Not a pretty sight.....

....although not the worst job he's ever done. Here is the latest attempt on his hair. Hiding the scissors is futile as I swear he can smell them a mile away. So I'm tossing up, do I get in and fix it tonight, or send him to school with his own style????

Becasue I didn't have my camera....

...I missed the most amazing photo opportunity. I was gardening yesterday in Greenhithe. In the middle of some low down palms I was trimming was a birds nest, with 3 baby chicks crying out for mama. Damn they were cute (a little ugly too, but cute at the same time). What an awesome photo that would have been. I'm almost tempted to go back and see if they are still there just to get a photo.

Taryn and her drums

After 3 days on her drums...

Been a while....

Since I posted. Things have settled down a bit since my last post, just been so busy with other items, that I haven't had a real chance to sit and blog. Have had KaiserCraft orders coming out my ears with new orders still going through this week. Had the school Art Auction - it went amazingly well. I had said that I would like us to raise at least $2,000. We made $5,714.! Had a sausage sizzle the day of the elections, as our school hall was used as a polling booth. We sold out! then had Taryn's birthday to organise. Whilst she didn't have a party, we had a family afternoon tea on Wednesday and also had to try and get her new drum set in and set up on the Tuesday night. That was interesting! Tonight she is having 2 friends stay over, so hopefully that will be fun for her. She on the drums now, so I'll go and get a small video of how she plays after just 3 days and post it. This week I'll be preparing for the craft market being held next weekend. So everything has been pretty full on lately, but life is good.

It's Life Jim, but not as we know it...

Kinda feels like that round here some times.
All of a sudden, Jayden has decided to revert back to some behaviour that is just beyond any form of reasoning. It's inorganic collection time and so (despite our requests not to do so), he keeps heading out to find new junk to bring home. Some bits aren't so bad and we just ask him to go return them. However, we have also had; the old printer, which he proceeded to take apart, smash the ink cartridges and paint the outside downpipes, himself and his clothes with the ink and an old can of white oil based paint (gone off and lumpy) with which he decided to start painting the back fence (previously-whilst in need of repair and a repaint - dark brown). In the process he ruined a full set of clothes (including new jandals). He then proceeded to tip the entire tin of paint out onto the lawn. He was warned not go to near the paint again and to stay out of the backyard until we had managed to clean some of it up. Yesterday I noticed he was once again covered in paint. I told him off and sent him to his room, only to be told (by him yelling it at me), that it was not the same paint, it was from a different can from a different house!!! - Oh, that makes it allright then!
Along with that, we've had the pipe cleaner stuck into the electrical socket, a full container of powder emptied out in between our dressers (right over the hairdryer and all the plugs) and a new tube of lip balm cut up and dug out with tweezers and smeared everywhere!
I will never be able to say parenting Jayden was boring!!!

Most Improved...

Was the trophy Jayden received at his recent Rippa Rugby prizegiving. His coach Ken said some awesome words and accurately described how Jayden went from being a boy who cartwheeled all over the field last year looking at everything but what was happening on the field, to a child who got involved, concentrated on the game, scored some awesome tries, ripped loads of tags and was right up there this year. Is was heart warming to know all the decisions we made on his behalf and the changes to his diet were all worthwhile and had really paid off.

That was followed up by him being released from both the RTLB and ABT teams at school, as his reading level was now just above his age, no behavioural issues were being seen and all round, he was doing exceptionally well. Then last week, he gained his level 7 competency badge & certificate in gymnastics. What an awesome turnaround for this wee lad of ours! Very Proud of you Jayden!

Fairy Room Pictures

Taryn got in and cleaned her room up this morning, so couldn't miss the opportunity to take the photos. Goodness knows when it will be this tidy again. lol!

The photos don't really do justice to the cute little fairies around the room. So, I just have to paint her small bookcase and cork board purple, hang them up, then the room is complete. yeah!!

Goodbye Yellow

A few weeks back, I finally got around to redecorating Taryn's room. I say finally, cause I first decided to do it 3 years ago, asking her what she wanted in the way of colours etc. She wanted a fairy room, so seeing as it was 3 years later and she will be 11 at the end of this year, I double checked she still wanted the same thing and she did (thank goodness, as the new curtains, duvet cover and fairy related ornaments and items were all still in a bag downstairs).














