Am I really Home Already?

Wow how the past week has flown, I have flown to Australia with my best friend, driven from Brisbane to Surfers Paradise, and back to Brisbane. We have explored the beaches, gone crazy over the shops, got lost driving at night, seen huge malls, wonderful shops, eaten great food but the biggest thing is we saw my darling niece graduate high school, and felt so proud and excited for her.
The graduation ceremony was held at the school in the morning and it was so uplifting and inspiring. The emotion level was very high I must admit, so proud to see my darling girl graduate high school.
But when it came to drama it had to be the ball at night. OMG! They went all out, it was a fairy tale event, held in a very beautiful hotel. The couples arrived in beautiful verteran cars, my niece and her partner, who is also her lovely boyfriend, in a blue and silver Impala. Her gorgeous black dress would have been at home on the red carpet at the Oscars. Everything was perfect except for the fact that only boys from the school were allowed to accompany the girls to the actual dinner and ball. Guests were welcome to stay for the presentation of the girls and then before the dinner and dance we were asked to leave, but what an experience, and of course what a huge night for the graduates.

I was so proud of our gorgeous girl, she just carried the whole thing off so well.
It was also lovely to meet her lovely boyfriend and some of her friends.
We went on to have many more adventures on the land of Oz, so watch this space.

Probably not the best photo, but I love this layout.
I got invited to a Scrap day yesterday and we worked with a particular kit. I had no idea when I took this photo to work with that the papers and the wording were going to be so perfect.
If you'd seen me at 7am yesterday morning struggling to print the photo and pack my bag, you would have thought the day was going to be a disaster, but not so it was great. Met some lovely ladies and Robbie is a fun teacher and coach so it was a great day.
It was so lucky that I chose  to print the photo in black and white although I must admit I prefer working with black and white photos that way you don't have any restrictions with choosing papers etc.
Anyway on a roll so off to try something else while I've got time.
Thanks for stopping by.

She's leavin'....

 

On a jet plane.... oh boy the day I've been dreading for ages, the day my 15yr old niece left for Australia to live with her Dad's family.
It probably wasn't as bad as I'd imagined but wow seeing her disappearing through those doors was soooo hard and watching my sister's face even harder.
Love you baby, take care.

Blown away....

Just been on Facebook and seen photos of Sam, (my niece) taken in Oz, such a teenager wow. It seems like no time since she was just a tiny baby,time sure does fly when there's kids involved that;s for sure.
Still feeling a bit miserable with this bug, just want to curl up under a duvet hope it passes soon.
Oh and yeah it actually snowed here yesterday, just briefly at our place but the hills behind us were really white and the car was frozen when Faye went to work at 7am. Thought that was all over it's been so spring like.
Been laying on the couch watching day-time talk TV, oh my God! Talk about a different world think, no make that I know I would much rather have my ordinary little life than the people on Jeremy Kyle and Dr.Phil, are those people for real????
Anyway back to the couch.
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On my mind...

this morning is how fast time flys. Here is is Easter and it seems no time since it was Christmas, the days fly by, everyone's busy with the day to day rush and I really believe life is getting faster as I get older...(Mum always said it did). Anyway a day off today so I think it's going to be me and my scrap table, I have the house to myself and I'm still buzzing from last weekend's scrap camp. I saw so many beautiful pages, fabulous ideas and bought some cool papers to play with so it would be a shame to not enjoy them.
It's a gorgeous morning here, the sun is coming out and it all looks so pretty. Phew! I wasn't ready for how cold the past week has been that's for sure.
Oh yes and tonight is American Idol night, wasn't going to get hooked on this programme but I have, along with NZ's Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars. Not sure about NZ Next Top Model, I feel there is a formulae that they have to follow and it's making it a bit trashy, and I swear that when the girls say "Sara Mail" it's dubbed to sound like "Tyra Mail", am I getting cynical in my old age??? Possibly but that's how I feel. Anyway I have a layout that I did last weekend at Scrap Camp inspired by the "Top Model" programme, my niece Sam sent me this photo, (which she doesn't like apparently) but I couldn't resist having a play.
Used Penny Lane pps, Prima lace stamp and Basic Grey diecuts, the line was drawn with a "wiggly" ruler which I bought in what used to be the $2 shop.
This photo sure proves to me that my Sammie is not a baby anymore....sigh!

BTW those Penny Lane Papers by My Mind's Eye are gorgeous, well they are actually cardstocks but they have the most wonderful feel to them. The other papers I'm nuts about at the moment are Cosmo Cricket "Girl Friday", just love their funky attitude.
Anyway off to finish my layout for the South?North Challenge.
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Sneak Peeks...

Just found some sneak peeks of some of new releases at CHA. These ones drove me insane, they are Prima and out of this world.
You just have to see them to believe them, oh boy am I drooling....want them NOW!

And these from Seven Gypsies are pretty cool too, although nothing comes close to the Prima stuff for me.

