Flashback Friday

On Jason's Birthday we went to Cobb & Co for dinner and with the kids meals come what they call 'Cobb Crunchies' which are Tatties. It got me thinking all about when we were kids and Mum would make us big bowls of Tatties ALL the time. I don't remember having potato chips so much as I remember Tatties! Makes me want to go buy some! Any one know where to get them?? Sadly I can't find a picture of any Tatties to show you what I'm talking about but I do have a photo of Riley eating his Cobb Crunchies ...



Thinking about Tatties got me thinking about other food we had as kids.
Things like:
K Bars
Tangy Fruits
Sparkles
Snifters
Milk Biscuits
Buzz Bars
Toffee Milks
Bubble O Bill Ice Creams

Sooo many more I'm sure! What do you guys remember???
Oh and while we are on the subject of food remember this???



NB Thanks to all those lovey message boarders on TMMB for helping me remember lots of the above things!!!

Slack Blogger Alert!!

Sorry Alisa!! I'm failing at the Blogging everyday in February thing and kicking your butt to motivate at the same time!

I has been one of those weeks where I have not had the motivation, energy or inspiration to do very much crafting at all. I've done a little bit but not much.

First I'm gonna share a couple of Valentine LOs ....

This photo I took for Valentines last year. It took AGES and several tries to get the heart in the shadow right, but it was worth the effort!! I entered this LO in the Scrappin' Patch February Sketch Challenge


Materials Used:
*Making Memories 'Love Note' paper
*Chipboard Alphas
*American Crafts Alpha Rubons
*Alpha Stamps
*RicRac & Ribbon
*Heart Punch
*Ink
*Zig Journalling Pen

Way back in 1996 I took my first overseas trip to America. Jase & his family were awesome tour guides and I had the best holiday EVER! I took some pretty amazing photos of some great stuff but one of my favourites has always been the photo I used for this LO. It was taken on the Ferry on the way to Liberty Island on the most phenomenally beautiful (but cold) day! This is the face I remember when I think about my sweet, adorable, handsome hubby!


Materials used:
*My Minds Eye 'State of the Heart' paper
*Making Memories 'Love Note' metal charm
*My Minds Eye 'State of the heart' die cuts
*Lace
*heart brads
*ink
*Zig Journalling Pen
*Quote & heart stamps
*staples
*Metal Bookplate
*Basic Grey chipboard Alphas

I've been enjoying myself entering in lots of challenges lately. I have found that it helps me focus my motivation and it's easier to have a specific thing to do sometimes rather than sitting going hmmm what shall I do!
This next LO was another Scrappin' Patch challenge, this time it was a recipe challenge the recipe was ....

*use pastel shades
*hearts
*twill or sewing
*one photo
*making your own embellishment



*use pastel shades - Little Yellow Bicycle 'Fresh Print Clothesline' papers
*hearts - Fiskars Scallop Heart Punch, punched from 'Fresh Print Clothesline' sticker flowers with buttons
*twill or sewing - Twill around the butterfly
*one photo
*making your own embellishment - made the butterfly, I used the outline of the outside of a butterfly sticker (with me?? clear as mud??) stuck it on some paper & cut it out. I then wound the twill around the butterfly and tied it in a knot with the ends looking like antenna.

Did I do ok???

Hehehe
Here's to a more motivating and inspired weekend!!!

Happy Birthday Jason

Today is the day that my sweet hubby Jason should be turning 34. Technically tomorrow is his birthday because of the time zone difference between NZ & USA, but we always celebrate on our 7Th!


Don't ask me which one is Jase and which one is Josh cause I have NO clue!!!

Sadly Jason will forever be 33 because that is how old he was when he was cruelly taken away from us
Last year we had such an amazing day on Jase's Birthday, I'm glad his last one was so good.

This afternoon the kids and I are heading to Whangarei Falls to release 8 balloons up to Heaven where he is. 8 balloons for the 8 years he graced my life. Riley said to me the other day
"Mummy how will the balloons get to the right star that Heaven is on"
I told him even if they don't get to the right star Daddy will see them. Nic suggested I tell him that if he kisses the balloons then they will know how to find Daddy. He really liked that idea so I am anticipating some balloon kissing today!


