But why?

The Dark Side is Sooo tempting

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Ok so digital isn't really the 'dark side' but I have always professed to be a paper girl and I can't imagine that I would ever go completely digital- (although the reduction in bulk for the raw materials is attractive) I must say I just completed in about 2.5 hours what can sometimes take me days (I did use a couple of quick pages and a template)... and there's no mess and the pages look quite style-y....







and here are my latest paper efforts.... it really gets you thinking you know

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Inspired by Starbucks

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I had this plan to make a digital page inspired by this poster on the wall at Westgate Starbucks....


And so I did....


I had to make that frame thingee I'm pretty pleased with the stuff I figured out. I sure have learned my something new for today!

It's taken me the better part of the morning except the 2 hours where Will was up.

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Guest Blog: Hello my name is Will

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"So mummy's got a list huh? Well lets just have a look at that"...... "Hmmmmmm there's no Will on that list! We'll see about that then won't we! Sleep? Sleep? what sleep? I'm not asleep. Oh good you're here mum. Hold me, feed me, play with me, look I'm cute, charming, crying, cuddly, cosy, and sleepy"...."Hey mummy I never sleep in your arms anymore or go all soft and cuddly, perhaps if i make you think I am sick you'll hold me all day long. Oh good yes that works. Well my work here is done. Now where's that list again? I wanna eat it!"

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Sweet

It's 9:21am...

• Les' birthday was pulled off successfully... nothing over the top; good food, good company, flowers, silly stuff, and nice pressies.
  
• We rocked it to school this morning!
• Dinner (Lamb Ragout) is s-l-o-w cooking
• The (cranky) baby is asleep
  
• The dishwasher is washing
• The fire is lit
• The wood is chopped
  
• The washing is loaded onto the drying rack in front of the aforementioned fire
• I have a list for today (yay direction)
  
• I know what my ATC (artist trading card is going to look like)
• There's a sweet new babe in the world: Welcome Lucy Margaret Congrats Jasmine, Warwick, Molly and Grace!
  
• I'm about to write a long overdue email to a good friend.
• A blog post almost in the bag.
  
• I'm ready to go!

Picture This: Me driving and rockin' it out side to side a bit of steering wheel and knee drums.
Will- facing backwards but I know he's smiling and jigglin' and Kieran and Merenia seat dancin' up a storm in the back... stereo up loud so they all look and stare as we drive in the school driveway.... hooligans rockin' it too school!

Here's what we're listing too....

Kieran's Fave; Jack Johnson Mudfootbal from Brushfire Fairytales...



Merenia' Favourite; Jack Johnson Bubble Toes from Brushfire Fairytales...



Au Revior- have a good one!

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Speaks for itself...

Celebrating Children's Book week Part 6/part 1

This is the second to last post of the book week ones I planned. I should do a Non-fiction Book post but actually non fiction is my least favourite and I'm writing it, so tough!

This post is onto big kids books.... and I was going to go all Kiwi but then I just couldn't...

Margaret Mahy (and here)- I love, love, love Memory, The Changeover, The Tricksters, The Haunting and The Catalogue of the Universe, so much so that I am going to go grab them and start reading as soon as I have finished this post.... and then I can tell you why I have such fond memories! No seriously, finding novels as a 9+ year old was always a hit or miss affair... trust me I know because seriously I started at A and went right through to Z in the Dunedin Public Library and the good authors that I found number less than 20 I'd say. That's what make Margaret Mahy gold, I'd be willing to bet that you could pick up any one of her books and find it to be a genuinely well written and interesting story. My favourite back then would have been The Changeover because there was romance. But now I'd say Memory because it deals with stuff that you don't normally come across in kids books like old age and it's just such a good story. In the process of writing this I can see Mahy has written a bunch more 'senior fiction' that I should go read, you should to and tell me what you like the best. Library, Wheelers here I come! Parents notes; There's some maturity required to read these books, they were fine for me at 10 but I'd say that Kieran is a few years off of most of them and I expect I'd get Merenia to wait till she was at least 12/13.



