Getting slowly back into scrapping (Edited)

Yip, it has been a while but managed to scrap a few pages in the last week. But truth be told my wee vege/salad garden has been taking me away from my scraps. Now that day light saving is here, I am tending my wee veges.

Halloween has been and gone, we made it again to Steve & Jade's Halloween party. I have no photos to show for yet, but scrapped these from 2 years ago instead.

Also last month we attended with our squash friends the annual Te Omanga Vintner's Lunch, all as invited guests of Gavin & Vanessa at the Gee & Hickton sponsored table. I can't think of a better way to spend then an afternoon with great friends all in aid to raise funds for Te Omanga Hospice.

Credits: Halloween & The Wedding Collection - The Entire Collection all available at ScrapbooksGoneDigital

On Cloud 9

The gale force winds during the week have now followed by down pour of rains, crazy weather we're having at the moment. BB played in a D grade and below tournament in Masterton on both Friday and Saturday, unfortunately he didn't win. We all did go over yesterday for support and stopped by the local farmer's market for breakfast, where we picked up some cheese and veges.

Credits: Malencolie World of Sweetness kit, Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, Plumblossom Carnet de Voyage tag, template 8 Scrapmatters

Up up & away

A quick post while this is still 'fresh', yes just completed layout. After hearing how much a friend of ours enjoyed her Milford Sound scenic flight experience, BB and I made a last minute decision to take this flight too. Pilot Robert was only making the afternoon flight if we were keen to go, so we ended up being his only passengers to Milford Sound, we picked up 3 extra passengers on the way back. BB admitted to Robert that he's a nervous passenger in a small plane, to which the pilot responded he had just the seat for him next to him in the front. BB would have been happier in the back where I was sitting. The flight turned out to be glorious with a few bumps here and there, but we made it back in one piece. Thanks my hubby for doing this trip with me, what a scenic sight.

Credits: Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, The First kit by Poupoun

Landed @ Queenstown

Boo hoo, I am full of a cold today :( and every time I step out of bed my head hurts. All I want to do is snooze and to breath properly! Some good news today, got a txt from CJ saying the doc at the hospital is taking his cast off. Poor boy had an accident at school and broke his arm, the same one he did at age 6. Boys being boys playing a rough game in the school yard, CJ put his arm out to break his fall, instead it broke it.

Credits: Photoshop Layered Template #T0021, Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, The First kit by Poupoune

Skiing down Coronet Peak slopes

Wow, we certainly encountered the best skiing weather ever. No wind, mild temps and nothing but sun, sun, sun! Had pre-arranged our afternoon ski passes through our hotel ski concierge the previous evening over mulled wine and canapes as the weather looked very promising for some slope action. After the first 2 runs the body seemed to remember what to do and soon we were on the intermediate slopes, finishing up with making it down from the top of the Coronet Express Chair. As we hadn't done any pre-ski fitness, our bodies soon told us that we were just as well to do a half day pass. Hmmm, I think it's our bodies telling us that we're getting old!

Credits: Simply Yin template #114, Franziska Altmann Lonely kit tag, Winter Wonderland 2 papers & elements by Franziska Altmann, Ellie Lash & Flergalicious

