Awakeri Rail Adventures

Hi there :)  Every now and then you get to experience something that you just HAVE to share with others... and this is one of those times.

On Friday, 21st April, Mum celebrated her birthday... she also celebrated her retirement!  Krystal thought this was worthy of a little getaway so she planned a couple of nights away at  Awakeri Springs.  We stayed in one of their cabins and it was perfect for our needs.  Nice and close to Whakatane for shopping and eating out... but just rural enough to be super quiet... and who could resist having a hot swim at the end of the day... certainly not us!

We didn't take any photos of the hot pools at night but it's really lovely... and best of all, on our second night we had the entire pool to ourselves!

Getting back to Friday... when Krystal was booking our accommodation she saw a link to Awakeri Rail Adventures and decided to do a bit of investigating.  It sounded really good and she even managed to get us some discount vouchers from Grab One so we were all in... and what an AWESOME time we had!

Our host (the owner) was Paul and he was hilarious.  Right from the moment we arrived we felt like he was on old family friend.  Paul had an excellent sense of humour, he was witty and had some fabulous one-liners... and his impressions of Prince Charles and the Queen were beyond funny!

You travel on the rail adventure inside self-driven rail carts and since Mum and I both had our cameras Krystal decided that she would be our chauffeur.  Between us we took almost 500 photos during our three-hour adventure... Mum took 342 of them!

I decided to do something a little different this time so I used Kerri Bradford's - Travelers Templates #3 to record our trip.  I really like all the white space and the clean, uncluttered layout.

Here's how it turned out:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

I really loved using these templates and how easy they were to use.  I don't actually have a travelers notebook but I think I might print these pages off and add them to a spiral notebook in my stash.

After we finished our rail adventure we took Mum to The Whitehouse Cafe for lunch.

We had a yummy lunch but the highlight for me was without doubt the old fashioned lemonade float.  They make their own lemon syrup and lemon sorbet for this little delight... and it was just eye-twitching enough to be tangy but refreshing!

So there you have it... a birthday celebration and the start of a happy retirement.

Thanks so much for stopping by today xx

Project Life - January

I've been thinking a lot about Project Life lately... will I - won't I do it?  Do I want to?  Do I want to change how I do it?  Can I get enough photos each week?  Do I want to tell more 'story' about what is going on in our lives? Do I want to cut down to one page protector per week?  Digital vs hybrid?  You get the picture??

Anyway, as I was thinking, pondering and wondering about all these things... and as January was quickly going by... Cathy Zielske posted something to her blog that made me go... YES that's how I want to do this!  Here's a link to Cathy's POST.

I loved what she'd done for several reasons:

1.  I LOVE Cathy's use of white space, wide page margins and her signature 'clean' look
2. It was completely digital which makes it easier to share online because I don't have to try and take photographs of my finished pages in low level lighting in winter
3. Instead of having two heaving albums I will have one photo book
4. I can change the layout of each individual page without having to buy special page protectors and trying to match up the back and front sides of each page protector
5. I don't have to buy new albums (which I'm fast running out of room to store)
6. I don't have to buy more page protectors and inserts
7. I don't have to go and get photos printed off each week
8. I REALLY liked the monthly layout Cathy used

I already knew that I liked working with Cathy's templates because I've purchased several of them over the past few years and used them in other projects so, with all that in mind, I decided to go ahead and purchase a couple of the templates Cathy used for her Project Life book and give it a go... and here's what I've come up with for January:

 

I've decided to use my favourite black, white and red colour combo for my album but I'm also adding in a little bit of light and dark grey, limey green and dark turquoise as well just to add some visual interest.  Since Nivea was brand new to our family she features quite heavily in the photos :) 

Michael got busy making Nivea her own little dog kennel which she totally loves... although she still prefers to sneak up to the bedroom and get on our bed at every opportunity.  Michael also spent quite a  bit of time making our backyard 'Nivea proof'.  She's a great jumper and has proven that she can also dig holes!  At one stage she disappeared and we had no idea where she was until we spotted her coming back under the neighbours fence from the park.  Turns out she'd jumped the fence between us and the neighbour and then dug a hole under their fence and was quite happily playing in the park!  The fence has now risen to 1.8 metres and further unsupervised trips to the park have been stopped!

