Scrappy Kea

I have wanted to have a go at making a video tutorial for quite a while.  Today I gave it a go.  We have a school cluster wide 'Movie Making' competition this year so I need to use the skills I want the kids to learn.  Killing two birds with one stone.   The project is one I worked on about 3 years ago, and one I have repeated a few times since.   I decided I was a bit mad for deciding to do it but I charged up the flip video, got out my gorilla pod thingy for it (as I write this I wonder why I didn't use the big tripod - I wouldn't have needed to put the chair on the table...oh well, maybe next time - if there is a next time!).  I said 'umm' way too many times and not sure I like hearing my own voice.  Here goes if you are interested... Card Folio I have put together a little project for those of you who want something quick & easy to do – it could be the perfect gift for a birthday, mothers day, teachers gift, to say thank you...

Sunday.  Went for a run before the kids were up.  Nice sunny morning but the day turned a bit wet & wild with awesome thunder and lightening before clearing again.  The kids did some rollerblading before church.  The teaching at church was challenging.  That's good.  It was nice to chat with lots of people afterwards.  It's been a year since we lost one of our young men in a helicopter accident so spending time with his family was important today.  After church we did a grocery shop.  We got the obligatory chips for 'chip sandwiches' a favourite for our lunches, but since I have been taking care of what I eat and moving more this has not been a regular Sunday lunch like it used to.  Today we had our chips mixed in with lettuce, cheese and ham buns.  A little more nutritional.  I bought some corn fed chickens to roast for dinner.  J's eyes lit up at the prospect.  While we were enjoying our Sunday roast Tahi our ...

Today wasn't a usual Saturday.  Firstly, I woke up early and got up early - 6:00am - for a Saturday it was early anyway.  The cats were keen to be fed and our Trusty Delivery was at the door - milk & vogels.  I had my usual flat white & poached egg on toast with cracked pepper.  The kids eventually got up and watched some Saturday morning tea.  Our overnight guest knew most of the theme songs.  very funny.  We headed into town as I wanted to go to the Salvation Army store to see if there was anything suitable to wear to an evening next Friday.  It wasn't open when we arrived so we went to Vudu for some hot chocolates.  While I was waiting for our order I met up with Julie who was my next door neighbour as I grew up (next door being 500m down the road - dairy farming community).  With hot drinks in hand we made our way back to the 'World Famous in New Zealand' Salvation Army store.  The kids were happy to sit outside and enj...

 So Friday started early.  Was awake so got up before my alarm went off.  Like my 'Bitter Sweet Chocolate' hair lots.  It was easier choosing what to wear today with my hair colour closer to normal.  My clothes went with it.  Had a cool chat with one of my students about why I went for black hair.  She wanted to know how I did it.  Poached egg on toast for breakfast on one of my favourite plates.   I drove the 'truck' to work again today - had to be selective where I parked as it doesn't have a very good turning circle.  I parked in front of the admin section with the Poutama pattern running up the wall. We had a 'Pod' meeting this morning to look at our inquiry planning for next week and beyond.  We 'brain stormed' some ideas on our hub whiteboard.  Our team leader was really thoughful and brought in a coffee for each of us and a muffin.  Since I'd had breakfast, I saved my muffin for a Friday morning tea treat.  It ...

Thursday 26th April 2012 Usual start to the day with a flat white. Getting to school was a little different.  With my car deciding not to go yesterday...it was the 'truck' - a White Toyota Ute - only 4 gears - yep, manual and it has a 'choke' to help it start.  No power steering and the handbrake light stays on even when the handbrake is off.  I got there safely despite the work out I got driving the 10 minutes to school.  Hard going.  But I do love the sense of actually driving once again - the automatic, powersteering cars don't involve nearly so much satisfaction when you get to your destination.  Too easy!  The work day was long, teaching followed by an eLearning team meeting with the DP & Principal.  I finished at about 5:30pm.  I'd had to cancel some foils due to this meeting but was able to still get my hair cut at Crew.  I enjoyed a cup of 'crisp apple' tea between having my hair washed and getting it cut.  I love when...

  Wednesday 25th April 2012 ANZAC Day This morning I didn't have to get up early.  I got to sleep in a little.  When I did get up (about 7:30ish) it was our Trusty Delivery Morning - two cartons of milk and a pack of vogels.  I then had the job of sewing on some girl guide badges for Miss K in preparation for an ANZAC day parade.  For some reason we don't have dawn parades here.  I miss these, there was something special about getting up early in remembrance.  The girls were photographed by the ODT laying their poppies in remembrance for the fallen soldiers. The photographer took their names down.  I'll have to check the papers tomorrow to see if they have made the cut.  I spent some time this afternoon checking out DSLR cameras.  I figure I'll reach my 'healthy weight' range in the next 3 months and then I can get myself one as a reward.  I am thinking if I keep an eye out on prices and camera reviews I'll be well informed...

Hmm, I have quite a few walks to catch up on to get to my 'hundred walks' before the end of 2012.  I went into this all good and positive...but then I started running so the walking didn't have the same appeal.  While at the beach over term break mum took us on this walk she'd heard about near the beach house.  We went up a gravel road a bit and found a gate with the walk information on it.  Loved all the hand made signs all along the way.  Kept it interesting.  Loved the track that had been created and formed by a real No.8 kind of person.  75 walks to go...