Well I think that's enough teasing myself with what I can't have for now, LOL. I want to get to my table tonight my head's buzzing with ideas. Sam, my niece, sent us a gorgeous photo of herself yesterday, after I got over the shock of realising that gorgeous young lady was my baby niece, my head went into scrap mode of course. She starts boarding school next week so I have a little project I want to make for her to take with her, so she knows I'm thinking about her always. On that front we are meeting them in Timaru to take her to school... how do I feel about that??? Excited, nervous and more, but I can't wait to see them that's for sure. And of course I will take the camera...no danger of having nothing to scrap at Scrap Camp, I'm in planning mode.
Must go watch the news cos I'm definitely not Obama'd out I could listen to that man speak forever.
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Christmas Baby.

I was sorting through some past projects last night and I found this photo, which I had been intending to scrap and never got to it, it was taken on Sammie's first Christmas and I just adore this photo, so yeah I had to scrap it and add it to the album I'm doing for her. It was a great excuse to try the new cartridge "Graphically Speaking", this cart is awesome. It has so much on it, layers and layers of icons, words labels etc etc. I think you could use it 100's of times and still find new things, definitely hot in this house at the moment.
Back to the photo, it blows me away that this little baby is now 13 and starting not only high school but boarding school next year, where did the time go??? Our wee baby (my niece) is fast becoming a young lady, can't wait to see her when she comes to stay in the holidays.... we are going to have to get to know each other all over again... that's scary LOL.
Anyway I have the afternoon to play so I'm off to make more Christmas cards... I know I know I'm always running at the last minute. :)

200th Post

Can't believe this is my 200th post on my blog. When I started it I thought it was very cool but honestly didn't realise how addictive it would become. Anyhow fitting that on this post I have a photo of my latest layout. It features my niece Sam, and I took these photos of her in January 2006. It makes me sad to think that it's that long since she came and stayed with us but life and work has gotten in the way sadly. Anyway I love these photos of her and just between you and me I'm pretty chuffed with this layout. It's for the Scrapboxnz. July sketch challenge, and I got to play with the Cricut, flowers, bling and pink, black and white so I'm pretty happy about it. :)

Another page from Sammie's Book

I'm so excited about this latest page from Sam's Book. I love this picture, Sam was really over the "photo taking excercise" and it shows on her little face. They were walking throught the park behind my house and Pete spyed some little ducklings in the creek and so while they were watching the ducklings I was snapping them. This is from a another sketch, this one I found on Scrapworms Blog. I used K&Co papers, Bazzill and my gorgeous Maya Road stamps.....so loooove these stamps. The little word phrase is Making Memories.

Still no sign of my Cricut Expressions...... and it's a long weekend so it will be Tuesday before and hope of seeing it....I'm not a patient waiter! Have you noticed that already!! LOL.

Anyway a very sunny day here today so I'm back out to the deck and that Home and Garden Magazine that's got me planning on painting out kitchen pink.... oh boy when I get an idea I'm like a dog with a bone.

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Sammie's Book

Yesterday was definitely a good day, I made up my mind to really concentrate on scrapping and ....I did. Whoa that's an achievement!Anyway I did two more layouts for the book I'm doing of Sam's early years. I found some photos I'd forgotten all about so it inspired me to do a dedicated book of her baby years, alas they seem a long time ago now sigh! All of twelves years but still that's along time in the life of a child and an Auntie who doesn't get to see her that often.However to the pages, .... the first one is a photo that a friend of mine took one morning as part of a "photo shoot". They are all fantastic and the quality is gorgeous, This is probably my favourite because this has been a "signature" look of Sam's all her life and I just love it.

The second photo was taken when she was three and the whole thing was a complete fluke, even though it looks totally planned. My sister and family were staying with us, and we went down to the city for lunch, in one of the malls they had this Merry-go-round set up complete with a pink car. Sam has always loved cars, especially old ones, so the scene was set, and like all good Auntie's I had my camera handy.At that stage scrap-booking was just a dream because nothing in the way of products were available here and I used to improvise and dream about getting my hands on "the real stuff" LOL!

For the "Pink" page I used a sketch from Page Maps by Begga Huna. I have just started using sketches, I'm trying to make myself do something different and not stick to the same formula every time. Really chuffed with how it turned out.

Used K&Co papers, Bazzil, Autumn leaves stamps,Cuttlebug, and Fancy Pants Big Board Shapes and Stamps and Maya Road stamps.

Using tranparencies

Fed the boy but must eat myself, but just wanted to share this layout I did yesterday. I made the transparency in Adobe PSE 5, and then layered it over the page. Used various brushes, and have gotten very keen on this technique, kinda like making my own over-lays.
The photo is my darling niece, taken in the first five minutes of my meeting her 12 yrs. ago...oh boy time does fly.

The papers are K&co, and the flower I made on my friend Carol's Cricut....(can't wait till ours arrives). I was keen before but now I'm real hooked.

Birthday Card

Card I made for Sam's 12th birthday. Kelly Pannaci paper, embossed brown card with Cuttlebug, sparkly flower punched out on Cuttlebug.
Wanted something a bit sophisticated for her 12th birthday and she loves blue. This paper is really appropriate cos she is very much "one of a kind".
Hope she likes it.