

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

You might remember when I purchased four hours of gardening services on Grab One.  Well I booked the time and decided that I really wanted the blackberry cleared from the top garden.  I actually remembered to take ‘before’ photos in the morning and I was really stoked to come home and find the entire garden done.  The ladies did such a wonderful job!

On Wednesday it was our senior school athletics day.  I was in charge of the high jump and my first group were the 9 year old girls.  Thankfully I grabbed a photo of them at the end of the event because I didn’t take any more photos for the rest of the day.  One great thing was that I came away with a bit of a tan!

On Thursday we had the Minstrel visit our school with his Hiwi the Kiwi road show.  This time the show was all about being safe while fishing and the kids really enjoyed it.  They produced a book which includes a CD of all the songs from the show so I decided to get a copy for myself.  The kids certainly love singing the songs!

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

After school on Thursday I headed down to Gisborne for a job interview for a teaching position next year.  It was great timing because my niece and nephews were all performing in the Kapahaka Festival and they were pretty thrilled to have Auntie in the audience.  We spent the entire day watching waiata and haka performances and it was fantastic.

I also managed to get a chance to put my car through the car wash and was pretty pleased with how clean it looks now.  I even vacuumed it and the carpet now smells of ‘Beach Breeze’ LOL

Toby sent me a telepathic message to tell me to buy some cool things I saw in a gift shop and the lady at the counter was kind enough to gift wrap them for him… he’s super generous this year!

Several weeks ago I ordered some new art supplies for my Creative Chemistry 102 class and had them delivered to my sisters’ place.  I picked them up while I was staying with her but made myself a promise not to touch them until my reports were done… and I’ve stuck to the promise!! 

On that note I need to go and finish the final editing on my reports because I’m itching to get into those art supplies!!

Happy Sunday xx

Project Life: Week 44 and an insert

Hi everyone :)

Well it’s been an eventful week in our household with lots of things happening.  I also had a great day yesterday doing something I haven’t done in years… but I’ll show you that soon. 

I’ve been having some problems with the photos on my blog… they’re coming through really pixilated and going in all different sizes even though I’m using the same settings as normal so I’m going to try something a bit different this week.  In the meantime here’s an overview of my week:

I’ve had a bit of feedback from my Feel Good Friday this week and it seems everyone likes the otter lounging on his back in the water so I decided to use his photo for this weeks’ date card:

Last Sunday night my youngest sister came over for a visit without her children and we ended up having an impromptu dinner party since Holly had arrived to take Krystal home.  Thankfully I’d made lots of Tandoori Chicken and had it marinating in the fridge since Saturday.

And what’s a dinner party without dessert??  Holly and Krystal got busy and made walnut brownie which we had with Pavlova, cream, strawberries and passionfruit.  It was a great end to the evening.

Of course Monday was Labour Weekend here in New Zealand which meant that I got to get lots of those ‘little’ jobs done… the ones that seem to have been on the ‘to do’ list forever!

I seem to have bought a few things lately and one of my purchases finally arrived with the Home Care lady.  I’m super pleased with my new Santa table runner and I know it’s going to look great on the table at Christmas time.

On Monday while I was at the Warehouse I spotted the ‘Clever Sharp’ from those really annoying ads on TV.  It turns out that it really does do everything they say it can do and now all my knives are like new again!

I also made a quick trip to the local Indian Spice shop and found some really good spice mixes.  I was super thrilled to find a more ‘authentic’ Green Thai Curry paste and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Meanwhile, Mikayla loaned me her copy of the Hunger Games.  I’d heard quite a bit about it and to be honest I didn’t think it was my kind of story… but in the end I read the whole thing in just a couple of days.  The book is FANTASTIC!!  Really good writing and a nerve tingling plot.  Mikayla also owns the DVD version which I’ve now watched and quite frankly… what a disappointment!  I’d score the movie 2/10 and that’s being generous!

This week we’ve been down at the Aquatic Centre every day for the kids to complete their swimming programme and they’ve done so well.  They’re all much more water confident and most of the kids actually completed the required 200m swim to pass their assessment!

Chris (one of the teachers I work with) gave me some good pointers on how to get the rest of my wall paper off the toilet and it worked brilliantly.  Actually it probably worked a little too well because I got so excited that I ended up removing all the wall paper from the bathroom as well… it really did need to be done!  Now I’ve got to get it all prepped and ready to be painted.

Every three years teachers have to renew their Practicing Certificates which is fine… but it certainly takes a long time and it also costs us.  Mine took 6 weeks for the paper work to go through and a whopping $270!  At least I know I can carry on teaching for another three years!

While I was in town on Monday I bought a new duvet cover to replace the one that His Royal Highness decided was good to eat!  I was just about to throw the old duvet cover out when I suddenly had an idea.  I put Toby’s duvet inside the old cover and put it back on his bed… and it’s worked!!  Toby has actually stopped sneaking up onto my bed during the night and we’ve had five nights in a row with him sleeping on his own bed quite happily.  Life is Good :)

The courier man arrived on Saturday morning with a small order I did in America.  There were a couple of things I needed for the Creative Chemistry 102 class that I couldn’t source here in New Zealand so I used the class coupon and grabbed myself a discount.  Actually I got a couple of things that I didn’t need for the course as well but that’s beside the point LOL

This morning Carey and I got together for a weekend meeting… nothing heavy… but we figured we might as well go out for breakfast and talk while we were there.  Capers do a fab Eggs Benedict and we both left feeling very happy :)

While I was trawling around the internet I came across this gorgeous photo board on Pinterest and I’m looking forward to using this idea for a project I’ve got in mind.