Tuesday. Not so much about the food today, but the mundane side of family living - the dishwasher waiting to be emptied.  This morning I got out of bed just after 6.  Showered, dressed and made a flat white.  I then sat to read my bible while the rest of the house was still asleep.  I am reading Philippians at the moment.  At school we did quite a bit of work on the Activboard with the class - we have been learning how to use some of the pen tools like changing colours.  We also did some descriptive writing about Autumn Leaves and exploring our ideas and understanding about ANZAC day and created some pastel poppies.  I was on lunch eating duty - wandering around a bunch of eating students wearing a flouro yellow vest and a 'bum bag'.  When they put their hand up I had to check their lunch boxes to see if they had consumed all or most of their lunches and then letting them go to play accordingly.  PL (Professional Learning) meeting after scho...

I have thought about, planned to but never actually done this.  Today I started.  I was motivated when I saw this one on Facebook.  Loved the idea that she turned it into a real book and adore her summary pages.  A Facebook post by Ali reminded me to make a start this morning, of course her post was about it starting tomorrow, which of course was today for me. Ali Edwards has details here . I did try to encourage my girls (10 & 11) to do this too.  But they weren't keen.  Maybe if I do a good job this week they might do it next week? Monday  23 April 2012   Today I had my 'everyday' breakfast - a poached egg on vogels with a flat white coffee.  I made lunch last night - spicy pumpkin soup, greek honey yoghurt and an apple.  The soup was delicious if I do say so myself.  I have 3 more bowls of it ready for the other three lunches this week.  Really need to find some containers I can freeze so my lunch isn't th...

150 kilometres, 13 people, 5 days. Sore bottoms, viaducts, tunnels, history, family, friends, photos.  Great Journey! Friends were doing the rail trail and we chose to join them.  We took our own bikes and utilised the services of Trail Journeys to organise our accommodation and bags transfer from place to place.  Part of our package included a Train ride to Dunedin at the completion of our journey.  We want to do it again.  Maybe next year, earlier if other people want to join us. Sorry it's just a photo collage, it would have been a super photo heavy post if I didn't. More to come.  Just not yet.  School Tomorrow.

Below are some recent 'thrift' finds. My fave is probably the glass jug with pink frostings and gold trim. The blue is a great V-neck 3/4 sleeve top and the pink is a stunning scarf, for which I have a recipient for in my mind. The colours are perfect. When organizing our pantry, we were a few containers short. The big jars with yellow lids are perfect!

Not only making changes in our home, but also in myself.  I guess this is really where the need to clean up our home environment has started.  Since December 12th 2011 I have been on a journey to better health and wellbeing through what I eat and what I do.  I began a workbook: Fat Chance , the no going back weight loss book.  Not much happened with weights or measurements for a few weeks but then the losses started, a few hundred grams a week.  When Week 6 of the workbook rolled around the loss really started.  I think my metabolism kicked into action maybe?  It took a while as I hadn't been a breakfast or lunch eater - often having a huge afternoon tea and dinner and that was it.  I have lost 14kgs now in total and am about halfway to where I need to be for a healthy weight.  I put these layouts together at the Pukerau Scrap Weekend as a way of documenting some of this journey. Mum started this workbook too. It was good to have company o...

Sadly, I don't think I'm willing to share any 'before' photos, I didn't like living in the mess we had around us, my room was probably the worst.  Piles of 'stuff' hid the base of the bookshelves and unit in the photo directly below.  Our wardrobe was overflowing with clothes we didn't wear much or that didin't fit us our bathroom needed a 'deep clean' and we now have clear pahtways to and from our bed.  Best thing is we have kept it this way for a few weeks now.  I don't think I'm alone in this, another mum was posting on Facebook for some advice on how to get her kids to clean up and look after their stuff.  The first comment was that as parents we need to set the example.  I guess that's why I started on my room rather than other parts of the house.  I'm starting to like coming home again and not feeling disgusted in myself and my lack of housekeeping skills.  

Since mid March I have been clearing clutter from our home (I have been trying to clear it from my body too). About six big bags of stuff that we don't need has gone to the Sallies. About the same amount has gone into the bin. My room and wardrobe were first. I wasn't fitting many of my clothes (thankfully too big rather than too small) so it made sense to start here. Next the linen cupboard and then the games cupboard. I'm still working on the office/spare room/Exercycle/music room...finding it tricky to define this room...Yesterday was the plates, bowls, pots and plastics drawers. Today I did the pantry. So many spaces to go but it feels good to look at the cleared ones:-)

While busy creating this weekend I got thinking about what a 'scrapbook page' actually is, what should be on it?  I could hear comments about being a 'good scrapbooker' and I wondered if it matters.  Do you need to be a 'good scrapbooker' or can you just do and be happy with it.  Is it about the best papers, is it about having lots of product on your page, is it about the best looking photos?  I'm not sure these things are relevant.  They can be good to look at (beauty is in the eye of the beholder).  I thought about the pages I was creating.  For me it's a memory written down and shown in picutres.  I often add a title but I'm thinking that this is superfluous to the intention too.  I might need to do a series of title-less pages just for the sake of it so photos and story are truly the key components of a page.  As the weekend progressed I decided to scrap 'simply'.  My simple isn't lots of lined up squares with white card backing...

I had a creative and entertaining weekend away.  I'm not sure I'll ever look at laminators the same way again however.  I got really busy with my pages and project and was impressed with how much I could achieve in only the one weekend.  I packed well for the tasks at hand, taking my scrap trolley, scrap bag and a clear plastic underbed box with gear.  This was packing light for me!  But it was all I needed.  We were greeted with a gorgeous red and white bowl with scrapping goodies in it - doilies, feathers, yellow buttons, ribbon and washi tape.  We were given some more goodies later that evening - beautiful papers and a 6 x 6 pad to match - Miss Caroline by MME .   On  Friday eveneing I worked on some pages.  On Saturday morning I set myself the task of creating a smashbook of our trip to Auckland last year.  This took till after lunch and then I commenced some more pages. Andrea arrived at about 11am with the Scrapbook Outlet ...