My Inner Sanctum

What Does My Name Mean?

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Hmmm, one of those quiz thingamees. Rather interesting - especially if you know me well.

You Are Smart and Curious

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life.

You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip.

People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.

You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.

You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.

You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.

You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.

You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.

You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.

You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

What Number Are You?

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:11:00 +0000

Did this for fun- scarily true in many respects. Can't believe the people I share a number with though...should I be depressed? Na!

You Are 5: The Investigator

You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker.

You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does.

Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations.

You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.

At Your Best: You are sharp, inventive, and creative. You have the skills to lead the world.

At Your Worst: You are reclusive, weird, and a bit paranoid.

Your Fixation: Greed

Your Primary Fear: Being useless or incompetent

Your Primary Desire: Being competent and needed

Other Number 5's: Bill Gates, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, and Stephen Hawking.

What Number Are You?

Devin's Drum Performance

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:47:00 +0000

At the end of 2008 Devin performed as part of a band for the end of year concert at his music school. We're all very impressed with how much his drumming has improved over the last 3 years. The video below shows his performance - the tune is the theme from Sponge Bob Square Pants. You can't see too much as I was sitting a bit far away , but the sound is pretty good.

Quick Hi

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Hi all, me here. ;)
Just popping in to say that we're still alive and not washed away. House is now growing all kinds of exciting moulds in many different colours and degrees of toxicity. Have had someone over to give an opinion on the need for drainage - looks like we'll be parting with a few grand for that. Need to wait until weather is a bit more stable and David has found a new job. Yes, for those of you who haven't heard yet, my DH has been made redundant (thanks to the general world wide down turn in the economy) and finishes up next week. We knew about this a good couple of weeks before the storm hit, so as you can imagine, having our house flooded was a bit like the proverbial "last straw" as far as I was concerned. My Nana and Mum always said "God never gives you more than you can handle", but really, did I need anything else to handle? Seriously though, at least my house is still standing and we're all here and healthy. The house thing means that at least we get to remodel a bit, repaint downstairs and maybe tweak a few things, and David having to look for a new job means that maybe he can find something with family friendly hours, that's a little closer to home. Yes, I am an eternal optimist, the glass is always half full in my world and Pollyanna's "glad game" is something I play on a regular basis. My argument is that if you didn't stay positive and look on the bright side then you'd just sit down and cry and that just makes you look and feel blah and soggy! ;)

School has seemed REALLY long this week. I think the weather and drama aren't really helping. I'm looking forward to staying up and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics at 12:08 am. I think my favourite part of any Olympics HAS to be the opening ceremony ( can you tell I far more into the performing arts than I am sport). That said, I do like gymnastics, sprints, swimming, diving, rowing and equestrian - the rest I can pretty much take or leave.

Oh, here's the layout I completed for the Scrapbook Dreams weekly challenge last week. I'm not totally happy with it as I found it quite hard. We had to make and use a tag in a layout and I don't tend to use tags on my layouts very often so found this a bit of a challenge ( which I guess is the whole point if you think about it).

Ok all, I'm off to do some other bits and bobs.
Ciao

Water stays outside NOT in the house!!

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:47:00 +0000

Those of you who are regular visitors will remember my flooded downstairs rooms in about October last year. Well, this past weekend (for those non New Zealanders) we had a similar weather bomb (read storm) and guess what...it happened again!!

As we'd had prior warning that the storm was on its way we had lifted up any important stuff (just in case) all the while thinking that it couldn't possibly happen again. We were wrong and this time it was worse! It spread much further although probably still a similar depth (about 2cm). So we started moving stuff upstairs and rang the insurance company. Apparently all they cover is getting the carpets dried they don't do anything about investigating the cause and then there's the $500 excess (which had me wondering who I'd annoyed in a past life as money is potentially going to be a bit tight in a month or twos time for reasons I'll depress you all with another day).

We rang Mum (as the other co-owner) and ran it all past her. The final decision was that we'd just rip up the carpet and get rid of it (it was disgusting underneath after last time - black mould and ALL sorts of grossness), see where the water was coming from and what we needed to do about it.

Carpet the following morning - imagine it underneath a 2 cm deep puddle in all the places you can see wet carpet.

So, David and I started lifting carpet and found the whole floor underneath just awash with water - we could float bottle caps on it and make them move! The hall and David's office weren't quite as water logged as the rumpus room and my office. Now here is where it gets interesting - David's office & the hall had nice sealed concrete floors and I was thinking ok it can't be that then (unsealed floors being one of our theories) and then we started to pull up the carpet in the rumpus room...

... we found bare, unsealed, porous concrete!! This same under floor feature was also present in my office - explained A LOT!! We decided that we'd borrow Mum's vax and suck up the water in the morning as there wasn't much we could do about it in the middle of the night. Next morning though most of the water was gone - it had all sucked back into the concrete when the water level went down over night. I can't believe we've been living on top of this and breathing in whatever lurks beneath!

