ultimate blog party winner!

well, the party's over; the floor's a mess, the alcohol cabinet is bare, but i'm still left with a tonne of nuts....
i didn't quite make it to 125 followers. i netted 60 new followers in ONE day with SITS and 13 new followers in a week with the UBP. i guess the sheer size of the UBP accounts for that.

STILL! - a warm welcome to all my new followers. you should know by now that i have giveaways all the time and there's plenty of goodies to be had.

i'll probably give away the 2nd kiwana package for my 15,000th visitor (i'm at 13920 now) - so not long to wait!!!

so...without further ado...the winner of thisis.........

"Kristi Smith said... 6

Please, please, please pour me a drink!!! yum.

Fun post.

You look smashing next to your dashing husband!!!"

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6 

Timestamp: 2009-03-31 04:54:42 UTC.....

MY KC PEEP KRISTI!!!

(as you can see, we've met before...)

birthday wrap up

birthdays are EXHAUSTING!!! what with all the eatin' and drinkin' and present opening - i'm plum worn out!!!

my parents have come and gone, and it was great to see them! they usually make it up two or three times a year, but for some reason, the last time they were here was this time LAST YEAR (when the hubs and i were at the hong kong sevens).

so let's start with the loot. i got me some good stuff. the flavoured vodka's from my neighbour. he snapped it up duty free on his way back from india last night! miss 19 works part-time in a BAG store, and the staff discount extends to family (well, for birthdays anyway!)

i can't wait to load up the digital frame. it plays music too!!!

tara's miss 12 showed up on our doorstep at 7.30am with a gorgeous cactus, home-made card and biscuits! (cookies) that's why i look half asleep.

because i leave before and arrive AFTER everyone else in the office, the girls were able to get to work on my whiteboard. they also strung up a happy birthday banner. SWEET!

thursday night was a family dinner at home. miss 17 (who works part-time at a bakery) brought home the BIGGEST chunk of hedgehog slice (biscuity fudge cake!) and plonked a candle in the middle of it.

friday was more coffee and lunch and pressies from other friends, and saturday was a pre-season netball tournament for miss 11 and miss 12.

check out that blue sky. it was a gorgeous day for it! i umpired countless games and was parched when i got home!

me and the 'rents (last night)

tara and her family came over for dinner and we observed 'earth hour' in the middle of it. tara's mr 6 was quite entranced with the candles

tara's hubs and their miss 12 made these gorgeous individual golden syrup (treacle) puddings! i didn't get an 'after' shot of them (cooked) because the lights were all out!

then it was off to high tea today. mum and dad didn't go in for 'any of those fancy teas', but loved all the yummy eats.

scones with jam and cream. who can resist?

great views from the 17th floor windows (not that you can see any here!)
i'm just tellin' ya...

then it was home for a game of cards before heading to the airport. my parents were taught to play by THEIR parents, and we in turn are a card playing family.
(my folks take it pretty seriously tho. can ya tell???)
as birthdays go - it was a pretty good one.
i managed to drag it out 4 days, which i think is only fair, given that you only get one a year.

elaine over at the miss elaine-ous life (a co-photostory friday blogger) and i share a birthday, and she noted that she was wished a 'happy birthday' 11 different ways; snail mail, email, text, voice, facebook, blog etc etc

11 - that's pretty cool huh? i hadn't really thought of how many ways there were to wish someone a happy birthday, but i sure got my fair share too.

so thanks to everyone both virtual and otherwise, who took the time to make my birthday special.

heart ya!

earth hour

it's not a great photo, but flash just totally ruined the moment, and it's not like there was any light in the room!

tara and her family were over for a roast dinner to celebrate my birthday. i had totally forgot, when the hubs shouted out 'EARTH HOUR!'

we even rang the neighbours and all chanted earth hour into the answer machine when we saw their lights were still on.

did you participate?

photostory friday - a recipe i just had to share

i do admire bloggers who share recipes AND take photos too!

i'm really just not that passionate about cooking. eating - now that's an ENTIRELY different story. cooking for babies and fussy children has deadened any enthusiasm i ever had for cooking. yes, they're older now, but their taste buds haven't matured that much!

HOWEVER - there are always exceptions...

and this is one of them.

it turned out so well, and everyone ate it (except my vegetarian of course!) that i just had to share it.

it's christina ferrare's chicken pot pie as seen on oprah.

so you make up the chicken and vege mixture.
mix together the cornbread mixture and spread on top...and VOILA!!!
the cornbread topping REALLY was the best bit.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

happy birthday to me

46 years young today
yay me

wordful wednesday - sing like no-one's listening

this is miss 11 and tara's neighbour's daughter. they are two peas in a pod. both have a huge zest for life; you can hear them coming long before you see them; they're willing to give anything a try - and don't care if they can or can't do it, and they are VERY, VERY funny kids.