Queenstown 40th Getaway Weekend

Well better late than never... Hey, I finally managed to scrap 2 layouts from our weekend away in Queenstown for my 40th birthday. Just had a blast and found out that turning 40 wasn't that bad especially when you get extra sweets from flight attendants and your standard lake view booked room gets upgraded to a super luxurious corner suite. I did have to make a decision whether to stay with the lake view room or take the upgrade mountain view room. The concierge assured me that the mountain view suite was a much better room. Turned out that our upgrade room is twice as big with seperate lounge/dining room with flat screen tvs in lounge, bedroom & bathroom. I was so in awe of our new room that I totally missed the flowers, chilled bubbles and chocolates that my hubby had pre-arranged! Forgot to mention that we didn't check-in straight away upon arrival into Queenstown, we made a last minute decision to fly over to Milford Sounds in a small airplane. Totally amazing experience flying between snow capped mountains, though slightly scary with the numerous bumps, drops & sudden lifts. Brian was definetely more nervous flying in those tiny planes than I was, but we did it! The weather was sunnier and warmer on the west coast and we managed a nice 45 min stroll, it sure was a most incredible & magic place to visit. The flight back was a direct root to Queenstown and we finally checked in about 4.30pm into the Sofitel. Over a mulled wine we pre-arranged our next day and ordered our afternoon ski passes for Coronet Peak ski field. So we were free to explore the next morning and we headed to scenic Arrowtown only 15 minutes away. It was a stunning frosty morning and you really needed your hat & gloves to stay warm. We explored the main street and discovered vineyards to visit for later. Too early for lunch we headed for a drive to Crown Rd for the lookout overlooking the valley toward Queenstown with Coronet Peak and Remarkables ski fields opposite each other. Then drove back to Arrowtown for pies and mulled wine for lunch before hitting the slopes! No major queues on the lifts, though being a very nervous skier I needed a few easy runs before hitting the intermidiate runs. But we did finish with a run from the top chair all the way to the bottom without any major spills - yeah. Then thought to finish the afternoon with a drop of wine tasting at Lake Hayes vineyard where we met Brian the winemaker who's wife was also called Maureen (and also Asian) who's the cheesemaker. I know, totally unreal! Had this gorgeous cheeseboard with wine and planned to visit Maureen the next day at the Cheesary. Sunday was spend driving to Glenorchy then back to visit more vineyards and introducing ourselves to Maureen at the Gibson Valley Cheesary. Her husband hadn't pre-warned her we were coming, but she knew something was up when we called her by her firstname when she didn't know us from a bar of soap. Another scrumptious cheeseboard and off to the final vineyard before our hour long hot tub soak at Onsen spas. Yes the same spas as on "the Bachelor" and very relaxing. In fact too relaxing as the heat and combination of all that wine tasting, I was in need of some zzz's. We missed dinner and opted for takeouts instead. Monday morning approached very rapidly and we only had a very small window of opportunity to get in a bit of shopping before checking out. We reckoned we had enough time to take a drive up to the Remarkable ski field, very 'interesting' drive as it felt we up a mountain goat track at times. The drive was worth it and we were glad we did it as we now would like to go back for a family holiday with Colin too, but we'll have to stay in cheaper accomodation to be able to enjoy all the fun.

Dawg Gone Cute!

It only took me nearly 3 weeks to complete with one restart from nearly the beginning but it's done! Here Corey is modelling his first outfit knitted up by moi - big bonus it fits him hehe. I was always a very slow knitter, no wonder I haven't attempted anything bigger in many many years.

I have forgotten how easy it is to loose your way around a pattern, and don't get me started on how many stitches kept dropping of my little knitting needles. There is a lot to be said about circular knitting needles!

Am now on a roll as I have found a new project to keep me out of trouble, this one is a crochet hoodie to keep in theme with the big boys who have new recent hoodies each too. Lets hope I'll get to finish it before I give up somewhere in the middle of the pattern...

What a GIMP Geek!

I've been playing around trying my hand at writing a GIMP script, well not quite a brand new one from scratch. I decided I wanted a script that does both a blur border and copyright text in one script. So found a separate script for each so created/merged the two into one. That was still a bit of a mission as I'd never looked at a script before, let alone actually make it work. But I did it, 2 days later. And it still works with allowing user input for border colour and copyright text/colour/placement etc. I thought it was pretty cool that it worked in the end.

Oh, and what do you think of those gorgeous blooms, a surprise gift of hubby on my birthday of course!

Happy Birthday to ME!

I'm officially one year of the big 40 - ahhhh! Have the day off work as I think everyone should and have a totally me day, so that I have time to blog, scrap and shop. The day so far has started of well, with the opening of numerous birthday cards from family including one from Brian, who included a Bid Wednesday Lotto ticket and some Kiwi scratchies, so keep your fingers crossed for me! Then had breakfast out and am at home for the moment to post these lovely photos of my orchid that was a gift from my Mum - isn't it stunning??? Tristram came by first thing this morning with a birday card that included a voucher, so will be of later to have a go at spending it ;) Thanks Char, Barry & Tristram - you guys spoil me...

Sunday morning bagels

Yum yum, remember these Connor? It was so cold here over the weekend that even with the oven on the temperature in the house still felt like a fridge for most of the morning. Never mind, the wait for these gorgeous bagels was worth it.

I have managed to get some time of next week, being the 2nd week of the school hols here, so no work for me this Monday and Friday, YEAH, two long weekends in a row!

Bye bye PowerShot A85, hello Canon D40 DSLR

OMG I have a new toy, it's my early birthday present and I totally love it! Brian and I went shopping 2 weeks ago to look and see what was around and came home with this awesome baby. As you can guess I have been playing lots and my early manual SLR days are coming back, but I still need a lot of practice. Just as well I have a 1 and 4 Gig memory card!
My work has been totally stressful so not as much scrapping done as I would have liked, but having the new camera sure makes me want to scrap again.
Life has been hectic, Brian has been busy cementing retaining wall posts and installing the kitchen splashback. Unfortunately after only 4 hours on the wall, one small piece decided to crack by itself while Brian was admiring his handy work, bugger! We ensured that the same piece this time was toughened, so the 2 cut outs weren't going to give us the same trouble.
Now for some new camera photo shots...