We'd had LIM reports and things like that done before we moved in and have documentation to show that the council signed off on the basement remodelling when it was done (years before we bought the place). It looks as thought they just shoved carpet over it all and did a shoddy job - a DIY effort as far as we can tell.

So what do we do now? Well we'll wait for the next storm to pass (due in the next 24 hours) see if there are any further problems from that or if we can figure exactly when and how it's happening. Once that's done we'll look into what needs to be done to get the floor PROPERLY sealed, then we'll put down lino instead of carpet and maybe use rugs for warmth. We're moving my office upstairs to the spare bedroom, which we seldom use, as I have too many books and papers to get ruined what with teaching and scrapbooking.

As a final indignity for the weekend, we've had no hot water for 2 days - I desperately need a shower and had to wash my hair in cold water this morning uggh!

Just Playing

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Hi all
I've been having a play with an online tool called Smilebox. It is something I'm exploring as part of my ICT teaching, however, I managed to put a scrapbooking spin on it so thought I had to share it here.
Enjoy.
Ciao

Make a Smilebox free ecard

Weekend Update

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:30:00 +0000

Friday night I stayed up late (well into Saturday morning - 2:30 am to be precise!) to create this layout which is fast becoming one of my favourites.

It was for the weekly sketch challenge over at Scrapbook Dreams. I'd spent all day trying to decide what I was going to do for the challenge and I just couldn't find the right photo to go with the gorgeous new papers that I just HAD to use! Anyway, it's 11:55pm and I've picked up the same photo for about the gazillionth time and thought it just doesn't work, even if I make it black and white it still won't work. Then it occurred to me - sepia! So I played with the sepia colouration on my computer until I got it to a sort of pinkish tone and then I was away and racing!

My husband stumbled out of bed in search of a glass of water just as I'd finished (at 2:30am) and staring at me through bleary eyes demanded, "What on Earth are you doing?" "I just made this, isn't pretty, see..." as I thrust it towards his face. His reply, "Umm yes, it's lovely. Are you coming to bed soon? You're totally mad!"
Needless to say he did have a proper look in the morning and was suitably impressed.

Now the photo's not so great, but I received these lovely parcel full of paper goodness from Niella on Friday - I won it by correctly answering a question for a fun competition she was running over on her blog. You really must go and visit her blog if you haven't already. She is such a creative lady and her blog is full of all sorts of lovely layouts as well as other gorgeous creations.

Saturday Mum came over to help me hem some new ready made drapes and net curtains (I can't sew for peanuts) and hang them up. Or so we thought...Turns out some of them didn't quite measure what they said they did. Thank goodness my Mum can sew REALLY WELL (she used to be a clothing and home economics teacher). She came up with this cunning plan to trim a bit here, add a bit there, etc. So, instead of it taking a couple of hours in the afternoon it took us until we gave up at 11pm (I'd suggested Mum borrow some P.Js and stay over at this point) plus well into the afternoon on the Sunday to get them all reconstructed, ironed and hung up. Not helped by the cats and Mum's little dog deciding to try and sleep on the curtains while we were sewing them. They did look cute, but not at all helpful.

I told my Mum that she was the most amazing Mummy in the world (especially as she gave up most of her weekend to help me).

While Mum and I were creating window coverings, David was painting the hallway. In true David fashion he couldn't resist goofing around when I was trying to take photos of him hard at work.

Other than that we really didn't get a lot done. I did some planning for school today while watching the final of the Tudors, baked some biscuits for school lunches and constructed a crockpot of soup ingredients ready to cook away while we were out today.

First day back was fairly uneventful - I'm really tired now though. It was nice to come home to the smell of vegetable soup wafting down the stairs. I also came home to a package of Pink Paislee goodies from Scrappin Patch - Yay! Lot's of loveliness to start playing with, I can't wait! If you haven't checked out these guys yet you really need to pop over and have a look. They have a HUGE range and a lot of their stock isn't available anywhere else in NZ. Their service is fantastic too. Things are delivered quickly and the ladies are really helpful and will contact you straight away if something is out of stock so you can change your order,etc. They also have a blog and run a fortnightly sketch challenge.

Ok all I'm off to do some domestic stuff.
Ciao.

Today's Layout

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:22:00 +0000

Well, as predicted, sleep was a little tricky last night. I found that if I put my head under the covers the smell would go away, but then I would feel all hot and smothered so poked my head out to breathe and copped another nose full of paint fumes! Needless to say, I was up by 6am today despite being on holiday as it's not quite as bad in the lounge. Oh well, my hallway will look sooo pretty when it's all done. This is the worst bit as it's the enamel for the door frames, etc (old house), at least we are using acrylic for the walls so it won't be so bad. Anyway enough of my complaining, what a moany, old woman you'll think I am. ;)

I'm feeling very virtuous as straight after breakfast I made biscuits. The smell of Hokey Pokey biscuits mingled with paint was an interesting one, but the biscuits were yummy (even Blaise, the big cat, thought so - he stole one off the bench while they were cooling).

