Love Letters, memories of London

Blog prompt: Do you have a box of old love letters stashed away somewhere? Who are they from? If they're not from a current significant other, why have you kept them? Any quotes you can share?

I do have a stash of love letters from Scott hidden away some where, I'm not sure where, but I know I kept them.

When I was in England for 9 months & Scott was still studying in Dunedin we wrote letters to each other. I used to love the sound of the mail flap shutting on the front door of the flat because it meant the mail had arrived & quite possibly a letter from Scott.

The mail flap was in the front door! It is quite different to New Zealand. We have mailboxes at the end of our driveways where the postie puts the mail. But where I was in London the postie has to walk up the pathway & put the mail through the mail slot in the front door. Really wonderful on a wet day because you don't have to get wet getting the mail & the mail doesn't get wet by sitting in a leaking mail box. I loved the sound of it as it flipped shut. The other oddity I remember from flatting in London was the milk man. The milk man drove a little 3 wheeled van & placed glass bottles of milk on the doorstep. Those little 3 wheeled vans used to have me in fits of laughter everytime I saw them. Yet again in NZ we don't get milk delivered to the doorstep, it is also delivered to the same letter box that the postie uses.

Same things happen all over the world people just do them a different way.

Scrapping & Reading

I have managed to do another two layouts this weekend. One digital & one paper one. All supplies for both layouts are from Club Scrap.

Hopefully I'll make a start into another digital layout this week.

At the moment I am reading "The Favoured Child" by Phillippa Gregory. I have read her tudor court novels & really enjoyed them so I thought I would some of her other books. I'm not far into this book but I found a quote that I really like.

"The art of happiness is in being content with what you have, .."

I have put it here so that I can go back to it & remember when those days come in & I feel less than happy.

So today I will be content to have my children arguing & fighting, becaus eat least that way I know they are alive & well & have the use of all their parts of their bodies. It is the last day of school holidays as well so that should keep me content too.

Monday Meme

Two Names You Go By:
1. Katrina
2. Kat

Two Parts of Your Heritage:
1. New Zealander (5th generation)
2. English

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. Shorts
2. T shirt

Two Things You Would Want in a Relationship:
1. Honesty
2. Sense of humour

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies:
1. Scrapbooking
2. Reading

Two Things You Want Really Badly At The Moment:
1. The boys to be back at school
2. To go for a swim

Two pets you had/have:
1. A cat called Mo
2. A cat called Sandy

Two people you talked to today:
1. Mum
2. Scott

Two things you did last night:
1. Watched Survivor Cook Islands
2. Watched season finale of CSI Miami

Two people that live in your house:
1. Scott
2. Brent

Two things you ate today:
1. Fish
2. Coleslaw

Two people you miss:
1. My nana
2. The rapport I used to have with my dad

Two Things You’re doing tomorrow:
1. Going for a swim
2. Scrapping

Two vacations you’ve been on:
1. Gold Coast of Australia
2. Perth, Australia

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Easter

Two favorite Alcoholic beverages:
1. Wine
2. Rum & coke

Two bands you have seen live: none but solo artists
1. Cliff Richard
2. Chris Isaak

Two things you will do after you finish this survey:
1. Dinner dishes
2. Go to bed

AHA!

Blog Prompt: What has been your biggest AHA moment while blogging or journaling? What have you learned about yourself???

I don't think I have had a big Aha moment yet.

I have learned that I quite like getting my first cup of coffee in the morning & reflecting on what I did the day before & just spending 10 minutes writing in my blog. I am not a great writer but I find it relaxing to just sit & type out what is on my mind. Some of what I type never gets published & that is when it is more for theraputic reasons than anything. I have found though that I am finding things easier to "let go" of once I have them written down. Maybe that will make me be a nicer person to be around & to live with.

Oh what to wear, what to wear?

