a winner, an award and a request

first off - i'm back from my work annual conference
it was amazing but i'm SH-aaaaaaaatered

4 days away and 3 days until i leave for italy
freaking out ever-so-slightly
(but dont' feel too bad for me - HUH!)

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how slack am i? i launched a giveaway in JULY and said it would be for TEN days - sheesh!

what a slacker

so, without further ado - my 100th follower is

the misadventures of mub!

congrats to you!

'mub' is a 27 year old transplant to the netherlands, she makes stuff, does menu plan monday, is a daring baker, and takes lots of very cool photos - go check her out!

mub - you win....

something i've been TOO slack to take a picture of, so PLEASE take a picture of yourself in it and blog about it and link back, ok??? (thanks!)

and the random draw for my faithful followers, went to an 'oldie but a goodie' - follower #19...

ELAINE at the miss elaine-ous life.
she's just about to have a baby girl after 2 boys, so she's gonna love her prize!
(it's the same as the one above).

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in other news...

i won this

from this cool chickie

THIS award had rules - ooooooooooooooooooo, and here they are:

1 - share it
2 - pass it
3 - notify
4 - link back
5 - oh, and i gotta do some sharing too - 10 sharing to be precise, so here goes:

1 - i went to a garden party at buckingham palance in july of 1981. i wrote to the queen asking her if i could go to one, and the chancellor of the exchequor wrote back and said yes.

2 - i always knew i'd have 4 children

3 - i love being the age i am now, more than any other age i've been

4 - i expect i'll feel this way for a goodly while too!

5 - i don't get along with my sister

6 - i love being left-handed

7 - my favourite cake/slice growing up was custard square

8 - if i had unlimited funds (and time) i'd travel for at least 3 months of every year

9 - i'm not a very patient person

10 - i had childhood asthma and in my school reports, my teachers wrote that i did well 'despite my handicap'.

thankfully - times have changed!!!

i pass this award onto MY NEWBIES [on my right sidebar]. yes, there's 12 of them and i'm only meant to pass it onto 10. what a rebel.

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and lastly the request i have.

the next family birthday - the one where miss 17 turns 18...

..she's become slightly addicted to american candy and would love someone (anyone) to send her some of these...

please.

and thank you.

yes, that's my daughter channeling a 1930s gangster [and other random thoughts]

and that's her boyfriend on the right, and he's ALWAYS that happy.
he's quite adorable and they're very cute together.

trust my daughter to be front and centre, but where else would you be with cheekbones like that - (eh daryl?)

got this today from elizabeth - thanks from your 'foreign' friend!
[aren't we all foreign when it comes down to it though? just a thought...]
saw district 9 on sunday night with our neighbours
it's certainly not a movie i would have picked if it was a 'just the two of us' on a date night, but WOW
compelling, riveting - and has peter jackson (a kiwi you know!) written all over it

two thumbs waaaaaaaaaay up!!!

i just had a 4-day weekend
because i'm working THIS friday (which is usually my day off), i had yesterday off
4 day weekends ROCK!

miss 19 turns 20 in exactly ONE WEEK!
(she was due yesterday!)

i'm having another hot stone massage next week
(yes i am!!!!)

AND SOME GREAT NEWS FOR LOCAL SWEET TOOTHS...
the organic grocer cafe (bottom of ngaio gorge) is now back open as the
EAT RIGHT CAFE

spread the word, drop in and say hi...

- oh, and 41 sleeps until all that stuff in the post below happens...

tuesday's blog party winner and my life in six words

tuesday's blog party is over and i thank everyone who donated $1
congratulations to roy/elisabeth dean who won the package of kiwiana goodies!
they're on their way (well, almost!)

debi, who organised tuesday's party (snaps to debi!) says $3224 has been raised, which is a fantastic effort.

i received this 'one lovely blog' award from jennifer over at the happenings.

thanks jennifer!

then i turn on my computer on SUNDAY morning, to discover i've won the same award again from veggiemom, who gave it to me as part of six word SATURDAY.



right now, my six words would be

HAD A MELTDOWN. WILL BE OK

i guess that's what happens when you go back to [paid] word after 20 years, and whilst you make the transition easy, the rest of the family doesn't; and at the same time, your husband loses HIS job, and a parent becomes ill.


i do believe change is good. sometimes it happens to fast. sometimes it doesn't happen fast enough. sometimes the concept is simply overwhelming.

meh. i'm sure it's nothin' that can't be fixed with a proper fitting bra.


i'm supposed to hand my award/s onto 15 new blogs i've discovered. it just so happens that i HAVE discovered a few new blogs lately, and i promise to linky love them soon!

a little bit of everything...

flick over at made my day when i was given this fabby 'fab' award. little did she know i'd been coveting it on other people's blogs!!!
in exchange for this fabby award, i'm now obliged to fess up FIVE addictions.