Today I completed my circle journal ready to post off as soon as the paint dries. I also created this layout with some of my favourite pictures of Devin.

He told me they're not his favourite because everyone can see that he was being "dorky" (to quote him). I told him that I liked them and he didn't have to look at them if he didn't want to. I think my 11 year old might be sliding rather quickly towards those teenage years - I can't believe he's already half way through his first year at Intermediate!

I'm having a lovely time scrapbooking at the moment. I have totally taken over the dining table (which is naughty of me really as I have a perfectly good office downstairs, but it's too cold down there!). Just check out these photos I took this morning of my creative mess!

Ok peeps I'm off to do some more scrapping, might think about doing some work for school later in the week.
Ciao.

Painting Time

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:31:00 +0000

My nose is all screwed up and my sinuses are complaining 'cause we had this clever idea of painting our hallway this weekend. It had to be done, it has been sky blue since we moved in 5.5 years ago, and, while blue might be some people's favourite colour for walls (and I hope I haven't offended anyone), it wasn't mine! I prefer neutrals for my walls and then I have rich, deep colours for my drapes and soft furnishings - but that's just me.
Anyway, this weekend we decided it was time to do it. We spent yesterday sanding and washing the walls down, followed by adding a coat of primer. David brought home paint swatches for me to look through and we settled on a rich, cream colour that he went out and got this morning.
So far all the doors, skirting boards and door frames have been done, now we just have the ceiling, scotia and actual walls to do. Once the hall is done we're thinking we'll move onto our bedroom. Ideally we'd like to work our way through the whole house, but it will depend on funds.
The down side is that I'm very sensitive to smells and chemicals as they tend to set my allegies off and make my sinuses go into over drive!! I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep too well tonight - oh well, I guess I can just stay up and scrap.
On that note I'll share my latest layout with you, I created this for the weekly challenge over at Scrapbook Dreams, it took me a while to sort out, but I'm really pleased with the final result.

Ok everyone, I'm off to watch "The Tudors".
Ciao

How Well Read Are You?

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:32:00 +0000

Well, I've seen this list on a few of the blogs I have visited now and decided I should join the crowd and show which I have read. This list is put out by The Big Read. I find it interesting in terms of what is and isn't on the list, there are books on it that I wouldn't have considered in the top 100 and others that I think should be there that aren't. Of course any "top" list will be based on opinions and survey results collected by a particular group and so is open to variation. Anyway, read through the list and join in the fun. I've read quite a few, but then again I'll read pretty much anything.

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. Well let’s see. 1)Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them."

01. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
02. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
03. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
04. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
05. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
06. The Bible
07. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
08. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
09. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwel
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (was forced upon us in 5th form)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - Love, love, love Roald Dahl.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Actually - I own most of those I've highlighted. As we were calculating the other day, I own somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 books and would love to have a room in my house that was my own, personal library.

Fiskars competiton

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:15:00 +0000

Hi there
The Oz/NZ Fiskars site is running a little competition at the moment. Just go here and leave a comment that says I am (your name) from (your location) and that Kirstin from AKLD sent you. It's that simple really.
Have fun :)

First Week of Holidays Nearly Over.

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:49:00 +0000

Well I have spent the last 2 days with a very sore shoulder, barely able to move or turn my head. Don't ask me how I did it, 'cause I don't know. I woke up yesterday with a very tight, sore shoulder muscle and no amount of massaging or heat packs seems to be making a difference. I've just swallowed pain killers and moved carefully - it seems to be starting to settle after almost 2 days, hopefully it's sorted by tomorrow. My shoulder has been unstable since the surgery I had following our accident 5 1/2 years ago and tends to go out from time to time.

Mind you, this hasn't stopped me from scrapbooking - LOL! I finished this layout today using Scrapbook Dreams June "Reminiscing" kit. The photo isn't great as I had to angle it to avoid getting the flash on the photo (raining today and awfully gloomy outside), but it gives you an idea - I'll replace it with a better photo when the weather improves.

I'm also mid way through my contribution to the circle journal currently in my possession. I have decided that I really need a heat gun as a toaster really doesn't cut it when you're trying to emboss stuff.

I also completed these 2 layouts earlier in the week. I had fun working with the circle shaped paper.

Other than scrapbooking I have been working my way through the Otherland series by Tad Williams, which I have read before and throughly enjoy. As well as that I have been blog surfing and discovering new blogs which I have added to my blogroll. My computer has also been busy keeping me in touch with my global teacher's network and all the awesome things happening in ICT and education.

Ok,I'm off to do some more creating.
Ciao

Today's Layout

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:46:00 +0000

Here is today's creation. I'm quite chuffed about it. It uses the June Reminiscing Kit from Scrapbook Dreams. If you haven't checked out Scrapbook Dreams you really should go and check it out. Shell has created a fantastic store and online forum, there's lots going on there and her kits are just gorgeous. The July kit is due out soon.

Here's the layout - it's my mum when she was little. In addition to the kit contents I used Versa Color ink - Bronze, Kaiser Rubons - Hideaway, 1 prima flower - Artful Collage and a bronze gel pen.

