Just one pattern paper

Have you ever had that issue when putting together a layout where the patterns you want are on the same piece of paper?
I had that last week when creating a layout for my Disneyland adventures.  I decided some creative cutting was needed as I really wanted these two patterns.

So I cut carefully a 10" square from my paper, but I did it is such a way that I only needed to do three cuts

Then I carefully flipped over the 10" square and placed it in the hole.

I adhered the two pattern pieces to a Kraft cardstock so that if there were any gaps they would not show.

I was very pleased with the end result of my layout.

I cropped and adhered my photos and added a journaling card and a small piece of washi tape that will be a recurring theme on my Disney layouts.

Whales and Ducks

I have been so busy this past week with Group Fitness things and many other things that I just needed time to scrapbook.  So the other afternoon I went into my craft room and put together a layout.  It was great because it was one of those pages that almost put itself together.  I knew almost exactly what I wanted it to be like.  I wanted a white layout (very strange for me, I like lots of colour) with some white on white elements.  The reason I wanted white was because the whales in my photos were white and I wanted the layout to depict more about the whales.  I had never seen Beluga Whales before.  Grace had mentioned seeing them on her last visit to San Diego.  So it was very special for me to see these normally shy creatures.

I cropped two of my photos to be 4"x 4" and placed my photos as you see.  I wanted them on white so I cut a piece of cardstock to measure 10"x 11".  I then wanted to use one of my border punches (which I had recently been reunited with after them being in storage for nearly 6 months) I also wanted another border punched out and layered above the first large border.

I adhered my photos in place then added the second small border which I punched from a scrap piece of cardstock leftover from trimming down the white cardstock.

I put this white base on some light blue cardstock.  I punched 5 circles measuring 3/4" each and adhered them in the bottom right corner being sure to have the first one hanging off the page for some interest.  Once I liked there placement I cut the excess off the circle hanging over the edge and added it to the top left corner.  I didn't want to throw away that little piece, silly, but I like the result.

I found some little light blue bling and added them to the circles.  I was going to put them in the center so that they would all look the same, but then changed my mind.  I like how they look all different and so added a couple (3) extra round the circles.

Lastly I added my title which I cut from using my Silhouette Cameo.

Well, that is my tale about my 'whale' layout.  Now to fill you in on my 'duck', or in this case duckling.

I currently have a wee little duckling living in my bath tub.  Oh, it is so cute.  It has been nicknamed "Peepers".  We have some very early duck and duckling families in my backyard.  One is a mother of 4 (now 3 but at the time of this incident she had 4).  She has been round the house for a few days with her babies so I have been feeding them some rolled oats.  Anyway, the other afternoon I could hear some distressing peeping.  I went out my front door and there was mother of 4 attacking this stray little duckling.  She was really pecking at this wee thing.  I could not stand by and see this so I intervened.  Then, mother of 4 was thinking I was going to go after her four babies so she was getting ready to attack me.  Stray duckling joined her 4 so I thought OK she is defending it, it should be OK
now.  I walked away but saw she started to attack it again.  This time I caught the little duckling, but mamma was not going to let me pass.  It didn't help that duckling was peeping so mamma defended and flew at me.  I told mamma to be nice to it and let it go, just for her to start attacking again.  This time I rescued the duckling and made it into the house.

I have a cat box set up in my bathtub with a warm heat pack for it (I warm it regularly).  There is also an ice-cream container of water for drinking and swimming.  I also have food all over the floor of the bath tub.  It seems happy enough.  I take it out of the tub now and then to let it run around (when I can make an area secure).

I am not sure how my cats are going to take to this little one.  So will need to be careful for a little while.  The cats don't care about ducklings in our backyard, but could be different with one in the house.

Mesmerized

As you can tell we really enjoyed our time at Sea World, San Diego.

Here is a layout I created showing how mesmerized my daughter was with the Orcas.  They were such incredible creatures..  The female in this tank was quite old and un-interested in things until this young male Orca came to the park.  She came alive and wanted to play. they are like soulmate as one of the Sea World volunteers was telling me.  They stick together whenever they can.  My daughter just stood so close to the viewing glass she was almost part of the glass.  She could have stood there for hours just watching these two swim, and play.  They had a toy in the water that they took turns playing with.  It seems the 'string' part of the toy was made from old fire hoses (to be strong enough to last with Orcas playing with it).

With this layout I used a Hero Arts stencil and some Lawn Fawn coloured inks (a blue and a grey) and added this mesmerizing pattern over half of my background card stock.

I added my photos, a title (cut using my Silhouette Cameo), some twine and some journaling on a piece of vellum.

