Number 8 wired challenge

First of all thanks for all the lovely comments for my rock star layout! I love the layout and I am glad that so many others love it too. Sometimes a layout just works and that happened with that one. It doesn't happen all that often where I totally love my layout.

Speaking of layouts loved or not, here is my layout for the latest number8 wired dare. The dare is to visit the resene website and find a colour palette and use that as inspiration for a layout. This was so much fun and I spent a long time just perusing the resene website. I chose this particular colour palette because it was simple but quite different to anything I had done before. Only problem was it called for a girl layout. So I flicked through my albums and came across these adorable photos of Meggy. This cute wee girl will be 10 in a couple of weeks time! The mark on her forehead is not on the layout, something happened when I took the photo. I might take it again tomorrow and replace this one.

The layout



The inspiration for the layout.

http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/decorating_inspirations/272.htm


I might even have another go at this challenge, I enjoyed it so much.

This weekend we are celebrating Thanksgiving. Late? Yes. One of the families we celebrate with had dance recitals last weekend. This time 2 years ago we were in the States and had already celebrated one thanksgiving the year before. It is so much fun and very much an American tradition. Because Isaac was born in America and is an American citizen we feel it is our duty to make sure he learns some of the American traditions. The challenge in the coming years will be remembering what the traditional foods etc are. Thank goodness for American friends and the Internet LOL. Also finding American friends to celebrate with. This year we are again celebrating with Kaila, Glen, Sophia, Vivi and bump, plus Glens Mum who arrived from the States today, and the 2nd family, Christina, Lily and Ivy. Lily and Ivy are 4 and 2 and as yet Christina hasn't celebrated thanksgiving with them. I can't decide if I am going to go with the $45 traditional turkey or the less traditional but much cheaper chickens? Update and photos next week.

Friday night we have family fun night at Church, Saturday we will also be putting up the Christmas tree. Sunday is the first big rehearsal for the Christmas children's service. So a pretty busy weekend and they only get busier from here on in til Christmas. Fun times ahead!!!

Tobyn is doing really well at school at the moment. He got a certificate in assembly last week for great effort and self discipline towards his school work. He was so chuffed. Soon I will do a blog post all about my big boy. I seem to write so much about Isaac. Partly because I have more photos of him. Tobyn is terrible about having his photo taken, but I did get some good ones the other day like this one:



and this one,



isn't he adorable?!

until after the busy weekend, thanks for visiting!

Music in Me Challenge/Rockstar

I really enjoyed this challenge. I have missed the last 2 music in me challenges so this was great to have the perfect photos. It just so happened that Isaac got this drum set from Aunty Fee and Chris on Saturday and he loved it as soon as he opened it. It took me a few hours to realise that I had the perfect photos for this challenge and couldn't wait ot get onto it. For a while the layout was looking pretty Christmassy, but after a bit of fiddling and some great inspiration I LOVE it! Thanks Neen for the challenge!

Final entry for Louises blog challenges

The final challenge for Louises blog challenges. This week she asked us to scraplift a layout of Dallas Foleys http://dallasnz.wordpress.com/ I pretty much stuck to her design with a few extras. I am very happy with the end result and this is another layout to add to our America Album.
Thank you Louise for the challenges. I have found it hard to find the time and inspiration to do these challenges but I am glad I did them, another 4 layouts for my albums. Plus there were so few people that were able to do the challenges in the end that I just couldn't pull out as well.

A lovely day!

