Woohooot Wednesday

It’s that time of week already – again! – and I realised I got so sick of waiting for dial-up that I haven’t posted for the best part of that week. And what better way to get back into the swing of things (seeing as the new bill-month at Telecom FINALLY came around!) than to join in a quick Wooo Hooot round up of things. As always, thanks for Janine for kick-starting us with the positive stuff.

• I have broadband again… YAY!!! Hubby: you need to check with me before downloading bandwith hungry items…. OK?!!
• Getting the chance to go over to Janine’s and meet some crafty pals at her Stampin Up party. Getting to meet the lovely Sarah in person having admired the cards she makes for a wee while now. You can see the card we made as the make and take here. I loved learning the “thumping” technique and how to make a bow using scraps of ribbon…. so cool!
• Getting another assignement in to the Open Poly. And speaking to my tutor today. She was very lovely – calling me in response to a message I had sent her. She wanted to let me know that I was still on track to complete the course and that a couple of setbacks I’ve had would not stop me from completing. The total reassurance and support she has given me have put in an extra layer of confidence that I am going to get through the material in time. Wooohooo!
• Taking just a bit of time to put together a quick page for Mr 4′s kid’s album…. the one started way back in March a la Nic Howard.
• Having broadband back so that I can load a couple of extra layouts done a couple of weeks ago now at the crop organised by Joh.

This layout I’m using to cover my bases at the SketchBook NZ BOM prompts – one of them this month was to do a page regarding your favourite food. Well, this great place in Wellington (which is apparently just 8 weeks into its life) has got the best in the current cupcake trend. So, it’s my favourite treat place right now. Yum!!

And this layout was the one that I was meant to do for the Number 50 challenge at NZ Dares… but wasn’t able to do it in the time frame. Beverley kindly helped notch it up a level by giving me the fantastic background paper – thanks Beverley! And Janine let me play with her glimmermist which I used on my title… awesome stuff ( think I need some of my own….) There’s more journalling on that tag that you can pull out from the back.

• Sunday was truly gorgeous – it was sunny for a start. We took the Mr’s down to a local big park and discovered they have installed a bike park. It’s a road-marked “road way” complete with give ways, roundabouts, train crossing and speed bumps. I think every kid with wheels was down there enjoying it! The Mr’s certainly did – so I am pleased that we are finally getting a tow-bar put on the car next month and will be getting a bike rack. Yep, the bikes are now too big to all go in the back of the car.

• And finally, I got to have coffee this morning with a friend that I haven’t seen in a while. What could be better than spending time with a good friend?

Dare # 48

I thought I had shared this page a while back, but I see I hadn’t. For the first time is absolutely ages, I got a NZ Dare page done inside the time limits. # 48 was to use stamping, at least a couple of times. I had already thought about what I was going to do in terms of getting another kid’s album page done, and this side was going to be really simple. In order to be part of the dare, I also added some stamping to the background cardstock.

There will be an adjoining page completed too…. once I take the photos! It’s the photo taking that is holding me back on getting through these pages. But no matter how slowly these albums are coming together, the Mr’s are loving them already. This page is for Mr 7′s album…. a similar one was done for Mr 4. They crack me up, because they have taken to looking through them when they come in from school or kindy…. just in case I’ve added a new page. Mr 4 has also started to take it in the car with him whenever he can. I get the feeling I need to get a move on and just finish them already!

Weekend recharge

Was meaning to do a Smiley Saturday post on Saturday but for a change I never got close enough to the computer to do so. Then on Sunday, it seemed my nose was stuck in a book so again, I never got around to it. But there were a few fun things going on.

On Friday I went to a CHA launch at my LSS. They were showcasing some of their items that they had ordered and had just in stock from the recent CHA event in Anaheim. We got treated to a short display of the actual event and then a reveal on some of the things that were brought back. Plus a make and take or two. Clearly I sat at the wrong table becuase it was the one beside me that seemed to pick up the spot prizes! One line I must say left me wanting to bring the whole lot home was Little Yellow Bicycle. Regular readers will know that I often bemoan the lack of boys stuff on the market at any given time (usually when I am looking for it!). The same has gone by and large in the scrapping world. Gorgeous papers abound, but often more blingey/floral/girly than I would like. Well, this season there seems to be a readjustment and there are LOADS of more masculine products coming on the market. I really loved the Zach’s Life range because it wasn’t for little boys. It’s aimed more at the teenage market, but well, if you know my boys – it has them covered too I was a good girl though and left a lot more of the range in the shop than I purchased: I came home with just a couple of papers and this cool set of stamps:-

The weekend weather was rainy and grey so, perfect for inside stuff. For some odd reason Hubby had told Mr 6 that he was allowed to get a new game for the PS2. Although not something I was thinking of, we went with the flow and after a visit to EA games – and me pointing out we could get 3 games for the price of 1 if we went to that particular bin, we came home with the new entertainment. One game in particular was really enjoyed and Mr 6 is really finding his way through the KND (Kids Next Door) one. Definitely something to ensure gets put in the rewards basket… yes, I’m going back to tick charts to help out with some behaviours. Again.

Saturday night saw Hubby and I watching the Hurricanes game. I was barracking freely for the Hurricanes this time – because the opposition was not the Crusaders The result was one that I still can’t figure out how it came to be. I certainly hope that that particular ref is questioned very closely in his match review.

While watching the game I also got a bit of crafty time in and here they are.

Mr 6′s title page for his special album:

And thanks to Beverley, I now have a few very cheap albums in the house myself. Mr 6′s pages are 8×8 in size.

And this one where the photo was taken sometime before Christmas. Gotta love those superheroes!

And that will do it for this unofficial weekend smiley post.

Ciao!

A Special Album

The other day I was cruising through my bloglines as you do and Nic Howard was posting about making special albums for her kids. Not the ones that we treasure and take all sorts of time producing to have sit on our shelves and looked at with all the appropriate ooohs and aaaahs. No, these ones are for the kids, themselves, to pull out, take to bed, read and re-read. It sounded like such a neat idea that I thought, why not? ‘Specially since Mr 4 is all fresh and 4.

So I started.

Unfortunately I didn’t have an old album around to utilise, or know where to pick up a cheapy cheap one like Beverley did ($1.50…. wow!! ) Instead I wound up at my LSS and after checking out what they had, decided to splurge and order one in. It’s a cool one though – it has trains and a real boy feel to it. Mr 4 is right in to Thomas et al so it is a fitting choice. It would have been a bit nicer of the local red shed would actually re-stock some of the cheap Grant Archivals in again.

So the album I’m doing is 8.5×8.5 – just a nice size I think to get the theme together. tonight I got the title page done. Need to take some more photos (really?!) but will enjoy putting this together.

I know too that Mr 6 will want his own album as well, so hopefully the weather stays good to aid my seriously hopeless photography skills!