It's been one of those days...

Packing up and leaving the big city

We packed up and left the big city this past weekend.  We hooked on the boat, took the kids and headed for the Coromandel for the weekend.  We knew the weather was meant to be awful, but in efforts to get away from the stresses we are finding ourselves under at the moment, we packed the board games just incase and we left.

We were amazed that once we crossed the Kopu-Hikuai Hills that things were very different, the rain stopped, the heat went up about 5 degrees and everything was decidedly crunchy and the grass so brown!  We had an awesome weekend with the family, took the boat out sea biscuiting, spent time on land doing absolutely nothing, inbetween travelling around the area looking for treasure with our GPS - geocaching, a hobby we discovered 18 months ago.

Here are the kids discovering a cache (not saying where! look at the sun and the colour of the grass behind them!)

Here's one for those of you that love the Pohutukawa tree, they were in full bloom over the coromandels, I don't know if they'll still be there by Christmas!

 

 9 Coromandel geocaches down, many to go.

Monday morning and back to the grind-stone. I shouldn't complain, being busy means there is work.  Both our construction business and my business are crazy busy, we are extremely grateful!
Don't expect Christmas cards though. I'm serious.

Leaving you with another Tarisota layout. 
Yes Abby really said that.
She's an amazing character right now.  Enjoying it immensely.
Laters.

Not drowsy, but asleep...

Today I discovered (again, I vaguely remember discovering this once before but apparently the note-to-self I wrote at the time wasn't clear when I repeated the experience)... anyway, today I discovered I should not take Claratyne, or any of those antihistimines.  My efforts to combat the effects of hayfever were met with a day I hardly remember.  I slept most of it away, and when I wasn't sleeping I was wishing I was.  It's not the ideal state to be in when attempting to clear a large workload, in fact being asleep on the couch at 9.30am is downright embarrassing.  I've written a large note to self, copied Lucy and Paul on it so they remember as well and I will not take that kind of medication again.  Non-drowsy?  Not to all.

So I'm behind in my work, I'm up on stress levels and down on patience.  That's just today though and I've promised myself to wake tomorrow with a clear head and start again.  It's only Monday tomorrow, right?

On said Monday morning (tomorrow is the new Monday, remember) I'm going to turn over a new leaf.  The blog-more-often-because-actually-I-enjoy-it-and-I-don't-know-when-I-stopped-blogging-so-often-but-I-must-blog-more leaf.

Because I really do have a lot to say.

Off to sleep off the last of the effects of taking non-drowsy drugs (with 'sleepiness' as a listed side effect... I ask you? *shrug* perhaps I'm not meant to understand?)  I'll leave you with this layout created for Aussie Scrap Source a while back though.  My first play with Websters pages. I wish I could access their website, it crashes my computer everytime :O(

Laters

Inventing stuff, late nights, birthday cards and Sesame Street.

I often wish I was an inventor.  Someone that dreams up things that would be really cool, and could set about and make it work.  I have no problems with the dreaming up something cool but the reality that a plug-in duster (you know, some contraption that sits in the corner discretely and sucks the dust out of the air, it never settles on furniture... no more dusting.. yea....) is ever going to get made, is another thing.
Today I sat down to lunch.  Seems like a primitive discovery but I've only been doing that for about 6 months now.  Prior to that I might grab something in the kitchen and eat while I was working, or miss lunch altogether.  Now it's quite the decadent affair, with a Continental Hearty Minestrone cuppa-soup and sitting and reading a book for 20 minutes.  Even on the craziest of days.  On an indulgent day I cut open a pita bread, spread a very thin samount of butter on there and add garlic granules.  Microwaved for 2 1/2 minutes and that turns into hot crunchy garlicy bread.  SO yum.  Not so indulgent days involve a bit of canola spray to make it a little crunchy.   I'd like to invent a non-fat butter.

SO anyway.  Today I sat down to lunch and I thought.  THIS is my lunchtime most favourite thing. Most favourite thing, I thought.  That's a layout.  I'd like to invent a camera that takes a snaphot by telepathic messages.  At that moment, cuppa soup in hand, book balanced with pita bread in other hand, I'd want a photo to put on said layout.  CLICK. but no.  In the time it takes me to locate the camera, fuss about what I look like, balance said camera on the arm of the couch opposite my favourite lunch spot, realisation that facing the camera AT the window where I perch myself each day is not going to end up in cool photography technique, adjust all of the above and then take the pic, the moment is gone, my pita bread is cold and so is my soup.  See. Not so cool.

So many ideas, so little time, not enough photos of the coolest stuff in my day. 

Like these.

And these

and the Saturday night that went with them.  Best fun in far too long.
And the bonus? I'm still not as old as Sesame street.  And I'm never likely to be. 

Laters.

(Layout posted today as part of the 2peas Garden, as part of the Guest Garden Girl gig for november)

 

Burning the candle.

"Shush Braden, Mummy's asleep! 
I'm only going to wake her up when Jacob arrives back or if she starts snoring!"

I'm vaguely aware of my head on Abby's shoulder and her little arm around me.  "How sweet" I think dreamingly to myself.  And then I realise where I am. 
At the library.

What's that saying? Burning the candle at both ends.  I can't even tell you how far I'm pushing it right now, and it's not just scrapbooking.  It's life in general.   It's mostly the business my hubby and I have, but it's also the work I do.  It's the kids' commitments, it's end of year build up, it's just everything.  I'm tired.

Clearly.  As I fell asleep in the library on Abby's shoulder within 10 minutes of arriving. 

It's nice to know I have her trained well, and she would have woken me if I started snoring. 
(Takes me back to tertiary education days.  3 hour economics lectures and the agreement I had with my best friend that we'd only sleep one at a time and nudge awake if snoring started.  It was in a huge lecture theatre and really the tutor didn't care if you slept, we were adults, it was our perogative!)
Lucky for me.

Tarisota gallery is up, and looking fantastic.  See it here.  Here is one of my favourites.  Off to try and catch up on sleep.

Laters.

 
 
 

The weekend...

It was the Auckland marathon today.  I've thought for the past couple of years that I'd like to participate in one of the smaller events of the day.  One that goes up and over the bridge.  That'd be cool.  I did try and register this year but clearly I was too late (who would have thought that it'd sell out so quick).  Next year.  Next year is my year.  Congrats to everyone that reached their goals today.  I did walk nearly 9km in your honour.  The streets of Pukekohe weren't nearly as exciting, even with Miley Cyrus on the ipod.

And so another weekend ends. 
* The weekend we planted out the rest of our vegies for summer.
* The weekend my first gladioli flower bloomed - that's really early. I love Gladioli.
* The weekend my doctor told me to treat my sons' 2 infected ears with hayfever medication.  (How's that working for us?  It's not - wonder whether hayfever medication will work for the throat infection he now has as well?)
* The weekend I booked my plane tickets to go to Timaru in February, teaching at Embellish It!
* The weekend I fell asleep at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon reading my latest book, digging to Australia.
* The weekend I am reminded, at 4.30am, why I don't drink wine.  I shouldn't drink wine.

Good things happening this week.  Like the reason I created this layout for LG, the Mum to this gorgeous little bubba.  Stay tuned to 2peas to see why I've been busy creating for Nov 1st ...

And lastly, this is the weekend after the weekend when we went searching for this.
And we found it.
And the kids couldn't have been prouder.

laters