4.15am Friday morning and I could hear the rain pelting onto the roof. Argh, I don't want it to rain. I had to get up at 5.15am to get ready and be at school with Tobyn for 6.10am. I was going on a school trip with him to Wellington and I really didn't fancy driving in the rain. Oh well, thems the breaks.
A couple of weeks ago I made the big decision to go on a school trip and leave Isaac with Aunty for the WHOLE day! I knew I had to do it sometime and they were short on transport so in a way the school helped me make the decision. Aunty was more than happy to have Isaac for the day. Isaac has been getting easier and easier to leave, but I was still worried that a whole day without Mummy would be hard. More on that later.
We arrived at school. Got instructions and piled into the cars. I had Tobyn, Ricky and Tobyn's teacher in my car. Fortunately it stopped raining shortly after we drove out of Palmy (no jokes here please LOL) We had a lovely drive into Wellington. The boys behaved and didn't distract the driver too much. And we only encountered on small traffic jam in Wellington.
The kids were going to Capitol E where they were learning how to make a music sound track and put together a newscast. The children all had jobs for the newscast. Tobyns job was an acting one, he got to be the new Mayor of Palmerston North, complete with collared shirt and one of Dads old ties.
The parents were allowed to what they wanted, either stay or go. I chose to stay for the first little bit and got to see what they were doing with the music. It looked AMAZING! I wish the parents were allowed to have a play on the computers too LOL. One of the Dads has said he is going to get the software for his son for Christmas even though his son doesn't know. I think Daddy must have liked it too! These kids got such an amazing opportunity!
After that I went and browsed the Wellington shops. I am not a big shopper, well at least not on my own, I could spends hours shopping with someone. But I had a nice time for the time I did spend shopping. I managed to find a few books for Christmas presents. I got a BBQ one for my brother and sister in law, a historical one for Tobyn and a monster story book for Isaac. I also got myself a scrap booking creations mag went and bought a coffee and sat down and had a read. Ah the bliss of sitting in a coffee shop on your own, not having to worry about whether a 2 year old is going to spill something or choke on his food, or make too much noise. I then went to Kirkcaldies. I knew the Christmas shop was open there and I wanted to browse. Kirkcaldies is a big posh department store in Wellington. I was surrounded by beautiful clothes and smells. I just can't get over how they can justify charging so much for the wares in this store? The Christmas shop didn't blow me away like it did the first time I visited a few years ago. But I still managed to buy a new decoration for each of us
I phoned my sister to see how Isaac was doing. Fine, no problems! He was sleeping when I called and had apparently not wanted to go home for a sleep he wanted to stay at Aunty's and play with Jono's cars. Was he missing Mummy "I don't think he even realises you're not here" *sob* that's not what your meant to say. LOL.
After I had done enough shopping for one day I met up with Pip. I haven't seen her for a year and I miss her company. How can a year go by when we live only 2 hours away from each other? Only now they are moving further away down to Christchurch. Although this is actually a good thing for us because my Mum lives down there and if we go down it is always for a week or 2. Anyway we had a wonderful time catching up over lunch and 2 hours was not long enough!
Pip is the 2nd 'old' Friend I have caught up with recently and I really treasure these friendships and I have made a vow to myself that I will nurture them a lot more over the next year!!!
After my wonderful lunch I headed back to capitol E and watched the last take of the news cast. Tobyn was great, he got his lines perfectly!
The trip home was nice and easy, no stops, no traffic jams. I had a great conversation with Mrs Treder and got to know her a lot better. I was amazed at how much we have in common! We share the same b'day month, though she is a year younger than me, we have both been married for close to 15 years, they had there anniversary in August, ours is in January. We both applied for teachers college when we were 16 and were turned down because we were too young. Though she went back and trained and I became a nurse. We have both lived in the States, both have 2 boys and both our husbands work in scientific fields. I am probably missing something but I was surprised.
When we arrived home Isaac was pleased to see us. He was a little razzed up, tired and hungry as it was 6.30pm!!! He talked all the way back home and all the way through dinner and all the way through the bedtime routine. SO CUTE!!! This morning he has still been yak, yak, yakking. Me thinks he did miss Mummy ;)
WHAT A LOVELY DAY I HAD!!! I will be volunteering more now that I know Isaac is happy to stay with Aunty!

A picture, just because I like to post something beautiful.