I keep getting asked everday by the boys, "what do I wear today" so I answer, if you think it is summer wear shorts & t-shirt, if you think it is cold outside wear long sleeves & trousers. The boys are quite happy to wear long sleeves & trousers, me I get into my shorts & t-shirt. It has to be summer one day soon, right? I woke up this morning the sun was shining. I just want it to go down on record that today the sun did shine, then again it might only shine for a couple of hours & disappear for the rest of the day.

Blog Prompt: You're packing for a weekend away from your family. You're going to be seeing a bunch of online friends for the first time at, oh I don't know, maybe a CHA tradeshow in California.What do you pack? What do you wear???

What to pack to California? Good question a 12 hour flight requires some careful thought, can't pack too much otherwise I get charged excess luggage, can't pack too light as there is no easy way home to pick up stuff. Although that might be a good reason to step into a Walmart. I hear some even sell scrapping supplies, I'd have to find one first. I suupose I would throw in some shorts & t-shirt (they have warm weather there don't they?), underwear, long skirt,short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt, sandles & of course the camera, battery charger, spare battery & memory cards.

What to wear? On the plane I would be wearing my jeans & a t-shirt & a warmish jersey (in case it is actually cold in California). When I meet my friends I haven't met before I would probably being wearing nothingz (got to have comfortable footwear at a tradeshow), jeans & a blue coloured shirt. Has to be blue because that's my favourite colour.

Oh to be able to meet up with my American online friends, of course most of them are from the East Coast so I really think that I should be aiming to go somewhere on the East Coast sometime in the future.

Childhood Activity

Blog prompt: Between the ages of 5 & 10 what was your favourite activity?
I really can't remember too much about what I spent my time doing at that age. Our family would go over to our bach at Church Bay a lot in the weekends. So I suppose while I was there I would just walk on the beach & see what there was swept in by the tide.

I have liked reading so maybe I spent a fair bit of time reading but then I'm not sure if we had all that many books to do so. I don't remember mum taking us to the library but the school had a library so maybe it was those books I read.

The mind grows dim on what I was like at 5 or even 10. Maybe that is why I scrapbook so that at least my boys will have a book to look at later on & say "oh yes I remember when mum & I went for bike rides around Hagley Park."

Family Doings

I had mum looking after the boys for most of last week so this week is back to the constant arguing, bickering & winding each other up scenario. I can't get over how noisey the boys are & I have to say I really am looking forward to them going back to school next Wednesday. It feels like it has been a very long 6 weeks.

This week both boys have had swimming lessons in the morning & I am pleased to say that James passed his assessment today & now moves up to a higher level. For those who understand the CCC system, James has moved from a Flounder to a Stingray. It has caused a bit of a problem though, in that I had booked him in for swimming lessons this coming term as a flounder. Unfortunately the only available time for James to swim in the stingray class is a Thursday at 3:30pm. This means that we have had the last of the Saturday morning swimming lessons & Scott will no longer be able to watch James swim. Brent seems to have had his swimming slip back over the holidays & will still remain a shark, swimming on a Monday at 4pm.

As alluded to above both boys have been having a few behaviour issues so today was the first day this week that we have managed to get back out of the house after the swimming lessons. The Buskers festival is on in town so I took the boys to have lunch with Scott & to watch some of the Buskers. We all enjoyed "Popeyed", a couple of very strong & flexible men who showed us how strong they were.

The weather here has been horrible & apart from 31 C on Monday the rest of the week has been overcast & cold. It has meant that trying to see the comet McNaught has been very difficult. Luckily Monday night was clear so Scott went off to Burnside Park & snapped a few photos of the comet.

What is coming up for the week?

Not too much until Wednesday when the boys are heading back to school. Hopefully on Thursday we might get a calendar of what the school has on for the term so that we all know where we are going & what we are doing.

Friday night we are heading away to Hamner for the weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The boys are coming with us & we have hired a 3 bedroom holiday home until Tuesday. We are going to take our togs, bikes & GPS & hopefully we can all have a nice relaxing time enjoying the hot pools & the forest.

Scrapbooking

I have been doing a bit of scrapbooking this past week. I have managed to complete 3 layouts, 2 paper & 1 digital.