Krystal moved home in early January, complete with a portable cabin.  It fits perfectly on our patio and gives her... and us... some privacy while also being close enough to hang out together on a daily basis.  Michael managed to 'break' the washing line in half... it had three loads of washing on it at the time!  There wasn't a lot of point in repairing the old line as the whole pole had rusted so we headed down to Bunnings to get a replacement.  He got it all set up and concreted in place... and then it rained for three days so it was a little while before I could try it out but it works great!  Esther and Liam came to visit for a few days and Esther and I spent some time in the art studio... good fun and we enjoyed playing around with paint, stain, ink and stamps!

The herbs in our front garden were coming to an end so I decided to have a go at preserving some sage.  I made sage butter and sage oil and they both turned out great!  Nivea and Toby have discovered that when Michael leaves to go to work they can watch him from the bedroom window.  As soon as he goes out the front door they rush down to the bedroom, hop on the bed and watch him as he goes up the road... super funny!  I've been going to an osteopath for a few weeks now and it's made a HUGE difference!  You might not recognise Miss Mikayla... she's dyed her hair bright purple!  Actually I think it really suits her :)

Nivea inherited a pink piggy toy from Toby.  Mikayla gave it to him when she was up in October but he just didn't take any interest in it so when Nivea liked it he pretty much just let her have it.  Turns out she's as good at de-stuffing a toy as Toby used to be and we had 'piggy fluff' all over the lounge for days on end!  Mum and I had a little bit of photo fun when we took the dogs for a walk in the forest.  On January 17th a new phase in my life started... a signed up for boot camp!  It all started off with being weighed, measured and pinched... and the numbers were not in the least bit impressive!  I now attend boot camp on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and I'm LOVING it!  

Each evening we get put through our paces... and there's a LOT of us!  More than 400 people signed up for boot camp and there's people from all different walks of life... we're all on our own journey towards health and fitness and it's one of the best things I've done for myself in years!  No we didn't buy another car... the purple car is Miss Mikayla's new pride and joy... and it matches her hair!  I did get the opportunity to go up to Whangarei for a few days to visit Dad and Jan.  Miss Nivea thought she was going to come for a car trip too but she was sadly mistaken.  Dad, Jan and I spent lots of time just hanging out, catching up and chatting.  I even managed to go walking separately with both Dad and Jan which was great.  On the way home I was a bit heavy-footed and managed to get myself a speeding ticket which Michael has taken great joy over teasing me about!

I added some journaling to my album... nothing too heavy, more just a brief overview about what had happened during the month.  Little things to make it all more interesting.  I also figured out how to take a screenshot from my phone and upload it into my page... just a little bit of evidence about my steps, water and active minutes for my journey towards health and fitness.

For my final page for January I did a 'snapshots' page.  Some of the photos had already appeared in the previous pages (like my shoes, the berries and the blanket box)... and some of them are photos that didn't really fit but which I like for one reason or another... like the cool handwash bottle I bought in Whangarei... or the fact our herbs are growing so well... or the HUGE tomatoes Dad grows so one slice fits an entire piece of toast!  I also included a quote and a piece from my Move More Eat Well class.

I like that I can tell a bit of story but I can also let the photos do the talking.  I love that it was 'time manageable' to put my pages together. I also like that I can easily move things around if I want to.

At this stage, the idea is to complete 4-6 pages per month and then do a 'snapshots' page with some of my favourite photos.  

I've downloaded the personalised photo book app from Vistaprint to my desktop and as I complete my pages I'm simply putting them in the order they will go in the book... that way at the end of the  year all I'll have to do is wait for a good deal (they come up all the time) and order my book.  