Taryn wanted to help, so she had a go at sanding down the walls. We then cut in all the edges and corners and proceeded to cover the yellow walls in a very soft purply-pink colour (Taryn chose this colour herself).

We bought her a new (secondhand) desk. A large white one, with plenty of shelves and drawers to keep all her stuff. It was heavy and awkward, but Mike and I decided not to take it apart to take it upstairs, instead opting for the get it in quick theory. Darn thing was a nightmare on the stairs and anyone watching would have been in fits of laughter. After much grunting (and pain), we finally got it up to her bedroom door, to find it was 1 inch too large in any direction to go in in one piece, so we ended up taking the darn thing apart anyway. Argghhhh!

Up went the new curtains, the fairy motifs and on went the duvet and it looked just gorgeous!

I should have taken photos as soon as the room was completely finished, as within 1/2 an hour it was back to it's usual messy state, but I'll try and get a photo either today, or a day this week (when she's tidied it up a little) and post it. Room looks so lovely when it's tidy!

Last Try, Last Minute

That's exactly what Jayden got in his last game of Rippa Rugby for 2008. Boy was he fast too. He ran like the wind for that try, with everyone on the sideline cheering him on. He was so fast in fact that after I caught him running down the sideline and took the first photo, my camera was just too slow to recover sufficiently to catch the actual try, instead getting him as he stood up and walked away while the defending team all flopped on the ball (a few seconds too late sorry boys!). He's not sure if he's going to play tackle rugby next year. We think he's a natural and so will try to encourage him to continue. His stats for the season - 24 Tries, 88 rips!

Tea Cookies

These must be one of the easiest cookies to make. I pressed them through my cookie press, but you can also pipe them or simply place a spoonful on the tray and press them down with a fork. Not too sweet either. Just right.

150g butter

75gms caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

few drops almond essence

225g flour

glace cherries or candied peel to decorate

Preheat oven to 230c. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy then beat in egg, almond essence and flour.

Spoon, pipe or press mixture onto baking sheets, place 1/2 glace cherry or candied peel on top and bake for 5 minutes or until golden brown. How easy is that?

Time flies....

...when life gets just a little too crazy for comfort. Can't believe 3 weeks just zoomed by like that. I was starting to get in a groove of posting a bit more often, then wham! Everything at once. I guess life is like that sometimes - feast or famine.

Anyway, I have a few posts to catch up on which I'll get to over the weekend, but the news at present is -

• Ashley & Wendy are moving up to Auckland and will be coming to live with us. Actually Ashley's already here, Wendy arrives in just over a week. Emptying that spare room for them was such a good opportunity to have a huge clear out. Now that I've started, I just keep finding more and more stuff to get rid of!
• Jo and I did our first real catering gig (not friends/family). We had loads of fun, a great set of helping hands on the night (Thanks Miss Wendy), great wine served to us by the host, good music in the background and were well paid. Who could ask for more?
• Brian and Cathie are expecting-not sure on dates yet. Got the call from Bri 2 days after I emailed Cathie to tell her I had a dream about them buying all this baby gear!
• My car died. First kept cutting out on me, then all the electrics went and poor thing went away on a transporter. I'd like to say to the car graveyard and my new one's coming any day, but reality is that it's off being fixed (hopefully) and after it's transplant (hopefully from a previously strong donor car), should be back with us sometime next week. It's been painful being down to one car!

Memorable Moment

Another layout from another circle journal, titled "Memorable Moments" It required a page on yourself and a page on one of your memorable moments. This one was a little harder as there were a few memorable moments I could have used, but didn't have pictures for. I've also realised whilst doing all these circle journals, that I haven't had a decent photo taken of me in goodness knows how long. In fact, not even really 'any' photo. I've had to keep using the same photo, which is getting a bit boring. Have made a note to resolve this soon.

Only 2 more postings and my journal will be on it's way home to me - yeah! Can't wait to open it and dive on in.

