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Guess what I have been up to???

Well….apart from the usual, housework, mothering, work, along with Stamping and Scrapbooking… I have had the sewing machine out and I have been doing some Patchwork!!!! Yes….I can’t believe it! I haven’t done any patchwork since I was a young thing! Mothers Day was the instigator. I decided to make something for Mum for Mothers Day and just loved the pillows I made so much that I didn’t want to give them away…so I had to make more for me. 3 for Mum and 5 for me!!! That was because I ran out of the material I was using for Mums ones. The ones I kept match our fireplace lounge really well, and I didn’t even think about that when I brought the material. It was such a good bargain I just brought it. I wasn’t even that keen on the patterns but they look great made up. I have now purchased some more material. I’m not sure what I’m going to make yet….but I am hoping for some inspiration. I have found so many neat patterns on the net….so now it’s a matter of just getting into it!!! If I can find time to do that! Life is just too busy! And I still want to find time for scrapbooking….my main passion 🙂

Have a look at what I created and see what you think???

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C4 and D3’s Wedding

We have just arrived back home from Featherston, where we celebrated the wedding of C4 (my youngest son) and D3. What an amazing day we had. Everything was beautiful and went perfectly to plan. They are now enjoying their honeymoon and the beginning of life as a married couple. I pray they will be very happy together and will have the grace to love each other always, the committment to stand by each other through every season of their lives, and that they will experience God’s blessing in every way. I love you C4 and D3 xx

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And…yes, I have found some time to scrap

I thought I would just show off some of my latest pages before I head off to Ben’s wedding and Sydney after that. My daughter in law loves to do scrapbooking too and I usually achieve a page a night while staying with her. I’m not sure if we will manage it this time as we are flying to Brisbane for a long weekend over my 2 week holiday. Should be lots of photo opportunities anyway. I have finally made my Stampin Up order for the quarter as well, so will have some lovely new product to work with. Let’s hope it all arrives before I fly out!

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Earthquakes

So….With Japan now having a massive earthquake followed by a very destructive Tsunami, Robin (my husband) has been hot on the trail of working out why???? He has put his theory on his blog www.kiwithinker.com and now spends hours searching the web for more info. Along with his previous passion of proving the ‘global warming’  belief wrong, we now lead a very interesting life! I sit on my computer doing this blog, facebook,  and then also fit in my passion for scrapbooking and mainly music, while he sits on his computer doing his blog and further searching and listening to scientists around the world. We do sit in the same room though and still share meals and coffee breaks. Hehe….actually it works quite well! We are both in our mid fifties, and I seriously wonder what the next decade will be like for us! C5 also shares our lounge room and as she is on her second year of nursing, she also sits at her computer and studies. C6 sits at the BIG lounge table and does her homework, along with keeping up with all her friends via facebook or texts! And….I know that if any of our boys were home, they would be sitting with their laptops as well! We are quite a technology focussed family really. C1’s life is Business cost anaylsis via a computer program. C2 designs and markets Samsung laptops. C3 writes songs and raps on them via the computer, and C4 sells computer games via itunes eg. his new game http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/geomonsters/id420203626?mt=8

On Wednesday we are heading down to C4 and D3’s wedding in Featherston….yay…I can’t wait. They have been going out for 6 years and have amazing lives individually and also together. C4 with his computer stuff and D3 with design and modelling. They live in Sydney and are travelling to New Zealand on Tuesday. C4 was his friends best man only one month ago here in New Plymouth. Here is a photo of them both…

Aren’t they a gorgeous couple. I’ll be adding photos of their wedding as soon as possible 🙂

On the 26th of March I am heading off for a 2 week holiday in Sydney catching up with C1, D1, G1 and G3…and then the last week, C4 and D3 as they should be back from their honeymoon. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone again. It’s so sad that it takes a holiday overseas to see family and yet also exciting to be travelling!

But, back to reality. I have so much to do for mainly music before I take off for the wedding and holiday. Mainly music theme day is the first week back and it needs to be organised before I go. So, I need to get planning and preparing!

Lets hope there is also better news concerning Japan and their nuclear woes next time I write. It is such a worry for all! And after so many have already died 🙁

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A few of my older pages

Just thought I’d add some photos of some of my pages that I have used papers other than Stampin Up. I hope you enjoy them 🙂 Sometimes I try to be more creative, other times I just want to get as many photos as I can on a page, and that leaves little room for added embelishments. I guess it depends on the type of album. At the moment I am working on C5 and C6’s albums. The photos were in old photo albums that weren’t acid free, and they were starting to get damaged. I have placed the photos into new albums but have yet to scrapbook them. The girls each have 3 albums filled up with photos! It’s going to take me AGES! I think that those pages will be relatively plain and I may just use the Cricut to decorate. They will probably be pretty flat, but hopefully will still look great. I will also need to put as many photos on a page as I can. And then after that…..I have the four boys albums to do the same to! Just as well I enjoy scrapbooking. I think I need more hours in each day. Anyway I hope that there are some pages that you can get ideas from. So here they are…..

