Yep … I just signed up for design school at the Bad Girls Academy. Okay so right now I’m labeled as a ‘goodie two shoes’ but I’m gonna try real hard to be bad … honest!

I figured that while everyone else was enjoying the olympics at The Sketchbook it was a good time for me to go back to school and do some learning of my own. And besides, it seems to fit nicely with my rebellious attitude I’ve developed lately… part of the whole ‘season’ thing I was talking about.

Ooooh and how long has it been since I’ve been able to show a sneak peek of something?

This is a little something I’ve been working on for Fiskars…

more will be revealed next week.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Seasons

I’ve been thinking a bit about seasons lately.

There’s no doubt that I’m looking out for every sign of spring, knowing that summer will follow on from there. And summer means blue skies, warm sun and a happier me. It’s not that I don’t like the cool crispness of winter, the warmth of a good fire and a bowl of soup but I’m a little over the dull, grey days and the wet and muddy ground outside.

It’s not just the weather seasons I’ve been thinking about. I posted this layout on the Fiskar’s blog recently …

I guess I’m in an ‘end of winter’ season of my life at the moment. I’m totally over the whole housewife thing, Jessi is growing up, soon I’ll have 3 kids at school. There’s potential for lots of changes to happen in my life. I noticed there’s a part-time job going at one of the local schools … I considered it … briefly … then I realised that I wouldn’t be able to parent help at kindy, I’d have to change my exercise plan, I’d need time off to go to Australia in November, I might miss out on meeting friends for coffee… so maybe I’m not quite ready to move on from this ‘season’ in my life just yet!

So, it’s Wednesday again … not quite sure how that happened!

1. The wedding.

2. Catching up with Hannah again … she’s so nice! She even gave my kids gifts.

3. I’m scrapping again … there’s an almost finished layout on my table and plans in my head for more.

4. Library d.v.d’s that keep the kids quiet on a wet afternoon.

5. Freshly bathed 4yr olds that love cuddles and smell nice and clean.

The Weekend that was

The wedding was very awesome.

Kids that don’t all look at the camera at the same time …

Jessi and her friend Amelia who we haven’t seen in a while … they only live about 10mins away, you’d think we’d be able to catch up more often.

The covered Bible I made for Jessi to give the bride.

The blue sky … the weather was awesome and no wind!

Hannah and I and the new blue top I found while shopping with Janine.

The black and white theme. Each table had one of these photos of Lauryn and Joel at some famous London place. They actually had a real double decker bus take them from the church to the reception venue … but I totally missed getting photos of that … maybe Hannah has some.

It was one of those really comfortable weddings, where everything was familiar, surrounded by friends and just really nice.

It was also a good weekend for scrappy mail. I received a pif gift in the mail from Australia … thanks Jasmine! It’s a very cool felt folder which I can store my yet to be scrapped photos in. I also received a little something from Aussie Scrap Source for the Who’s layout is it anyway comp … I wasn’t expecting a prize so that was a nice surprise. And Hannah gave me some very yummy goodies while she was here, papers and matching journaling cards and flowers which I would like to use right away … but I have a couple of other projects I need to work on first. Oooh and some Stampin’ Up! supplies also arrived … so it’s likely that my scrap desk will be in use a little more this week … about time too I think.

Blog awards and other stuff.

I’ve had some ‘Australian’ love sent my way this week!

The lovely Karen … whom I will get to meet in real life at the retreat in November … gave me this award.

And the totally talented Chris Miller gave me this one, along with a very nice compliment about my layouts.

When I have time to figure out how, I will add them to my sidebar … some blog housekeeping is long overdue actually! Now I know I’m supposed to pass them on but I want to put a little thought into that so I’ll leave it for another post, another time.

One more sleep before my friend and Hannah’s cousin Lauryn gets married. We had a kitchen tea, girly evening for her on Wednesday … I made a cake.

A tea towel and dishcloth cake with rubber glove flowers and washing detergent.

The idea totally copied from those nappy cakes I’ve seen on-line that people make for baby showers.

I’m now creating a horse shoe type thingy for Jessi to give her … only it’s not a horse shoe but a little Bible which I’m covering in fabric … hopefully it will turn out something like the picture in my head.

I also need to do just a little bit more housework before Hannah arrives … the creative mess story can only stretch so far!

This layout was done for the new sketch at The Sketchbook. Thanks to Kelly for lending me her circle punch in just the right size … I punched circles yesterday while having coffee with Kelly and Sarah and Janine.

More scrap therapy.

Speaking of The Sketchbook. There are an amazing number of people signed up for the Sketchbook Olympics.  It’s not too late to join in if you feel you want to raise your scrapbooking to olympian level … or even if you just want to have a bit of fun. Sponsored by Crafty Tart … it’s worth trying for a medal or two.

Happy Birthday Alexander

So … he’s officially 7 today.

This dinosaur loving, Ben 10 and Spiderman crazy, t.v watching kiddo is 7. He’s generally sweet, kind and thoughtful … like yesterday he walked through the kitchen and noticed me trying to cut pumpkin and he says ‘Mummy that looks really hard, when I grow up I’m going to cut the pumpkin for my wife!’