Essence Of a Woman

Was the title/theme of one of the journals from my current cicrle journal group. A topic to really make you think. What is at the core of us. What did we dream of as little girls, what do we still dream/yearn for. What makes us who we are. How have we changed, so many questions, way too many answers (and personal feelings) for a 2 page layout, but here is what I created.
I think I may have to do a small format book for myself to expand on this a little. I enjoyed this particular journal because it brought out things I hadn't thought about in ages. It sent me back to a box of old photos which I poured through recalling memories from long ago. It was good! Two more journals in the circle to complete, then mine will be back with me. I can't wait to see it. I have more layouts from other journals to post, but as most of them are from journals of people I know read this blog and whom I know are waiting to see their journals finished (and have resisted temptation to peek when I had them), I'll leave those posts till the circle is completed.

White Icing is OK too

Jayden misses out on a lot of treat foods, due to added colourings, preservatives etc. Last week Taryn was enjoying a cupcake with orange icing (from the master cupcake maker - Glenna), that we had saved for her from our workshop. Jayden said why didn't you save me one. I explained that it had orange food colouring, which he wasn't allowed. He looked at me as if I was stupid and said - "You could have just cut the icing off you know!" - Yeah I know that, but what fun is that?

So today as I started baking, I thought about this again and decided I'd make him a batch of cupcakes (for all of us to share), with plain butter icing (no added colours). I thought they were going to look boring, but they actually looked quite cute. Had to add in some cocoa to the last few, to keep the chocolate mad Mike happy too.

Hmmm, they taste good too!

Missed Photo Opportunity

Last week I drove up the road and at the top of our street, at the house on the corner, was a newly erected letterbox post with the old letterbox perched neatly on top. I wish I had had my camera with me, but as I was running late, I didn't have time to go back and get it. For whatever reason, the occupants of this hosue had erected a letterbox on a post which stood about 5-6 metres up in the air? I forgot about it that afternoon and by the time I remembered to go snap a shot, the post had been cut down to normal size and a brand new letterbox was proudly sitting on the normal size post! I would have loved to have been there when the postie called by to deliver the mail the day before- that would have been a great shot!

Technology Frustration

Haven't posted for a few days as my Internet connection has never lasted long enough to get a post finished. Temporarily, whenever I want to go on line, I have to disconnect all the phones in the house. Bought a new modem as was thought that was the problem (some weeks back), and since then tried several different filters, but to no avail. Finally Xtra seem to be taking me seriously and have a technician coming out this week to install a splitter and provide a dedicated Broadband socket - yeah. Hopefully then I can have all my phones plugged back in and still use Internet, cause I have a few photos etc to load and a few posts to catch up on.

Whanau Day

The kids had Whanau Day at school last week, as part of Maori Language Week. Mike and I went along to watch the kids for their morning of activities. There was weaving, greenstone pendant making (cardboard coloured in) and Ta Moko designing. Taryn designed her own Ta Moko and then drew it on her face with eyeliner the teacher had supplied. Many kids wore them for the day. Jayden would only allow a butterfly to be drawn on his hand - that was it, but he did a pretty neat design on paper (photos of the paper designs to follow when I get them home). Here's Taryn on the day.

Yummy New Stamps

'Monarch' by Inque Boutique. I could barely resist ordering them on name alone (a little butterfly mad), but once I saw the image and saw the flourishes, dots and words, I really couldn't resist. They arrived yesterday and I used them twice today in one of the Circle Journals I'm currently working on....Yum!

Cookie Recipe

Here's that recipe I promised for those yummy cookies. I actually baked the 2nd batch slightly longer (got tied up doing other things) and they are just as yummy, just way crunchier. As I said in my previous post, the recipe makes 112 cookies. I halved it and got 96 normal size cookies. Let me know if you try them out and what you think.

2 (500 ml) cups butter 24 oz.
(680 g) chocolate chips
4 (1000 ml) cups flour
2 (500 ml) cups brown sugar
2 tsp. (10 ml) (Bicarb) soda
1 tsp. (5 ml) salt
2 (500 ml) cups sugar
18 oz (500 g) Hershey Bar (grated). (I used Cadbury)
5 (1250 ml) cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs 2 tsp. (10 ml) baking powder
2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla
3 cups (375 ml) chopped nuts ( optional )
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, Salt, baking powder, and Bicarb (soda).
Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts.
Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at (180 °C ) 375 degrees.