FYI and BTW - a person who claims they are without any addictions, is either lying or incredibly boring. so here goes:

• chocolate. i don't necessarily consider this addiction, so much as a way of life. any kind of chocolate, as long as it doesn't have nuts in it, and isn't a hard caramel. so basically fudgy and chewy and well, hand it over right now.

• wine. see above. apparenlty this week it DOES give you cancer, but i'm going with last week's dictum from science, that a glass a day of red wine is full of antioxidants and all those are great things that are good for what ails ya.

• sales. i see it as my duty (PARTICULARLY in these hard times), to buy, buy, buy; and buy well at that.

• coffee. PROPER coffee. professionally made lattes. i don't think i'm asking for much really.

• blogging. ummmm, case in point.

remember this layout?

it was picked as the fave for the fortnightly challenge over at #8 wired. i was then asked to produce a layout on colour. how does it inspire me/my favourite colour etc.

so i came up with this

i've been told many times i'm 'good with colour' when it comes to scrapbooking. purple's one of my favourite colours and i think the sepia tone of this photo lent itself well to the double-sided brown paper. that stampin' up range sure has it goin' on

then there's this cool little thingee...

how cool is this?
go here if you wanna play too

here's a blast from the past! candice (one of my KC peeps) started a challenge on her blog and the first one was 'animal print'! it took a while for us to get on board (well, i totally left it too late) - but i came to the party in the end! i realised i had a tonne of stickers from our USA/Canada RV trip in 2003 and it was so fun to use some of the photos i never got around to scrapping.
this was the "bugs life theatre" at disney's california adventure. it was a pretty cool show, except for the sensation that a squillion bugs were crawling down your back! i still don't know how they did it, but it was CREEPY!!!

remember this layout too?
well, it got picked as one of the favourites for the month over here!

the line for scrapbooking mojo starts at my door...(hehe)

blogoversary winner and some bloggy love

thanks to everyone who dropped by and helped me celebrate my blogoversary. hard to believe it's been one year; one in which i virtually AND ACTUALLY met and made some fantastic bloggy friends. we women sure do rock the whole networking thing.

so without further ado...

PRIZE PACK #1 goes to.....

TIARAS AND TANTRUMS!!!
go say hi and check out her 'what are you wearing?' posts. this is one chick who KNOWS how to wear knee high boots

and now for the scavenger hunt.

those who entered may (or may not) be heartened to know that you had a ONE IN FOUR chance of winning (so sorry to you other three). i'm just grateful you took the time...

so, i'm running out of inventive ways to pick a winner. my mate "P" used her cat one time, so i thought i'd get MOE to help me out. i forgot that even ONE YEAR OLD kittens are lazy arses...

ok, so i'm here - whaddyawant me to do?

oh, i know...i'll LICK myselfman! that was SO TIRING!!!oh, all right - if you INSIST!!! i'll EAT PAPER FOR YOU!!!can you see it? it's upside down, but congrats to...

ERIKA!!!

thanks to everyone who entered

and now a little bloggy love to end the post.

this came from the fabulously talented lynette (whom i met last october)

and this one from auntiegwen, who i WILL meet this october. ta muchly ladies. i'm going to pass on the kreative award to nikki over at whimsy love, because she's pretty much the much the most creative blogger i know. not only that, she's always SHARING her craft through fabulous tutorials. gotta love that.

happy new year!

we may be small and at the end of the earth, but we get to see in the new year FIRST!!!

