Swap pins

So yesterday I drove down to Pukekohe to spend the day making swap pins for Crafting Connection at Nic's house. There were about 11 of us there and we had a lot of fun and some very yummy food for lunch. So I wasn't entirely sure about the whole swap pin thing, never having made any before. But it seems i was on the right track if a little on the light side numberwise. I had planned only to make 15 but the consensus was that a minimum of 30 was required. So i've just been finishing them off today and i have about that many. Here's a lovely out of focus shot of them. Gosh that's a brilliant photo! Rofl. Ah well, you get the general idea. So now I just have to hope that there are 30 people who want my swap pins.

Laundry basket + toys = fun!

Doing the washing this morning so decided to put Miss Isla in the basket with some toys. Kept her highly amused while I was folding up the clothes. Need to attach a rope to it to pull her around because she's too heavy to bend over and pull her that way. Had her weighed on monday and she is 7.7kg approx which is right on average for her age. And she is just over 70cm which is in the 75th percentile for her age. She was hard to measure because she wouldn't put her head down - she's too busy doing crunches. She's going to have some awesome abs!

Layout share

Here are a couple of layouts i've done over the past few days for some challenges i'm in.
This first one I had to use lace on the layout. Orange paper at the top is CherryArte.












And for this one I had to scraplift someone who wasn't my style. I chose Danielle Thompson because I really love her use of colour and all the elements she puts on her layouts. Ok so I didn't scraplift her layout entirely so it ended up more my style anyway. All paper is by 7 Gypsies. Oh and not sure if you can see it but see that green line of little scallops immediately under the photo? - Yep, deco scissors!












Finished a digi-layout this morning too and now i have to get started on my layout for this week's dare at No 8 Wired. So I best get moving!

Yummy new stuff

You can never have too much right?
So the scrapbooking trade show CHA is on right now and there are all sorts of sneak previews of new products coming out and omg talk about kewl!
I love the new Basic Grey.
This is Gypsy:









And this is LilyKate.









I like the new Narratives stuff.










Also yummy rubons from American Crafts (can't get the pic to go up for some reason). And of course anything 7 Gypsies, Fontwerks and Chatterbox. Also Queen & Co have some cool stuff coming out too. So it will be interesting to see in the months ahead how much of this I get or whether my tastes have changed by the time they get to NZ, cos for sure it will be a while!

Photo fun and other stuff

So I'm constantly learning how to do new things in Photoshop Elements. Like this pic - isn't this cool? I'm definitely going to play around with doing this a bit more. I've also been getting a heap of brushes, so many in fact that I really need to go through them all and cull some. Its a bit addictive to keep downloading them, like fonts really. Some organisation is called for.

In other news the U2 concerts were announced today though we will most likely not be able to get tickets as the original tickets have remained valid and only if people claim refunds will those tickets get put back on sale to the public, so we'll see how we go.

Also Dare #2 is up at No 8 Wired. Hope to see some more people take part.
Later.

Tagged!

4 jobs I've had
An inflatable M&M (yes really) for the Mars company
Worked in a fabric store
Worked in a bank
PA

4 Movies I could watch over and over
Gladiator
Lord of the Rings
Watership Down
Star Wars

4 TV shows I love to watch
Survivor (that's all)

4 Important things to me
Family
Friends
Happiness
Health

4 favourite foods
Chocolate brownies
Eggs benedict
Anything Italian
A good ol fashioned roast

4 tunes that play in my head
U2 - Beautiful Day
KT Tunstall - Cherry Tree
Bodyrockers - I like the way you move
Jack Johnson - Upside Down

4 Websites I visit daily
Xtra
NZ Herald
Various scrap sites
Various blogs

4 Scrap company's I like
7 Gypsies
Basic Grey
Chatterbox
Cherry Arte

Bloggers to tag
Jo
Kathleen

Boat Build #1

Yesterday the build for the new boat began with the moulds for the hull being machined. So Daryl will be bringing them home today and then he can start building the boat over the moulds. So here are a couple of pictures of the moulds being machined and also a render of what it will look like when complete.