I'm off to watch "Finian's Rainbow" on TCM now - a movie I used to love when I was a little girl.
Ciao

Yay Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:29:00 +0000

Well school holidays have begun so I have 2 weeks to read, relax, spend time with my boys, go shopping, have coffee, plan for next term and, of course, scrap!

I'm really just zipping by with a quick post so I can share today's layout created for the weekly challenge over at Scrapbook Dreams. As per usual I haven't stuck exactly to the sketch - using it more as a starting point for inspiration.

Anyways, here is the layout. The photo is of my Mum (the one at the back) and my aunty when they were little girls. My husband thinks my Mum looks like me.

Enjoy - Ciao

I'm So Excited

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:57:00 +0000

I'm doing a happy dance right now. I entered this layout in the monthly layout challenge over at Scrapbook Dreams.

The winner was announced today and guess what? It was ME!
I'm so thrilled and excited. Shell has created a wonderful online store and forum over at Scrapbook Dreams, heaps of inspiration, fun and challenges along with a wonderful bunch of very supportive ladies. You really need to go and check it out.

I'm hosting the Scrapbook Dreams ATC swap for July with sign up closing on 10 July - the theme is "Fairy Tales". Sign up here. If you are not sure what an ATC is you can check out some of my past ones here.

Happy scrapping everyone
Ciao.

Devin's Concert Moment

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:59:00 +0000

Here's my baby in his few seconds in the spotlight during the mid year concert for the Bays Music Centre musicians yesterday. Check out the reaction from the audience at the end.

Where did half a year go?

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:49:00 +0000

Wow! I know I've had a busy time of it this year, but how did 6 months just slide away without me finding time to come and update my blog? If I have any readers left at all then I do apologise for my lack of updates. If you've all given up on me, then I most certainly understand and I guess I'll just sit here and talk to myself.

To be honest though, the last 6 months have been really intense, Devin has started Intermediate which took some time for all of us to settle in and get used to, David's been soooo busy at work that at times I felt like I barely got to see him and my work has been pretty full on with some interesting characters and the school busily preparing for our recent ERO visit. Devin has also been participating in Saturday Drums (which he has been doing for the last 2.5 years), Japanese lessons after school 2 days per week and swimming lessons after school on Wednesdays. Add to that the fact that we've hosted 2 Japanese homestays - one in Term 1 and one in Term 2, the extra bits and pieces I've had to do for school as part of my lead Maths teacher role, getting settled into yet another change of year level and classroom and I'm surprised we've found anytime to sleep or eat! Oh, and let's not forget the arrival of my brand new niece - Charlotte Emily.

My scrapbooking mojo has been sadly lacking too :( I've really only managed to do one round of ATCs which I managed to stuff up by miss counting the number required and forgetting the post off date. As for actual scrapbooking - for the last 6 months it was all I could manage to just complete my page each round for the CJ I'm participating in. I've hardly been near the Forums or had time to read and comment on the blog posts of others.

Fortunately, my mojo has returned with a vengeance and I'm now steaming ahead and full of ideas. I think I've finally got a handle on the home front and the guys are settling down into a more predictable routine too. School is certainly a little less frantic now that ERO has been and gone.

One really exciting thing for me is that my mojo returned just in time for the opening of Shell's online store Scrapbook Dreams. If you haven't done so already you really should go and check it out. Shell has done an amazing job and her monthly kits are just exquisite. I ordered one the other day and was just so impressed with what I received, everything was beautifully packaged - even the little loose bits and pieces had been placed in their own specially labelled bags. Infact the whole thing looks so beautiful I'm having a hard time bringing myself to open it all up and get creating - LOL! Take a look at these pics of the kit (the journalling stamps and Fozz felt I purchased separately but everything else is what's in the kit).

There is also a wonderful forum of very friendly, supportive ladies as well as weekly and monthly challenges to participate in.

Finally, before I go I thought I'd share with you some of the layouts and cards I have been working on. Enjoy.

New Year's Eve

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:15:00 +0000

Well this is the last post for 2007, next time I post it will be 2008!! I had a productive scrapbooking day yesterday with my sister Tracey. I got three 12x12 layouts and one 6x12 layout completed. Today I'm feeling quite stiff and sore as I spent my morning outside with Devin weeding the garden. Those that no me well will find this VERY surprising as I HATE weeding or infact gardening of any kind. However, the garden looked disgusting and I was feeling quite embarrassed about how it looked when people came to visit so I decided that if Devin and I did and hour per day for the whole week then we should get it sorted. After that I will try and nip around for 5 or ten minutes per day as a sort of maintenance and try to keep it under control. Actually, that sounds suspiciously like a resolution - I try not to make those, but that doesn't stop me revising my ways of living daily life when the opportunity arises - with me it tends to be an ongoing thing, not something I do only because it's new years. I just change my mind a lot LOL!! In anycase, I have half the front garden done and Devin and I had a lovely time interacting with each other, chatting away, etc. I think every muscle in my body is screaming in protest mind you and I have a cut on my finger from some particularly sharp grass. I spent the rest of the day working on some planning for Term 1 at school. Our New Years Eve is VERY boring. I'll just watch the Royal Variety Performance on TV and that'll be about it. David is working tomorrow in any case so will have to have an early night.
You might like to go check out my baby sister's blog here She has only just started both scrapbooking and blogging this year (thanks to a big sister who told her they were both worth doing). It would be great if you could leave her a comment about her scrapbooking and give her a bit of encouragement. I think she's doing really well, but then I'm her big sister.
Well, I'd best go and get some more bits and pieces done. Happy New Year to you all - take care.
Ciao