Wonderful Lazy Day

That's what today was for me. When I got up to make the kids lunches, Mike said, go back to bed, I'll get the kids off to school and come back home and join you. (It has rained for so many days, that he can't get out there and mow lawns, as most peoples grounds are just too soggy and it was raining again today). I thought about all the things I really needed to do today, but I was tired and thought, well another 1/2 hour would be nice, so I finished the lunches and went back to bed.

I woke up at 10.30am. Mike had come home and seen I was fast asleep again and didn't want to wake me, so he went and watched a movie while I slept. I got up, had a leisurely brunch, got dressed, put on a load of washing and then sat and talked with Mike (it's unusual for us to have so much time alone together during the day - it was really nice), even watched a bit ot telly with him (my usual is about 3 hours a week!).

Then we went up to the mall and did some window shopping, a spot of grocery shopping and then it was time to pick up the kids from school. I felt a bit guilty for not having done much, but quickly got over it. Then I came home and made a most scrumptious lasagne for dinner and this batch of cookies. The recipe (which was huge) supposedly made 112 cookies. I halved the recipe and got 96, so they must have made some darn big cookies, cause mine were normal size (like bought ones). Anyway, they're good, so will post the recipe in the next day or so.

ScrapCamp Challenges

Here are the finished pieces from our recent ScrapCamp challenge. Each camper was given a small artists easel, 2 chipboard flowers and a circle tin tag. The only rules were you had to use the tag and at least one of the flowers, plus 1 piece of bling somewhere on your piece.

Done & Dusted

Sorting the office out that is. It's been a long time since the office looked like this. I should have taken a before shot, but basically, you could barely move in there. The desk faced the other way and so was really in the middle of the room. The fold out bed was down and it was full of junk, the desk stacked with piles upon piles of various papers, the floor was home to boxes of supplies, items for trademe, items to give away, Camp stuff, supplier catalogues etc. Now it's lovely being in here. Here is the office as it looks today.

Rock Star in the making?

Having an up and coming Rock Star staying with you (Ashley from Reverence), can have an impact on your kids. Taryn has always been musical and loves to sing and dance and if we ever can't find her, chances are she's hanging out in Ashley's room, but Jayden never really showed any interest until recently. Here's his first real attempt on his guitar. Note his unique way of holding the guitar with his non-strumming hand!

Finally - Book Week Photos

My Little Red Riding Hood - Taryn (yes I actually got her to wear a skirt that day - first time so far this year!) and my Big Bad Wolf - Jayden. The cape was easy and cost me $2.32 to make. The wolf, not so easy and in case my hubby ever finds this blog - let's just say not so cheap! I tried to convince Jayden there were plenty other characters he could go as - but no he was determined damn it all. I didn't have a pattern, so it wasn't a very good fit in the end and the nose was a last minute slap together because DH said he didn't look much like a wolf without a long nose and sharp teeth, so we had to add on! But Jayden loved it and that was what it was all about really.
Heaps of the kids at the school looked amazing, but seeing as they aren't my kids, I did't feel comfortable posting their photos on the web.

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks as there has just been so much going on. I'm not usually one to let things get to me, but holy crap has karma been a little bit one-sided lately and I don't know where it's coming from. As you would have read in recent blogs a friend from the camp committee died, then Taryn re-injured her thumb and went into yet another cast.
On top of that, in the past 5 weeks:

• My computer died, taking with it a good chunk of data on it's main hard disk that finally failed 1/2 way through data retrieval.
• My dad's PSA levels (cancer indicator) went up for the first time in 18 months.
• My washing machine broke and won't spin automatically any more. It gets half way through a cycle and stops, then I have to manually go and restart it to spin out the final rinse.
• I got a bad case of the flu which 3 weeks on is still dragging it's heels to leave me completely.
• Having got my new computer up and running, my modem promptly died.
• During Taryn's performance of Grease, whilst I was working back stage on props, one of my back teeth cracked in half.
• Running late for school drop off on Friday, I got to the top of our street to find I had one very flat tyre, with a huge nail sticking out of it - yip, it was pouring with rain.
• In the weekend just gone, dad was taken into hospital with a gallbladder attack and upon investigation they also found he had a hernia. (He was finally operated on today and should be home tomorrow).
• Jayden was playing on the kids computer and don't ask me what he did, but that just wont even turn on any more now!

