Just a quick share of what I have been working on. It was my good friend Jess’s birthday yesterday so I made her this canvas. It was a great gift for her as she also go engaged on Sunday so worked perfectly. So a HUGE congrats to Jess on your upcoming wedding! You can see my MM Slice got a bit of a work out with the flourishes, flowers and stuff for the card too.

Not much else to report, I’ve been spending the day working my way thru the BIGGEST pile of washing. It turns out not to be a good idea to have a few days off from doing it when there is a toddler about! hehe Luckily we undercover washing line as the weather has been so awful and changeable today!  I can see the floor now so time for some more scrapping I think tonight. Better make something to share for Friday’s post! hehe

Megan showed me a new challenge blog and I decided to give it ago as I needed some inspiration. It’s “Kraft it up” and this month’s  challenge is to use Kraft cardstock and use mixed alphabets for your title. Give it a go if you have time Here’s my take on it.. a layout about a nice afternoon bird watching with Grace at a local bird wetland, I’ve since added some journaling to tell the story.

Not much else to blog about today, I’ve been hanging about home cleaning. Perfect weather for it! Such a pity for those who are heading to Ellersie Flower Show, it is bucketing down out there. Hope it clears for the weekend so at least they get some visitors through the gates.

**NEW BLOG NAME NEEDED**

Now I’ve been trying to come up with a new name for my blog, feels like a good time for a change but I’m struggling for ideas. Soooo… I think it’s time to have a wee RAK. Leave a comment with a new name suggestion for my blog before midnight on the 17th March and I will draw someone to receive a little something from me. No guarantees I’ll use it but maybe I will!

Not much to blog about this week.. the week has flown past so fast I can’t believe it’s Friday already!

The earlier part of the week was spent in the garden, on Mon and Tues I continued with having a bit of a tidy up which we started in the weekend. Grace was happy to potter about in the sunshine as I weeded and planted, we made several trips to the garden shops for supplies and now have a heap of pansies planted for some winter/spring colour. I got in the vegetable garden, gave it a good weeding and harvested some vege.. here is Grace with our red onion crop, some runner beans and silver-beet. We also got a heap of strawberries too, they just keep coming! I sowed some more seed for winter, I’m trying a bit of everything as I don’t really know yet what we are good at growing.

Gotta love Grace’s new smile, every time she sees the camera she pulls this face. I just hope that’s not what I look like when I smile and that she is learnt it from me.. hehe

Yesterday we headed to the local pool with some friends, the kids had great fun splashing about.. Grace hasn’t been in the pool all that much so I was happy to see her enjoy it.

I haven’t had a spare moment to get in the craft room and get things done, well only to tidy up.. Another weekend in the garden is planned, hopefully the weather doesn’t pack it in. Sorry not a very exciting post, maybe next time hehe

Lately I have been feeling like life is pretty darn good.. I am thoroughly enjoying being a Mum and love spending time with Grace, she lights up my world each and every day and really makes me want to start the day. Don’t get me wrong I love my time out but her smiling wee face makes you feel so special when you come home.

Talking of time out I was lucky enough to be invited on a wee road trip yesterday to Timaru and was able to go as my lovely sister looked after Grace all day.. Time out on a girls shopping day out, what more could I want. We checked out some of the scrappy shops on the way, well the ones that were open when they said they would be! It was just lovely to hang out with good friends and enjoy time together and get to shop

My new scrappy goodies have motivated me to get some more creating done. I’ve been undecided on how to continue telling our/her story since I finished her 12 month album back in July. That reminds me I must photograph the rest of the months and share them. I still love doing layouts about the things we do but enjoyed having a neat and tidy album that would cover the monthly stuff. I was flipping through the Dec 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes and came across a great monthly album plan. You use 6×4 photos and arrange them simply each month with bazzill, a small amount of cardstock and minimal embellishment. It looks great, it’s simple but keeps things up to date with the special moments each month. I have been down to Norman Ross and got my photos printed so expect to see some pages soon.

If your keen to have a read it’s in this issue.

I’ve been pretty busy with wedding plans for my sister so haven’t had much time to create but last weekend I whipped up this Kaisercraft Handbag desk caddy for part of my friend Bronwyn’s birthday gift. We were invited to a lovely brunch and were treated to a delish breakfast. I love these things and have one stashed away to decorate for my office when I find the time.

Hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend, I’m on a mission to tidy up the garden.. Needs some a major tidy up and I have been remiss for ages.

Check out this lovely new Prima stuff and the fab layouts made with it here. You can be into win too

Oops! I didn’t get my blog post done today.. but only an hour late at 1am

It has been a crazy busy week. My sister and her partner have been thinking of getting married for awhile now, heck they have been engaged for four-ish years.. So it was very exciting when she started talking about it and I immediately flew into excited planner mode lol  If you don’t already know, I LOVE weddings and hope to get involved with event/wedding planning when Grace is a little older. Over the last week the date has been set and some of the details are falling into place. It’s in five weeks time and I’m stoked. Loads to do but it is a more casual relaxed affair so it is coming together well. To keep costs down the reception will be held in our backyard with Spitroast but it means I have to get cracking and tidy the place up.. to late to plant flowers really but need to neaten up the place, off to the local garden centre tomorrow to see if I can find anything to fill gaps.

Last weekend we headed out for a walk around a wetland reserve.. it had heaps of birds of all species and it was fascinating watching them. Grace loved it and we hope to get out and explore more over the coming months.

Here is Craig and Grace in the bird hide, checking out what species they can spot. Need binoculars next time

Checking out some very cheeky ducks. 

Another couple of photos that I had to share of Grace playing peek a boo

Then lastly a Sympathy card I made. Looks a bit wonky but I can assure you it was straight hehe

Here is the Chocolate fondant recipe that I made last night for our special dinner. It was rather rich but good for a special occasion. I however made a way to bigger serving, small ramekins would work well.