Layout

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:29:00 +0000

Just a quick add on to my earlier post. I spent today working on one layout - I sort of had in my mind what I thought I might want to do, but no real plan. I tend to be a play sort of a person, I keep shoving things round until it looks right. I had seven different versions of this layout before I settled on this as the final look. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, I mucked up the curve on the flower stem when I started to glue it down and couldn't lift it again without wrecking the stem and cardstock, but it'll do. I really wanted to play around with layering the floral embellishment, I think I did ok for a first go at that.

Christmas in a Nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:15:00 +0000

Hi again - it's actually the 27th but I figured I'd best catch up with all the goss'. Christmas Eve at Mum's was really neat, it was a lovely family time, good food, everyone was happy and cheerful - quite relaxing. We enjoyed catching up with everyone. Fiona had created her first ever 12 x 12 layouts which she had framed for Tracey and me - very impressed, they were totally awesome. She also made us each a box of "scrapbooking vitamins" (aka Jelly beans) with a little explanation of the purpose of each colour. Tracey had been a busy lady creating all kinds of yummy fudge and lollies for everyone - much appreciated, especially as she had had 2 lots of drama with the Russian Fudge and she'd managed to burn herself too. :( From Mum I got cake forks - yay!! I keep teasing her about taking away the cake forks when she moved into her own place 'cause I really liked having the cake forks to use with my fancy plates and cake stand. She also gave me a book full of different cupcake ideas - so cool, I can't wait to try some. Thank you everyone.

The kids were both having an absolute ball. Ashley ( my niece) just cracks me up - she says the most outrageous things and sometimes sounds like a little adult. Roger was holding her up to the window so she could see some fireworks being let off down the street when she goes "Oh my god look! I can see my Daddy's car!!"LOL. She also spent the evening going "Where's my cousin?" and following Devin everywhere. She insisted I take photos of them together - I've included a couple. The first one is the pair of them lying on Mum's bed watching "The Grinch". The other one is just them chilling out on the sofa.

Devin was thrilled with all his bits and pieces, the huge box of lollies from Tracey and Steve, the "grown up" towel, face cloth, lynx deodorant and body wash from Fiona and Roger... and then the most amazing Bionicle from his Nana - his eyes just about popped out of his head. Check it out - Mum came round on Boxing Day and helped him to finish constructing it.

We took lots of photos on Christmas Eve, this one of we three girls (well we're Mum's girls anyway) is one of my favourites. We haven't had a photo together for ages.

And this is one of Fiona's cat sitting up at the table - I must've clicked the shutter at just the right moment, love him licking his lips!!

Christmas Day was just Devin, David and me at home chilling out and relaxing. We began by opening stockings, then croissants for breakfast, followed by our under the tree things all very spoilt we were. Then we had barbeque lunch followed by chill out time on the sofa watching Devin's new "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVD ( we'd seen it at the cinema but the end still makes me cry). After dinner we watched "The Notebook" on TV - that made me cry bucket loads.

I love this photo - David and Blaise both having a snooze on the sofa on Christmas Day - too cute!

I had participated in a couple of Secret Santa swaps through online forums and got some wonderful bits and pieces - thank you everyone. I just had to share this gorgeous bag that my SE secret santa made and sent to me - just stunning and soooo clever.

Boxing Day, David was at work and Mum came over to visit for a while - she brought some of her yummy Christmas Cake with her. I spent the rest of the day reading my scrapbook magazines, surfing the net and checking out blogs. Just a couple of days of total, blissful relaxation.

Well it's getting late so I'll sign off for now.
Ciao

Christmas Eve Catch Up

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:36:00 +0000

Hello there
I have bits and pieces to catch up so I shall probably jump around a bit. First of all I'll share the long awaited and much promised pages from my CJ before I forget again.

Tags and sign in page

My Page

Zeetra's Page

Tracy's Page

Rebecca's Page

Niella's Page

Rangi's Page

Shell's Page
Aren't they amazing? Thank you once again for participating and allowing me to share in your CJs. I'm already signed up for next year's - this time we have 12 ladies involved so it's going to take a while, but i think the end results are well worth it.