(well, in 60 minutes, but i'm nothing if not organsied!)

while, i'm being organised, i'd like to pass on this award i received from working mum AND reluctant (thanks girlies!)

it came with this blurb:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

because we have such a tight blog 'family', i've struggled to share this, coz we all wanted to share it bloggers who already have it, but i've made some new blog friends lately, so here goes:

nikki at whimsy love. she has 98 followers (awe!!!) she is pretty much the craftiest person i know on the net (which she shares in tutorials), and she takes the cutest pictures of herself.

tiaras and tantrums. i wish i knew her name but i don't! she's a newbie to my blogroll. one of my new PSF buddies. she's tall and gorgeous with red hair and writes honestly about everything in her life.

elizabeth at six golden coins. everything about her blog just oozes calm. i like that.

sherryn at shezza's shennagans. i met sherryn on my bloggy trip to NY (in kansas). sherryn was at that time a part-time scrapbooking non-blogger, but as you can see, we turned her! she's just quite mental and we all love that.

angie at seven clown circus. for starters, she has five children. FIVE! and they are all gorgeous, especially the redheads. she hosts wordful wednesday, which is great for those who love to be wordy.

paula at paula's place of altered art. her blog is wonderfully colourful and she has an unflalingly sunny personality, and always leaves me the nicest comments!

michelle at one crafty mamna. she's a crafty mama just like me and has a daughter approaching those wonderful teenage years. she's also sneaky coz she posted a model wearing the pyjamas SHE was wearing for a blog post and i thought that was pretty cool.

lee at moms without blogs. i only just found her and i can't even remember how, but she rocks every way til tuesday. she just does.

now go spread the love girls - make it your first new year's resolution!!!

thank you

firstly, thanks all my PSFers and everyone else who took the 4 minutes out of their day to watch my crazy girls ham their way through our annual post christmas tree decorating photo shoot.

i think their sole focus now is to just have fun, and if mum gets a passable picture - whatever, we didn't plan it that way!

i know 4 minutes is a LONG TIME to spend on a blog, even a favourite one. i know, i read sitemeter! we're all busy and have short attention spans (no wait, that's me!)

anyway - just wanted to say THANKS.

and thanks to mel for this!...

it came with this blurb:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

as sass pointed out, we pretty much share the same 8 people we would pass this onto!

which brings me to ponder a question (and i'd like an answer please):

do you feel closer to those on your blogroll, whose first names you know?

(i know i do)

and a follow-up question (or two)

are there bloggers who have you on THEIR blogroll, but never leave you comments?

and one more

do you have bloggers on YOUR blogroll that you visit regularly (and leave comments) who don't have you on THEIR blogroll?


just wondering.....

wooo hooooot wednesday

the kau kau challenge fun and food fiesta was held on sunday in brilliant sunshine and i won this basket of goodies in the silent auction. it's full of wine and infused oil and chocolate and olives (yuck) and spiced peppers (yum) and chocolate. did i say chocolate? kau kau is the mountain that tara and i are always walking up. scrapped this last week:

we now have TWO restricted drivers in the house. miss 19 sat and passed on monday. with any luck, my days of dashing to the supermarket for ONE THING are OVER!!!
was awarded this by mean moody middle-aged mom (she isn't really. she's lovely!) she tagged me too, but that's a whole other post. i've been tagged this week, almost as many times as i've been awarded stuff!
i got boo-ed! (in a good way) by one of my PSF friends alisha. cute isn't it?

and this from elizabeth, another PSFer

thanks ladies!

nothing like a little bloggy love to get a gal through the middle of the week!

went to pub quiz fundraiser on sunday night and won! going to another pub quiz THIS sunday too! - for miss 10's school. (did i ever mention i love quizzes?)

we have a billet this week (through miss 12's school). we went to the zoo yesterday. it was very blustery but still fun. i got some great shots of the giraffe!

i'm going on an event management course today.

going to another quiz this sunday. did i mention i love quizzes?

happy wednesday!

wooo hooooot wednesday

- here's my last layout as guestie layout person for little shop of sketches. if i haven't said it before, i'll say it again - i LOVE sketches!!!

- i won the september contest at better scrapbooking to get the most photos on a layout.

i was given this by hootin' annie

and this one by mel!
thanks gals!

- wooo hooooot for my first decent LATTE in 2 1/2 weeks which i practically inhaled!

- and for the 4 day weekend (just gone)

- petrol dropped 13 cents in the 2 1/2 weeks i was gone

- i have already had some holiday pics printed and hope to scrap some soon!

- my wooo hooooot would not be complete without a picture from new york (but which one to pick?)

i chose this arty shot of the brooklyn bridge. it's a mile long and teeming with tourists and school field trips - cute! the children had worksheets that posed such questions as: "what do you see?" and they wrote answers like - "a boat". so cute.