So as the title says - Enough Already!

Now onto the positive side - I am truly grateful for all the wonderful things that surely must be coming my way to balance out all this karma. Bring it on!

Oh and I have managed to retrieve most of my photo's, so will be posting the book week photos soon.

King of the Castle

Is what Jayden thought he was over his 7th birthday weekend just gone. He chose a castle cake for his birthday family bar-b-que (decided he didn't want a party? go figure). So do you think I could find blue jelly when I needed it? He had to settle for slimy swamp water in his moat, which kind of suited the crocodile! Taryn put together an entire scene from lego to go on and around the castle, which really made it I think.
Jayden also had a (in his words) fake cake, which was a rugby field, which he took to rugby Friday night (his actual birthday) and had it in the clubrooms after the night game under lights. His team even bought him a present and the manager, bless her soul, put on treat foods for them all. He had a great time.
He was spoilt rotten, getting a new bike (finally - his old one has been broken for several months now, but we were hanging out till the birthday), and electronic guitar (thanks to my lovely sister-in-law that works at Hasbro-Australia), loads of new clothes, a skateboard, books, puzzles and a car that has hydraulic movement (and a whole lot of noise!!! Thanks Steve!!).
Kind of hard to believe my youngest baby is now 7 years old. Where does the time go?

Cast # 7

Not sure if Taryn is going for some kind of record, but this is cast number 7 in 18 months! Of course that sounds worse than it actually is, as the first 6 were only for 2 different injuries.
Well this cast (if it's even big enough to call it that), was to immobilize her thumb. Yes it's the same thumb she broke last year - apparently now a weak spot seeing as the injury was over the growth plate. So this time, no tree root was involved, just an aggressive opponent on the netball court.
I always imagined it would be Jayden that ended up with all the real injuries, but somehow he seems to get away with the all the dangerous things he tries and Taryn gets hurt doing normal stuff!
Well let's hope we can make it through the balance of the year without another cast, or I might have people start questioning her injuries!!!!!

Farewell Brian

Sadly on May 9th, Brian, a valued member of the Camp committee passed away. Brian had worked tirelessly as the committee secretary and had worked on numerous camp matters and was famous for his letter writing abilities (especially to the ARC), among many other things.
It came as such a shock, especially given that in recent months he seemed to be in the best health I had ever seen him in (in my 3 years on the committee). I had just started to discover his wit and sometimes hidden sense of humour. I enjoyed working with someone so dedicated to what he was involved in. I will miss him. Farewell Brian - Rest in Peace.

Camp - A fun workout..

..for my stomach muscles. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much and for so long. Several of us at ScrapCamp had tears in our eyes, were holding our tummies (from the pain of laughing so much) and begging the story tellers to stop. Sylvia put us right over the edge with the story of the 'Down' family and their sons: Bob, Neil, Stan (& I'm sure there was one more but I can't remember), and then their daughter Eider!
Photos to come.
And a wee confession - I fell off the wagon and bought more ribbons. 4 initially, but then in my last overseas order, I brought some boxed sets in for a customer. 3 different themes with 1 yard each of 6 different co-ordinated ribbons per box. Minimum quantity of each design was 3. She bought 2 of each and left the 3rd. They are sitting on my table looking all glorious and inviting. I'm not sure if they'll make it to the shelves!! That was at the end of April and my goal is to try an make it through May without another ribbon purchase.

Hi, I'm Carrie and I'm a ribbonholic!