Lousies 2nd blog challenge

I am not doing very well with Louises challenges. I leave them until the alst minute and the have to do the layout quickly and of course then I am not all that happy with it. I had to go into town after school to get this photo printed out. Didn't get home until 4.30. Had to get the boys afternoon tea and then choose papers etc. So for a quick layout it turned out OK.

All about Isaacle

I was going to do a big long post about lots of things with quite a few photos but blogger is very slow at uploading pics tonight so I will make this post all about Isaac or Isaacle as he is sometimes referred to.

Isaac is learning so much at the moment and it is so much fun. He loves being in the 'big bed' and will often be found lying in his bed, our bed or the BIG bed in his room. Pretending has become a big part of his play. He is also into imaginary creatures at the moment. He points at things and says cow, pig, sheep, horse etc. and they aren't really there! He is getting bigger feet and I found he nows fits sandles and shoes I only tried on a few weeks ago and back then they were way too big. So yesterday he was wearing green sandles with stars on and he loved them and kept saying 'green shoes' Today he was wearing Thomas sneakers that light up when he stomps. So all day he has been stomping to make them sparkle.
I started kissing booboos a few days ago. Now every time he hurts himself he asks for a kiss, like this afternoon he hurt his nose and came to me and said 'Mummy kiss nose' And sometimes I will give his booboo lots of kisses and he dissolves into hysterics. Too cute.
He LOVES Tobyn and has started calling him 'my broder' This morning I found him knocking on Tobyns door with a peg saying in a deep growly voice 'come out, now'
He loves Apollo the cat and can often be found cuddling him. Most of the time he is really good with him. But a couple of days ago I found him hitting him a little too hard and I had to be Mummy growly lion. He has been good since.
He loves books!!! And will bring books to read many times a day. He knows most of the Hairy Maclairy stories from start to finish. One of his favourite Lynley Dodd books right now is 'Wake Up Bear' and he always jumps when the bear shouts 'Honey'
He is very determined and has a very strong will. But with his adorable sense of humour and his affectionate nature we can usually diffuse issues before they become too big.
He is still very big on routine. As long as we do things in the same way and the same order then everything will be fine. For example night time. Daddy comes home, we have tea, Isaac has a bath, Isaac comes out of the bath and has snuggles with mummy, Isaac streaks around the house nakid then comes back to get clothes on, Daddy takes Isaac and he says goodnight with kisses, cuddles and 'I love yous' to Mummy and Tobyn, Daddy takes him to his room Isaac lies down on the BIG bed and has some of his bottle, Daddy reads 3 books then Isaac turns his music on, gets into his bed and has some more of his bottle, Daddy tucks him in, makes sure he has blankie, floppy bunny, Makka Pakka, Iggle Piggle and any other important toys that day and says good night and leaves the room. IT WORKS!!!

Enough for now. Here are a couple of photos from the weekend. I have converted a colour to b&w and might use it in the Number 8 wired dare this fortnight.



This next photo shows Isaac having a go on the big bike. Steve got it down from the roof on the weekend. Tobyn got this bike for Christmas when he was 2 1/2. Isaac has only just turned 2 so hasn't got the idea of it yet. But he did enjoy being on the big bike.



Maybe I will get to post again tomorrow about Tobyn with some cool photos from the weekend.
I don't have any projects to show at the moment because I am working on Christmas presents mainly, so you have to wait until after Chrissy.

ttfn

A house full of sickies

Obviously I have not had much to say over the past week LOL. We have all been sick in some way. I have had an awful annoying cough. I know it is going around, but I wish it had missed me! Tobyn and Steve have had today off. Tobyn has an ear infection and is now on anti bots. This is only the second time in 9 years that he has had an ear infection so he has done pretty well. But the poor little guy is in pain. Enough about sickies!

Some layouts I have been working on. There are so many things going on in scrappy world at the moment I just can't keep up. There is a DT call, but I have decided not to go for it. I just don't feel confident enough in my work to do it yet. Steve thought I should so I promised him I will give one a go in the next year. SBO have a whole lot of fun going on with challenges and raffles all ending with a gala bash cyber crop at the end of the month. So, the layouts.......