- and lastly woohooo for the weather i had every day of my trip. the sky was THIS blue. EVERY DAY.

wooo hooooot wednesday

mid-week greets us once again!

• check me out! toot toot!

• clocked up my 57th kids' birthday party (19+16+12+10) on saturday. i should write a book...
  

• i had a JOB INTERVIEW last week. my first one in 22 years and i'm the 'preferred candicate', ie the job's mine provided there was a meeting of the minds over number of hours. there wasn't, but what a boost!

• RAK mail came! bonus online bingo prize from socal scrap - cuter than cute clear stamps and an embelly pack; and from danice a very cute 6 x 6 album. danice put a lumberjack cake recipe on her blog which i stumbled upon and she said she would send a RAK to the first person who made the cake and notifed her. i felt in a baking mood and the rest is history! thanks fellow scrappers!
  

how cute is this album? the cover is textured

my lumberjack cake. tasty, especially with freshly whipped cream

• been scrappin'!

this is for the little shop of sketches. i'm contributing for them during september

so's this one

this one was for creative scrappers. they run weekly sketch challenges. gotta love those!this one was for the 'decathlon' (use 10 elements) for the sketchbook olympics (week 3 of 8)

• received this award from my pal debra over at georgia rectors. i shall be passing this award on after due consideration'n'all that. can't wait to meet you debra!

• 

that's all folks!

Awards, Biking and Creativity - the weekend ABCs

well, there's only ONE award, but the plural goes better with the title dontcha think? when i turned my computer on the other day, i was tickled to discover i had won this award from georgia rectors. i'm supposed to pass it on to 7 other worthy blogs and i shall do that in due course!
saturday dawned frigid and wet (again) but we went ahead with our planned motor bike event. organised by a friend of DH's, he called it the pongaroa poker run and originally included a couple of dozen riders each stopping at designated petrol stations along the route, collecting a playing card. at the end of the day, the player with the best poker hand would win. the weather put off all but DH, mark (the organiser) and his neighbour matt.
that's me perched precariously on the back of matt's new yamaha. his bike is veeeeeery different to DH's bonnie. matt's bike goes fast. VERY FAST. you would never catch me dead on the back of a bike like that. well, except for here, but the engine wasn't going, so i'm ok!

the boys rode all the way to pongaroa and we all met up at the tui brewery. it's an iconic place and there are some great television ads that help make it one of new zealand's most famous beers. to get an idea, you need to watch these two ONE MINUTE ads.

the voice in one (or both) of the videos is tom baker, a previous 'dr who' (the one with the long scraf). i only discovered that today!

pongaroa city limits. that's ALL there is!!! these were on the counter in the tui gift shop. to gno-me is to love me (hehe)
parked up outside. mark's temperature guage said it was 3 degrees. feel for me especially when i tell you my boots leaked and i rode home with WET, frozen feet. when i got home i had to have the hot water turned up all the way in the shower just to thaw out!
that's DH's head in the blond wig. the dude in the blond wig features in the ads. they're funny. make sure you watch them!
boys will be boys

do we look cold? that's coz WE ARE! we can't wait until summer to come back again and sit outside with a wine in the sun!

there are also tui billboards nationwide. they are in two parts. the right side ALWAYS says 'yeah right' (meaning NOT!) and the left side always says something funny and obviously not true. eg:

"Guantanamo Bay is a 5-star hotel". Yeah Right". the billboard inside the bar at the brewery says "there's never a queue for the ladies loo. yeah right." get it? they are always current and reflect what's going on locally, nationally or internationally. here's one i made at home!

anyway - it was a fun day, even though we got cold and wet. DH bought a new seat for his bike, and not only was my touche comfy, it was the warmest part of me all day!

sunday we chilled at home and i took part in creative scrappers' 'sketchfest' - a weekend long online event. the organisers supplied 20 sketches and 5 card sketches and we were invited to complete as many as we wanted. there were also games. here's me playing bingo on sunday afternoon. i didn't win, but it was a lot of fun playing along. my next scrapping space will have a computer desk included (and NOT be on the end of our dining table!)
DH set me up with his work laptop so i could scrap and play online at the same time. i finished this layout
we have until the 31st to complete as many sketches/cards/challenges as we like. i'm putting the finishes touches on one more and may attempt a couple of cards too. check them out (right side bar). it's a great blog/gallery/forum.