The results with this finished layout share the feeling my daughter had with the whales.

Workshop Layouts

I have two layouts to share with you.  Both I started at my last workshop.  The first I want to share with you is the last layout I did at my workshop.  To be honest all I did with this one at my workshop was to adhere a 5"x 7" photo to a scene pattern paper (I covered the yellow submarine with the photos LOL).
Yesterday using my Silhouette Cameo I cut out the title and the Orca.  I started with just 'Amazing' but then added the 'Creatures'.  Then using a date stamp I added the date we went to Sea World.

The second layout was my first layout I did at my workshop.  I wanted a red gingham paper for my background as we had gone to a traditional Italian pizza place for lunch that day.  But it needed breaking. I cut a narrow frame from black cardstock and a narrow circle frame from kraft cardstock, I adhered these to my layout then added my photos.
Today I cut out the title and stamped two tickets stamps for a bit of fun.  Lastly I added a journaling block (which now has journaling in it)

Can you believe, at this pizza place I had a huge tasty ... salad.  The food and company was amazing.  We had some good laughs.  It was great to stop briefly after shopping in Coronado - a beautiful sea side town with amazing houses (one of my next layouts)

It is so much fun to work on my holiday album.  I love remembering all the fun we had as I look at the photos before and after I scrapbook them.

I'm Back!!!!

It has been such a long time since I last posted (almost a year).  So much has happened since I last posted.  I am and have continued to craft while I was gone.  I have been thinking lately about whether or not to carry on/pick up my blog again.  I number of people encouraged me to start writing my blog again, so here I am.

I have decided to make this a personal blog and to share my cards and scrapbooking layouts.  Even to share how I have done some of them.

First of all let me catch you up of a few things.
About three months ago my father-in-law had a heart attach and a triple bypass heart surgery.  My sister-in-law flew over from the UK to spend time with her Dad and to be here for his initial recovery.  She also spent some time with us which was lovely. She even got me knitting - haven't done that in a long time.  It has been fun.

About six weeks ago my daughters and I went for a wonderful two week holiday to America.  Grace went to Orlando, Florida for the Zumba convention. While she was at convention Melissa and i spent time with my friends Andrew and Katie in San Diego.  Melissa's friend from Canada also joined us.

After convention Grace joined us in San Diego for a couple of days, Then Grace, Melissa and I went to San Francisco for three days before coming home.

Recently my Dad has been diagnosed with Dementia.  For me this was not a total surprise. But it is still something my family and I are needing to come to terms with.

I have just done my first training to become a Zumba instructor.  I do not know where this will lead but I am looking forward to the adventure.  So much to learn - exciting.

So currently I have many scrapbooking projects on the go.  I am also seeing a great need to document family stories from both sides of the family.

So come join me on a journey of learning, discovery and creativity.

Taking photos is fun

We went out as a family to the Arataki Visitor Centre.  We went because the weather had been so terrible but had finally cleared up and we were all suffering a bit of cabin fever.  I had not used my camera in ages so I dusted it off and away we went.  It was nice to check out the view and take a couple of fun photos.

Once inside my daughters and I went straight for the Gecko display cabinet.  They are always a challenge to find and fascinating to watch.  I could not resist so I took a couple of photos.  Next thing I know my daughter is having a bonding moment with a Gecko through the glass.  It was so cute I just had to get a photo (or five to be on the safe side).

Little did I know, but one of the reasons for popping into Arataki was to check out the maps for a Sunday drive.  We chose one of the few (if only) round trips, down to Karekare Beach down Lone Kauri Road, then back up the other road (forgotten the name of it LOL)

So off we went, to one of the wild west coast beaches. Once at the beach car-park we set off for a walk along the waterway to the beach.  But we forgot that to get to the beach you have to cross the waterway which was about knee deep and it would have been rather cold.  So we stayed on the cliff side and have fun taking photos of us as a family doing that air jump photo.  We had to do it many times to get the results we were after, but we always ended up with the giggles. I was so glad I had a really good sports mode on my camera.  Some of the results were hilarious.  The whole afternoon was so much fun and laughter.

I highly recommend getting out there with your family and just having some spontaneous fun and photos.

Sisters Layout

Over the weekend I was able to take a bit of time to scrapbook. (this is always a plus)  I looked through some photos and found one of my two daughters horsing around on a bush walk we did at the beginning of the year.  We had stopped in front of a beautiful big Kauri tree and were trying out our new camera.  My daughters were sitting across from me and I just happened to snap this photo.  I really like how it brings out the fun side of both of them.

