BEFORE

Today I am posting photos of our kitchen. Before. Before we put in the new one. We finalised the new kitchen specs with our kitchen designer yesterday. It's so exciting. On Saturday we went and bought ALL the new appliances. We're even getting one of those monster fridges that dispenses ice and cold water. We always said we wouldn't waste the extra money on that but then we thought "how often do you replace a refrigerator?". So we did it.

I am so over our current ktichen. We inherited it when we bought our house 4 years ago. It's too frilly, too yellow, too blue and too wooden for me. The only good thing about it is that it's really big. Can't wait for the neutral colours of the new one (oh and the red glass splashback - that will be cool).

Watch this space (it might be a while but it'll be worth waiting for).

SCRAPS BUT NOT SCRAPPING

Elliot is my wee artist. At 6 he loves cutting and sticking. His favourite web site is Art Attack where he's always looking for new projects. This is the partially completed project that has consumed him after school all week. I like his stickability - that he'll write a 'plan' then spend a few days executing it. I like how it's his own work. The cutting isn't very neat. The colouring is messy. The items are sometimes hard to distinguish- is that a bird or a butterfly? But he knows exactly what everything is. It's very detailed. The clothes on the people are individually made and cut out and stick on. And he's very proud of it.

I guess Elliot's work illustrates one of my bandwagons - kid's art. As a former scrapbook store owner who has taught hundreds of kids to scrap I am passionate about kid's art being their own work. Time after time I see stuff published in scrappping magazines by a four or five year old and I just know it's not their own work. Mom has had a lot of input. Not that there's anything wrong with a mother and child project but don't pass it off as the kid's work and set expectations so high. When we taught kids we always said to the parents "Do not expect them to turn out something that you would produce. They will make this project all by themselves." And the kids were so proud. Once or twice a parent would show up at the end of a class and (with a pained look) say "Oh... is that it?" - I wanted to bawl them out. Get real. Don't expect perfection. This is what they are capable of at this age. Praise them. Teach them to love the creating aspect. Show them they are clever. That is love.


That's my bandwagon.

UPGRADED

This morning I got ready for the gym. When Elliot (6) saw me he said:

"Mum, that's a new top. It's red. You usually wear black to the gym. I like it. You've upgraded yourself!"

UPGRADED!

I like that. So here's a photo of the new upgraded me (complete with new glasses which I got last week. I picked them all by myelf. Didn't take anyone along to help like I usually would have. Just got the ones I wanted). New. Upgraded.

BUSTED!

Got this response to my last post re your favourite books:
"Easy choice for me:
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold: couldn't put it down. Love her concept of heaven.
There's no such place as far away - Richard Bach: my mother gave this to me years ago when I moved away from my home town. I've since given it to my best friend when her mother died and my husband when he was posted to East Timor. It has meanings on many different levels and still brings a tear to my eye. Fabulous illustrations too.
A year in Provence - Peter Mayle: after reading this I knew Provence was the place for me! One of the few places I have visited where my expectations where exceeded.I only got to spend a week there (and managed to visit the village the author lives in - how exciting that was!) - but one day my next visit will be much longer.
PS - Any idea who I am Mel?! :) "

OK I give up! Little sis, found my blog. You can see from her response that her life has been a little more exciting than mine. No trips to Provence for me. No big moves to another town. No postings to foreign lands for my husband (OK Tim has recently spent 6 months in Afghanistan - that is a little more adventurous than I'd wish for).

Anyway the good news is that Katrina is not the sister turing 40 (Katrina is the youngest of the 3 "Joseph girls" , she has a couple of years to go.) So my birthday album surprise is still a surprise for Janine.

Anyway Katrina is very cool. Has an awesome job as an HR manager for a global (U.S. based) company. She's a lovely aunty to my kids and one of my best friends. She and Tim got married a couple of years ago AT OUR PLACE.The actual ceremony and the reception were held at our home. So cool. Here's a photo of Katrina on her wedding day in our 'blue room' (also called the library when we feel snobby!). (So, K, no more 'Anonymous" - you're busted!)

BOOK WORM?

I adore books. My Lotto fantasy is to be let loose in a book shop and to choose 100 books. My heart is pounding at the thought (possibly even better than being let loose in a scrapping store - oops, did I say that? Wash my mouth out!).