This was the first one I completed in the week. I can't believe I have already scrapped some of my photos from christmas last year. To think I have nearly every other year sitting to be done but I have done last year.

Here's the digital layout. It was made using the Fanciful kit from Lauren bavin at digitalscrapbookplace.com. The cute little bird is a stamp by Rhonna Farrer. The layout design is by kanga at digitalscrapbookplace.com

This is my latest layout. Back to a paper layout, all paper & stamps from clubscrap.com. I am really pleased with how I seem to be cranking the layouts out but I imagine that once the boys go back to school it might come to a grinding halt.

I have got another digital layout in the work in process folder as well as another paper layout, so with any luck this might get completed this weekend.

The complexities of toilet paper

Blog prompt: Which camp are you in? Should the toilet paper be hung so the paper dangles over the top or under the roll?

I was going to say that really it didn't worry me but a quick check of both toilets would show that I seem to have them both with the paper coming from under the roll. I know that when the boys were little I had it that way because I found it easier to hide the end so therefore the kids weren't going to pull screeds of it & play with it. I suppose the habit must have stuck.

I do seem to have a real problem actually getting a roll started. I haven't worked out if it is a brand particular thing or not, but it can take me ages to conquer the glue that seems to stick the end down. I think I have it only to find I have gouged a hole several layers thick down into the rest of the roll. Not always pleasant later on. LOL If I haven't gouged a hole the other thing that seems to happen is that I end up with the first roll around being several layers thicker than the next & then the serrations are out of whack.

Another thing that annoys me about toilet paper (& it's not the toilet paper's fault) is that I am always the person to put the empty rolls in the rubbish. I can't understand why that has to be. I don't ever use one of the toilets so surely I was not the last person to use the end of the roll in that toilet. I can understand that the boys can't put a fresh roll on but why if you can rip it off the holder can you not then put it in the rubbish bin is absolutely beyond me. If the males in the house had their way, there would be a little row of empty toilet rolls lined up along the window sill. Maybe I should take them, pretty them up & put them back & see what the boys think!

Wednesday Meme

Blog prompt from digitalscrapbookplace.com
One (word only)
This Moment: 9:48pm tired
Your Shoes: slippers
Craving: bed
The State of Your Home: semi tidy
Annoyed By: nothing now
Noise In the Background: computer hum
Really Want To: curl up in bed & read
Thinking about: bed
Smelling: damp
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: adhesive
Don't Ever Want To: skydive
Your Eye Color: brown
The Weather: cold
Have Never Tried: snorkelling
Think Everyone Should Try: travelling
Last Vacation Destination: Wanaka
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: water
Your Bad Habit: dark chocolate
What You're Going To Do Now: tag digital kits

Inspiration

Blog Prompt: Write about what inspires you artistically.

I love nature & I find that most of what inspires me comes from nature. I love the mountains, the sea, plants, the way light hits plants in different ways, how light plays on different textures. I just love looking at things like that. Of course that means that I have to take time to stop & just look.

TIME is my word for this year & maybe I should challenge myself to once a week taking time to look & take a photo of something that just inspires me.

I know there are blogs that do that sort of thing on Friday so I think that Friday will be my day to just stop, look, smell roses if they are still out & take a photo of something that inspires me.

Singing

Do I think I can sing?

Well I used to sing better when I was at St Margaret's than today. At St Maragret's I was in the school choir, alternating between 2nd soprano & alto. We had practice every Wednesday lunch time & would sing in front of the school & school dignitaries. I think the practising kept my voice & ear in.

Now I can't seem to sing as well. I do love singing but really only in the car or in the shower or when I have the house to myself to some loud music. In places where I feel comfortable. I do sing in front of the boys & I think that showing them that I sing opens them up to singing too. They like to join me when I am singing & sometimes they just like singing themselves. James has a couple of favourite songs he likes to sing, just the easy chorusy bits, Roxanne & American Pie. I hope by singing in front of them & singing the skiddy marinkey song each night, will let them feel that music can be a part of their life.