One thing I've discovered with the Vistaprint app is that you can have more than one book being created at a time so I'm currently working on Mikayla's overdue 21st album as well.  

Thanks for visiting and any feedback would be greatly appreciated xx

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)
Well it’s Friday again which means it’s time for another Feel Good Friday. 
This week we did a WHOLE SCHOOL trip to Fairy Springs to help them celebrate Save the Kiwi week.  We weren’t the only school invited and it was a pretty awesome event.
Here’s a photo and a few details from the local paper:
Hundreds of school children helped celebrate Save Kiwi Week at Rainbow Springs yesterday. Photo / Stephen Parker
School children donned beaks and helped Rainbow Springs celebrate Save Kiwi Week with a special visit.
About 800 children from Horohoro School, Kaharoa School and Selwyn Primary School gathered yesterday for a celebratory photo.
The aim was to get 1250 children, one for each of the kiwi chicks that have been raised at Kiwi Encounter and released into the wild. Wild weather on Tuesday meant the visit had to be rescheduled.
Since we’ve been talking a lot about kiwi’s at school I thought it was a good idea to ‘go with the flow’ and use some beautiful kiwi images for my album and here’s the results: My album is getting quite full now and I think it’s going to make a really nice ‘coffee table’ album to browse through.
I hope you’re all having a good week xx

One Little Word: September Update

Hi everyone :)

Somehow the last few weeks have flown by without me updating my One Little Word project and it’s already half way through October.

This month Ali asked us to interview someone about our word and the progress we’re making with it.
I decided to ask Mum for her input and she was happy to do it… but she was also worried about getting it ‘wrong’.  In the end we sat down together at the retreat and spent some time just talking about my word.  It was a really nice time to connect with each other and she did a GREAT job!

As you know, I went to visit my sister last week.  Tracey didn’t actually know that I was doing this project and doesn’t read my blog so she came at the interview from a completely different angle.  The funny thing is that both of these interviews really resonated with me.
Here’s my first September page (6x8 size):

And here’s the second page which actually contains the answers to the interview questions:
I’m really quite pleased with how it all turned out in the end.  The October prompt is much more creative so I’m looking forward to spending some time on it!
Hope you’re all having a great week xx

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

If you’re a regular visitor to my blog then you’ll know that this year I’ve been doing some PD (Professional Development) in writing.  In all the years I’ve been teaching I’ve had LOADS of PD in maths and reading… mostly because that’s what a lot of primary schools seem to focus on… but I’ve never, ever had the opportunity to do writing PD.

I seem to have taken to it like a ‘duck to water’ and I’m very happy to say that my kids writing has really improved this year!

I decided to do some ‘report writing’ with them because in the past I’ve really struggled to teach this style of writing and it’s generally ended up with kids copying information from books, articles and the internet… but no more!

We’ve done a piece of report writing about ‘How bees make honey’  (Sheree will be pleased) and the kids are mostly finished now.  I thought they were doing well but when the Principal came in and read some of the reports and asked them ‘where did they copy the information from’ the kids quickly informed him that they had written their reports in ‘their own words’… he was flabbergasted because even my ‘low writers’ had done a really good piece of writing!

While he was in the room he was asking them questions about honey making and they were using words like… labour-intensive and enzymes… they even told him that basically honey is like ‘bee vomit’ because ‘the bees regurgitate the nectar to get it from the worker bees to the hive bees’… was he impressed?  TOTALLY!!  Although, I think it may have put him off eating honey on his toast for a while. LOL

So in honour of my kids writing I’ve got a page for my album all about bees and honey:

I hope we haven’t put you off honey!

Have a great Friday and wonderful weekend xx

One Little Word: July update

Hi everyone :)

Somehow the end of July came without me having said anything at all about the One Little Word prompt for this month… but as it turns out I can now share the whole thing in one go!

This month’s prompt involved ‘sticky notes’ and  several different options for how to go about the project.

