Addicted to Pinterest

I am totally addicted! There are the most amazing ideas on there! I also have lots of friends who are as addicted as me (well maybe not quite as addicted, not all of them anyway!!) A few of us were talking about how cool it would be to get together once a month and actually MAKE a lot of the stuff we have 'pinned' instead of just drooling over it!! So I started a group on FaceBook and we are hopefully going to motivate each other to make lots of amazing stuff!

Alisa is challenging herself to make more of her pins you can check her out over HERE

And I will also be updating when I make my pins here too!! So who's up for a Pinspiration Challenge!???!!??!



Come Join us on FaceBook at Pinterest Junkies!

End of an Era ...

So very very sad that it is all over. There are no more books and no more movies. What am I talking about? Harry Potter of course!



Harry Potter is quite special to me. It was one of the things that Jason and I shared a passion for. When he first arrived in NZ He was reading book three, The Prisoner Of Azkaban, and I had just finished reading it. We had also both seen the first film. I'm not sure how it happened but we started reading the books to each other, out loud in bed at night we would read a chapter. Sometimes Jase read, mostly I did. It was a pretty cool bonding thing I guess!! But that is how we read books 4 - 7. So Harry Potter is special for us.

When Jase died we had seen up to movie 6 so I was pretty upset about going to the last 2 movies without him. But Oh My Goodness! What an AMAZING end to a phenomenal story. Even though, having already read the books, I knew what was going to happen seeing it live on the big screen was amazing. Loved it totally!



So in honor of my love for Harry Potter here are a few of my favourite Harry finds ....







Farewell Harry I feel like I'm saying goodbye to a good friend

Things I'm Loving

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

Little Girls Birthdays


Seeing it through .. until the end.

I am NOT loving that my camera is broken but I am Loving that I am very close to perhaps becoming a home owner for the first time!! That's all I will say for now!

Linking Up with Paisley Jade

Miniture Food

Ever since Jase died I have had an issue with meal portions. Didn't matter how much I made when he was around because it got eaten. Leftovers he would take to work for his lunch, if there were any leftovers! My Mum gave me this muffin tin a few weeks ago and I knew exactly how it could help me.



So I tested it out on a Maggi Potato bake



I followed the directions but divided it between the tins instead of putting it all together.




It tasted just as yummy and in a portion I could manage! After it had cooled I popped the whole tray in the freezer and in the morning I popped them out and threw them back in the freezer in a freezer bag!


Awesome!! Next I want to try Shepard's Pie, Lasagna, Casserole! Anything!! Can't wait to have loads of frozen meals in the freezer ready when I can't be bothered cooking!

Belated Happy Birthday to Abbey!!!

On Tuesday my baby girl turned 4 years old!! Where did the last four years go??!!??

I can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday....

**WARNING** If you don't like birth Stories you might want to scroll down to the pictures without reading anymore **WARNING**

We knew Abbey was going to be a girl before she was born. My pregnancy was pretty straight forward. I did have to go for an extra scan at 32 weeks due to a low lying placenta but the Scan results seemed fine so no one worried anymore about it. On 26th July 2007, which was my due date, I was at home with Riley and went to the loo thinking I needed to pee but instead I just gushed a heap of blood. Having not had anything like this with Riley's birth I gave my midwife a call a little concerned. She said it could possibly be just my waters breaking and some blood in there. But just to be sure take myself off to the hospital. We were living in Gulf Harbour and the hospital was a good 30-40min Drive from us depending upon traffic. So I called Jase's work and told them to tell him I was on my way. I then called my work (Riley's Kindercare) to let them know Riley was coming in (my friend Shannon was going to be taking care of Riley and she was working that day) Then I chucked Riley in the car and started driving to Jase's work. About 1/2 way there the contractions started. And they started pretty intense. Jase was waiting on the side of the road and he took over the driving. We arrived at Kindercare and didn't even have to get out the car!! About 1/2 a dozen women ran out of the building and collected Riley and his stuff! Then off to the hospital we went. By the time we got to the hospital I was bleeding quite heavily. Jase found me a wheel chair and raced into the maternity ward. They gave me an internal exam, put the baby monitor on my tummy and within 15mins had decided Baby needed to come out NOW. So off to the emergency cesarean room we went and I was knocked out. The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room with my midwife standing there with a Polaroid photo of Abbey. She was born at 4.07pm. She was not too well and Jason had accompanied her to the Special Care Baby Unit. She took quite some time (6mins) to breathe on her own and she needed a blood transfusion. It seems what had happened was I had had an undetected case of Placenta Previa. Placenta previa is a complication of pregnancy in which the placenta grows in the lowest part of the womb and covers all or part of the opening to the cervix. Basically when I went into labour my placenta ruptured causing the bleeding also cutting off Abbey's blood flow etc. I found out much later that we are very lucky to not have lost Abbey. Because Abbey was stressing she pooed in the womb and her poor little tummy was filled with poo and blood so not only did she need a blood transfusion (when I first saw her she looked very grey) but her little tummy needed to be drained as well. She spent the first night in the SCBU and the next morning I got to hold and feed my beautiful girl for the first time!!