This is the last photo we ever took of Jase

So Happy Birthday my love. We will celebrate your life even though you are no longer with us, because so long as we keep your Memory alive you will ALWAYS be alive in our hearts xxxx

Flashback Friday

As most of you know I am obsessed with the colour orange. Every now and again I search the Internet for orange things. I'm not feeling the best tonight so thought I'd see what new things I could find. And I found this ....



I totally want one!! I showed Nic & Danice who I happened to be chatting with on MSN (as per usual) and Nic mentioned it reminded her of Mork & Mindy ... and OMGoodness it so does!! And I LOVED that show when I was a kid!! So who remembers Mork & Mindy? Here's a little reminder for you



Robin Williams gotta love the guy he is just too funny!
So what TV shows did you watch as a kid?

Another one of my favourites from when I was younger was a show called Tour Of Duty



My dear sweet hubby bought me the season one DVD of Tour Of Duty when he was in USA in 2009. I LOVED it, brought back so many great memories. My very first Vinyl record I bought was the Tour Of Duty Soundtrack, I can't remember what year it was but I know I was at Intermediate so 1989-90ish



I still have this and because my hubby was freaken awesome and also bought me a record player I do get to listen to it frequently, in fact it has been the music for Art Night with Ruth & Janine the last couple weeks!!

Do you remember the first album you bought? Would love to hear all about it!

February Challenges at Better Scrapbooking

The January ones were OUTSTANDING!! Some awesome stuff in the Gallery for sure!! Each category has a winner and they each receive some goodies from Better Scrapbooking! YAY!
Here are the winners ...

Layout Challenge - Your Summer Holidays
Congratulations to Nic



Project Challenge - Alter Something
Congratulations to Deb G.



Card Challenge - Using markers
Congratulations to Sharon.



Photo Challenge - Fun in the Sun
Congratulations to Tracy P. "This is such a great photo. I always found it hard to get photos of my girls blowing bubbles, but this is so adorable."

oh! that's me!!! Thanks Megan!



So here are February's Challenges

Layout challenge - Back to School
All our children are starting or started back at school this week. What a fantastic excuse for a layout. Take a photo of your child/ren in their school uniforms and school bags outside of their school (how embarrassing, but it's for scrapbooking so it's ok) and create a layout. If you children really object what about a layout of you back in your school days. Have fun with this.

Photo Challenge - Natural Frames
Take a photo with the subjects framed by something, like a child in a field framed by the long grass. Here a chance to get creative with your camera.

Project Challenge - Valentines Day Gift
Yes Valentine's Day is coming up, why not make something for someone you care about. Take a photo and upload it for this challenge.

Card Challenge - A card to cheer someone up.
Make a card that you think would cheer up someone. Then take a photo and upload it. Then give it to someone you think needs cheering up (pick me, pick me, just kidding)

Hope to see lots of entries over there!!

Following = RAK

Ok I noticed that I have 38 Followers on by blog, and 27 on my networked Blog on FaceBook... so I have decided to offer a RAK (random act of kindness or basically a PRIZE). At first I thought 40 but na why not aim bigger! So I challenge you to tell your friends about me tell your neighbours and when I get up to 50 followers on either the networked blogs or blogger I will give away a something (TBA) and when I get 50 on each I will give another something away! (also TBA)

So lets get connecting!!

edited to add FB Blog linky

3rd day = FAIL

OK so my 3rd day of February Blogging failed. I didn't blog or craft yesterday. I had failure after failure.

Failure #1
Going to the bank, as successful as the trip was, because I got everything done that I needed to it zapped ALL my good feelings away. Yesterday at the bank I had to change Mine & Jason's join accounts to just a personal account in my name. To say that was very hard is an understatement, to say that was gut wrenching painful getting closer.

Failure #2
Tried to craft. It was HOT and I had a 'haven't been drinking enough water' headache, so I poured myself a HUGE glass of water set it down on my coaster on my craft table and proceeded to KNOCK it over. Well I haven't cleaned up my desk in about 4 days and I have been crafting A LOT so you can just imagine how much stuff was everywhere. Thank goodness nothing was ruined, a few bits of paper got wet but nothing too serious. Still put me in an even worse mood.

Failure #3
My son, who I believe was very tired. Was incredibly BLERK yesterday afternoon so that really increased the mood I had.

So After the kids had their bath & I had my shower I crawled into bed with a movie and then at 9.30pm turned out the light. So last night instead of blogging & crafting I was sleeping!!

So fingers crossed for a better day today.