...put a microphone in their hands, slide in the singstar legends disc and watch magic happen...

for more wordful wednesday, visit angie at seven clown circus

plenty to look at

and now for something completely different (or not)...........

MORE LAYOUTS!!!

this is for sketchbook's fortnightly sketch challenge
- i did 3 layouts in one sitting!!!

and sketchbook's friday night challenge (TBC by sunday nights) - i never seem to get this one done - until this weekend! rainy days help i guess :)and this one for inspired blueprints. the last layout i did for them was colourful too!

this one's for my sketch world. i got the 'then and now' idea from my friend margot (via BPS i think) i really think i have a sketch addiction problem! still, if it's good for the scrapping mojo, who am i to complain?
this is for creative scrappers. one of their weekly sketch challenges.
those fall colours were just amazing

has anyone noticed how random my blog posts have become since i started my new job?

today's blog post is brought to you by the number 50...

my spring fling winner was jaime over at handful of blessings. she ALSO hosted a giveaway that coincided with her 50th blog post. she wondered what the chances were of the random number generator picking number 50.

well you just know it did.

and you just know who number 50 belonged to...


..a few closing thoughts:

• please take a moment to remember natasha richardson, who died last week.

• my parents are coming to stay next wednesday!

• we're all going to a travel quiz together and i think our team name will be 'roman holiday'

• 190 sleeps til italy

• yesterday was the last game of softball

• today's the last day of netball trials. a long winter of freezing saturday mornings on the netball court sideline awaits us...

• 4 sleeps til my birthday

• bands that have colours in their names:

white stripes
green day
yellow card
red jumpsuit apparatus
blue
black sabbath
pink floyd

feel free to enlighten me regarding orange, grey, brown and everything else inbetween.

happy sunday

the ultimate blog party

Welcome to my Ultimate Blog Party Post!

please make yourself at home.

can i pour you a drink?

anyone for nuts?

speaking of nuts - let me introduce you to my family

here's the girls last december hamming it up after we decorated our treehere's my yummy husband. yes i know i'm in this photo too, but apparently women become invisible when there's a man wearing a kilt in the room!and here i am jumping for joy (for no particular reason at all)

No party would be completed without FREE STUFF, so here it is...

kiwiana goodie package #1 will go to my 125th follower (start folllowing NOW!) (cute shoe bag, caramello easter eggs, silver fern magnet, paua earrings, and an adorable scarf!) and kiwiana goodie package #2 will be chosen randomly from all comments.

(eco-book/recyclable bag, i heart NZ magnet, caramello easter eggs, paua necklace and kiwiana phone bling)as usual i'm willing to post ANYWHERE WORLDWIDE, on ONE condition:

follow me, then leave me some comment love. i promise i'll do the same for you.

apparently i'm in the running for some cool prizes too! There are so many to be won at this year’s Ultimate Blog Party, but my top three picks would be:

#3 - $15 amazon voucher

#37 - earrings from lulu's hook

#38 - $25 gift certificate to collective elements

And if my top three picks are already chosen, I’d love any of the awesome bloggy makeovers on offer.

i hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog. you had to come a long way you know. new zealand is very far.....

photostory friday - mountain bike madness

karapoti is the southern hemisphere's longest running mountain bike race. it's practically all off-road through a mountain range, including unbikeable hills, river crossings and pine forests. riders cross the finish line caked in mud and barely recognisable.

there's the 50k (kilometre) classic and the 20k challenge.

i've been involved for 4 years, mostly volunteering. this is the registration desk, where i would usually be (at 6.45am!) but i was taking the photo, so try to imagine me there handing out race numbers and registration packs

these are the finishers medals.
we had to unwrap (from bubble wrap) over 1000 of the suckers...

one happy volunteer!

it rained HEAVILY all through the night before and the morning of the race. the conditions were ATROCIOUS to say the least. i've left the photos large so you can see the detail - it's raining in this pic where a UNICYCLIST is being interviewed.

YES - this crazy man does rides the ENTIRE race on ONE WHEEL!!!

the starts are staggered over an hour and every vantage point is taken to watch. the bikers in the foreground are queued up waiting to start

oh yeah - did i tell you, you start AND finish this race by carrying your bike through the river???

so, as i said before - it rained HEAVILY all throughout the night, so the river was SWOLLEN to say the least; ie the SHORTEST distance across the water wasn't always going to be the EASIEST

and because the starts were staggered, you would have to be an IDIOT not to have seen others go before you and end up NECK-deep in water trying to take a short-cut!

click on the photo!

but then the sun came out...this is the first woman home being interviewed.
check out the MUD on her. this is standard, heavy rain or not

this is the kennet brothers coming home, on their THRANDEM (that's a word)
the kennett brothers STARTED karapoti 24 years ago

oh yeah - did i tell you i did karapoti a couple of years back...

I. AM. LEGEND.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek