It's all red carpets... crystal bowls... and tiara's around here!

Ok... there aren't actually any tiara's... but there is definitely a red carpet and a crystal bowl :)

On Thursday night I went to another Syd Workshop in Tauranga... this one was for making bath bombs, bath salts and face masks.

When Toby and I got up on Thursday morning it suddenly hit me that he was going to be at home... by himself... until I got back from Tauranga... which wouldn't be until around 9pm.  For those of you who know my boy... he just wouldn't cope with that at all.

So WE phoned Grandma and the call went something like this:

Toby: Hello Grandma... it's ME... Toby
Grandma: Oh Hello Toby
Toby: Do you like being COLD Grandma?
Grandma: No Toby, I do not like being cold
Toby: Do you like the DARK Grandma?
Grandma: Only if I have a torch Toby
Toby: But what if you DON'T have a torch Grandma?
Grandma: No Toby, I do not like the dark without a torch
Toby: Do you like having dinner LATE Grandma?
Grandma: No Toby, I do not like having dinner late
Toby: Great... so can I come to your house tonight while Mumma goes to her night class?
Lots of laughing
Grandma: Yes Toby, you can come to Grandma's house tonight

So after work I came home... picked up His Royal Highness and headed over to Grandma's house... only to find Grandma had laid out a red carpet for him:

He also had a crystal bowl supplied for his water:

Not to mention a Bird's Eye View of his Mumma heading off to class:

He is one spoiled young man!  Just as well we all love him to pieces :)

So now for the class... I headed down to 'Our Place' for my class and was greeted with a brown paper bag of goodies.  During the class I decided to see if I could get a bit of an arty shot of my jar and pencil... not too bad:

This was my first class on my own but I met some lovely people and ended up working with Georgia and Jackie (mother and daughter).  We had some real laughs during the evening.

Check out these amazing goodies I made during class. I wish you could SMELL through the computer because these bath products smell divine! 

First up we have the bath salts which contain dried flowers (camomile... cornflowers... and rose petals) as well as essential oils (Frankincense and Myrrh):

Next up is the face mask which you mix into a paste when you're ready to use it.  No flowers in this one but it does contain a little Geranium essential oil:

I saved the best for last... this is my bath bomb which contains dried flowers (rose buds, calendula and blue cornflowers) and essential oils (vanilla and frangipani):

I bet you're wondering what that glass beside the bath bomb is all about... right???  Well I decided that if you couldn't SMELL the bath bomb then I would SHOW you how well it fizzes!  So I made a tiny video... nothing fancy... just the video this time:

How cool is that???  I'm dying to let Doodlebug have a little bath bomb in her bath on Monday night when she comes for Family Dinner Night... she will LOVE it!

Speaking of Doodlebug... she came to visit Nana at school on Friday... which just happened to be sausage sizzle day... actually she usually comes to visit at lunchtime... she probably thinks school is all about eating and playing!

Have a great Sunday xx

Can you say 'neigh'??

Like a lot of toddlers... my little Doodlebug LOVES animals!  She just loves it when Toby gets all excited when she arrives... although he still doesn't like her 'touching' him.  Remember when she was tiny and he used to watch over her??

Then one day little Doodlebug ROLLED OVER and touched Toby... you would have thought he'd been touched by a branding iron!  Honestly... this boy knows no bounds when it comes to making complaints.

The first time Doodlebug crawled Toby went totally mental... you could almost hear him saying... Mum she MOVED!!  And then she started to WALK... Oh Dear God!

Now Miss Doodlebug RUNS and Toby just doesn't know where to put himself out of her reach.  She always says 'Puppy... gentle'.... and then tries to grab him.  She also has started calling him 'Toby' which is very cute... but we need to work on what 'gentle' actually means.

It's much the same where she is living... there's a cat.  Doodlebug is very fond of the cat... she wants to PLAY with the cat... but the cat doesn't really want to play with HER!  Their current game involves being outside... the cat running away.... Doodlebug running after the cat calling 'meow meow'... the cat disappearing over the fence... Doodlebug crying... oh dear!