So the party …

There was alien cupcakes.

Rocket launching and coke and mentos fun. UFO flying (mini frisbies) and alien hand games (those sticky, stretchy hand thingys).

The flour game and the chocolate game. Notice the third eye on Jessi’s forehead … that would be for the alien treasure hunt … they had to find a bit of the ‘milky way’.

And then there was cake.

Spaceship cake with an alien on board. And there was green alien blood to drink … the fizzy sort.

And a very bad pic of the rocket loot bag which had their UFO, alien hand and a few other little bits inside. The kids decorated these themselves … yes I shared some of my scrap supplies … the design is actually the tube gifty thing that Sarah demonstrated at a recent Stampin’ Up! event I went to. Only I used a party hat for the top instead of a flat circle.

And mini M&M’s which I decorated like little rockets too.

And now the countdown has got that much more intense in the wait for a certain little miss to have her five birthday … February is such a looooong way off!

Scrap Therapy

11pm in a motel room in Wanganui the night before the funeral and I can be found scrapping! Therapy.

The funeral went as well as can be expected … it seems I have some ‘odd’ relatives … the kids all wanted to see Grandma’s body and were very interested in the burial process … Mum was worried Jessi was going to fall into the hole!

It’s been a full on couple of weeks … topped off today by Alexander’s Space/Alien party … coffee and coke can only do so much … right now I really need sleep!

Feeling the love …

Thanks so much for all your warm thoughts and words of sympathy … it means a lot.

So I’ve sat here for half an hour now … not knowing what to say next. I want to say that I saw Grandma lying peacefully in her bed, the rest home staff had put her teeth in and made her look nice and put her Bible on her chest. The funeral director came and spent ages filling in paperwork, he was very sensitive about transferring her body to his stretcher and covering her with a velvet cover, which we watched and even helped with. Then he pushed her out to his car making sure she left the building feet first … very important apparently. We had to go through her things to find a suitable outfit for her to be dressed in and then all her belongings had to be packed up and taken from the room. She is now in Wanganui awaiting Monday’s funeral.

The kids have all reacted differently. They have spent the last 4 years going regularly to the rest home to visit Grandma … that’s most of Jessi’s life … they saw her in bed last Wednesday when she clearly looked unwell, mumbling random thoughts without her teeth in … Rebekah was actually quite a good interpreter! Jessi saw her Friday when she was talking about the baby next to her (a cushion) hoping that he would hurry up and go to sleep so she could get some rest.

So Jessi was full of questions, she saw I had some of Grandma’s belongings in the car yesterday when I picked her up from kindy. We discussed why she didn’t need them any more and that Grandma was no longer there to visit. Alexander asked to just drive past the rest-home one more time. Rebekah was a little more emotional but hasn’t really talked much about it yet … I know she’s taking in all the details … like when we are traveling to Wanganui, who is coming when, what the funeral plans are etc.

So that’s what I want to say … is it wrong to talk so openly about that stuff?

And I also want to write a woo hoot Wednesday post

because there’s also been some pretty cool stuff happen this week.

Friday’s spontaneous trip to a shop in Brooklyn called Swonderful with Janine. I also took her to Inky Pinky in Karori and found some very cool cupcake paper thingys to cook my next batch of cupcakes in.

Saturday’s crop with the girls. Lots of fun … so relaxed … except for the 15mins I spent creating a layout for Lusi’s Friday night challenge at The Sketchbook with Mandy. And Mandy was tough, I wasn’t allowed a second longer that 15mins and she even hid my layout so I didn’t go on doodling and fluffing and stuff. I had such a nice day though, scrapping with good friends who shared stuff and ideas and made cups of coffee and all that …

Coke Zero … but I’ve really got to stop drinking it late at night. I was still bouncing off the walls at 1.30am the morning after the crop.

And I see my layout was voted by the design team at Aussie Scrap Source. Even with the really bad photo of it. Unfortunately I just couldn’t manage a layout or two for them this week … but Lara is still going strong if you want to vote.

The weather today.

Just had to take my camera on my walk today … Wellington on a good day … simply stunning.

Not sure if you can see it but there’s a snow capped mountain right behind those hills and that would be the South Island. I so love my new walking route!

Caring friends also make my woo hoot list too. Cards, flowers, blog and e-mail messages – thank you.

Getting Alexander’s birthday invitations made and out to his friends.

It’s a space party … baking soda rockets in the back yard … alien creations with my craft supplies maybe … any other ideas?

And now I’ve really gotta go do something … I haven’t scrapped since Sunday I think, unless you count the invitations.

She’s gone.

Grandma passed away this afternoon.

I’m grateful that I decided to go visit her this morning – I was supposed to be parent helping at kindy but I took some time out to sit with Grandma and then came back to help with the end of session tidy up at kindy.

While I sat with her I flicked through her Bible and took some comfort in the verses she had underlined and the notes she had written in the margins. I have no doubt that Grandma is now with her Maker in heaven and he will be telling her ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53 verse 5