School has ended for the year - finished last Thursday. I always feel a bit sad saying bye to my chickadees - I've worried about them and encouraged them all year long, now I have to pass them on to their next year's teacher, hoping that I have done all I can to help them on their way towards the next step of their lives. At least I do know I have created some future scrapbookers - I was presented with 3 different paper bag albums as gifts. Here are pics of some of the albums the kids made in class this term as part of our art lessons.

I also had to say good bye to one of our wonderful associate principals - she is off to take up a well deserved position as principal at another school - I know she's going to be terrific, however, I can't help feeling sad as she has been an awesome friend and mentor over the last 5 years. She has encouraged me to give all kinds of new things a go and was in fact the person who flew all the way down to Palmerston North and then drove to Levin to meet me and interview me for my job here in Auckland. We had a lovely leaving assembly for her and I have to admit to shedding a few tears - I'm going to miss her.

Actually, it must have been the day for tears. As soon as school finished at 1 pm on Thursday I jumped into my car and drove to Devin's school where his Year 6 graduation ceremony was already in full swing. I missed his performance bit - David videoed as much as he could for me, but I was there in time to see him get his graduation certificate. Then the kids sang this song about graduating and moving on with their lives, etc, etc - I think 'cause my defences were already down I was affected by seeing my baby up there looking so grown up and proud - plus I have a bad habit of really paying attention to song lyrics - anyway, before I knew it I was getting misty eyed along with several other mothers - quite silly of me really - but I tend to be the sentimental type as those who know me well will confirm. The kids were given 2 helium filled balloons each - got some great pics on David's camera which I will download as soon as I can. They then went outside and, watched by the whole school, released one of their balloons into the wide blue yonder (the environmentalist side of me was having to be squashed by the sentimentalist side as it kept muttering about all that rubber... in the end I think the sentimentalist slapped her and told her to get over herself for 5 minutes - LOL!). Devin and his friend had trouble getting theirs released and I had to chuckle as Devin's balloon followed along far behind the crowd being its own individual little self - so like my young man.
Here are a couple of photos we took of Devin before school - the last day of primary school photos - I might have to create a layout with one of the ones I took on Thursday and one from when he started school at 5.

It was my 36th birthday last Wednesday and, despite the fact I had to go to work, I had a lovely day. David got up early and got my breakfast organised for me. He came to school and at lunch with me ( Subway - yum!) and then helped me to move all my gear to my new classroom. When I got home that afternoon he and Devin had bought me a birthday cheescake from the Cheesecake Factory - a nice baked one all full of berries. We had this for dinner and I think I laughed my self silly as he and Devin presented it to me singing the most hysterical version of "Happy Birthday" that I have ever heard. Mum came over on her way home from work and had a cuppa and gave me my pressies. I have a copy of Gordon Ramsey's autobiography - he's my favourite TV chef - and this beautiful earring holder lady - I think it's the nicest one I've ever seen, very art deco 1920s/30s I reckon...what do you think? i have included a couple of close ups so you can see the detailing.

I was throughly spoilt - received some lovely scrapbooking mail from ladies on different forums - thank you everyone. My sister Fiona and her husband gave me some scrapbooking stuff, a mini Bratz doll and a little Japanese style doll that I had seen in KeriKeri. Thank you guys. Tracey, Steve and Ashley also gave me some lovely scrapbooking stuff. From Devin and David I got a new toy...Nintendo DS with a game called Brain Training - just my kind of thing, lots of puzzles and challenges. I got heaps of other things as well and like I said - totally spoilt - so a squillion thank yous everyone. Actually looking at this list you can tell I haven't grown up much, dolls and games... well I'm a big kid as many of you know. I know the kids I teach think it's really funny that I have dolls and toys.

Well, I have sooooooo much more I could talk about, however, as we have our family get together tonight I guess I had better go and get organised - especially as it is 11am and I'm still sitting on the sofa in my PJs!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a lovely time with your family and friends.
God Bless.
Ciao.

Feeling sunnier...

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:20:00 +0000

One nice thing about my personality ( if I do say so myself) is that I am never down for long. Having grinched and grumped my way through Monday, I can now report a far more cheerful demeanour, my leg's all better, the weather is improving and the end of the year (and my birthday AND Christmas) is nigh.
I still have photos to take - now awaiting a battery recharge as they're totally flat, so I hope the weather holds. I have spent half of today with my next year's team planning our units for Term One. I always love this part of the process, full of anticipation and creativity.
Devin still has his cold, but seems to be chugging along. He's off with his class to guess the weight of a giant chocolate Santa tomorrow lunchtime, all very exciting. I'm rather proud of him as he will be receiving 2 certificates in assembly on Friday - one for Leadership and the other one for Relationships - he has come a long way in the last couple of years.
Tomorrow I intend to start stripping the walls in my classroom - this always makes the room feel empty and without the nice homey personality it has had all year. I'm sure parents silently wish we wouldn't send so much paper home - LOL! Me, I usually keep a few of Devin's more impressive pieces, photograph any others that we think are great and then he usually decides to pop the rest out with the recycling. I keep all his exercise books though, especially the ones with his stories in.
One interesting thought to leave you all with... Why is it that people forget how to drive/ follow the road rules in December? The number of near misses and crazy driving behaviour I've seen over the last few days is staggering. Having nearly died in a crash myself 5 years ago now, I have to say that it is somewhere you DO NOT want to go! Just stick to the speed limit, take it easy and don't stress - you'll get there eventually.
Ok all, I'm off to do a bit more school stuff.
Ciao

Sigh!!!