Doodlebug has a couple of puzzles at Nana's house which she loves and one of her favourites is the farm animal puzzle.  She can say 'cow' and 'moo'... she can say 'chicken' and flap her little arms like wings... she tries to say 'sheep' and 'goat'...

Fitzgerald Glade

..and she's almost got 'horse' worked out too.

Which brings me back to... can you say neigh??? 

I've been seeing lots of Quiet Books on the internet lately and I love how interactive they are.... SO... I've started making one for Doodlebug's 2nd birthday in July... YES time has flown and she's going to be TWO YEARS OLD in July!!  Unbelievable!

I started looking around the internet for some ideas of what Doodlebug might like and I came across this picture:

Picture found on Pinterest

 Oh YES!!  I loved it straight away... the design... the colours... it looked great.  And if I'm not mistaken I'm pretty sure that Patron PDF means there's a pattern... Yippee!! So I clicked on the link and it took me to an Etsy store that told me:

This item is unavailable.

But I WANT this item... what do you MEAN it's unavailable... I NEED it to make my Doodlebug a horse page.

Ok... think.... I MUST be able to work around this somehow.  I know... I'll print the picture out to the right size and TRACE it!  Yep it worked... for most of it at least.  The only part I really had issues with was the horses head but after a LOT of tweaking I had something that I was happy with.

Here's a photo of my finished page... like I said... Can you say neigh???

I bet you're scrolling up and down to see how my page resembles the one I copied LOL

I took LOTS of photos of the process... and then I thought... let me see if I can make a 'quick little video' so that you can see all the inter-activeness of the page. Ha Ha Ha... what a joke!  My quick little video did in fact take less then a minute to film... and then it's taken over 3 HOURS to make it look like something semi professional.  So here's my 'quick little video':

 Actually... I'm feeling ridiculously proud of my efforts... both the sewing and the video making :)

This Quiet Book stuff is a little like scrapbooking except using fabric and felt. The finished page is 20 x 20 cm so it's pretty close to an 8 x 8.

I'm 'sew' happy now!  Sorry... couldn't resist that one!

It's been a while

Hey there... remember me?
According to an online calculator it has been this long since I last blogged:

• 1 years 4 months 4 days
  or 16 months 4 days
  or 69 weeks 6 days
  or 489 days
  or 11,736 hours
  or 704,160 minutes
  or 42,249,600 seconds

I don't know who makes these online calculators but they sure do come in handy when you want to find out all sorts of information.  I came across the calculator recently when I was trying to work out how old the students in my class were... super helpful!

So yeah I'm back... and things in my life have changed a lot... some for the better... and some in 'character building' ways.  Let me just say that I feel I have enough 'character' for now and I'd like a few less lessons to be learnt in the upcoming weeks!

So what brings me back to Blogger? To be honest I don't know... I think it's the need to connect with others... and in part to give me a voice... there are people in my family that would argue that I have quite enough voice for one person LOL

It's also the desire to get back a piece of myself that has been missing for quite some time.  Even as I write this, I can feel a little bit of myself creeping back in... and quite frankly that's a good thing.

So rather than be all mysterious about what's changed I'm just going to put my cards on the table... not all of them mind... after all a woman needs to keep a little hint of mystery about her don't you think?

I've spent part of the morning revamping my blog a little bit and you'll be able to see some changes straight away.

Here's the 'before' banner:

And here's the new one:

• Michael (Mike) is no longer part of my life. Without going into detail, he recently decided that there was someone else he saw his future with and he has moved on to pastures new. That was 'character building' for sure!

• Nivea (Michael's dog) has also moved on to pastures new in the form of going to live with his mother in another town.  She is still getting out of fences in her new home so nothing much has changed for Miss Nivea.

