Ages..and ages

Its been ages since my last post! Life can get crazy and its easy to lose your way, then getting back to the things you enjoy is a huge struggle. 2011 is fast coming to a close and I have to admit that this year has been an odd kind of a year for me. Its been super busy with a handful, or two of 'stuggle' thrown in and  a sprinkling of 'stuff ' from the past that come back to make life interesting. Sometimes 'interesting is good, then somethings its not so good. Sure makes you think though and reflect on where you are at in the big scheme of things!
Ive had the pleasure of getting to know some 'cyber friends' a little better. The lovely Kristi come to stay with us earlier this year and Ive gotten to know a lovely lady by the name of Annie a little better through emailing. Its a shame Annie lives so far away because Id love to meet this lady, she is an inspiration to me.
I have text chatted, and spoken on the phone to a very old  friend from yesteryear, its nice to remember that I was young...once!
Anyway...back to the 'now'
Sometime ago I was asked to illustrate a book.I'm not good at saying, no..never have been, sometimes I curse myself for my inability to do so!! So I illustrated...lol this was a slow process for me. I love to draw, but always realistic drawings. I was given photos of people and animals and asked to animate them..shock horror!!
After many bin fulls of drawings and cursing and frowning at my attempts the job was finished and now the book has been published. Here's a sneak peek at the finished book...

First the cover

 The first page...

 Here is the Black witch dissolving...had many attempts before coming up with this one!

...and the very last page in the book.

 A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of meeting Cody's Hannah's mum and dad who come to NZ for a visit all the way from Germany. Thomas and Petina are such lovely people, so full of fun and 'sunshine'. And I stuck a deal with Thomas, I learn enough German so that when they return for their next visit in two years time  I can have a conversation with them in German, and Thomas is going to improve his English...which, is very good already. So far I am doing okay...one new word every few days.I know I'm going to have to get a little faster to know enough to have a whole conversation!! Hannah is now on a plane home to spend Christmas with her family. We will miss her while she is gone. I do think we will have the pleasure of Cody's company at  tea time though, and already Mash, (Hannah's dog) has appeared at our house and is settling in for a bit of a stay it would seem.

 We have recently had another visitor as well, dear wee Max, who is son of Rachel and Barret, and grandson of my dear friend Robyn. This wee guy is so cute and it was a delight to get to spend a little bit of time in his company.

 Our Garage is up and running and we are at week four! Sadly Andrew has been plagued by a pressure area   just one week after opening and has had to be on bed rest for a good part of week two, and is now on bed rest again, for the same problem. Its looking like he may not get to the garage this week at all. Life does tend to dish out its fair share of 'issues'. Never mind though, tomorrow is another day and I'm ever hopeful that many bright moments will come this way.

One such bright spot come just last week when Camden gained the award of Top Student for the year in his Poly tech class. Today is his first day of being in paid employment. He was super excited to finally be getting the chance to work as a heavy machinery mechanic, I hope things keep getting better and better for him!

On a final note Aimee texted me on Friday morning to say her rat 'Dora" had produced eleven baby rats!!!! Hmmmmm I'm hoping she does not bring them all home for the holidays!!

Just photos today

Hi there. Today I have no crafty stuff to share with you. I've been a little slow in that department the past few weeks. However I am working on my next brief for Paper Chase Magazine, only, I am not allowed to share that with you...sorry.

Have you seen that latest issue yet? Its in your book shop now.

Anyways, thought I'd share a few photos with you. First of all here is one of me, taken 5 minutes ago. LOL, I hate photos of me , for obvious reasons!! As you can maybe tell I'm sitting in my craft room in front of my computer tyring to find my mojo!!

 ...now, just for a laugh here is a photo of me taken 100 years ago (well it feels like 100 years ago)

I am quite sure I WAS happier than I look :-)

 Recently Andrew brought me a DigiTech negative scanner, so I've been going through my box of old negatives and converting them into photos. The colour is not as vibrant as it could be, but other than that these little gadits are wonderful. Check out the cute pups in this photo.

 ...and...now I'm going back 200 years ago! Goodness me how the years have flown.

Thats all from me today, off to get some tea on the go now. Hugs to all and thanks for popping by. xx

Home for the weekend

Last weekend we had visitors a plenty at our house.....take a look.....

first up we had Rat-A-Tat...

...and we had Star...

 ...and some hairy lad...oh...I do believe that is youngest son, who has forgotten how to use his razor since leaving home??

 And, last but by no means least we had the lovely Abby to stay as well.

Its always lovely to have to have company at the weekends.

Busy day

Today has been a busy one at our house. After raking up leaves this morning I got it into my head that it was high time I cut down the dead conifer in our garden. Then I eyed up the large willow tree (the one that is dropping all of its leaves) and I must have had a moment of insanity because I made a very rash decision and decided to take the chain saw to that one as well.