It's been 13 days since my last ribbon purchase. My addiction started with fibres, but like many addicts, I soon moved onto something stronger and ribbons became my preference.
I didn't really realize I had a problem until trying to find the best method of storage. Those bought by the metre are hung through book rings, but I also had many prepackaged ribbons on small spools. I found containers for these (the clear ones on the left-hand side of the photo), but still have some odd ones to store (that's them in the box in the top left-hand corner).
So how bad is my addiction, well in my defence, not as bad as some I know (eh Tania?), but I counted them and without repeats (of which I have a few), there are 327 different ribbons. Tania by the way has over 400!! She's real bad huh?
Well ScrapCamp is next week and the plan is to use at least 10 different ribbons while I'm there and then be strong and fight the urge to buy more. Perhaps I'll even get really serious about it and give away some of my duplicate pieces? Well, on second thoughts, perhaps I'm not quite ready for that step yet, but soon maybe!

Has it really been that long???

I couldn't believe it when I logged in to post. A whole month has just gone by with no posts - how slack. Well I suppose I just wasn't up to sitting posting about how bad I'd been feeling after the operation - for over a month!!!! Well the good news is I'm finally on the road to recovery. So would I recommend having Endoscopic Sinus Surgery - HELL NO! Apparently (says the surgeon) most people don't have such a rough time - yeah that made me feels heaps better!
Onto to brighter things - School Holidays next week, along with ScrapCamp, followed the next weekend with the Ceramics show. A busy time, but should give me heaps to post about.

Uncomfortable Mattress?

Well apparently my son has the answer, so that you can have a really comfortable and restful snooze/sleep. Strip the bed down, lift the mattress, lie on the bare wooden slats and place the mattress on top of you! Presto. Think of how much money I could have saved by not buying bed linen if I new this years ago!!!!!

Still no recommendations...

Although the surgeon promises I'll get there. Ended up with a secondary post op infection. It was painful to say the least! More drugs, which gave me huge gastric problems. Was just starting to feel better when the 2 week check up came around. Without going into too much detail, a nasal spray to numb the area DOES NOT stop you feeling the scraping, suction and general prodding in the sinus area, nor the pressure felt as yet another plastic splint (which by the way looked way too big to fit where it was going) was inserted into the side without the infection. Yuk!
For the first time in ages, I had to cancel all my classes two weeks running - bummed out! Looking forward to getting back to scrapbooking and getting onto my ceramic entries for the Easter show next week. All going well, my sinus issues will be in the past by then.

A breath of fresh air..

Should be what I'll be experiencing in another week or two. Having just undergone endoscopic sinus surgery to remove polyps and re-bore the blocked sinus tissue, I'm still feeling a bit like my face hit a brick wall, going full speed ahead. I must say for once though, the pain meds given certainly took care of the pain. In fact I couldn't feel a darn thing, not even my feet on the ground or any form of reality for that matter. Could never be an addict, as I just couldn't function, so off the meds I came and reality hit big time, with a good sized dose of Ouchhh!
Panadol found the middle ground for me and today I was finally starting to feel better. I'm sure it's going to be well worth it in the long run, but right now, not something I could easily recommend to anyone considering the operation, but I'll keep you posted.

Back to Basics - Washing Powder

Even before the diagnosis of ADHD for our son, we had started trying to reduce the amount of chemicals, preservatives, additives, colours in our diets, by carefully reading labels, totally eliminating some food items and making more homemade food etc.
In the course of doing this I read many interesting books which also offered advice on removing some of the nasty ingredients in other household products, not just food. The following is a recipe I came across for your own home made washing powder. I added some pure essential oils for fragrance and it's just lovely to use. It' also very economical too.

2 cups grated pure soap (I used sunlight pure soap - box of 4 bars cost $2.42 and 1 bar = 2 cups grated)
1 cup borax ($8 for 1kg, so this goes a long way)
1 cup washing soda crystals (found in supermarket cleaning products isle)
1 500gm box baking soda
Place all ingredients into a food processor and blend till it's a fine powder.
(I added my oils directly onto the washing soda crystals immediately before blending. In my first trial batch, I used Eucalyptus which was nice and fresh. The last batch I just made I used Bergamot, patchouli, lavender and Orange - Yumm)
It makes about an icecream container full and you only need a scant tablespoon per load of washing in top loaders (1 heaped tablespoon if clothes are very soiled, less for towels etc) and 1 teaspoon in front loaders. Give it a try.

