Goodness me, where have I been??? The time has zipped past so quickly!
Last Thursday Andrew and I headed to Burwood for an appointment at the Pain Management Clinic. Andrew now is in the process of tiring out new medications to help with the shoulder pain that he lives with constantly. Fingers crossed it will help. During the corse of our visit we spoke with an amazing doctor, such an inspiring man to listen to and talk with. By the end of our chat with him I was feeling keen to go and train as a doctor myself....LOL, but this man had real passion for his job and really was quite an inspiration.
Saturday saw us on the road home again, once there I unloaded the van, changed clothes and we headed to a 40th birthday party.
On Sunday I caught up on the housework and washing and threw myself into my Up2scrap project...you will have to grab a copy of the next mag to find out more about that... I'm not allowed to say any more on that subject :-)

These are my latest digital pages, I decided to throw together a memento of Aimess first year at University, in the form of a 'She' mini album
Check out more 'She' sayings by Kobi Yamada HERE

and...here is an update of our new look garage. We are not quite finished yet, but getting there.The locals are all passing positive comments. And our local hotel is under going a paint job as well, so Duntroon's main street is looking pretty dapper!

Well I have a yucky head cold and tomorrow we have an early start. We are heading back to Christchurch as our Aimee is receiving her Duke of Edinburgh Award at the presentations tomorrow. So I'm about to head to bed early, in the hope that i wake up feeling much better!

Aimee come home tonight, via the bus. This is her first visit back home from uni, and its wonderful to have her home. Such a shame we have to take her back to Dunedin again on Sunday.

This morning dawned bright, I had kind of hoped for rain, as I was not cherishing the task ahead...the painting of our Garage

...Andrew has a smile, guess he's feeling more enthusiastic about the task than me! Dad has brush in hand and was the first one to 'make his mark'.

Granmar had no qualms about climbing the ladder...I hate heights so was very happy to paint lower down the wall.

By 4 pm we had most of the base coat on and dived into the tin of 'contrast'

Our kind friend Murray put in a hard days yacker as well.

Tomorrow we get to do the whole thing over again... yee-harr!!!

Yummy yummy!!!

Check this out... An apple cake made for us by Hannah

Looks tastie doesn't it! Well, I can tell you that it tasted even better than it looks.The recipe is one of Hannah's grammar's. Hannah got to work in our kitchen and made this for us to sample, it did not last long at all. I am hoping Hannah will re write the recipe for me in English.

Thank you Hannah...here is the recipe...

Base

150 grms of butter

100grms of sugar

200grms of flour

1 and a half tspns of baking powder

Mix the above all together and press into a baking tin.

Filling

7 - 8 large apples...

...chopped and cooked in a little butter.

put aside until cold.

Spread on top of the base.

Topping

100grms of sugar

100 grms (or more) of sliced almonds

100grms of butter

1 egg

Mix all together and sprinkle over the apple.

Fan bake at 170-180 for 45 minutes.

This is delicious with cream and ice cream!

On the 21st of Febuary Cody went to Tekapo and took part in the Water ski Clubs competition day, I think I mentioned it in an earlier post. Well Yesterday I was reading the newsletter, that comes via email, and I saw that Cody won the men's slalom event...now wouldn't you think he would have told me!!!!

I have pinched a few photos of the day from face book....

Cody had a go at skiing with two of the 'top guns'. Looks like hes about to be beheaded here!
hmmm.... looks kind of scary to me!

Way to go Cody on winning the trophy!!

Be in to win

Have you checked out this months challenge over at Up2scrap? The prise, up for grabs this month is a 6 X4" Printers tray from 7 Gypsies. Grab a copy of the latest Up2scrap mag to see Dianne Hanson's beautifully decorated photo tray...you wont want to miss a chance to win one for your self!

Annelie has set the latest challenge, and because I was fascinated by her colour choice I decided to have a go at the challenge myself. Check out the colour scheme ...My background card stock is cream, it just looks a little on the grey side in these photos, no doubt that's because I photographed my page in the shade to avoid harsh shadows.

Instead of using paper, I have used part of an old crochet doily, lace and ribbon to boarder my photo, and of course I cannot use fabric without adding the odd button, Guess that comes from the 'sewer' in me!

Those of you who follow my blog will know that 'white space' is not my forte, but I have tried very hard to follow Annelie's instructions and leave 'white space'... although I just could not resist a wee spray, here and there of Glimmer Mist...just to 'tonne down' some of that space! Sorry Annelie. My love of stamping is showing up again with my brown leaves, title and verse.

I have topped a flower and the circle of paper with a little rolled up paper, and I have glued tiny beads onto the centres of the crochet flowers.

Sure hope you give this challenge a go...details can be found by clicking HERE

Smiles essential

At last I've managed to finish a scrapbook page!
I peeled this photo from dear daughters bedroom wall after she left for university. Would you believe Aimee had glue-gunned photos to her bedroom wall...Yeek!!
Her wall has now been repainted and this lovely photo has taken its place in her scrapbook album...so it will not be glued onto my walls ever again!

This photo was a professional one taken at the 2008 School ball, Aimee's first ball. I just love the look of excitement and fun radiating from the girls face's

I have one busy page going on (no surprises there). I stamped on to these paper flowers just to add a little more interest.

I used my new Cricut expression, given to me for Christmas by my wonderful husband, to cut the backgrounds and the title for my page.

Just to add a little more glam I glued tiny beads onto my ribbon boarder.

Where would us scrappers be without Prima... love the flower sprays with the butterfly's.

Hope some of you are having a go at the latest challenge on the Up2scrap blog... the prize is a very cool photo tray from 7 Gypsies ...check it out here

I have my papers out ready to give it a go...so watch this space :-)

Have a Happy Scrappy weekend

ATC for a friend

Found my photo of the ATC I sent to Sandra...

ATC for a friend

Okay, I was planning on a posting tonight, but time has once again escaped from my grasp And I cannot for the life of me remember which folder I have stashed these ATC photos in so..... until I hunt out my other two photos here is a wee peek of an ATC I made last week to send to my friend Sandra in Christchurch.

Crafting is still slow at my house, we have one sunny day after another and I have many chores to do so scrapping is still well down my to-do list, however I have been working on a page and its almost finish so soon I will have a scrapbook page to share.

New challenge is up!!

Up2scrap blog is up and running for 2010 There are great prizes to be won each month, so challenge yourself and join in with the fun.
This month Annelie has this cool sketch for you and... there's a twist!

Click on Annelie's sketch (below) it will take you straight to the Up2scrap blog where all of the

details can be found.

Happy scrapping!! I can hardly wait to see what you all come up with.