Loads and loads and loads ....

and loads and loads and loads of stuff to talk about!!!

SENZ, Birthday, Orange, Dinner at Kindy, Parties .....

ALL Coming soon!

Slack Blogger Alert!!

Forgive me Blog readers for I have sinned it has been 8 days since I last did a blog post ......

Well not for lack of things to blog about for sure! But here I am catching up!

Today I want to tell you more about some of my amazing friends .. I've told you before I have some AWESOME friends right?? Well here I go again .....

First up is the Amazing Becky. Now you ALL know about my orange obsession and it is Winter here now in NZ so Becky made me this AMAZING hot water bottle cover ...

I didn't have a hot water bottle so went shopping and I even found an orange one!! Score!



Another lovely friend who has already gifted me with amazing orangeness (see HERE) is the lovely Leonie. Just recently Leonie threw a Lego Birthday Party for her son and they were making Lego cookies, see HERE, and she said she got her kids to collect all of these up for me ....


How adorable is that!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE My Friends!!!

Now the talented Becky and Leonie are getting together this Friday in Whangarei for the Night Markets. So if you are in or around Whangarei go check it out and buy their awesome crafts!!



Another AMAZING lady who I have mentioned both HERE and HERE, the Beautiful Mandy must have taken notice of a Facebook Post I did which said

"Apples are NOT a good substitute for Chocolate"

because I open the letter box a couple days after posting that comment to find this ....

And I am proud to say it is all still there hidden in the cupboard in case of an emergency!! You are naughty Mandy!! But thanks so very much xxx

I am sooo blessed with the friends I have. Not just because they give me stuff (although that is always a bonus!) But for the support, encouragement and love I get from them. And they are all so talented and FUN!!!

Procrastination & Motivation

I have LOADS of stuff I should be doing .. LOADS. And How much have I done? Very little. I am the Queen of procrastination and I have ZERO Motivation. I really WANT to want to do stuff. I want to get off the couch, turn the TV and computer off and create, but it feels like too hard of a job. I want to do it but I just don't seem to be able to. I know I am a little depressed, I miss Jason like crazy and having him not here does stop me from doing a lot of things, I am very lonely, lonely for Jase, lonely for that one person I can sit and chat to about nothing after the kids go to bed. Lonely for that other person to make an effort for. Anyway enough groaning and griping ...

Today the procrastination of the day ....

We have HEAPS of wooden blocks, the kids love them and play with them often. But I wanted to make them a little more exciting. I had a 'light bulb' moment the other day and remembered I had these stamps from Stampin' Up ....



So this afternoon we spent a very long time procrastinating from what I should be doing to turning our blocks from looking like this ....



to looking like this ....



The kids enjoyed themselves and they love the new look blocks!!

Great procrastination I say!

New Obsession

I have a new obsession, which has taken up much of my time over the last week. Don't worry I am still obsessed with orange! But this new obsession can incorporate my old one. Let me fill you in with a little background story first ...

There is a good possibility that this year I may become a home owner. I have looked at a few houses and am doing some serious money and bank talking this week. I am so excited about maybe owning my own home that I have been thinking about all the amazing things I could do in and for and around the house. Renting is not cool. You can't make the house your own or do anything you want. I look forward to turning a house into my home and express myself in it. Of course there will be a focus on orange in my house! But I want my house to be somewhere that people come and say wow, this is totally Tracy's home!

Anyway ....

Last week I stumbled upon this blog HERE



I spent the next two days straight looking at every single post on that blog and I have been inspired beyond my imagination! EVERYTHING I look at in my house I imagine how I can make it better and prettier! I have ideas BURSTING out of my head.

This week I also succumbed and joined up with Pinterest HERE



The thing I LOVE about Pinterest is that you can pin any picture you like and then it takes you right back to the website. No 10 foot long bookmarks page anymore! It is brilliant, and also so many AMAZING ideas and another place you can spend a lot of time looking through!

So yesterday I went to the library and came home with these ....


And I have been getting inspired and learning how to do stuff too which is awesome! So today I started my first project, just a smallish project with something that has been sitting around in my craft room willing me to do something with it for a long while. That's all I'm saying just now so you will have to look out for my before and after post on that one!

So what are your obsessions or passions at the moment??

New Challenge Blog!!

This looks like it could be a fun one!! Check out Challenge Me Happy HERE and you might get a chance to win this ...