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:11:00 +0000

I think today might have been one of those days when I should have stayed tucked up under the covers in bed! Devin woke up grumpy and irritable as he isn't really over the cold he's had all weekend. Of course his mean mother made him go to school as she has 65 million things to do and now only 7 and a half school days to do them in ( this morning it was 8 and a half, but you get what I mean). I spent all day worrying about him and feeling like a totally grotty mother. When I picked him up at 3:30 he was quite cheery although still a little glassy eyed.
At school I tried to move a book case out of the way of a cupboard by giving it a nudge with the toe of my shoe. The book case was full of books and no sooner did I start the nudging, then I felt this ripping, pulling sensation up the back of my thigh and yes... I have totally pulled a muscle! I have spent the rest of the day hobbling around - including duty at lunchtime.
I have had a classroom drama to deal with that has interrupted the flow of my classroom programme and meant I only had 5 minutes to eat my lunch before going on duty. I also got some news today that is neat but depressing at the same time.
I ran out of antihistamine tablets yesterday and so I have spent all day sniffing and sneezing - the itching in my nose is driving me mad!! The day isn't over yet, but since getting home it has been relatively calm and sane - I dropped a coffee cup, but it didn't break. I'm hoping that the rest of the evening goes just as smoothly. A lot of woes today - I am definitely getting tired and in need of a holiday.
I know I have promised photos, but the weather here is just lousy at the moment, I'm waiting for a fine day as I prefer to use natural light rather then a flash - they will be here soon...I promise!!

It's almost Christmas...

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:23:00 +0000

Well I seem to be averaging one post per month at the moment. I really must get my life sorted to make more time for me. It's almost Christmas, which means it's almost my birthday, which means that school is almost over for another year. I always find the end of the year a bit bitter sweet, on one hand I am saying bye to the wee cherubs I have spent the year teaching - always worrying about have I taught them enough, done everything I could for them, etc etc. At the same time there is the anticipation of meeting a new bunch of smiling faces who are to become my new class for the following year. We usually get to meet our new class a few days before school finishes so they can get to know us, ask any questions that they might have, etc.
So, what's been keeping me from blogland? Well reports is a big one, this is always a major undertaking at this time of the year - very time consuming, especially as you still have to plan, teach, look after your own family and complete the myriad of other tasks that are part of a busy life.
A couple of weeks ago we went up to Kerikeri to visit Fiona and Roger and check out their new home. Mum, Devin and I popped up for the weekend and had a fantastic time. One highlight was going to the Stone Store and going through the old visitors books. There on the 15 May 1971 were Mum and Dad's signatures - I got a real thrill out of this little piece of evidence that they were there (I guess I was too as Mum was pregnant with me at the time). It was especially poignant as Dad died 3 years ago and I have to say, every time I find anything with his writing on creates a real sense of connection for me. For some reason Dad not being here anymore has affected me more this year than it has on the previous two - why? I don't know - I could analyse it I suppose but it's not a space I'm ready to go yet. Devin was really cute and said he would fill out the visitors book now then and Fiona took this neat photo of him doing what his grandparents had done 36 years ago.

We convinced Mum to sign the visitors book too. I have to say though - the worst thing with finding the signatures was that the old books were in no particular order and weren't clearly labelled - I felt like we went through every book on the shelf (going right back to the 1950s) before we found the one we were looking for. We had so much fun we went to check out Rainbow Falls which I hadn't seen before. We went to the chocolate factory - Devin and I could have gone mad buying things there - on a plus side, they did give out free samples - yum. On the Sunday morning we went to the Farmer's Market in town all sorts of neat things on sale there. I got radishes, strawberries and strawberry conserve. We finished off by having a wander round the shops, followed by lunch at a local garden centre - the Crab Flan was absolutely devine!! Check out some of the pictures below. The train is from Kawakawa (which is where my dad was born) it happened to be running down the main street as we drove through - I've not seen it in operation before - the train tracks quite literally run down the middle of the main street.

I have been participating in a large number of swaps as well including the final page of the CJ - which I still need to photograph so I can post pictures here. Then there is the Music ATC swap which I have to show you and I'm just waiting for my ATC cards back from the last swap - Christmas was the theme. I also participated in a Christmas Card swap - this is what I made for my contribution.

I need to take photos of the ones I got back so I can post them here.

Mum asked me to create a layout for my aunty's birthday using photos of their parents when they were younger. The photo isn't great as I took it at night time but I absolutely loved the final result and yet again wished I wasn't parting with my creation. However, my aunt was apparently blown away by it, so I am really happy that I was able to create this little piece of joy for another person. Devin thought the picture of my grandmother was me - LOL! Although mum often says I look like her mother - I only have photos to go by as she died when my mum was still a teenager.