 So, I'm not much of a 'woods man' and I almost took out a window and railing around our veranda.

 Andrew looked on with much concern, and plenty of instructions!

 By mid-afternoon I was pretty much over my rash decision. Guess what I will be doing for the next few

days...maybe even months!

On a brighter, craftier note I have been meaning to show off these amazing bags made by my very clever friend Kristi. This one she finished off when she come to stay. I sent this one to my sister for her birthday and she loves it.

 This one Kristi made for me, its totally gorgeous and totally unique. Thanks again Kristi!

Yesterday I received this very funky photo from Kristi. Not only can this girl knit shes pretty clever on her computer as well, and her OTP projects are something else again!

Thanks Kristi

Where have the days gone??

Wow, here was I thinking that once I left my wonderful job I would have nothing to do! I was very, very wrong. I could write screeds and screeds on what we've been up to, but that would be pretty boring so here is a quick 'photo recount' that kind of covers the basics.

First up,I was super lucky to have a visit from an 'online blogger, crafty friend' Kristi in early April.

Kristi come and stayed with us for a couple of nights, which really was not long enough. However, we managed to fit in a visit to Mt Cook. Kristi had not seen much of the South island so it was a joy to show her some of the sites.

 We had the yummiest coffees and muffin at the Hermitage and dreamed about settling in for the night with a nice bottle of wine. (I know this photo is not a great one, but thought Id show you anyway)

 Darkness was descending on the mountain as we headed for home.

 The next day was my Mums birthday, so Kristi and I had a quick tour of the Elephant Rocks and Fossils around Duntroon, before meeting up with my mum, dad, Aunt and Uncle, and Andrew of course ,for birthday lunch.

 All too soon the time come to take Kristi to the bus station and wave her goodbye.

 Next, on the 15th of April, come my last days of work. I was treated to a scrumptious dinner and the movies by the lovely ladies I have been lucky enough to work with for this past year and a half.

 Then Cody disappeared into the hills with my camera for a few days. This is one of the photos that come back on my disk.

 During this time I was busy working on my projects for NZ Paper Chase ,  keep an eye out for the magazine, which is due on the book shelves soon.

By this time the School holidays were under way and people were coming and going, home was a little like Paddington Station, which was nice, we do miss having our children at home.

We had a lovely visit from Abby and Camden (about the time Cody was away with my camera). They disappeared and Aimee and Bridget ...and Dynamite (the rat) turned up, as did Cody with my camera.

 The girls stayed a few days and during this time one of Aimee's work mates (from her holiday job) was sadly killed in a road accident. So Aimee took Bridget back to Dunedin and returned to go to a funeral and help out at work.This was a sad time, as both of our boys knew Mitch as well, and it was quite a shock for them all to realise just how fragile life can be.

Aimee returned to Dunedin the same day as Debz and Pat (from Christchurch) come to stay with us to help with the Grape Harvest at Ostler Vineyard. The harvest is done by a team of volunteer's, along side a wonderful group of perminate staff. The money made by the volunteers goes to the Connecting People programme. This programme goes towards helping families and spinal injured people get back to a normal, as passable life. A big focus this year will be to help  those people who have suffered spinal injuries as a result of the Christchurch September Earthquake.

Andrew is the coordinator of the volunteers, and this really is quite a big job.

 Day one, and two were gorgeous days in the vineyard. It felt great to be alive and great to be part of this wonderful cause.

 I am sure you would not find a better team of people anywhere in the country!

 Day three, four five ....through to day 8 were wet,very wet, muddy and cold, but still friendly chatter and laughter could still be heard coming out from under the nets at quite a distance away. I donned a woolly hat, for the first time in my life, and layers and layers of clothes...I know I must have look a site but I really did not care, tyring to keep dry was a hopeless mission, but try I did!

 Saturday and Sunday brought two days off picking, well at Ostler anyway... Both days I was helping to pick my Dads grape crop, once again in the wet!

Now we are back to Tuesday and Wednesday Mechanics club with our very keen group of school
children. We are still grape picking, but its looking like there are only two or three days of picking left to go. Fingers crossed the rain will stay away so we can get on and get the job finished.

And...look, I managed to whip up a scrapbook page at last! I have almost forgotten how to scrapbook,and I'm not 100% thrilled with my efforts here, but its a start back in the right direction, I hope!

My inspiration come from this months sketch at Birds of A Feather..found here

I have used a bottle top for my metal embellishment (one of the requirements for this challenge). The image inside has been stamped and sprayed with Glimmer mist, then glazed with Glossy Accents.

I have made my letter tiles using paper clay and an alphabet mould.

That's about all from me for now :-)