Here’s a little bit about what Ali asked us to do:

1. A daily/weekly visual reminder of your word.  Each time I see them it will be a signal to be more aware of how my word is currently working and what action I need to take.
2. A specific task to identify something during your day that relates to, or was influenced by, your word. You need to make a connection _ sometimes
   that will be super easy and other times it will be more of a challenge to find something over the course of the day that shows your word working in your life.
3. An alternative approach is to set it up simply as a reminder to GO and DO something related to your word - once a day for seven days, a month or
   some other number in between.

Originally I had planned on doing something quite specific for a week… but as July rolled on and the stress of school, reports and life in general occurred it didn’t really happen.

Thankfully I take a HUGE amount of photos for Project Life… in fact lots of my photos never actually make it into the pages but I take them anyway.

When I went back over my July photos – which are all in folders and organised by date and event – I was able to piece together a calendar of sorts.  My word for 2013 (Choices) seemed to appear in so many of my photos which just goes to show that it was the right word for me this year.

Here are my pages for my 6 x 8 album:

In spite of the fact that my specific week didn’t happen, my word ‘CHOICES’ has become such a big part of my day to day life that I’m quite often consciously aware of it… and these photos have shown me that it’s also a sub-conscious part of my day to day life as well.

So that’s my update for the One Little Word project… I’m really looking forward to receiving the August update later on tonight to see what this month is going to focus on.

Enjoy the rest of your week xx

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

Another Friday has rolled around again… and it’s only a couple more days until school starts for the third term.  I’ve been busy doing some ‘organisational stuff’ for my craft room and I’m in a pretty happy place right now :)

Over the years I’ve had several different friends and family members give me help and advice on how to organise my craft room… and no matter what we’ve done it just hasn’t really worked for ME.  I get it all tidied up and as soon as I do a project the whole thing falls apart again.  But I’ve come to realise a few things:

1. I don’t really like plastic storage in my craft room
2. I’m probably not going to put the lid back on the container
3. It’s got to be quick to tidy up
4. I HAVE to be able to find things when I need them

Since I’ve been doing my art journal pages I’ve found a system that seems to be working for me… and that’s got to be a good thing! 

The next  step was to transfer what IS working for me to a bigger scale and I think I’ve really cracked it this time! 

I’m not quite ready to share what I’m working on yet… mostly because it’s not actually finished but I did browse around the internet for some craft room organisational ideas and there are so many options out there… along with some really pretty and functional scrap/craft spaces so here’s my layout for this week:

My biggest piece of organisational advice is to think about the way YOU work and what YOU like and go from there.

Happy Friday xx

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

It’s definitely a Feel Good Friday for me today!  My reports are finally finished, checked, edited and most importantly DONE!  Such a relief :)

Having Teacher Only Day on Monday has significantly cut into the ‘holiday feeling’ this week but I’m very happy to report that the mojo didn’t leave me when I came home from Krystal’s and I’ve actually finished another page in my art journal which I’ll share with you later on today.

My page was completely inspired by a photo I saw on the internet of a gorgeous sunflower.  In spite of the cold weather we’re having here in NZ it reminded me that winter will pass and summer will come again!

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” – Hal Borland

This week I’ve created my page dedicated to sunflowers and the promise of warmer weather to come.

It must be time to light the fire and warm the house up!

Have a great Friday everyone xx

Project Life: Week 28 and an insert

Hi everyone :)

I bet you thought I was a bit late today because I was already enjoying the school holidays… and I WISH you were right!  Instead I’ve been busy all weekend writing reports and have just this minute put the last full stop in place… but it’s not holiday time for me yet because I’ve got a Teacher Only Day tomorrow… totally SUCKY!

Now that I’ve had my little rant let’s get on with the week that’s just been.  Here’s an overview:

When I was putting together the pages for this week I realised how much food there was!  It seems like almost every space was filled with it!!  We spent the last week of school finishing off tasks and making bread… totally delicious and it certainly made the classroom smell fantastic!