Roald Dahl. I really shouldn't have to say anything about Roald Dahl and I'm not going to say much at all. If you have never heard of him which rock did you just crawl from?? And if you've never read him then call CYPS on your parents, give yourself a swift kick and get on to it. Read; George's Marvelous Medicine, The Twits, Charlie And the Chocolate Factory, The Bfg, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda then go find some more and read them too! Do it I tell ya... any age... it doesn't matter, there are no limits! 7 year olds...read it aloud there's nothing like a good chapter book to dig into night after night. The only bad thing about Dahl is that he already died so there's nothing more coming from him. What are you waiting for...

Maurice Gee.

My all time favourite New Zealand author and that is a bold statement coming from someone who has trouble making her mind up. I just learned he shares his birthday with Merenia. Favourite books; The Halfmen of O, The Priests of Ferris, and Motherstone. Also love; Under the Mountain, The Fire Raiser and The World around the Corner. Am about to read Salt (I'll let you know). Things to know; The Champion, The Fire Raiser and Under The Mountain were all made into TV programmes back in the 80's and Under The Mountain has just been released on DVD... kind of excited about that!
Other things to know Gee also write adults fiction so watch what you get for your kiddos. I have very vivid memories of reading the 'O' books when I was younger and I was listening to New Order at the time it was a instrumental pieces and the main character (a girl heroine gotta love that!) was walking across the desert with a blood cat as company... seriously awesome pictures in my head... I have a crap memory from my teen years and I think it's cause I was in books... because I can remember all the pictures from my head in brilliant colour.


Daniel Manus Pinkwater. I can't believe that I had to read all the way to 'P' in the DPL to find this guy... oh my goodness he's completely weird and I absolutely LOVE his books. Borgel (aka Uncle Borgle) would have to be my favourite. I also loved Lizard Music and The Last Guru. The latter had a character called Gypsy... how often does that happen?... not that often I tell ya! I sent him a letter I loved him so and I got the coolest postcard back....


I kept it for so long... I didn't throw it away either so I guess it must now be lost. If you go look at some of the titles he has on Amazon you'll get a feel for the funky good weirdness of his writing. Favourite Pinkwater Moment; Borgel is telling Melvin the story of his childhood in 'the old country'.... not a direct quote but something like this...
"We were so poor that we had a peach pit for a pet we called it Lance and we loved that peach pit but then we had to sell it to the kids next door and we would walk past and see them playing with our Peach pit. When you were 18 it was time to leave home and go in search of your fortune. I was lucky because I soon found a skunk that had been squashed by a plow. I traded the Skunk for a pickle, I traded the pickle for a tissue and I traded the tissue for a Hat that I could wear on Thursdays. You see it was too expensive to own a hat that you could wear everyday so you took turns with other to wear the hat. Eventually I made so many good trades I had a hat all of my very own" Melvin interupts "You're making this up aren't you?" Borgel replies: "Yeah why? You're enjoying it aren't you?"
Oh I don't know maybe you have to be there... it's just so quirky I love it!
Start young with Pinkwater he's great and then they books can be read again and again and new stuff get picked up... He's american so you won't see too many of his books in NZ so try your library and if you get addicted do a search on Alibris and import your own!


This has got very long and I still have 3 more authors for this post so I am splitting it in two and will hopefully get to the other half sooner rather than later!

Before I go a note about Harry Potter... I've never read them... no not a one. In fact although I have purchased all of them and we have them all in our house I haven't even read a sentence. So here's my personal disclaimer... Harry Potter might be great, I just don't know.

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Diffusing?

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If you live with the motto "The flash is my enemy, except on sunny days" as I do then you'll like this... I saw it online somewhere and if I could remember where I'd give credit where credit is due but my brain is like a sieve.