Childhood Friends

I had few childhood friends, I think because nearly every weekend was spent out of the city at Church Bay so there was no time for the friends to come over & play. I was also very shy, more shy than I am today, & that doesn't help anyone make friends very easily.

My most memorable friend was Jacinda Perry. We went to Selwyn House school together we really became friends around form 1. At that time my parents weren't going to Church Bay so often so on weekends I would bike over to Jacinda's house & we would then bike around the Teacher's Training College. Mum let me go but I have since found out that she didn't approve of me doing that, I don't know why because we never got into trouble. We were never out to cause trouble either. We would just bike to the Training College play some tennis, sit in the shade & talk, have some lunch, play more tennis & then I'd bike home. That friendship came to an end when I went to St Maragrets & she went to a different school.

I had a band of friends at St Margaret's, starting off with Nicky Friend & Adele. They & I were outsiders, we weren't the "in" people so we stuck together. Both girls left around the end of the 4th form & that was the last I have seen of them. I then became friends with Christine Moat, Tanya Smedley, Janette Shipley & Janet Hunt. Until the 5th form most of these girls had been in a totally different class to me. We had been streamed in 3rd & 4th form & I was in the top stream. These girls were in the 2nd stream & once we got to the 5th form we were no longer streamed & actaully seeing more of each other as they were in the same classes as me. Christine & Tanya were very bright & we all helped each other with calculus, algebra & English. Chrsitine was very good at math & the sciences, Tanya was good at English. We were good friends until we left school. Since then I have only heard from Janet Hunt.

I really don't think friends have been a very important part of my life & now after seeing what a "friend" has done to my mother I am still wondering whether they should be an important part. However after saying that I do have a few cyber friends, so I wonder is that how I have friends but keep them at an arms length so that no trouble arises?

Faith

It is Martin Luther King Jr day today (in the US)

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Martin Luther King, Jr.

What do you have faith in?
I have faith in God. I believe that He will be there for me when others aren't. I believe with his help I will find strength, courage & determination when I need it.

I have faith in the fact that I am here for a reason. That reason is still not clear to me, & I guess it may never be clear to me but I was put here for a reason.

I have faith that I will never be given a burden that is too hard to carry. I will have the strength, even if it is untapped at the moment, to deal with what ever gets flung my way.

Back again

It has been a long time since I've been here. I couldn't even remember my username to get on here, it's been so long.

Christmas is over & done with & now we are into the long haul of the summer holidays. The question has to be what summer? Yesterday I thought summer had arrived, it was beautifully warm & the boys enjoyed playing in the swimming pool at the Botanic Gardens. Today it is back to that horrible easterly cloud & cool, the sun has hardly come out from behind the clouds. I think I could cope better with these long holidays if the sun would only shine so the boys could puddle about in water all they liked. They seem to really enjoy playing with water & were even keen to clean my windows the other day. I nearly took them up on the offer until I saw that they thought using the yard broom on the windows would be the way to do it! The smears they left behind were awful so I deceided that it really wasn't going to be worth it after all. Even more so when there is arguing over who gets to do what job as well.



What I have been able to do is some scrapping. I'm really pleased that I have done two layouts already this year with another 2 nearly finished ones sitting waiting for some journalling & embellishing.

This was my first layout of the year. It was a cross between an Ali Edwards idea (using 2 inch squares of patterned paper) & an idea from HGTV (making windows that open) that caused me to create this layout. These are some of the christmas cards that we received in 2005. 9 of the squares open up to show a photo from christmas of that year & some journalling.

This is a digital layout I created using Lauren Bavin's Pleasantly Pink page kit. http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_18_162&products_id=4702

I am really thrilled with this layout, one of the reasons is of course because it is pink! Thank goodness both my neices like to dress in pink or purple at the moment.

Hopefully I'll be a better blogger now that the christmas rush is over, but I always say that as well as "I'll be more prepared for christmas this year." We'll see how I go at keeping these resolutions.