**WARNING OVER**

Although a rough start it sure didn't stop Abbey from anything! She seemed to have her feet on fast forward most of the time and had FAR more injuries than Riley ever did!!! {see injuries HERE, HERE AND HERE} But she was such a breeze of a baby and toddler and so precious to boot!!

Abbey is such a girly girl, she loves her ponies, and dollies and has still got her manky 'Bear' from when she was first born. She is sweet and has a cute little squeaky voice. But she is also tough and can stick up for herself. She is a little social butterfly and LOVES going to Kindy.

My Mistress Abbey she makes me laugh, roll my eyes and shake my head everyday! She says and does and wears the funniest things. She has so much of Jason's quirky sense of humour and personality it is heartwarming. She is adorable and hilarious and I love it!

Birth Day


First Birthday


Second Birthday


Third Birthday


Fourth Birthday


Happy Birthday my big 4yr old! Mummy is loving watching you grow into a beautiful little lady and Daddy has his arms wrapped around you from heaven xxxx

Book Review - Nat Fantastic and the Brave Knights of Old

I was lucky enough to get a book to review from Kiwi Mummy Blogs!!

Nat Fantastic and the Brave Knights of Old by Giles Andreae & Katharine McEwan

I was so excited to get this book because I LOVE books! Reading books when I was working as an ECE Teacher was one of my favourite things to do and my kids thankfully have inherited my love of books too.

This is totally a book you can get excited with, loud with and my favourite part you can totally get the kids involved in the reading because it has a catch phrase!! I LOVE books that have catch phrases!! This is the second Nat Fantastic book, I sadly haven't read the first one but after reading 'Nat Fantastic and the Brave Knights of Old' I really want to. My kids loved it!

So here is a little snippet of the book read by Riley and Abbey ....



So if you haven't read this to your kids already do it!! Do it NOW!!!!

Happy Birthday to me

Last week it was my Birthday. I don't have an issue with age .. I turned 34. This year was the first time I am older than Jase, kinda a weird feeling. But considering all things I had a really cool Birthday.

On my actual Birthday I had a few visitors. Leonie, Nadia and my Nana & Grandad came around. I got a TON of orange presents! I can't even begin to name them all! But there was some awesome orange stuff I tell ya! And my Mum cooked me Dinner and made a Birthday cake.



Leonie also gave me a Birthday cupcake ... the kids ended up eating that one!



And on the Weekend I decided to throw myself a Birthday Party. The last Party I had for me was my 21st Birthday so it was about time! Of course the theme was .... you guessed it ORANGE! Here are a few of my favourite pics of the night ....






I have to say a HUGE thanks to Danielle who did most of the food, Taryn who did most of the cleaning up, Andrew who was the best sing star partner and Grant who manned the fire! Also Nicola who came up from Christchurch as a surprise was pretty darn awesome too!

So all in all a pretty awesome Birthday!

Matariki Celebrations

Abbey's Kindergarten is so awesome!! They do some really awesome stuff. The last month they have had a focus on Matariki.

For those of you who don't know Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters; and what is referred to as the traditional Maori New Year. The Maori new year is marked by the rise of Matariki and the sighting of the next new moon. The pre-dawn rise of Matariki can be seen in the last few days of May every year and the new year is marked at the sighting of the next new moon which occurs during June.

At the beginning of June the Kindergarten had a shared Breakfast which everyone was invited to to mark the beginning of Matariki and during the month they have had lots of activities planned around the 'Matariki' theme.

Last Wednesday we had a shared dinner and closing celebration of Matariki at Kindergarten.

There was a bonfire in the middle of a ring of stools

Riley and Abbey had fun watching the fire and it sure was nice on the chilly night!

We all sat down to a lovely shared Dinner

Abbey and Riley with Abbey's Kindy Friends, Grace, Jules and Lucy May

After dinner we had a Lantern Parade where we all went for a walk around the street with glass jar candle lanterns the children had made during the week.

Grace, Abbey and Zoe

After the 'Lantern Parade' we all sat around the fire, sang songs and ate toasted marshmallows.

It was an AMAZING Night! I had fun, the kids had fun and Grandma had fun too! I am continually amazed at the effort and passion that Abbey's teachers, Kim, Christine, Zair and Donna, put into the amazing activities they do. I LOVE Mairtown Kindergarten and am so pleased Abbey goes there!

To check out Mairtown Kindergartens version of events see HERE

If you are in Whangarei I HIGHLY recommend Mairtown for your child! They are AWESOME!

Better Scrapbooking July Scrap Pack

Well the July newsletter is out at Better Scrapbooking and that means I can show off what I made with this months Scrap Pack.