• Toby is now an 'only child' at home once again and he is super happy about it! If you've never seen a dog 'smile' you need to see this photo:

• I have a new hobby... geocaching! I discovered geocaching early last year... in fact I logged my first find on January 2nd 2018.  Since then I've found 873 caches and had some amazing adventures. Michael and I traveled to Norfolk Island via Sydney, Australia in July 2018 and located every cache on Norfolk which I am super proud of... check out this map from our trip... all the little smiley faces are the caches we found... they represent hours and hours of hiking and exploring as well as hundreds of amazing photo opportunities!

• One of the biggest changes is that my little Doodlebug has grown up a LOT!  She's now over 18 months old and such a delicious little bundle of fun.  I get to see her regularly and we have developed a fantastic bond.  Family dinner nights are held every Monday night which gives Nana a definite night to see Miss Chloe along with her Mummy and her Auntie Krystal. She also comes to stay with me on a regular basis which is so much fun... and more than a little tiring at times.  She has so much energy!

• There have been changes at work too.  I still work for a local Special Needs school however I have changed location.  I'm lucky enough to work in a Satellite class and this year I have five boys in my care with lots of autistic needs and talents to explore and develop.

•  I have also joined the Marie Kondo revolution for tidying, de-cluttering and bringing more JOY into my home and life... and I'm a convert.  I'm not a naturally tidy person... my family will attest to that wee character flaw... but since learning about Marie's methods and actually putting them into practice I've been living with growing levels of JOY... it's a good thing!

So there's my current status in a nutshell... it certainly hasn't all been smooth sailing in recent months... and there were times I thought the oncoming lights were a train about to run over me... turns out it was more of a lantern showing me the way... and now that I'm out the other side there is a great view and more adventures heading my way.

Thanks for visiting and I hope life is treating you well xx

The Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge - and some more Chloe

Hi there :)  Today I've got the final 10 days of colouring from The Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge.  I totally enjoyed this challenge and I know I'll do it again!

Day 21 

 This one is a card that I made for one of my friends who organised the scrap retreat and features a chef from my colouring on Day 15.

Day 22

I used one of those unicorns from Gerda Steiner designs to make Michael a birthday card.  He totally loves unicorns so it was an easy choice to buy this stamp and die set.

Day 23

I stamped and cut a few hedgehogs on watercolour paper.  They are from MFT's Happy Hedgehog stamp and die set.

Day 24

Lots of brown colouring today using Distress Inks.  I love the richness of colours you get when you layer the inks.

Day 25

Time to break out the colour!  I added some red, orange, greens and blue to the little hedgehogs... thank goodness for having Google on my phone when I was looking for the acorn colouring!

Day 26

Time to make a background for my hedgehog card.  I blended Distress Inks onto Bristol Smooth cardstock... love how easy the ink blends together!  

While I had my inks out I inked and blended another piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock so that I could cut some Autumn/Fall leaves.

Day 27

I inked up some more Bristol Smooth cardstock using Distress Oxide Ink - mostly using browns - to make the frame for my card.  I used Lawn Fawn's Leafy Tree Backdrop for this card.  As you can see I also added some water spritzing to my background from Day 26.

Day 28

Yay a finished card!  I added a couple of hedgehogs (which I backed with foam for extra dimension) along with some Autumn/Fall leaves.  This card was for a friend of mine who has been unwell (read that as 'sick as a dog!') she also loves hedgehogs so I was pretty sure she was going to like this one.

Just lately I've been decorating the inside of my cards as well and I haven't really shown them but I'll share this one with you as I'm super pleased with how it turned out:

Day 29

Since I had all the things out for my previous hedgehog card I thought I'd make one more.  This one was scraplifted from Tricia Barber:

Day 30

For the last day of the challenge I really didn't know what I wanted to make/colour so I stamped some polar bears, heat embossed and then die cut them... and to be honest they're sitting in a little container waiting to be coloured because I had some other projects that needed my attention.