Also some pics from the weekend

Thought i'd add some pics also from this weekend.
Isla's first pair of shoes - aren't they cute. A little big at the moment.
And also trying out her first rusk today - she loved it!

No 8 Wired and a layout

Well what an exciting weekend with the launch of No 8 Wired - the NZ Dare Blog. Such a cool bunch of people involved with it - i'm so lucky to be a contributor. Its certainly making me think harder about my scrapping and also i want to try a few different things as well. We've had heaps of interest already and it seems that a lot of people are going to join in the fun - how cool is that?!!!

Here's a layout i've just finished. I was going to put a bit more journalling and stuff on it but that wasn't working so i've just left it with more focus on the photos. Doesn't she look gorgeous asleep like this. These photos were taken back in summer obviously when the weather was warmer. I really love these photos - just something peaceful about them.
Later.

Its here!!!

So excited to be a part of this, but what is it you may ask? Well, you have to go and check it out here. Go on, I dare you!

A Layout

Here is my latest layout just finished today. Been a while since I've done a layout that didn't have Isla in it! This was for a challenge to use a favourite quote and I love this poem which is written by Byron in 1812:

There is pleasure in the pathless woods
There is rapture by the lonely shore
There is society where none intrudes
By the deep sea and music in its roar.

So I wanted to keep it nice and simple. I'm pretty happy with it, I think!

By the way, tomorrow's Saturday so check back for some exciting news!

New U2 tour dates to be announced

U2.com announce that new rescheduled Vertigo tour dates will be confirmed within the coming week. So exciting! Hopefully this time we will get tickets. Of course when the original tickets went on sale last year we decided we would go but then events conspired against us - in that I went into hospital to have Isla! So fingers crossed we will be successful in getting tickets. I can't wait - this would be the 3rd time i've seen them in concert here in Auckland if we can get tickets.

Too Exciting

Something exciting is happening on Saturday morning. Check back here to see what it is. It's really exciting!!!!

The purpose ...

of this blog is just a place to share a few thoughts and photos. Especially photos of what we've been up to and photos of Isla as she grows for those who can't see her everyday. Also a place to share some of the scrapbooking layouts i've been doing. So on that note here's one i finished yesterday. It was for a challenge - i had to use red, orange and purple.

Danger Zone

Here's Daryl on Danger Zone. Really this was the only time photos were taken of him sailing it. Brian and Steve were out on their boat taking pics and video of all the guys in their A-class catamarans and because they go so fast they had to keep buzzing back forth in close so they could get some good shots.
DZ has been sold now and the build for a better and faster catamaran begins. The video that Steve took has been edited together by Daryl and is on the NZ A-Class website. Take a look. Pretty cool stuff.

Kewlness

In the post yesterday from the lovely Nic were these cool chipboard shapes by Everlasting Keepsakes. Aren't they just the coolest? I'm so looking forward to using them. And so many other cool products out there at the moment. I've got some Lil Davis to play with but i'd love some of the new Cherry Arte stuff. I see Kiwiscraps have got the new papers in. I really like the East of India line. Can you tell I'm playing around with links today? Lol. Speaking of which I've got me some more peeps I need to link to. Will work on that today plus a layout I'm halfway through.


Isla is doing really well with sitting at the moment. It's really quite amazing how quickly she's progressed. Only a few days ago we had to support her constantly but yesterday she had really long periods of sitting on her own. Of course it just increases the dribble factor too. BTW yesterday was her 7 month day. Yikes, she's getting older so fast!

On the menu today ...

is one navy sock, has a bit of texture, a good amount of stretchiness and lots of suckability.

In other news, I finally finished playing around with the settings and got my links working and banner up. Took a damn long time tho. Where's my drink?

Check out this cutie!

She was having so much fun today pulling her sock off.
She then started to eat her sock, so it went all icky. So I put booties on her, but she's so clever she managed to pull the ribbon out and then tried to eat those too!

OMG it looks so empty!

Have to get going and adjust some settings and get some pics and links on here. Blog you look naked!

Ok here we go again

Setting up a blog again. Its been so long that my last blog got deleted!
Got some cool stuff happening at the moment - watch this space!