This first one is for Louises week 1 blog challenge. The challenge she set was to not use any manufacturers patterned paper. But we could make our own. It took me all week to come up with some inspiration and finally around 1pm this afternoon I found the photo which inspired the patterned paper. I have used different sized lids and stamped the circles on the paper, representing the bubbles. The colours were inspired by the colours in the bubbles themselves. The circles around the photo I stamped and cut out, just like I would if I had a patterned paper.



This next layout is for the no 8 wired NZ dare blog. The challenge was to use onlt 2 differnt colours. I have used different shades of brown and blue. I actually found this incredibly difficult. I was umming and ahhing about entering it because it is pretty simple. But I love it and it is a photo I love of Isaac.



The last one is for a challenge on scrapbook outlet. No winners or losers you just earn raffle tickets. The challenge was to scrap christmas food. I don't have very many photos of christmas food at all. But I remembered I had these photos of Tobyn making a gingerbread house while we were in the States. I had already tried scrapping it a while ago but didn't like the way it was going. So this time I printed out some smaller photos. I thought I would do a double layout and went to pagemaps for some ideas. I found a sketch, single page that I thought would work and used that. I had it all done and didn't like it. I showed Steve and said I wasn't happy but couldn't put my finger on why. He said the green under the photo isn't quite right and I agreed. It was a darker brighter green like in the top christmas trees. I covered it with the lighter green and I was surprised at how different it made it look. Now I still don't love it but I am so happy to now have this memory scrapped for his album!!!



I don't have any more layouts and I don't have any other news for now so TTFN Until next time...

Black and White layout for Louise's blog challenge

So louise @ http://bigyellowdogblog.blogspot.com/ is having a little comp on her blog. She had a warm up challenge where by we were asked to create a layout using ONLY black and white. I like how it turned out so fresh. Thank you for the challenge Louise.

Most of the materials I have used came from a http://www.scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz kit. Peect for this challenge. Usually I don't use kits for challenges but I didn't have any other only b&w papers! My only disappointment with this layout is that there is a gorgeous tinkering ink patterned paper hiding behind all the stuff I added! I couldn't stop stincking and doodling and then I realised I had hidden ,most of this gorgeous paper. Gonna have to get me some more of that I think!

A great weekend!

Tobyn got on stage for both his dances on Saturday! I was so chuffed to see him out in his black shirt for the Michael Jackson dance! And he did a pretty good job. He did forget a couple of things in this dance, but given he had missed the change for 2 days I can forgive him. I am proud of him for getting out there!!!
Sunday we went to Church for the first time in weeks. We are organising the kids Christmas service and thought it high time to get there and let them know it is all coming together. The kids are excited and hopefully it will be as good as they are anticipating!
Sunday afternoon was spent tidying and scrapbooking. Yay I finally got some more scrapbooking done! And both layouts are for challenges.

This layout is for the Scrapbook Essentials fortnightly sketch competition. It is the first 6x12 layout I have done. Having done the Disney photo I have decided that Disney 06 will be all 6x12. I found it quite hard and I stuck to the sketch. I like how the photos really stand out.



The other layout I will put in a separate post.

Art and culture in the Gregory house

A busy weekend here for us! Tobyn has had a very busy week with dance rehearsals and I have had a busy week as taxi driver! Last night was the telling moment for the work he has put in. As you may be able to tell from the previous post, Tobyn isn't too keen on having people watch him. He used to be fine but from around the age of 7 he has not liked it at all. So I wasn't sure how he would go in the dance show. But he shone! He got out there and danced his heart out and did everything really well. Unfortunately he did miss one dance because he didn't get changed fast enough, but we have that sorted for today, so I should get to see him in both his dances. Now I just hope that we can convince him that it would be a good idea to carry on dacncing in some way. I know it waon't be The Jazz Elemeatary 1 class, but maybe boys club or hip hop? It is awesome at his studio that they encourage the boys so well. Dean, the owner and 1 of 3 male teachers is so good with the boys. Tobyn has a natural talent but not the passion yet. Maybe in a few years time he will realise what a gift he has? My Mum let me stop dancing when I was 5 and I wish she had pushed me to continue. Mum, I know you did what was right at the time so don't take this as me thinking you were wrong. But I guess that is partly why I don't want Tobyn to give up yet, he might regret it in the future.