Chocolate Fondant

280g best-quality dark chocolate

200g unsalted butter plus a little extra for greasing the moulds

8 whole eggs

230g sugar

160g flour

Preheat the oven to 180?C. Break the chocolate into small pieces, then place in a bowl with the butter. Sit the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, ensuring the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.  Leave the chocolate and butter to melt, then beat the eggs, sugar and flour until combined.Remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat and whisk in the egg mixture until it is shiny and glossy. Grease 4 ramekins or ovenproof cups with a smear of butter, then pour in the mixture and bake for 8-12 minutes. The top of the fondants will still look wet when they are removed from the oven, but this is okay. Let them cool slightly, then run the tip of a sharp knife around the edge of the dish and carefully invert them onto individual serving plates.

Well where to start… Hope you all had a great Waitangi weekend. I did but felt rather ripped off at not getting to enjoy a long weekend!

We had some friends over to enjoy what was a short burst of sunshine, I do seem to have a good knack of picking event dates and getting sun on them. I didn’t think to photograph the guests but got a photo of the bbq spread, I was hanging out for some nice char grilled bbq fare and salads, it’s been awhile since this crappy weather has been plaguing us.

We have been getting an awesome crop over our strawberries (sea spray variety)  and Grace loves to pick them. I know you will all be sick of strawberry photos but I thought this one was cute.

Now to share some photos of the cousins. We have been all hanging out together almost daily lately and I feel so lucky that we have such a close relationship. Maddi and Grace just love playing together and it’s good for us to find an outlet for all that toddler energy!

I did a bit of scrapping this week but hope to get more done over the weekend. Here is my “Scrap the girls” monthly challenge effort. You had to get inspiration from the quote "Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth." I immediatally  thought of this photo of Grace, she just looks so carefree and happy swinging to her hearts content. Kids seem to live to this quote all the time, we should take a leaf out of there book!

I also had to share my new bag, I found it last night at the Warehouse. If you own a slice I suggest you get yourself down there for one. They have several colours but I had to get green!  Only $12 as was half price. I would love a MM one but they are just to expensive for me.

While I was writing this post today I decided to take a break and check the mail. A package was lying in the letterbox and I figured it would just be some garden books I ordered but no! it was way better!! During CHA Making Memories were running competitions on there blog with random give-aways and I entered a few. I had received an email saying I had won but as my name wasn’t on it I figured it was a glitch but today in the letter box was a parcel from Making Memories and inside was a Vintage Findings design card!! How exciting, so exciting in fact that I phoned my sister and she totally didn’t get it as she isn’t a scrapper but WOO HOO!! I know you guys will understand how cool it is hehe It’s the last one of the older range that i wanted too hehe

Anyhow I better head off, I’m going to make a special dinner for Craig tonight and watch a DVD (Couples Retreat, looks totally funny) to celebrate Valentines day tonight as we are busy on Sunday. I found the recipe for Chocolate fondants and are going to give them a go for desert. Will let you know how I get on.

Haven’t felt up to much creating this week, I had high hopes but the cold I picked up last week has been zapping all of my energy and it didn’t help  inspire me My scrap room has become a bit untidy too, I’ve been trying to sort things out that are long overdue for a tidy. I have been typing all of my recipes up to put in a clear file, thankfully all done now. Also I stuck all of Grace’s greeting cards in a scrapbook from her birth and 1st birthday, I was sick of them hanging about.

Anyhow yesterday afternoon the mood was right and I whipped up this layout for Scrappin Patch’s sketch challenge.

Earlier in the week I did a bit of tidying up in the garden and started painting things around the place. We have this garden edging and it was pretty faded and shabby looking and not in a shabby chic way either lol We picked up some chocolate coloured stain and I gave it a coat and it looks 100% better now, also bought a line trimmer to keep the edges nice.

Before

and after

Lastly but not least my little style queen, do you think the look will take off? hehe

I sometimes sit at my computer while Grace has her afternoon nap, checking emails and facebook etc and then I go to my Google reader and read some blogs. However today I’ve run out of blogs to read, I have loads of the American well known scrappers but they are all going mad on CHA at the moment. I want to find some more creative blogs to add to my reading list and here’s where I hope you can give my some cool links.

I’ve had a good week but I’m totally over this bloody weather! As anyone in Christchurch will agree it’s been just awful for so called summer and more grey forecasts for the weekend. I know yesterday was nice but did it have to be the one day I was inside scrapping all day with friends and didn’t see any of it?!? hehe

As I said I spent yesterday cropping but didn’t get much completed, I seem to be fighting off some cold and it didn’t inspire creativity. I almost completed one double layout and some birthday cards over about 9 hours! However I had a nice time catching up with friends and having time.

Last weekend we were invited to as friend’s housewarming and it was nice to be able to go out for the evening together without Grace. She was meant to come but she too has had the sniffles so we left her with Mum, they had a ball together and we enjoyed the night out. This was the very quick card I made to go with the housewarming gift.

This week we have been pottering in the vege garden. I’ve been doing my research on what to plant for winter and will start planting more stuff over the weekend. Here are some of the carrots we have been harvesting and they are so good! The strawberries are even better, so sweet compared to shop bought ones and Grace loves to go find the red ones for afternoon tea.

This morning Dad and my sister popped over for morning tea and i snapped these very cute photos of Georgia. She is only 7weeks but is already starting to lose the baby looks. I even managed to catch some smiles

Well there’s not much else to post about today but maybe with some time over the weekend’s evening I might get something creative done to share. I hope to spend the days in the garden giving it a good tidy up, I’ve been to focused on the vege garden that the rest of it has got away and needs to be sorted out.

Enjoy your weekend!