Not quite as good but...

... go to www.whitcoulls.co.nz and enter your three favourite books before 14 June and they'll post you a vocuher for 50% off any fiction book of your choice (I want the latest Jodi Piccoult book).

Then tell me what 3 books you chose. I voted for:

Wild Swans by Jung Chang (amazing book and the only author I've ever seen get a standing ovation)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (was it because I read this in Rarotonga?)

The Transformation by Catherine Chidgey (shameless plug for a friend I admire!)

Happy reading!

HERO - MARK 2

Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions to zing up the "Hero' page. At 11pm last night I read all your comments and had a go.

Thanks for the lace suggestion, Delys. My sister is a really good dressmaker so lace and buttons were great personal additions. The sequins took a while to add but I like them. (I had acrylic nails done about 10 days ago - boy, do long nails make all that fiddly work really hard. Glueing sequins, affixing brads - it's taking me twice as long as usual!). Anyway, I filled in all the 'gaps' with a foam stamp inked with Versa Mark ink and then brushed the ink with Pearl Ex - haven't had that out of the cupboard for ages - it's fun. I think I gotcarried away with the Pearl Ex- and altogether it's a good, not great page but, hey, another page finished! Only 2 pages to go now and the album is finished (and it's still a month to the birthday!).


PS What do you make of the little slidey thing on the side of my blog. Thanks to the lovely Suz for introducing me to them and for offernig to help get it published when I got stuck!

HERO HELP!

My sister, Janine, turns 40 next month. Mum and I are making her a 12x12 ABC album. Each letter is used to describe something about her. It was a great way to use up photos from the years as we didn't want to do a chronological album.

Since Janine probably hasn't even registered that I have a blog (I did tell her once - she thinks it's weird! But then again she's the only one in the family who also doesn't scrap- figure that!) then chances are this post won't give away the secret...

Anyway...

We are nearly finished but I am stuck on the "H" for Hero page. I don't have a photo which is OK. I smacked this together in about 20mins at 10pm last night but it looks unfinished (was that because I used white as the background?). I am happy with the words. Any suggestions to bling it up/fill it up a bit more?

A NEW SCRAPBOOK

I've decided to make a scrapbook/journal of my weightloss journey. I realised that I had a number of posts on my blog that I could use. A few old fat photos and quite a few better ones. It won't be a scrapbook for public consumption but I'll share the odd page. I wanted to thank Karen who has inspired me with her writing style. Check out her blog - everything is in the first person present tense (OK we were both obviously English scholars at one stage). I'm going to use that style for my journal.

Here's a sneak peek at a page and some journaling:




"Eating well costs a little more than eating junk. I go to the supermarket or the Saturday Riverbank Market for fresh stuff 4-5 times a week. But I choose different treats. No more chocolate bars. My treats are yoghurt and mint dip, artichoke hearts, glossy magazines. I choose the magazines I hope will inspire me – Weight Watchers, Healthy Food, Slimming -the success stories in these help me realise I could be one of them. They cost more than chocolate, though."




The album is an 8x8 ring binder format. The cutest album. A Memories Tote from SEI. I got it from Karen at www.memories-revisited.co.nz It looks like a handbag.

SELF PORTRAIT TUESDAY BITES THE DUST

For a few months I've been posting pictures every Tuesday (like, EVERY Tuesday) using the challenges set by the Self Portrait Tuesday blog. As of 1 May SPT has outgrown itself and has rebranded as Self Portrait Challenge. It's not called "Tuesday" anymore so as I no longer feel any pressure to post on a certain day I have decided to stop doing it. Fun while it lasted!

The one thing SPT forced me to see was that I'm not in the picture that often. Most scrappers eventually get to recognise that. So the spinoff has been that I make my family take the camera sometimes and snap me. I'm slowly getting used to it (one day I won't look self-conscious in a photo, I promise!).

Reading Nic's blog early today I saw her plug for the Fancy Pants scrapping products. So this morning when I was at Kiwiscraps I picked up a set of the 6x6 chipboard. I got the brackets set. You get 6 6x6 sheets in a pack. So cool and only $13.95 - I thought it was really good value. Happy scrapping!