It is not very often that I use pink on my layouts but for some reason this just felt right.  I also decided to use punched out circles from left over pattern papers instead of flowers on this layout.  I used a range of circle sizes of punches (2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2", 1 1/4", 1" and 3/4" circle punches were used)

I also used some sequins to add a little sparkle to this layout.  For the title/journaling I jumped onto Pinterest to find some 'sister' quotes.  I found about 8 quotes and then took them to my daughters and had them choose the one they felt was the most like them and would go with the layout.

This was a simple, but fun layout to create.

First Projects in my new craft studio

It has been a crazy couple of months what with Craft Out West, 21st birthday, 17th birthday, preparations for Christmas and so much more.  Also during this time I have decided to change my working situations and now I have a lovely new craft studio in the back room of my garage.  So now I have a wonderful creative space.  I am looking forward to doing a lot more on my online shop and here on my blog with tutorials and creative pieces.  Well my craft studio is almost finished - there are a few tweaks that I want to do (more one of the tables)  but it is enough completed that I treated myself to an afternoon of scrapbooking and card making.

During my cleaning up and move I found these cute photos of when one of my cats was little (before his eye accident) and just had to scrapbook them.  It was hard to believe these photos were taken 6 years ago.

I also made this card.  It seems sad to be making a sympathy card but it is going to be used straight away.  It was so sad that a friend of ours passed away just before Christmas.  I was unable to make it to the funeral and really wanted to send my love to the family.  I saw a couple of lovely card ideas and Pinterest and combined them to create this card.

On a happier note, my daughter loves baking and so for Christmas she made a really fun gingerbread village.  She has made a gingerbread house in the past and so wanted to do something a little different, so a village it was.

So until next time, happy crafting and continue to be crafty ...

Xterra 2015

Last year we went to Rotorua for the Paymark Xterra series and had such a great time that we decided to do it all again this year.  With one difference - this time Melissa and I were going to do the 5.5km run as well as Brad doing the 26km mountain bike ride.

This year we stayed at the Distinction Hotel in Rotorua, we arrived early evening on the Friday.  A lovely hotel.  The registration and pack pick-ups were at our hotel as well so that made it real easy.  We went and picked up our race packs, checked into the hotel and proceeded to see what we got in our race packs.  Brad's company is one of the major sponsors of the event so we caught up with some of his workmates as well.

The girls had their own hotel room across the hall from us, so it was really nice for them and for us to have our own spaces.  None of us seemed to sleep well that night.  Not sure if it was the night before the race jitters or that the hotel rooms were too hot or what but never mind.

We were all up at 6am on race day (Saturday 11 April) and headed down to breakfast at 6:30am.  The breakfast buffet was lovely with so much to choose from.  It was great to see so many other Xterra competitors in the dining room as well.  We even saw Hamish Carter and his family at breakfast.

We left the hotel and headed off for the event at about 7:15am after checking out as Melissa and my event started at 8am at the Blue Lake.  We arrived with plenty of time, un-hitched Brad's bike for his event at 9am.

8am came round pretty quick.  Melissa and I were ready and waiting at the start line.  Melissa was going to try to stay with me for the first bit of the event.  But as soon as the whistle went there was a surge forward and we were separated.  She took off - and good for her.  She did so well.  I was planning to walk but signed up for the run so if I wanted to run I could.  With everyone round me running at the start I decided to just go for it and run I did.  I ran for just over a kilometer before having to do some walking.  I met up with Karina for Paymark and we chatted pretty much the rest of the way.

Once we got off the road and onto the trail it got pretty muddy as it had been raining in Rotorua for most of the week and the night before.  The weather was trying to clear up for the events, but the wind was freezing.  On the 5.5km I did warm up so it wasn't to bad.  Karina was doing the 11km so as we came to the finish line we separated and I took off until I hit the soft sand and had to walk until it firmed up again and then just went for it and ran to the finish.

I just missed the start of Brad's event, but both the girls were there to see him off. Melissa made it to the finish line about 5-6 minutes ahead of me - not too bad.

Brad found the course a lot harder this year just because of all the mud and muck on the course.  He did really really well though.  He managed to have about the same finishing time as last year on his old bike.  We reckon had the course been dry he would have thrashed his previous time.  It was funny seeing all the mountain bikers return absolutely covered in mud.  Quite an adventure out on the course.

We watched some of the individual and teams start out on the triathlon.  Man they were amazing, especially those doing the full triathlon on their own.  Looking forward to taking part again next year and hopefully beating my time - maybe even running more of it.   If the weather is good I will wear my vibram shoes next time.

That afternoon we visited the Redwood forest.  This is one of our favourite places to visit when we go to Rotorua.  We went for a bit of a walk to try and loosen up after our events.