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Concert for Christchurch

From 12.51 pm (the time the earthquake struck) until 12.51 am, New Plymouth St Marys hosted a concert in support of the people of Christchurch. Northpoint was given the time slot from 10pm until the finish. C5 and C6 were asked to sing some songs. You should have heard them!!! They were amazing 🙂 C6 played the guitar beautifully and their voices just blended together so well. I sat there feeling so blessed and so very proud. I am sure God has BIG plans for both girls! I just wish I had taken the video camera along so I could share them with you, but I didn’t, so I have attached links to a couple of videos of them playing around at home. Have a listen and tell me what do you think? Good or Great?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hysOqa4WJeM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsz5uYWkpz8&feature=related

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mainly music

WOW…another BIG morning at mainly music. Approx 35 families at each session. We had the parachutes out today and the children loved getting underneath and pretending to be bees with ‘Here is the Beehive’.

A reporter from a local magazine called ‘Close to home’ (I think that is what it is called) came along this morning. She took some photos and interviewed me about mainly music. I’m not sure when the magazine is coming out but she looked like she was really enjoying herself. I will post some photos when it is published.

mainly music is my passion! I love seeing the Mums/caregivers singing and dancing along with their children…and also seeing the children grow and develop confidence week after week. We do approximately 2-3 God songs each week and hopefully we are slowly introducing them all to a life of faith. I can’t imagine living life in this world without being able to ‘chat’ to God about each and every little thing! He is a God I can trust, He is my constant companion, and I know He loves me not matter what! I can cast my cares on Him for He cares for me!!!

Have a great day 🙂

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Our Kittens

After our beautiful Cat Nala died last year (we had her for 15 years), C5 and her bf arrived home one day with Tyson. A lovely gray and white striped kitten. We all fell in love with him very quickly and he proved to be a cat with character! Sadly Tyson ventured onto the road and was run over! We were all sooo sad 🙁

C5’s friends decided to buy her another kitten for her birthday on the 15th of January. AJ was another kitten that was easy to love. He is a gorgeous stripped tabby kitten with BIG feet, called a polydactyl. Late January we went away to the “Parachute Music Festival” and arrived home to 3 cats! A mother Cat had arrived with her little kitten. You would never believe it but the 3 all looked like they were related…and yet AJ definitely didn’t belong to the mother cat. SPCA was overloaded with cats so we offered to look after these newcomers for 3 weeks unless someone claimed them. 3 weeks later and we are now the proud owners of all 3!!!

Then you would never believe it but on the doorstep one morning we find 4 cats! Another kitten had arrived! This one sounded like it had asthma, and was quite wild! We couldn’t even catch it! For the next 2 weeks it was a challenge to get this kitten from being so scared to be able to feed it from our hands. We achieved this but also noticed that it was getting sicker by the day. Finally we caught her and we took her to the SPCA and found out that she had lung worm! We now have to treat all the other cats as it is contagious. We have left the kitten at the SPCA and now have to make the decision to whether we collect her again or not. Robin says no, 3 is enough! Us girls are BIG softees!

Mother cat (Molly) has been feeding both AJ and Skittles! And they cuddle up and sleep together all the time. AJ is a real character. We find him asleep in the most odd places. Today I found him in the opened dishwasher. I had been stacking dishes and got sidetracked doing something else. Came back, and when I went to shut the dishwasher, he came running out! I will add some photos of him and his various sleeping spots.

Now…do we go pick up the other kitten, or do we take the mother cat to SPCA as well and only keep the 2 other kittens. That is the decision. What do you think???

 

 

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Saturday the 5th of March

This week has been an emotional one. The clean up is still happening after the BIG earthquake in Christchurch. 165 people died! and possibly more! It is so sad. Jordan (C5’s boyfriend) is back home from University. He couldn’t stay at Canterbury Uni until it was cleaned up, power back on and water running again. He was only there for 10 days and is just managing to cope with the change of plans. C5 on the other hand is delighted to have him back home again! Tonight they have gone out to a dress-up party. I have added some photos of them and also some of my G4.

Don’t they look great!

Judy (my sister) and Len have moved into their new home. They have been busy getting it ready for nearly 3 months after transporting the house onto their farmland. C3 (my son) has been busy doing lots of different labour jobs for them so the job could be made earier. C3 has been demolishing, then rebuilding, making fences, concreting, building decks and heaps more! He has had his mate Colin helping him. I have had the job of looking after G4 every day from 1pm until 5.30pm while they build. That has been lots of fun and yet also very tiring. I haven’t the energy I used to have with young children that I had nearly 20 years ago. G4 is a very active little man but is growing up into a lovely little chappy. He will be 2 on the 25th of May. My baby C6 turned 17 on the 24th of February, and G1 (my grand daughter) turned 14 on the same day!

Mum and Dad have celebrated their wedding anniversary yesterday (the 4th of March). They have been married for an amazing 63 years. Congratulations Mum and Dad…you are a fantastic example for us all and we all love you xoxo.

Today has been a wet day and I have taken advantage of the opportunity to stay indoors and scrapbook! I love days when I can sit and scrap and not worry about anything else! I did do some housework though. I managed to stew up lots of apples from our trees and got 3 2litre containers full and into the freezer. I now have 5 containers in there ready for winter. The tree is still laden with beautiful apples so I plan on getting many more done….hopefully.

I will put up some photos of the scrapbooking on the next post 🙂