My latest toy..

I'd heard about them, even seen them in a catalogue, but it wasn't till I saw it demonstrated that I said 'Yip, I want one'. Yeah I know, I'm a gadget junkie (I'm the same with kitchen appliances), but this is really cool! Really!! It punches through CD's effortlessly, no heating or soaking in hot water. One easy squeeze and it's done. Great with chipboard too. Setting eyelets is silent too, and just as easy. It has inter-changable setting fixtures so you can set different sized eyelets and even snaps. The guides mean you can punch a series of holes all at exactly the same distance in on the paper for a perfect line. It's one flaw is that you can't use it to punch holes or set eyelets very far into a page, so no good for say mounting a journal block in the middle of a 12x12 layout, but for that, I can just fake it. (Place eyelets on the journaling box, but adhere the actual box with adhesive). It's not goodbye to my regular tools and hammer yet, but I can certainly see this baby getting some serious use soon.

Feast or Famine

Can't believe I haven't posted for 2 weeks. It's been hectic. I signed up to do the Real womens Duathlon in March; Started training; Brother got married - in Hawaii, very, very short engagement, rush to get mum and dad sorted to travel to Hawaii for the wedding; Currently trying to arrange venue etc for post wedding party in NZ in March for them; Kids started new school, different stationery requirements and uniforms to sort; Camp issues took up quite a bit of January and several hours so far of February; ACC review/dispute in progress; Mortgage and insurance rates up for review; Surgery date advised - due to cancellation, just 10 days notice; Business orders flowing in too. All good, (well except for the new mortgage rates), but why is it always a feast or a famine? I guess it keeps life exciting sometimes huh?

Ah, what's another one?...

Ever heard the saying "if you want a job done, give it to a busy person"? Well I saw this from a different angle yesterday. A friend of mine had phoned to ask if Jayden would like to come over and play for a couple of hours. Now for those that don't know my boy, he's pretty full on (recently diagnosed with ADHD, which explains a lot) and whilst we love him dearly the occasional break away is cherished, but very hard to get as there are not many people I know that would offer to look after him. The funny thing is, sweet Kelly has 3 'full on' boys of her own. So I said to her, "Are you sure Kelly? He's a handful and pretty full on and you already have 3", to which she simply replied "Ah, what's another one?" Jayden had an absolute blast of a time, Kelly said he was well behaved the whole time and is welcome back any time. So what did I do with my time? I took Taryn and we got all the back to school gear, paid some bills, did some banking, finally went and chose the paint for her bedroom makeover then went for a coffee (well iced chocolate actually), just the two of us. How lovely that was! Thanks a million Kelly!

So Long Alice..

Alice, birth mother of 4, adopted mother of 1 and much loved pet of Taryn's, passed away last week of unknown causes, aged 3 years 2 months. She was found curled up in a sleep like position on the property. So long Alice, see you in another life?

2008 Scrapping Target

For 2007, I exceeded my scrapping target (of 52 layouts, off the page items or papercraft projects) by just 3. I had thought it would have been easy to achieve, but only just managed it. This year my target is to achieve 60 (5 per month). Although I could push that out some, knowing the plans we have around the house this year, I felt I should keep it realistic.

I at least got off to a good start. I was at camp last week doing a camp clean and managed to squeeze in some scrapping time. 3 12x12 layouts and finally finished the cover to my "This one time at Scrap Camp" book. I then proceeded to create the title and intro pages. So here's to a good, productive year of Scrapbooking.

And so it starts...

I'm always one of the slow ones when it comes to new technology, but for Christmas my darling husband bought me an iPod, so I figured well if I'm going to learn one lot of new technology why not finally get around to creating a blog as well - really do my head in? So here I am at the start of a new year (Happy New Year by the way) creating my first ever blog. Here I plan to share the goings on in the business (Caz Dezign Scrapbooking) and my family: Myself, husband Mike, daughter Taryn and son Jayden. So welcome to my blog and please feel free to participate by posting comments.