First up on the agenda is cleaning up my craft space, and any water I have on the table from now on will be in a water bottle!!!

So to a more happy, more productive day!

Another successful crafting day

I am on a roll!!! I have completed 6 LOs for the Online Crop! I am pretty stoked about it all to be honest and I am really pleased with all the LO's I have done too.
Here is what I did today ....

For a Layout Challenge "I love to do layouts and I hope you do too!! Any thing goes here!"

Easy peasy!! So I finally got around to scrapping some photos of Riley's 5th Birthday

Materials Used:
*My Minds Eye 'Lil Robots' Paper
*American Crafts Foam Thickers*ink
*twine

For the Fiska-Fairy tweet tweet challenge "I'd like you to make something with a bird and/or a birdhouse on it. It can be a card, layout, altered item or even build a birdhouse ! You can stamp, paint, punch, sew, fabric, wood ... it's all good."

This photo is from our Positive/Negative Family Photo shoot 2008. Abbey was not being very co-operative with the photographer but she still got some very
cute pics.


Materials Used:
*Kaiser 'Hey Birdie' paper
*American Crafts Thickers
*Making Memories Die Cut paper
*Ink

I've still got more challenges to work on and I am slowly getting through my list!! Come on by Fiskateers and check it out!

NB: Sorry for no links again but again it's really late!!! I promise I'll get to adding them all at some stage!

*added note*
Links added

Too Late for Blogging

Oh yes it is!! But I have to blog on Feb 1st for the February blog challenge and I only have 15mins to do it in!!

What a day!!

Today was Abbey's first day back at Kindy, she couldn't get out of the car fast enough!! Riley and I got to hang out on our own for a change which was nice, we built with blocks, wrote letters & Painted and I scrapped.

Two LO's today both for the Fiskateer Online Crop.

#1 - for the challenge called 'This Fiska-Fairy Loves to Sparkle' I just had to make a card or LO with some sparkle ... easy!


Sparkly enough??
Materials used:
*Kaisercraft 'Flutterby' paper
*Glitter
*Kasiercraft Pearls
*Ink

#2 - for the challenge called 'Fiska-Fairy Thankful RAK'
"We're all thankful for someone or something. This challenge is to make a thank you card. If you're not a card maker then you can make a layout showing us what you're thankful for. Not a paper crafter? If not, then you can sew, knit, crochet, or bake a thank you gift for someone"

What am I thankful for? My Children ...
The journalling on this LO reads:

Thankful For You 2
When your Daddy died I really wasn't in the best place to be a Mummy. But when the worst was over and we went home reality hit and I had no choice but to be a Mummy. Everyday you guys get me out of bed and everyday you make me smile. I am so very thankful that you are here to help me get through everyday we have to go through without Daddy. You two are my reason for living.


"We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

Materials used:
*My Minds Eye 'Alphabet Soup' paper
*Chipboard alphas
*rubon alphas
*brads
*ink

After I finished this LO I had to finish covering Riley's school books because tomorrow is his first day back at school! Sigh just like me to leave everything till the last minute!! Hey Sleep is over rated anyway right???

Sorry I haven't linked anything tonight it's just too late! I promise I will link products and stuff to this post tomorrow, which is actually today sigh ...

Goodnight all!

*after note*
all linked up now!!



And don't forget to pop into Fiskateers!!

Mini Tutorial - Acetate Butterfly

Want to know how I made this gorgeous little acetate butterfly?? This is how ....

First before I tell you lets ask the question ..
WHAT IS ACETATE?
A transparent or translucent plastic sheet. Also known as transparency. You can buy acetate or collect it free. A lot of scrapbooking packaging contains acetate so don't throw that packaging away! You can also buy acetate embellishments, overlays etc which are ready to place on your projects. You can also purchase computer printable transparencies. Some is clear, some is coloured.

Now onto the fun part!!

Step #1
Find a butterfly stamp I used THIS one from Kasiercraft. For stamping on acetate you need Stazon Ink, I stamped my image with black Stazon

Step #2
After your ink has dried colour your image with markers, I used THESE

Step #3
Cut out your image, the Fiskars micro tip scissors or fingertip knife are both perfect for this!

Step #4
Gently heat the image with a heat gun until the edges curl up a bit. Then let it cool add a few rhinestones and you have a beautiful butterfly to attach to your project!

Happy Creating everyone! And I hope you enjoyed my mini tutorial!