After checking out a couple of other spots we headed back home.
Another great time in Rotorua.  Looking forward to our next trip.

See ya next year Xterra!

Duck Layout

At the beginning of this year we had a Mother duck of over 20 ducklings staying on our property.  We suspect she had more than one lot of ducklings as they were two different colours.  As you kind of expect with ducks the numbers started to dwindle and one day she was down to only 8 ducklings.  The next day we noticed she had what looked like a broken jaw, but we could not catch her.  She disappeared for a couple of days and then she was down to three babies and again we decided to try and catch her to take her to the local Bird Rescue, but again no luck.  It took us a total of three days, a borrowed cat carrier and two chicken nets.  Sadly but the time we did catch her she was down to just two ducklings.

Taking her and her two ducklings to the Bird Rescue was not to bad.  But once there she got out twice and made a run/fly for it.  I have no idea what happened with her care but I do hope she made it and the two ducklings made it to.

I did manage to get a couple of photos of Mother Duck and ducklings are they were caught and on the weekend created this layout.  I do like it when we have ducks and their ducklings, they are so much fun to watch and feed out the dining room window.

Poor Peanut

I feel like I have had a bit of an emotional 24 hrs.  My cat (OK technically it he is my daughter's cat) has lost weight dramatically since about New Years.  So I have been giving him extra meals to try and get his weight back up.  I de-fleaed him and wormed him as well - that was a mission and ended up at the vet to get him to do it.  Peanut was like a naughty child and clamped him mouth shut)
Anyway, over the last couple of days his breathing started to be effected and looked rather laboured.  I could not take it any more so booked him in at the vet yesterday.  Now I know when you go to the vet you don't get much change out of couple of hundred dollars when you have a very sick animal.  So that was stressing me out to start, but I was terrified that the vet would take one look at Peanut and say he would need to be put to sleep like with Calem a number of years ago.

Anyway the vet was wonderful.  She looked at Peanut and said there could be a couple of things that it could be, but to do an xray to check if there was fluid round the lungs.  She did and there was.  She said she could use a needle and drain the fluid (she was thinking it would be pus).  So we left Peanut with her for a couple of hours and she was able to remove some fluid and sure enough it was pus, but it was very liquid, not like the pus I would have thought - you know thick and icky.  She also gave him some long acting antibiotics so I don't have to try to give him pills (phew!).  He was breathing a little better but he had been shaved on both sides of his chest - poor boy.  Now we need to go back daily for some drainage of this fluid.

Shaved patch on one side, the other side is shaved too.

Peanut having breakfast this morning

I worried all night over Peanut and Kitty has been at his side a lot.  While Peanut was at the vet yesterday Kitty wondered round looking for him.  It is nice to see she does care as most of the time she ignores him LOL!  This morning Peanut ate all his breakfast and even had some milk - yipee!  He also looks like his breathing is a bit better today.  So we will see how we get on this afternoon.  Hopefully he will be on the mend ready for his birthday in a couple of weeks

Who is scratching at my ceiling?

The other day Grace and I came home from Aqua Zumba and after my shower Grace said she could hear scratching but wan't sure where it was coming form.  I stood beside her and sure enough there was a scratching noise coming from the ceiling - the attic.  This got me concerned that maybe we had a mouse or worse ... rats.

Well I didn't think there was much I could do so I went out to the workshop and did some work on the online shop and thought when Brad got home he could take care of it.

When I came in for lunch I decided to face the 'rat' or 'mouse'.  But when I opened the attic door and climbed half way up the stairs I could hear a baby bird peeping.

Sure enough at the far end of the house sitting on the top of the pink bats was a little sparrow fledgling.  Grace and I carefully stepped on the beams and Grace was able to get the little sparrow into an empty Weet-bix box.  The we saw the other fledgling, but it was dead.

Once out of the attic and into the kitchen I made some mush with Weet-bix, water and a tiny bit of honey.  I used a toothpick and carefully fed the little sparrow.

It turned out that the night before Brad and Melissa could hear the peeping of a bird that sounded like it was in the house (because little did we know that it was).  We do have a family of sparrows in the corner of the house under the gutter area.  So it looks like this little sparrow was from the family and had hopped out of the nest and up under the roof on the building paper where if fell through into our attic.  But seeing has it did not have very strong wings yet it could not get back up to its nest.

When Brad did get home we managed to get the dustpan under the building paper and sent it back towards its nest.  Since then it parents outside seem to be calling more and it sounds like more than one baby responding back in the nest, so hopefully it made it back to Mum and Dad (who we have nick-named Jack and Jackie)

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.