Also go check them out on Facebook HERE too!!

I LOVE me a good challenge!

Better Scrapbooking Bonanza Post

Lots of Better Scrapbooking stuff to write about today!

Firstly the new June Newsletter is out check it out HERE. I did a few Off The Page projects for this months Scrap Pack. I loved the Bo Bunny Petal Pushers papers so much that I forgot to take a photo of the papers and stuff before I dug into it so sorry!!

But here is what I made ...

I made these using 6 of the large matchboxes. Abbey loves it and it looks super cute in the bathroom and keeps her hair stuff nice and tidy!

I know I was on Off the Page but a scrapbook page was screaming at me from these papers!! Abbey outside blowing 'dandy clocks' were perfect photos to go with the papers!

I have had this sitting around for a very long time. I picked it up at the hospice shop for 50c.

This is what it looks like now ....


This was the very first 'binkie' Abbey had when she was in SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) and to go with the little shadow box I made this to match ....



I am so pleased with how these turned out. And Abbey was too!!

Now onto the Cards ....



I made this card for my Mum for Mothers day. I put a magnet on the back so she could put it on the fridge. I printed the card template from HERE


'Hello' Card


Baby Shower Card

To See how I made all these go check out the June Newsletter at Better Scrapbooking HERE

Since the newsletter is out also means that there are new June Challenges!

Layout Challenge - Sketch
This is fairly easy - simply use the below layout (designed by Megan), as your guide and copy it. You are welcome to add some journalling and a title.



Photo Challenge - Change
With the change of seasons Megan thought a photo challenge of 'change' could be fun. It might be the change in the trees, or maybe your change of hairstyle/colour or even a change in the house where you have tidied/re-organised. Share your 'change' with us!

Project Challenge - The Kids Room
Create a fun off the page project for your child's bedroom. It could be a word banner, name plaque or hair bobs box. See what fun item you can come up with for your child's room and then share your finished project with us.

Card Challenge - Folded Embellishment
Create a card using an embellishment, some form of paper folding such as teabag folding or our fold-it flower template.

There is a prize for each challenge so to be in to win upload your photos to the Better Scrapbooking Gallery HERE before the end of June!

And speaking of prizes here are the winners for the May Challenges ....

Layout Challenge - Layering Embellishments

Congratulations to Cherie!



Photo Challenge - Reflections

Congratulations to Judez!



Project Challenge - Tribute to Mum

Congratulations to Jenny!!



Card Challenge - Waterfall Card

Congratulations to Jenny again!! Way to go Jenny!



Happy Scrapping everyone!!

Better Late than Never

Jason and I decided when Riley was still cooking in my belly that we were not going to throw a Birthday party for our kids every year. We decided it was expensive and we were only going to throw a big party on significant ages. What we came up with was 1 ... 5 ... 10 ... 13 ... 16 ... 18 ... 21 ... achievable. In between we would still celebrate but just a cake, and perhaps do what my Mum & Dad did which was let us have one friend around for dinner or to do something special.

Anyway I am kinda procrastinating from the point of this blog post ...

The last BIG Birthday was Riley's 5th and since we don't do parties every year when we do we go ALL out. You may remember the blog post about his Robot Birthday HERE. Well in March this year Riley turned 6, so I have been 'making' a Birthday album for Riley for the last year! Today I pulled it out, dusted it off and FINALLY finished it!

I used THIS Kasiercraft wooden album and lots of Gloss Mod Podge and it turned out a little like this ....







I used cardstock, corrugated card, sequins, bling, Tim Holtz Sprockets and some little tool embellishments. I like how it turned out and so does Riley so YAY! Thank goodness it is finally finished!

Orange Goodies

I have AMAZING friends ... Have I mentioned that before? Well I do!

A few weeks ago we had a bit of a crafty get together with some bloggy friends. The beautiful Leonie from Kiwi At Heart surprised me with an orange gift which I ADORE!


Kermit was lonely and totally needed a sock Monkey friend! He is so soft and adorable and I LOVE him! Check out some of Leonie's other Monkey's HERE and HERE

Then, the other evening I was falling asleep on the couch when the kids yelled at me that there was someone at the door. That someone at the door gave me a box and I was incredibly surprised, as it was so unexpected.



Thanks SO much Debbie!! You are the biggest sweetheart ever! they were yum and all of us enjoyed them!!

I totally LOVE that my friends accept and encourage my orange obsession!