Sunday morning heaven ...

I just love how Christopher sets himself up to use the laptop on a Sunday morning.  Reclining chair, blanket, computer in the appropriate position, TV on to watch in between key strokes .... Ahh boy bliss!

For Mother's everywhere ...

It's Mother's Day - a beautiful sunny day, hope you are enjoying yours.

I had breakfast in bed this morning - the full english variety served on a tray. Yum.

My gorgeous daughter bought me this ...



(and I have a feeling a few thousand other Mum's may have be given this as well :))

and my wonderful son made me this ....



and I got to do some of this ....



and I gave my lovely MIL this ....



which I made in one of the classes at the scrapbooking Autumn Retreat in New Zealand. She was thrilled with it. It is a picture of her on the beach at Skegness in 1948. I adore scrapping with heritage and vintage pictures - they are just so full of amazing details.

A little Nic love ...

Thought I'd share the two layouts I did with Nic Howard. I am so not an ink and paper curling girl - well I thought I wasn't - but found that I totally loved doing this. There was something extremely therapeutic about wetting paper and rolling it with your fingers!! Anyway I really liked this class and love the layouts.

6x4 cuteness ...

I loved how this cute little 6x4 album came together. Five of these pages were put together as "Make and Takes" at the retreat. We were also given a little pack with enough bits and pieces to produce a front and back cover and a couple of extra pages. It came together beautifully although I am not sure yet which pictures I will use for this. Love it.

Mini Me ...

This cute little mini album was one of the classes I did in New Zealand - sweet isn't it. Typically I am yet to put the appropriate wording on the pages. These are images of my Dad and I taken when I was about 12m old.

A little bit of wisdom ...

Sort of says it all really.

Lest we forget ....

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest we forget."

Goodmorning Sunshine ...

Have another Get Teased challenge up over on Get It Scrapped!. 

Any guesses on the theme this month? 

Beautiful NZ ...

I think I love New Zealand.

I've just had a wonderful 5 day trip to Lake Taupo in the north island to the Autumn Scrapbooking Retreat. It was wonderful. The kiwi ladies were just so nice - they made my friend Tracey and I feel so welcome - they were a very warm and friendly bunch.

The retreat was beautifully organized, the tables looked amazing and the room was huge - there were 130 ladies present but you didn't feel restricted at all. There was plenty of space and the lighting was excellent. The ladies were a very talented group - some of the layouts were amazing. The two ladies on our table were lovely and we got along with them really well (waving profusely and saying Hi).

I did classes with Nic Howard (delightful), Kelly Gorry (very talented), and Rachel Tucker (so sweet). All the classes were excellent but fast paced. The weather was good, the resort was very nice and we also managed to have a couple of hot spa's, check out the sights around Lake Taupo and totally enjoy the 4 hour drive down and back from Auckland. I think we saw more dairy cows than believable. The milk in NZ is extraordinary - Christopher would be in heaven as he loves his milk. All in all a great few days - wish I'd had more time and am saving to do it all over again next year.

5 speed evil ...

Watch out world. Rachel is now on her L's. Get off the road while you can.


Can't believe I now have a child learning to drive a car - and brother does she protest long and hard each time Dad takes her out. She is one of two poor deprived kids in her year at school that have parents with the audacity to own MANUAL cars. How dare we??? She has to learn to change GEARS - the horror !!!!!!

Priorities ...

Some days I really wish I could write like Ali Edwards or Cathy Zielski. I swing past their blogs as part of my daily routine and I am usually blown away by some poetic turn of phrase or heartfelt journaling. Today Cathy is talking about old family photographs and how the emphasis in the past was to take less pictures of people and more of the scenery about them. Oh Cathy I so know what you mean. I go through the packets of photographs inherited from my own parents and sometimes sadly shake my head. There are so many tiny, tiny box brownie squares of garden beds and church spires, open country roads and eucalyptus trees and then when I come across a single picture of my parents or Grandparents from those mid 20th century days, I just want to grab it and hug it to my chest as it is such a rare event and oh so precious to me. The trees are nice but I don't know where they are, the garden beds are pretty I guess (as much as they can be in black and white) but to see more smiling faces of people long gone and barely remembered would be such a gift. The scenery is relevant I guess but in the overall scheme of things for me it's the people that are important.

Happy Easter ...

I thought perhaps the kids would be out of the Easter Egg hunt stage but apparently not (well at least from Christopher's perspective). He enjoys, she protests (like she does for nearly everthing) but I think secretly enjoys. He will scoff the lot in a couple of days, she will hold hers uneaten in the fridge for a week or more just to annoy him.