Last weekend Devin had his end of year concert for drums. This is always an interesting experience as I have quite an ear for music and am not a huge fan of off notes - they tend to make me flinch, certain instruments - like the violin and oboe were a little painful to sit through at times - but the kids were all fantastic and they have to start somewhere. What really annoyed me was the people who got up and walked out as soon as their kid(s) had finished performing. Apart from the fact that it disturbed the audience and the instrumentalists, it meant that by the time the last groups had their turn to play they only had a small audience - I thought this was very rude and very unfair. Devin had been in the third group to play and we sat there for the whole hour and a half even though his item was over within the first 20 minutes - I was quite disgusted and went on about it for hours. I guess my mother just brought me up properly. Anyway, here's a picture of my baby taking his turn on the drums - doesn't he look super cool.

I went out and bought a new Christmas tree the other day - a white one - just to be totally arty and out there. I really want to have red decorations for it and lights with a white cord, not a green cord. However, as finances are at a premium at the moment this is going to have to wait until next year. At the moment I've just chucked on some lights and few decorations as I wanted to atleast have a tree up. I think next year I shall take a leaf out of Ali Edwards book and start my Christmas preparations in September. Actually speaking of Ali Edwards, you really need to check out her blog, as well as some of the others in my side bar - Keisha's is one, Leah Fung is another, Donna has some cool tree decorations - all these wonderful ladies have some amazing Christmas ideas on their blogs.

Well, with school almost over for the year I am hoping to get some time to finally do some things for me. As I mentioned earlier, all my creating lately seems to have been for other people and I have so much I want to do for myself. I also have books to read and things to do around the house, as well as getting some much needed rest - roll on holidays. Well this has been a really looooonnnnngggg post so I guess I should go. Will try and remeber to take those photos tomorrow and get them posted. Take care all.
Ciao

noreply@blogger.com (keamac) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:27:00 +0000

I know I'm a long time between posts, but it is the silly season for me at the moment (in other words it's report writing time). It seriously takes a long time to sum up a years learning for 29 children in a way that is useful, informative and encouraging. In between all that I still have to plan each day, teach, attend meetings and be a parent to my own child, as well as working with my honey to keep our home and our relationship ticking over nicely. Somewhere in all this I try to squeeze in time for scrapbooking and blogging. I'm managing to keep up with my Twitters as they are like micro posts (if you haven't tried Twitter yet you should look into it - seriously fun - well I think so anyway). I keep missing out on challenges and things that I would dearly love to participate in as there are only so many hours in the day and even though I don't need a lot of sleep, I do need some and I just run out of hours and mojo. My garden looks like a disaster zone ( those of you who know me well will know that while I love to look at gorgeous gardens, I am not a gardener and find it very challenging to keep a garden maintained at the best of times). Mum says she wants to come over and do the gardens for me - which is cool, but it makes me feel really dreadful and guilty as she co-owns our house with us and we hers (it's complicated but it works and meant we were able to own our own home) and I know she is worried that the gardens being unmaintained (is that a word?) is going to devalue the property! The house itself is fine, I just can't find the time to get on top of the garden and poor old David is absolutely buggered due to the demands of his new job.
Anyway, that's my catalogue of wowes... I have an exciting weekend of report writing ahead of me. I also have to try and fit in the final part of a CJ ready to send to Zeetra and finish Christmas Cards for a swap I'm doing through SBO. My only break is going to be getting up early to take Devin to drums!!
I've been doing ATC cards and paper bag albums with my class - the pics are of their ATCs - too gorgeous! I showed them the CJ I'm working on and one enterprising young chap arrived at school with hi own CJ ready to go. He's signed up half the class and they all grabbed handfuls of my paperbags to take home and create their own CJs to swap around for the rest of the term. It looks like I might have created a pile of future scrapbookers - LOL!

My baby sister Fiona and her hubby have just moved to live in the beautiful Bay of Islands and are now living in Kerikeri. I get the feeling that I'm going to be spending a lot of time up north as I miss my baby sis. We're hoping to get our own CJs and ATC cards going between us - that is Fiona,Tracey( our other sister) and me. Plus you ARE going to get a blog aren't you Fiona?? Wink Wink. We had a farewell dinner/halloween party at Mum's just before they went. Check out the pics below.

Devin - yes that's my baby!

- and this is my husband!!

My niece Ashley - the princess

Ashley & me

Fiona and Tassy the cat.

I have heaps more pics too and some great ideas planned for layouts...when I have the time. Anyways, Devin wants me to come and check out his "raptor" on World of War Craft - it's a good thing I'm a techno geek - I didn't bat an eyelid at that request. I'll post this for now so you have something to be going on with and will return later to add bits and do links, etc.

BTW I've noticed that when I write the way I talk I have a lot of run on sentences - not a good look for a teacher - but this is my space so the world will have to cope.

Ciao