I’ve also made the decision to put an idea I’ve had for a long time into action… after all there’s no point just talking about ideas if you don’t act on them.

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

In amongst all the cooking I’ve also managed to get a little creative… although not with my own projects!  I’ve been teaching some technique classes which are going really well and I’ve been able to incorporate some of my art journal techniques into them which is great.

I’ve also been bringing home my kids work and getting it all ready for our wall displays.  It’s very time consuming… and I sure do go through a lot of double sided tape… but the look on the kids faces when they see their work on the wall is well worth the time and effort involved.

As most of you already know, we had our Masterchef competition at school on Thursday and I got busy making an apron for the winner.  I’ve been using my sewing machine quite a bit lately and really loving it!

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

On Thursday night our senior school team went out for dinner and it was great to have a little down time… no 'school talk’ allowed!  We had a great evening and I’m so pleased we did it!

On Friday we made more bread… as if we needed any more by then!  On Monday it was plain white bread.  On Wednesday we made two loaves… one has mixed herbs in and the other was cranberry and mixed spice.  On Friday we made walnut bread… nutty and really delicious!

Saturday was spent sitting in front of my work laptop writing reports… I did get quite a lot done on them and so I let myself have a night in front of the TV and loved watching the new ‘Blue Bloods’ last night.  Tom Selleck actually plays his role quite well :)

Mum has been busy creating and she sent my ‘in progress’ photos of her latest project.  She saw some altered shoes in one of her scrapping magazines and decided to use a pair of Richard’s old work boots to alter and here’s the results so far:

Here’s the side where she’s captured a farm scene (Richard spent several years farming).  She’s got out all her folk art paints and she’s putting them to great use!

The heel of the boot features a bull behind a fence scene… apparently faces are hard to do!

And here’s how the two scenes join up!  Mum said she’s got heaps more to do on the boot but quite frankly I’m in awe of what she has already accomplished!  Don’t you love her clean work space!  If it had been me I’d have all the paints lying around the boot and paint splatters everywhere LOL

Now for the insert!  Between Carey and myself we took over 300 photos during the Masterchef competition so I decided to do a double sided 6 x 12 collage of the event.  The front shows the boys making their cupcakes and the judges taste testing them:

And the back features the boys icing and decorating cupcakes along with the judges and teachers getting in on the photos:

So there you have it… the final week of Term 2 and ALMOST time for me to have a much needed break.  Roll on Teacher Only Day LOL

Have a great week everyone xx

Feel Good Friday… and a school event!

Hi everyone :)

As most of you already know, we’ve been studying food and cooking in the senior school this term and a couple of weeks ago I did some ‘in class’ competitions which a couple of the other teachers ‘borrowed’ for their classes as well… which led us to have a final which happened yesterday.

What started off as a ‘simple thing’ for my class grew into something way bigger than I’d envisioned and it was amazing.

We organised special guest judges… signage… prizes… and so much more.  We had goodie bags for each of the three finalists and I probably broke a significant number of copyright laws creating an apron for part of the winners prize bag but sometimes a teacher just has to step outside the rules LOL

Here’s my contribution to the goodie bag:

Our guest judges were actually tutors from the polytech chef training course (Bart and Bryon) and they were absolutely fabulous.  They helped our three finalists… gave them some pointers and really encouraged them!  Thanks so much guys!!

Carey made each of the boys a ‘masterchef’ hat and we also found out about the ‘tradition’ of chef hats.  Did you know that a traditional chef hat has 100 pleats to represent the 100 ways to cook eggs?  Me either!  There are actually more than 100 ways to cook eggs but back when chef hats were first designed that’s how it was LOL

Here’s ‘my boy’ (Te Kaka) who came second in the competition… he wasn’t letting go of his well earned certificate either!

The boys had to make cupcakes which they were judged on for: taste, hygienic working methods, colour, texture, taste and consistency.  The judges certainly enjoyed the taste testing too: 

Then they had to ice and decorate five cupcakes that were pre-made (we knew we didn’t have time to let theirs cool down).  They did a totally amazing job… which brings me to this weeks Feel Good Friday dedicated to cupcakes!