And now for some Chloe time... being a Nana is awesome!!  I love this little girl so much already.  Mikayla and Chloe flew into Rotorua last Monday and the snuggles and cuddles commenced immediately!  Auntie Krystal came with me to the airport and it's been an awesome week of family time since then.  Here's a few little snippets from this week:

Shopping in Farmers with Nana.  She slept like this for about half an hour and it's was lovely :)

Uncle Toby has totally fallen under Chloe's spell.  He absolutely adores her! 

 Chloe was having some tummy time so Uncle Toby joined in :)

Miss Chloe was helping me in the kitchen... and sporting a new little onesie that Nana bought for her!

Thanks for visiting today... time for some more Chloe cuddles now xx

More rainbow cards... and a little bit of... Believe it or Not!

Hi there :)

I'm still loving my new stitched rainbow die and since I enjoyed making my card from yesterday so much I decided to go ahead and make a couple more... 'the same but different'.

Here's my card from yesterday:

I was busy putting together my next card when I noticed a cute little dragon that Krystal had coloured with my Zig Clean Color Markers and he was the perfect purple to go with the purple on the rainbow.  Then I decided I needed to add a different sentiment so I die cut 'thinking' from Tim Holtz - Celebration word dies... the 'of you' was from a Hero Arts stamp and die set called Prayers.

The final step was to add some purple rhinestones for the 'tittles' and my card was done.  Here's how it turned out... isn't that baby dragon super cute??

I went through some of the other images Krystal and I have been colouring and found a little duck from the Gerda Steiner - Lucky Duck stamp set.  He seemed to be waving at me so I cut 'HELLO' from my Tim Holtz - Alphanumeric dies.  No rhinestones this time... pretty simple really!

And here's my cards together... have to say I'm pretty pleased with them:

It's hard to believe, but, the school summer holidays are practically over... it's back to school tomorrow and although I'm a little excited there's also a little bit of this going on in my head:

I'm sure it will all be fine when my alarm clock goes off in the morning... I'm sure I won't miss getting into my art studio... LOL who am I trying to convince??

Meanwhile I have a little bit of home stuff to share with you.  We've been having open homes and we've had some good feedback.  One of the things mentioned was that the windows and doors needed a little bit of attention so Michael has been painting them.  He's worked his magic around about half of the house now.

Here's a 'before' picture of one of the window frames... to be honest I'd never really noticed the colour before... I guess I just got used to it over time:

It's kind of a nondescript peachy/creamy colour... but now the windows are looking more like this:

I'm amazed at how much more modern they look!  Michael also installed a new light above the door so it looks really good now!

He also got 'painty' with the back door... love how this turned out!

We don't have a cat but both Toby and Nivea poke their heads through when they get put outside!  I'm also greeted by one of their heads through the cat door when I get home every day...  quite cute really.

The back deck area is looking very smart now too:

It's quite cute that Nivea's dog house matches in with the new paint job too!

And now for some Believe it or Not... or as I like to put it... 'Will the man never learn' files! 

Remember when Michael fell of the ladder/concrete wall because of his jandals?  Well it would seem that he has yet to learn his lesson about wearing jandals up on the ladder... and while I do admire his 'kiwi ingenuity' in getting the window frames painted I do despair of his 'health and safety' abilities... have a look at the photos and you'll see what I mean... about the kiwi ingenuity and the jandals!

Yes that IS Michael up the ladder... wearing jandals... again!

In spite of the fact that he was up the ladder he was still finding it hard to reach a few places but with a little kiwi ingenuity he had an 'extendable paint brush'!

I thought this one was quite clever... using the 'extendable' paint brush from the safety of the deck... and then I came outside to find him doing this:

Oh dear... it seems that I'm in for a long road of dubious safety photos ahead of me!

Meanwhile, the fur babies were not to be left out of the action!  Yesterday I spent quite a long time cleaning down the stair leading to outside... I brushed, washed and scrubbed the concrete steps until they looked really good... and then this morning 'someone' did this:

Michael said it was Toby... but I suspect Nivea did her fair share of digging and dirt spreading as well!

So that's it for today... back to school tomorrow so I think I might head down into my art studio for the afternoon.  Thanks for visiting the blog today xx