Today was pet and craft day. Steve spent all morning cooking 200 sausages, deffinately did his part and got to know some other parents a little better which is great. Tobyn, Isaac and I got to enjoy a pancake breakfast, courtesy of the some of the teachers.
Last night and this morning Tobyn work on his vegetable creation. He hoped he could get first this year after placing 2nd last year. This year he did more of it himself, he chose all the veges and put it all together. The only guidance and help we gave him was with tthe creation he was going to do. He wanted to make a village with grape people. We thought this would be too much hard work with the dance show as well. So he made a dragon, scales and all! And he WON. He is so proud. Tobyn also took his cat Apollo for the pet parade. They got asked about there cat and how they looked after it etc and Tobyn won best presented cat. And Apollo got a lovely silver and blue ribbon. So nioce to be able to add more certificates to the wall of acievement in our house!





I think Isaac is going to have an outdoor career. He was totally in his element among the lambs and calves!





Righto, gotta go wash the floor that Steve spilt milo powder all over and get ready for the show this afternoon, Ciao for now.

A cute Tobynism

A conversation last night with Tobyn as we arrived at the dance rehearsal went something like this:

T: is this where we are practising?
M: Yes
T: where are we? Are we at the theatre?
M: Yes
T: Cool, I love dancing on stage.....
M: Oh really?
T: Yep, as long as there isn't anyone watching.

Excited and Exhausted!

I am very excited about many things this week:

• The fact that the part for the washing machine has finally arrived and I can remove the towels from behind the machine. It has been 2 weeks since we found we had a leak! The washing has been backing up so I am over the moon about that.


• Today there is some blue sky! Yes you heard it here first. So along with the washing machine part and the blue sky guess what is my main aim today? Yep, washing, washing and more washing!


• Tobyn's dance performance. Every year they put on an amazing show and I look forward to it so much that I always over book tickets LOL. Hopefully my sister can replace Steve on Friday night because we need someone at home to get Isaac to bed. A 7pm show start is not good for a little boy that needs Daddy to put him to bed, can't get a baby sitter to do it. And when I booked the tickets I didn't think about the time it was starting!


• My nephew got 3rd= in their schools cluster speech comp. Now what is it about the Rowe grandchildren? My siblings and I were not good at speeches and yet our kids are doing great! Tobyn won for his year earlier this year and now Sheridan has placed 3rd in the cluster schools. Go Sheridan, Aunty is very proud of you!!!


• The thing I am the most excited about and left until last.........I am being published! Now as most of my visitors are scrap bookers I will have to let you down gently......not being published for scrap booking.......being published for photography! We have very good friends that are journalists. They are Isaac's godparents and live in the States. Tim was deputy editor of the listener a couple of years ago and Ele deputy editor of Next. They went on a bog OE. Ele being American wanted to take Tim 'home'. It took a while for them to find jobs in the industry and they spent some time working in a bookstore to live. They are both now busy with jobs ans study and the big benefit for us is that one of the jobs Tim is doing is helping edit and set up a new online Travel magazine. He asked a few weeks ago for photos in certain categories but I didn't think we had any to suit. Yesterday I received an e-mail from them wishing Isaac a happy birthday. I returned the e-mail with an update in Isaac and an invite to visit my blog. Tim replied soon after with a request for travel photos for the postcard section of the mag, they are short. So Steve spent a good hour or so last night sending through a pile of photos and they want one! I am over the moon. One of my photos is going to be published in an online travel mag WOOHOO!!! When I know more details and when the mag is being published I will link it on here.