I stole this pic of what was in the scrap pack from fellow design team member Karen, you can check out what she did with it HERE The papers were all from the Fancy Pants Hot Chocolate range.

CRAFT TO DO BOOK



I have sooo many crafting ideas that I want to do so I decided to make a book to keep all my ideas in. I have put 6 TABS saying:

*NEED TO - for all my unfinished projects
*WANT TO - all the projects I REALLY want to do
*DESIGN TEAM - all my projects for the Better Scrapbooking design team
*SKETCHES - scrapbooking sketches I want to do
*CONTESTS - any online competitions or challenges
*MARKET - stuff I am going to make for the craft market

with the all the projects I have put in the book I have also included all the materials I need to make it all. I am hoping that I will be able to be a little more organised with my crafts by using this book!!

MAGNETIC COASTER


I wanted to do something a little different with my coaster rather than just make a coaster so I decided to turn it into an inspirational magnet! You never have too many magnets aye!!

CARDS



Now cards have never been my strong point, I really don't like making them. But I think been on the DT is making me stretch out of my comfort zone and make more cards than I have before! These ones I quite like!

LO


This paper range was PERFECT for the photos I took on our recent Holiday to Taupo and Rotorua. The kids were all rugged up and in their warm jackets which we rarely wear up here in the 'Winterless North'. I love this photo of Riley in his jacket!

If you want to know how I made these head on over to Better Scrapbooking and check out the July Newsletter, also check out what the other Design Team members have done with their packs.

Also head on over to the Better Scrapbooking Blog to see the new July Challenges! Upload your entries in the Better Scrapbooking Gallery and be in to win a monthly prize!

Happy Scrapping everyone!

SENZ 2011

Quite some time ago an online friend of mine Hilary and I were talking about the fact that SENZ was in Auckland this year. SENZ is the Scrapbooking, Cardmaking and Papercrafts Expo of New Zealand. We got talking about this and that snd she asked if I could help her out with her stall at SENZ. Of course I jumped at the chance to be involved and so two weekends ago now I went to SENZ as a Scrap It Simple gal!

You can check out Hilary's Blog HERE and her Online store HERE and SENZ HERE

So on the Thursday morning I dropped my kids off at Mums when it was still dark and drove to Auckland to meet Hilary. I arrived at the Telstraclear Pacific Event Centre in Manukau at about 10.30. Hilary and I unloaded all her product and set up her Scrap it Simple Store. We left the centre for lunch and finished up around 7.30pm! Busy day! It was great to see what everyone else was setting up too and meeting lots of people as well.


Hilary's friend made us these awesome aprons to wear over the weekend and come Friday morning we were up and ready to roll!!


At 9am the VIP ladies started coming in. I got the hang of the calculator and how to take percents off prices and we had a pretty steady run on day one. I got to meet the Lovely Louise from Paper, Scissors, Chocolate, who was selling her AMAZING jewelry from her Altered Ambitions etsy store and Debbie popped in to give me an AWESOME Orange early Birthday pressie and some yummy yummy cupcakes. It was nice to finally get to meet Debbie and Louise in person! I also bumped into Jenny, Robyn and Chris, who were some of my regular ladies at the classes I tutored at Absolutely Crafty in Pukekohe. It was really great to see them again.

After dinner out with Hilary I went to bed and totally crashed for the night!!

Saturday morning I went and picked up Jenny from the airport. She had flown in from Wellington and was going to be staying with me at my Aunts place. Then we collected Hilary and went to the centre. (see Jenny's recollections of SENZ HERE)

Saturday was VERY busy!! Hilary and I got hardly any time at all to rest our feet! A 10 min shared sandwich with Jenny and back to work!! Seeing more friends was a bonus, Lisa, Janine and Ruth from Whangarei, my good friend Taryn and her sister and another one of my class ladies Ngaire. After cleaning up for the day we went out for dinner at an Irish Pub which served Indian food! It was lovely and we met up with a few of the ladies from NZ Scrapbook there. After dinner we headed back to the centre for the SENZ Crop.

Jenny, Hilary and I were the last to arrive at the crop and we sat at a table with two lovely ladies, Janelle and Tina. They were so lovely and incredibly funny! We laughed ALL night!


We all got a little dress form to decorate as one of the challenges for the crop. I won a little prize for mine!! And I even managed to get one LO done, which was more than I had anticipated!!



Sunday was another busy day in the Scrap It Simple stand as Hilary made some awesome last day of the show specials!! We had to then have the quickest pack up ever (it took us 55mins!!) to get Jenny and Hilary to the airport to fly back home.


It was such an awesome, fun, busy weekend! Thank you Hilary for letting me be a part of your team for the weekend! It was fabulous and an awesome experience for me. I certainly hope to be at the next SENZ too!!

(also thanks to Hilary who took all the photos from SENZ above)