It's been one of those days...

It's been a while.  I've had so much going on.  From school finishing to my younger brother arriving from London, to Christmas and Brady's birthday... it's been busy.  Check out what a gorgeous family I get to share it all with, though.  Those of you that know me, know that I'm not the tallest... well I'm crouching in this photo, my Mum is tiny!

Pair that with over-eating, copious amounts of over-drinking, recovery from said over-drinking and trying to fit in enough exercise to combat the over-eating and over-drinking guilts, I think you'll agree I've had a fairly typical NZ Christmas.

I did manage to do two things I really wanted to acheive though - one of which was to run 5km by Christmas, I managed to fail getting to that distance every day in the weeks leading up to Christmas, can we round up 4.2km to 5km?  no?,   but woke up Boxing Day and realised it was still Christmas somewhere in the world and ran it.  Now comes the realisation I need to keep repeating the performance. 

Things don't slow down yet though, with the settling in of house sitters while we pack for the annual trek to the beach.  Nothing like a few weeks of hot sun, sand, surf, jellyfish, more over-eating and over-drinking.  You know how it goes.  I've completed my BasicGrey CHA layouts and they are on their way.  I've got Prima to arrive anyday to get going on as well.  I've got this post on Cathy Z's blog to inspire me for my holiday pics.  I think I'm ready for the new year.  Bring it on.

Laters

Good intentions.

I think Christmas is the time of good intention. 

Like how I intended to have all my Christmas cards posted by the first week of December.  I did get them done and posted yesterday, for those of you wondering if your yearly dose of Howard cuteness will arrive in the mailbox anytime soon. 

You will notice the crossover to the dark side when you get them.  Some of you will stand and look at said card and nod and say "oh yea... we converted Nic to the dark side...." Some of you will gently touch the front of the card and say... "hang on, is that... did she? I think she did..."  and some of you will take one look at the card and decide that obviously I was running waaaaay short on time this year (there are those good intentions again...) and enlisted the help of some very clever digital Christmas fairies.

For the record, there was some scrapbooking technique involved in the whole process.  I cut the card fronts, Ok so Jacob did, sorry about the crooked ones, he did a fabulous job really since he was watching the Jonah Brothers at the same time.

You'll also notice the addition of the glittery gluey stuff.  That right there makes those cards a little hybrid venture.  Oh the places I'll go....

(photoshoot for these cards done by Lesley Cooper - I got some amazing pics, will share more in the coming weeks as they appear in projects!)

Laters 

Christmas at the zoo, friends and flowers.

What a weekend.  We have so much on at the moment and the past weekend was Christmas at the Zoo, the Pukekohe Christmas parade and a christening of a friends deck.  Yea i was the one that christened it, spilt my drink  - Sunday drinks.  Busy busy.  I had a great weekend with family doing all those things but I couldn't help thinking "Shauna won't see this again, she won't know this happened." I had a great time but those thoughts kept sneaking in and tears were always right there lurking, ready to show themselves far too easily.

One thing that has come of this has been all our mutual friends reconnecting.  One of which posted a pic of herself and Shauna, but in this pic Shauna was wearing a paperdoll on her heart.  It took me a while to remember, but then I realised what the paperdoll was.  It was me. 

I was meant to travelling to Arizona on Sept 12th 2001 (Sept 11 in the USA).  My bags were packed, my kids were at Mums and we got the phone call in the middle of the night to tell us all of the events of 9-11 were happening.  Shauna rang me later on as well and we talked about how much I wanted to go to the USA, but how unstable the world was (and at that point we really didn't know what else would happen) and Shauna told me how afraid she was.  For me, for her, and our families.  "Don't come over, Nic, it's not worth it, stay home, hug your family close, keep tight with them, it's not worth it to come over, you can't leave them".

And I didn't.

Shauna made sure I was there in spirit though.  She made a paperdoll and pinned it to her shirt so I was there too.  Here is a pic.  These are things that I had forgotten.   I guess there is a little good to come of it all.  Something else, too.  it's made me really appreciate the friends I have.  So many friends that I always know are there, but don't neccessarily see often.  We might not see each other much, we might not chat often, but it's unconditional and it's times like this that they show up, and that is so freakin cool.   I even had some flowers delivered on Saturday night - totally anonymous (who was the mystery flower person, I'd love to know!  Thank you so much!) - they just turned up. 

Anyway.  Here's to good friends. 

A layout to share - I'm writing down as much as I can of these things Abby says.  She is so cute right now.  She is attached to my hip, a real Mummy's girl, and I can't get enough of spending time with her.
Off to get the washing in - rain on the horizon again...

Laters

 

 
  
  

A tough day

It's been a surreal kind of a day.  The rain has pelted down in what is totally unusual weather for summer.  We had 14 degrees today, and as I sit typing this I have just heard that the Met Service has released weather warnings of almost Civil Defence standards for a storm to hit tonight.  they are forecasting flash floods and power cuts.  With the way the rain is hitting the windows right now, I believe them.

It kind of matches my mood today.  This past few week have been hard as I've known my dear friend Shauna was losing her battle with cancer.  Today Shauna passed away. IT was a brave fight, but it doesn't make it any easier to say goodbyes.

Those of you that have known me for a while, know how much Shauna meant to me, to so many of us.  When she was diagnosed with cancer in June 2006, I made her an album, and entered in the Chatterbox Make it Meaningful contest.  I sent the album to her last year, when things really started to get rough. 

Shauna was the foundation of my scrapbooking.  She was my mentor and my hero.  She was my encouragement and someone I will always hold dear.  When I wrote my book in 2006, it was Shauna it was dedicated to.
Goodbye sweet Shauna.  Your soft, gentle and loving ways will never be forgotten.

(Pages from the album I made for Shauna, 2006.)