And now for the insert!   Yesterday Mum was having one of those ‘can’t get out of your own way’ days… I know exactly what she means… anyway she’d had a look in the paper and found out the races were on so she invited me over to have a look.  Here’s how the insert turned out:

Before we went to the races we popped into town for a quick look around and I found this cool carved ball with the quote “Love is patient, Love is kind” and absolutely knew I had to bring it home with me!

Then we were off to the races!  It was actually a LOT of fun!  I had a bet on the first race we were there for… just a little bet!  Turns out it was beginners luck because I didn’t get anything after that!!  But the horses I picked came in second and third so I was pretty chuffed!

We arrived just as a race was starting and the Marshall’s were all dressed in Santa outfits… Christmas is starting earlier and earlier every year!

I was lucky enough to have my camera on sports mode and managed to get a good photo of the horses at the start of their race.

When we arrived there was nobody there to take out $5 entry fee so we just followed where other people seemed to be going.  Turns out we ended up in the Members Grandstand but nobody told us to get out so we just stayed there.  We had perfect seats right in front of the finish line and when the horses were parading before each race we had a fantastic view!

On the second to last race Mum decided to bet on her ‘favourite’ horse Number 15.  When I checked out his stats he wasn’t expected to do very well but Mum insisted that was the horse she wanted.  I’m wishing I listened to her now because ‘Sacred Star’ won the race!

All up we had a fantastic afternoon at the races… we saw lots of interesting fashions… quite a few ‘fascinators’… got very caught up in the cheering as each race ended and even managed to find the ice cream man during the afternoon.  Plus the weather was absolutely stunning!

After we’d been at the races we headed down to The Warehouse because Mum had seen a TV she wanted with built in Freeview.  It was quite a good price because it already had $100 knocked off it but as she went to get the TV I noticed the second one had clearance stickers attached to it.  She ended up saving a whopping $140 off a TV that originally cost $299… talk about lucky… or maybe it was just good timing!

We actually took this photo after dinner 

Whether it was luck or good timing Mum decided to shout us takeaways for dinner so we grabbed some Chinese from her favourite restaurant and we headed to a local park for dinner.  It was the perfect setting to eat and over the years we’ve had lots of good times there.

I did mention to her that ‘good things come in threes’ so we stopped off to get her a LOTTO ticket on the way home.  I haven’t checked with her yet to see if she’s won anything but maybe she’s already booking herself an overseas holiday LOL

So that’s been my week… and it’s been a good one!Hopefully you’ve been able to see the photos (and writing on them) a bit clearer this week. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead xx

Project Life: Week 40

Hi everyone :)

Gosh the school holidays have flown by and tomorrow we start the final term for the year… and you can bet it’s going to get crazy around here!

I’m still working on transferring all my files across from my ‘old’ laptop and having a few ‘issues’ as I’m sure anyone who has been through the process will understand.  I’ve even had a couple of times when I’ve basically ‘thrown my toys out of the play pen’ but I’m making progress LOL

Here’s an overview of Week 40:

The first week of the holidays  turned out to be pretty good… I would exactly call it relaxing but it was definitely FULL!

On Monday, Toby and I headed over to Tirau to meet up with Esther for the day.  We had quite a good poke around in the Christmas Heirloom Shop there and I finally managed to find the ‘perfect’ Santa for me!  He’s really stunning and pure vintage which is the look I’m after!  While we were there I even found a beautiful lamp post… complete with flickering light… that simply had to come home with me!

After doing some shopping we headed to a restaurant for lunch and ended up both getting extremely good lamb burgers.  I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last time I have lunch in Tirau!

I also managed to find a gorgeous clear glass vase that I really like.  It’s got an unusual shape and I’m planning on using it lots over the summer as the flowers bloom.

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

After having such a wonderful day on Monday I was devastated to pull a muscle in my back on Tuesday morning.  I felt quite crippled by it and knew that it was going to take more than just one visit to the chiropractor to get it all fixed but Nicola is amazing and she worked her magic!  By Friday I was actually feeling a lot better!

I finally got the last retreat layout done and loved getting a bit more creative with stencils and paint.  My poor Silhouette Cameo worked overtime during the week and I re-sprayed my cutting mats several times to get everything I needed cut out but it worked out well.

A BIG thanks to Nina who helped me out for several days… during her school holidays too!  We cut die-cuts… made embellishment packs… sorted papers and cardstock… counted… counted and counted some more but we got all the retreat packs done and dusted with a fair amount of team work.  Thank you so much Nina for all your assistance!

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

After getting all the retreat stuff done I gave my hairdresser a quick call and thankfully she was able to fit me in for a cut.  It was absolutely divine to be able to sit down and be pampered after all the packaging was done.

The retreat itself was AWESOME!  Thanks to Nina (yep she really is that good!) we were all done, sorted and displayed by 2.30pm and we actually got to have a wee break before everyone turned up.  My favourite display was the Christmas one… probably  because Mr Claus took pride of place along with his lamp.

Loreen made a fabulous haunted house which took hours to put together.  It’s completely made of paper and looked stunning!

Mum brought over her boot complete with mini album and I’m sure it gave everyone a few ideas!

Of course we had our group photo which ended up being on our Sunday layout.  The sun shone and we spent some time outside relaxing.  Donna and Tanya even gave the swings a go!

I found this retreat the most relaxing one I’ve ever done… everything went well and it was a wonderful time to spend with scrapping friends. 

In fact I even did a little ‘scrapping’ myself!  I’ve got an idea to create a vintage Christmas village to go on the mantelpiece and over the weekend I managed to get two of my trees done… thanks Hazel for loaning me your glimmer mist too!  Totally love how vintage it turned out! 

I’ll be back this afternoon with my Project Life update for this week.  Catch you soon xx