I’m thinking it must be time to do a bit of baking again!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend xx

Project Life: Week 27 and some extras!

Hi everyone :)

This week marks the beginning of my second album for the year and of course I wanted a ‘title’ page for it.  I’m a big believer in having ‘an attitude of gratitude’ and I thought it might be a nice way to start my album so here’s my first page:

I have so many things that I’m grateful for but in all honesty the things I’d miss most in my life and the people who are close to me… my girls, my parents, my sisters, my friends and of course Toby (who thinks he is a ‘people’!)

It’s been a great week here and it was super easy to put together this weeks layout because I had so many photos to use:

Almost every day this week I’ve been working on my ‘secret’ project and I can now reveal that I have been making art journals!  I’ve had so much fun choosing fabrics and coordinating ribbons, doing all the sewing and actually using my iron!  I’ll share the actual art journals with you in this post as well :)

We’ve had a busy week at school and the kids were keen to share their math skills with Matua Aaron playing NIM… the kids haven’t actually worked out the foolproof strategy yet but they do have fun trying to work it out!

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

Our school kapahaka group were invited to perform down at the Rotorua library and all the kids in the group were keen to take part.  I managed to get a photo of my boys with their faces done but didn’t get one of them in their outfits.  Evelyn came to get her photo done and I actually managed to talk her into doing a pukana for me… her mother was very grateful and has asked for some photos :)

Toby on the other hand, did not have a good start to the week.  I’d just bought myself some new ‘home socks’ and wore the just once… the following night he greeted me with one of my socks in his mouth and half the soul missing… he really couldn’t figure out why I was not thrilled with his behaviour!

We also had an Australian band visit for a performance and the kids loved hearing all the movie tunes they played!

This week also marked the class ‘final’ for our cook off… and it was super serious!  There were four kids along with Matua Aaron in the final and they were all determined to win.  The good news is that we had HEAPS of pikelets to share!

Te Kaka won our class final and is now in the BIG final on Thursday next week.  We’ve organised for two tutors from the Chef training division of the polytech to come and be our guest judges and the kids are going to be making and decorating cupcakes… it’s a pretty big deal really!

Toby got himself into even more trouble on Thursday be borrowing/stealing an egg tray (luckily it had no eggs in it!) but he did manage to tear it up into really little pieces which he proceeded to put into his bed… boys will be boys I guess!

We had a hockey game for sports on Thursday afternoon and Matua Aaron was not against using his height to help him score goals when playing with the kids.  It was his last week and he’s done a great job!

Mr Pope (my former Principal) has been coming to school one afternoon a week and doing art classes with selected children and two of mine got into the art group.  They were pretty stoked when their painting were shown at the school assembly on Friday!

On Thursday night I got the last of the art journals sewn and then on Friday I went over to Mum’s and we had a button making and sewing session.  Thanks for all your help Mum!

On Saturday, Mum and I headed up to Auckland for a look at the SENZ expo and came away with a few goodies (as well as catching up with some new and old friends)… I’m looking forward to getting a chance to ‘play’ with some of my new purchases when I do my next art journal pages!

And now for the art journals themselves.  I’ve had a really good reaction from everyone who’s seen them and here they all are… 12 in total!

I’ve put them all up for sale on Trade Me so if you’d like to get one for yourself here’s the link to the AUCTIONS

So that’s been my week… now it’s time to go and get some more school reports done!

Have a good week everyone xx

Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone :)

This week has certainly rolled around really quickly!  I’m currently busy writing reports for my class and I needed to have something to do to ‘unwind’ so I’ve been busy sewing my ‘secret project’ and it’s coming along extremely well! 

It’s a long time since I’ve had my sewing machine out and to be honest I’ve been enjoying sewing fabrics and ironing seams so they sit right (yes my iron has actually been used on fabrics LOL), top stitching and getting everything to line up… and it’s reminded me of many happy times I’ve had sewing different things.

