Craaaaazy

It's New Years Eve!!

here in New Zealand - last day of 2011.  I will not be sorry to see the back of this year - there have been highs but the last quarter of it definitely had too many lows for my liking.

It is our second to last day here in Christchurch :-( - we fly up to Auckland tomorrow and then have a couple of days with friends before flying back to the USA.

We have had a wonderful time here - it never seems long enough though!   Lots of fun day trips, meals out, and visits to favourite shops and haunts.  We even caught up for breakfast with an old workmate of Mike's who now lives in Australia and who was home with his parents here in Christchurch for Christmas.

The time always seems to fly past - and here we are at the end of our 10 days.   The weather has been wonderful - I am brown as a berry!  No doubt that will disappear after a few days back in winterland - UGH!

So here is 2012 - hopefully it is a bright and happy year for us all.

Merry Christmas to you all!

hope you all have a wonderful day and Santa brings all that you wanted.

We had a wonderful day - 17 of us here for lunch.   First time we have all been together on Christmas Day in over 15 years - it is hard when we live in different countries.  

Boxing Day here now - and we will be going to some sales so the kids can spend their gift cards and money.

Loving the summer weather - long days and lots of sunshine.   Already getting very brown just by being out and about.

Having lunch at my brothers girlfriends restaurant today and the rest of the week we have picnics planned and a day in Hanmer Springs!

 

off into the wild blue yonder

tonight!

The kids left yesterday and they are now in NZ - no doubt scoffing their little hearts out!

I will be posting here and there - so the next time you hear from me - it will be from downunder!

One more sleep!!

until the kids fly to New Zealand.   They go tomorrow night and then Mike and I are the day after.

 

Are we organised.... ummm that would be a big

N O

 

back to organising!!

**WW** oops I am late with the Winner!

I did come into the office yesterday - however my heater is broken and they are not fixing it until today.   Afte about 10 minutes of freezing to death - I gave up and went home again!    Sorry for the delay!!   But here we are with the winner of the Green Goody Bag from the retreat.  

 

We had a FAB time up there - tucked up cosy and warm in our scrapping room - who cares what the weather was doing outside.    It was even kind enough on Sunday to stop raining for a bit - so we could all get our scrappy stuff back into the cars without getting anything wet!   

The fall colours were spectacular!

However - let's roll the RIG and see what it throws up!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

17	

Timestamp: 2011-11-22 19:45:14 UTC

 

Well it looks like being late to comment paid off this time - with the last commenter being the winner!

Robin W. said...

Glad you're feeling better. Thanks for the chance to win.

Reply November 18, 2011 at 07:07 AM

Well done Robin - email me and I will get this out to you and hopefully it will arrive before the Thanksgiving break - or at the very least during it.

Have a FAB Thanksgiving all who are celebrating.  Please note the store will be closed Wed, Thu, Fri and Sunday.

However we are open for

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

on November 26th from 9-6.  

PLUS all that day the whole shop is on sale

30% off every single thing!

...take a break from the madness and
have coffee and cake while you shop

 

28 years ago today

I married this man.

 

Best

day

of

my

life.

 

My anniversary present to him was tickets to NZ - and tickets to 4 of the Rugby World cup games.   Today he *finally* arrives home from New Zealand after 3 weeks away  and I will see him very soon.   Can't wait!

 

I love you Mike!

**Wednesday Winners** - is back with a boo and a bang!

hi everyone - yes the bloggity blog has been sadly lacking in content the past few weeks.   It has been a hard couple of weeks - going home to NZ for such a short time for the funeral of my Aunt Shirl.   Lovely to see all my family - but not the greatest reason in the world.   All made harder by the fact Mike is still in NZ and does not come back until this weekend.   It has really been a long, sad, lonely 3 weeks.

But back on board now with the Wednesday Winner.   And to make up for the lack of posts and prizes - I am giving away SIX yes you read that right 6 prizes.

 

With Halloween just around the corner - what better time than to giveaway 6 of these adorable Matilda 6x6 paper pads from Cosmo Cricket.   All ready to accent layouts, or make some cards or embellishments with.   

They would also make a wonderful mat for your spooky or cute photos!

So comment away me hearties.

RIP - my Aunt Shirley - 12 April 1924 - 28 September 2011

I received some very sad news this morning - that my Aunt and Godmother Shirl had died at 3am NZ time.   Shirl was really more like a grandmother than just an aunt - and like a great grandmother to my kids.   We will miss her so much.

As we say in NZ - she had a good run at 87 years old - but it still feels a little surreal and a little raw.   I have always loved this pic of Shirl and Harry - taken the year we actually left NZ to move to the US.   Harry died in 2005.   They had just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary a few months prior to that.    I am glad they are back together again.

Here is a lovely pic of them on their wedding day.

 

Shirley had a stroke on Friday - and things went downhill quickly from there.   I am just glad she did not suffer too much and that it was not drawn out for her.

Does not make it any easier for us - knowing she is gone, especially for my Mum - as Shirl was her only surviving family member.

I am leaving for New Zealand tomorrow, the funeral is Monday.  

At this stage, I should be back in the US around 7 October.

The store will be closed while I am gone, and I am sure you all understand there will not be a Wednesday Winner this week.

 

 

 

 

**WW** The winner of the 2 mini albums up for grabs is.....

I am so late with this post - which means this week's WW will be late going up too.    Sadly said goodbye to my parents last night - as they flew back to New Zealand - in fact they have only JUST landed in Christchurch - yes it is a long flight (plus the one to ChCh).   Add to that - last night I started getting a very sore throat and sure enough today I have woken up with a horrible stuffy head cold. 

As today has progressed I have felt steadily worse - and as soon as an expected delivery arrives I am off home to crawl into bed.    But enough moaning from me.   Let's find out who won the two album kits from LYB!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

5	

Timestamp: 2011-08-31 21:09:58 UTC

 

 

Sallie said...

I'd love to win these!

Reply August 24, 2011 at 01:29 PM

Well done Sallie!   Email me with your address and I will send these out to you.   Hope you have fun with them and send a pic of them when you are done!

 

As soon as I feel little better you will see lots more posts from me with info about upcoming classes and crops - as well as some photos from Creative Escape.   It was fab!

 

Running away for a brief break

with Mike and my parents.   

We are off to

for 3 days and 2 nights.

 

I think there will be a lot of this going on - along with maybe a spa treatment - and checking out some of the fun shops and yummy restaurants in the area.

Should be lots of fun!