And yes I am also exhausted! My baby who is now a big boy and sleeping in a big boy bed is keeping me awake. Not because he is awake, because I am worried he is going to fall out, or come trough at some ungodly hour so I think I have one ear open for him all night. I hope this will pass soon!

I will leave you with one of the photos that was sent through to Tim, not the one being published obviously. But I don't like posts without photos and since Steve re sized these last night I might as well use one.

Isaac and I in the Milford Sound back in February.

Scrapbook Essentials Blinkie

I am doing quite a few short random posts. Just a bit of fun LOL. Neen, one of the Dt members on SE has been playing with blinkies and Meg challenged us to put it on our blogs. So here it is. My only wish is that I knew how to link it so you can click on it and it would take you to the website, but alas I am not that computer literate!

Edited to add, I have got it all sorted I now have a blinkie in my sidebar that if you click on it, it will take you to Scrapbook Essentials. Thanks to Neen for the link and the blinkie!

Visit my sister!

My sister has finally started a blog. I imagine she will only use it for her challenge layouts but then you never know she might become hooked like me LOL.

www.theoccasionalblogger-antionette.blogspot.com

She has her take on The Music in Me challenge up at the moment.

Today my baby turned 2

It is now officially October 22nd American time. In about 4 hours time Isaac was actually born. It is kind of weird to have to adjust the time differnece, but in my mind I do, every second counts LOL.

So my baby boy is growing up. Some things Isaac can do at 2:

Blow candles out.
Blow party blowers
Sing "Happy Birthday To You"
Open presents almost by himself
Sleep in a big boy bed (we didn't take the sides off the cot a couple of weeks ago, but DID today and he LOVES it!)
Stay at Grandad and Grandmas and stay asleep all night. And Grandma said it was just about the easiest baby sitting they have ever done.
Jump with 2 feet off the ground.
"Run, fast" saying it while running fast!
Turn the TV on and off.
Give wonderful cuggles and kisses!
Dance while wiggling his whole body. Looks so cute with his shoulder wiggles!

And many, many more.

Here is the birthday boy with his main present. Doesn't Dad look great in the back ground in his dressing gown and shoes LOL.



Isaac and his friend Finley



Isaac loved getting Iggle Piggle from Tobyns friend. Tobyn also gave hime Makka Pakka. Steve was not happy about Iggle Piggle, he says it will give him nightmares LOL!!!



Fee, what do you think of the theme? The theme was Elmo. I had great plans of cutting out the shape of Elmos face and icing it. But...I failed to get the right food clouring on Friday. A little bit difficult to make Elmo without the black! So I came up with the brilliant idea of just icing the cake red and putting a printout of Elmo on top. I plan on making a mask out of the print out later. The main thing is that Isaac loved it!



Before today Isaac didn't know how to blow. It didn't take him long to learn and he then wanted us to keep lighting the candles so he could blow them out.



And the new found skill of blowing came in handy for the party blowers.



It was disappointing that of the 5 children invited only 1 turned up! Vivi's Mum is 7 months pregnant and at least she called to say she didn't feel up to it plus the girls had yucky noses. As for the others I didn't even get phone calls. I know I was keeping it small and told them it was just a quiet party and it would be cool if they could come. But no courtesy call? What is the world coming to?

But we had a ton of fun without them. Finleys sisters were there and 2 of Tobyns friends. And Isaac had a ball!!! His 3 big cousins came for dinner and he was spoilt with more In the Night Garden things and a Goofy soft toy. I think he was pretty happy!

I will leave the rest of the weekend for another post. And I want to tell you all about his time in the Neo Natal unit but that can wait as well. Enjoy these wonderful photos of my adorable 2 year old. (Mum I will try and print some off for you ;)