One of the nicest things has been sewing with my machine on the dining room table and having my birthday flowers beside me… the scent is unbelievable and I’m getting a lot of pleasure out of them!

So here’s my layout this week:

I love that it’s the ‘little things’ in life that bring so much happiness and joy on a day to day basis.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend xx

Project Life: Week 26 and the last page

Hi everyone :)

You know how sometimes you just feel good… you know, like REALLY GOOD!  Well that’s me today!

Mikayla cooked me breakfast for my birthday since she’s been busy all week… I started a new ‘top secret’ project and it’s going super smoothly… and I just feel like I’m on top of things.  It’s a good place to be :)

Here’s an overview of my week:

It was super cold here on Monday morning and my poor car looked like something you might see on ‘ice road truckers’.  When I finally de-iced the windscreen and started the car the temp was –0.3 which is pretty cold for me… I’m more of a summer girl LOL

When I got home on Monday Mikayla was super excited.  She’d won a FREE carpet shampoo and ‘the man’ was coming in less than half an hour.  Not really the welcome I was hoping for!  The man duly arrived at 6.30 and of course Mikayla was so excited that she hadn’t cooked dinner yet…. but ‘the man’ didn’t leave until 9.30pm by which time I was getting pretty annoyed… especially since I’d told him that ‘Mikayla won this’ and it was nothing to do with me LOL

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

In New Zealand we’ve just experienced the ‘super moon’ and it was pretty spectacular!  The sky was really bright for several nights but on Tuesday morning the moon looked quite ethereal over my neighbours roof so I had to take a photo.

Mikayla has been teasing Toby by sitting on his new sheepskin bed and he’s been getting himself all wound up… it’s not much fun for Toby but it is funny watching them behave like little kids!

On Wednesday I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me following a hugely horrible experience from last Friday catching up with me.  I was all over the place and needed some time to get my head together again so I had a ‘mental health day’ and did some art journaling and I can honestly say it was the cheapest and most productive form of therapy ever!

On Thursday I felt so much better and was back at school which was just as well because it was also my birthday!

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

I’d been telling the kids at school for days that my birthday was coming up and on Thursday I received several bars of chocolate along with some V drinks… they know me so well :)

I also had cards from family and friends and then at morning tea time the most gorgeous flowers turned up and got everyone thinking that I had a new man in my life… some of them were actually disappointed when I told them Krystal had sent them LOL  The flowers are currently in a vase on my dining table and the perfume coming into the lounge is beautiful!  Thank you so much Krystal xx

Mum sent me a photo of the note I’d left in her diary… I’d forgotten I’d done that.  Mum always said that if it wasn’t on the shopping list or in the diary then it wouldn’t happen.  (The big present didn’t happen either… even though it was in the diary… but I did get taken out for lunch!!)  Actually every time I go to Mum’s I add things to her grocery list… chip and dip, chocolate, treats for Toby but somehow they always get crossed off before she does the groceries!

Toby was VERY interested in my dinner on Thursday night… especially with my dessert!

He’s a total drama queen when it comes to the camera and I often have to take photos of him just to get him out of the way and be able to get the photos I really want to take!

Friday was busy with our Room 4 Masterchef challenges which the kids are totally loving and tomorrow we have our class final!

Yesterday Mum came over and took me out for lunch which was lovely and then we did some shopping… actually we ended up spending the entire afternoon shopping and we had such a good time.  She helped me pick out lots of fabrics for a project I’ve had in my mind for a while (the ‘secret one’) and I’m happy to report that I’m having some success with it so I’m sure I’ll share it with you sometime soon.

This week marks the half way point in 2013 and my first album of the year is pretty full so I decided to do a final page for the back of the album before starting album number 2.  I found lots of cool quotes that I wanted to remember so I spent a bit of time putting them together with some photos and here’s what I came up with:

So that’s my week and the end of album Number One!

I hope you all have a happy and safe week xx