A quick card

I ordered some papers last week and they arrived the other day.  As soon as I opened my parcel of papers I was inspired to create a card using a couple of the papers.  It was amazing how quick it was.

The papers I used were from Pavlova Papers - these are created and designed here in New Zealand.  I really like this set of papers, they have a lovely vintage look with the sepia tones and then the brightness of the reds and other colours.  These two papers are Rose Card Red (it has all the roses ready to use on cards) and Cocao Gold and I used the reverse side that reminds me of wallpaper a bit.

With just using these two papers, some Peels Craft stickers and some foam tape here is the card I created.

I cut three of the flower card pieces out, used one as a base then with the other two I cut out the roses and leaves and from the third piece just the red rose.  I layered the pieces using foam tape.
I cut a piece of the Cocao Gold to cover my card front, then added the flower piece and lastly added some Peel Craft stickers to give a sweet border round the card.  I wrote the sentiment with my Chocolate brown Zigwriter pen.

I am very pleased with the result, now to just send it to a deserving friend.  It is really nice to send cards to those you care about.  There is not enough nice post arriving in our letterboxes anymore.

You can find these papers available in our shop and online (click here or here)

Happy Girls

I am probably the happiest when I get to create and when I get to work in my garden.  Though creating is the best.

This week I thought it would be fun to give one of the Echo Park Mini Theme packs some of my attention.  I popped down to the shops and picked up a cheap embroidery frame and using the Echo Park Mini Theme Princess kit I created this fun wee project.

I had so much fun with this that I will be doing this as a kids class in Term 4.  I created the flower on this project using my Silhouette Cameo and one of the flower files from Silhouettes online shop.
I used a piece of ribbon so that I could hang this lovely frame.  At the moment it is hanging in my workshop as I decided where it will permanently live.

This is the kit that I used and it is available from our online shop

Echo Park Mini Theme - Princess
$13.50
Click here to order yours!

Gardening - a new beginning

I have started a course via facebook helping me to grow a veggie garden.  It has been really exciting to see all sorts of things happening for this lately.  Over the past couple of years I have managed to grow strawberries, lettuces and silver-beet quite successfully but I wanted to be relatively self-sufficient and grow more veggies.

To do this I need more garden beds.  So to start with I have chosen a spot on the bank of our property where we can build some raised garden beds.  At the moment we are trying to kill of the grass so it looks like we are growing a broken trampoline and some wooden pallets.

But last weekend Brad and I popped down to Placemakers and found some wood that would work to make my raised beds.  I think we may have a bit much, but I am sure I will find more use for it round the back to make even more gardens LOL.

When moving all this wood from the trailer to the front of the house and then from the front of the house to in front of my current strawberry beds Kitty supervised - and played with the recently cut grass, so funny to watch her play seeing as she doesn't normally like being on the grass.

Once my garden beds are ready I will be able to plant my seedlings.  At the moment they are growing from seed in my little greenhouse.  Growing from seed is kind of fun.  Sowing the seeds and then waiting patiently for them to pop through the soil.  My family thinks I am crazy when I get excited that a shoot has popped through the soil and, that I refer to my seedlings as my babies - but they need me LOL!

Here are my peas that are coming up.  All going well the garden will be ready soon and they will be strong enough to go out into the garden.

More seeds arrived yesterday so I will be sowing even more seeds shortly.  Brad said on the weekend that I will be getting an extra bed than I thought I would be so I wonder what I will plant in that one.  All my other three beds are planned out.  Maybe the next lot of lettuce or maybe some herbs.

I honestly never thought I would become a gardener.  My Mum has always been into gardening but it never seemed to rub off on me.  If anything I used to be very good and killing plants.  I guess that is why doing this facebook course will be very helpful.

Visiting Family

On the third weekend in September my family went of on a little trip up north to visit my Dad and his lovely wife Lyn in Kawakawa.  Of course we chose a weekend where the weather was not particularly friendly.  We had planned to take our bikes and try one of the cycle tracks but it was so windy and rainy even before we left that we decided to leave the bikes at home. So we left home just after lunch on the Saturday and headed up.

The drive was not too bad.  We had our music on shuffle so we all enjoyed the music in the car.  We also had some nibbles.  I love looking out the window on road trips and just watching the country side change.  Going past farm land, bush, forest, flat land, hills and rocky terrain.  I love how New Zealand just seems to have everything covered landscape wise.

We arrived at my Dad's just after 4pm, so we had quite a good run.  Lyn was already making dinner.  so we had time to unpack and do a small catch up before dinner.  Lyn put on a lovely spread and we all had time to catch up and have a really nice family time.

The following morning we had breakfast and a bit of fun with photos using tablets and then my family and I were off to explore Piha, Opua and Kawakawa.  Here is our family photo using Grace's tablet.

The weather on the Sunday was probably the worst out of the two days.  In Piha we got rained on when trying to look round the shops.  So we headed down to Opua where there was the start of a cycle way for cyclists.  We thought we would check it out ready for our next visit.  It was nice a the rain had stopped and the sun came out while we walked.  Here are my girls enjoying one of the small bridges on the trail.

 Pretty much as soon as we got back to the car the heavens opened at it rained ... again.

On our way back home we stopped off in Kawakawa to check out the Steam Engine and to see where the cycle trail came out at the end.  It was fun to see my family enjoy watching the steam engine. That is another thing we will have to do next time we visit over summer.

The drive home was uneventful but the weather basically rained on and off all the way home.  Once home the cats would not let us out of there sight.  They may have missed only one meal but as far as they were concerned we had been gone a lifetime.

Family time with the extended family is so important.  It is something we do not do enough but I would like to see us do this more often with all our extended family.