Scrapfest 09
The weekend of January 17th & 18th was a BIGGIE in our household! I got together with Debbie and Pam to organise a local scrapbooking event and it all came together really well! We had classes, shopping, a crop night... and very little sleep (thanks to Esther!!! LOL)
Debbie, Pam and I each taught 4 classes over the weekend and it was pretty full on! And then we had the crop night on Saturday night as well. Mum came over and brought my Auntie Daphne with her and it really was an awesome weekend!
The girls helped out too.... Mikayla was my classroom assistant and Krystal ran the shop for the whole weekend... THANKS girls :)
Here's a photo of the girls with Mum... Poor Grandma really does have to look up to talk to them now!!
I was really lucky to finally meet Esther and Tricia over the weekend as well! Esther arrived from Wellington on Friday afternoon and kept me up talking until 4am!!! I loved this photo of the three of us taken at the crop night... hopefully I'll even get a mini album done one of these days!
Mum TOTALLY surprised me with a gorgeous cake she'd made especially for Scrapfest! It was really rich and decadent... EXACTLY what we all needed to keep us going until midnight!!! THANKS heaps Mum :) 
Tricia, Mum, Krystal and Auntie Daphne all went back to Tauranga on Sunday night.... and slept!!! Meanwhile Esther, Mikayla and I had fish and chips for dinner and couldn't get off the sofa because we were so tired! There were a few snores heard during the night LOLFamily catch up
Once Scrapfest was all done and dusted it was time to catch up with my sister and her family. I hadn't seen my wee nephew in a LONG time and he wasn't having it at all!!! He cried the whole time I was there and kept looking at me as if to say 'who are you???' But my sister did share this lovely photo of both my nephews with me since I didn't actually get to see 'Mr Smiley' smile at all!! 
A couple of weeks later it was 'Mr Smiley's' first birthday and this time he decided that Auntie wasn't so bad after all.... and by the afternoon even made his way to sit on my lap and have a few cuddles :)
Isn't he just GORGEOUS!!!! Mum had been busy buying the kids some matching clothes so we got a photo of the little ones together... minus Mr Smiley who was having a nap :)
Miss Kody was expecting the arrival of her little sister in a few weeks time and checking out all the dolls when we managed to get this photo of her in the dolls cradle... very cute!
Then it was back to school for me and the girls. Krystal's in the 6th form (Year 12) this year and VERY busy with all her assignments, projects, essays etc and she's also working part-time at Spotlight so it's pretty full-on with her! Mikayla is in the 4th form (Year 10) and 'beginning' to realise that she actually needs to do some work! We had parent/teacher interviews this week and both the girls are doing well :)
This year I'm teaching full-time again... and LOVING it! I'm working with the teacher from next door and we're running a pilot programme which is going really well. Instead of having a class each, we're working together with a class of 54 students! It's pretty full on but it's also having amazing benefits for the kids! Plus Ashley and I each get to use our strengths in teaching to better advantage. I did some art with the kids yesterday and it was awesome :) Ashley is REALLY good at science so each week he's doing science experiments with the kids (and I'm learning a huge amount!!!)
Creating My Life 09
After last year I decided that I wanted to be more 'in charge' of my life so I decided to make an album that was focussed more on journaling than photos to document what was happening each week. 
I thought other people might like to join in so I've been posting a new prompt each week (well... most weeks) so if you'd like to have a look and join in... click HERE to have a look!
Book Binding Night Class
I've been wanting to learn about book binding for a LONG time and the opportunity came up to do a night class focussed on hand stitched books. It was two sessions of fun, learning and techniques and here's the little book I made for myself:
I decided to use my book for all my kit ideas... I'm trying to be more organised this year! Then I went ahead and made a book each for two friends who design the monthly challenges for Scrapbook Dreams. Here's Esther's book:
And here's the one I made for Tricia:
Both of their books are 5" x 5" so they're perfect for designing layouts :)
New Family Member
As I said before... Kody was expecting her new sister's arrival... and she surprised us all by arriving 3 weeks early! Welcome to the family... Jessica (Jessy) Mackenzie :) Here's Kody and Jessy:
What a lovely newsy update, Shell. I really wish I could have come to your Scrapfest as the planning sounded great. Thanks for the reply on my blog - I'll be looking out for your kits
ReplyDeleteSpeak of the devil! I was wondering about you just yesterday :) So it was nice to see an update. All sounding good and lovely books there.
ReplyDeleteHello lovely :O) I just can't bring myself to write in my beauitful book!!! LOL
ReplyDeleteGosh end of March already, Seems such along time ago we were at Scrapfest! Im just very lucky to only be an hour away!