So here it is the super technical, mega styly homemade film canister diffuser....

As you can see I got on old white film canister from my handy dandy photo processing shop and cut a slit/hole down one side and glued the lid on. Now it easily slips on and off my flash!

So what does it do you say? Well it diffuses the flash light of course. I never ever, never ever... well hardly ever take a photo inside or at night with the flash because you end of with some scary bright horror show photos. Most of the time this is not an issue but if the thing you want to take a photo of is a wriggly wiggly baby, or if you want to take a photo inside at night and have more natural lighting then this can be a problem as your photo may be blurry or have that yellowy cast.

Unfortunately my demo photos aren't the best subject but you get the idea..... This is flash on Ruby looks white and the carpet looks a lot brighter than in real life (if only!!)...

And here's the picture with the diffuser on the flash, Ruby is her warmer self and the carpet is starting to look as dirty as it actually is! Much nicer...

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Will at 6 months

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Better late than never and really this post is more for me and the scrapbooks than anything else...

At the ripe old age of 6 months...

Will weighs... 7.16kg
Will measures... 66.5cm


Will can....

• Roll pretty much where ever he wants
• Smile

• Laugh
• Blow raspberries
• Babble
• Hold a toy
• Pass an object from hand to hand
• Put things in his mouth
  
• Support himself on his feet for a short time
• Support his upper body on his arms
• Use his tummy muscles to try and sit up from lying prone (I can't do that!)
• Sleep through the noise of room 9 but not Mum taking off her jeans and getting into bed in serious stealth mode!!!
  

Will understands and reacts to....

• 'Where's the baby?' (in the mirror)
  
• 'Where's Mummy?' (in the mirror)
• 'Where's the puss/Ruby?'
• The buzzy bee song
• 'Where's Will? Peek-a, peek-a, peek-a BOO!' Pulls sheet off his face etc.
• His own name.
• 'Ready steady spaghetti'- Pulls up on my fingers from lying on change table.
• 'Boobies!'
• '1-2-3'- turns to face the speaker on three as he knows something going to happen
• 'Uh-oh!' smiles and turns as he knows tickling is coming

Will loves...

• breastmilk
  
• his mummy
• his brother

• his dad

• the cat
• his sister
• reading especially Maisy and nursery rhymes and our Family book
  
• music and dancing
• being held and carried
• the screensaver on the computer

• Mums animal noises for the screensaver
• making noise
• walking outside
• wet cloths
• being tickled, jiggled and turned upside down
• watching out the window

• watching mum cook for a short time
  
• other people in small doses
• sucking on Mum's Starbucks cup and drink bottles

• playing Ninja baby
• his bunny toy from David and Stacy
  
• baths and even more so showers
• sitting up in his toy basket

• lying on his change table especially Nappy off.
  
• pulling hair
• balls, especially his Gymbaroo Ball

• Paper... envelopes are especially good
  
• sucking on stuff
• when we put his toes in his mouth
  
• Action songs especially horsey ones and gymbaroo exercises and some of the massages
• Gliders, No really he does!
  
• Scrapbooking!! Nah I'm just kidding. Damn it.
  

Will tolerates.... (read: kind of dislikes actually)

• Driving in the car
• Sleeping in his own bed
• Lying on the floor
• TV (not that he watches much)
• Sitting with mum at the computer
• The full on attention of the kids in Merenia's class
• Having to go where the big kids go

• Supermarket shopping
• Cuddles
  
• A certain someone's annoying high pitched voice (We all barely tolerate that)

Will gets called...

• Will
• Willy
• Willy-Boy
  
• Wills-y
  
• Willsta
• Wilbur
• Willamena
• Willamia Jebidiah
  
• W
• Dub
• Dubby
• LoveyDub
• Dubya
• Bubba
• Bubbaluba
• McFly
• Ninja Baby
  

Will has tried...

• breastmilk- Yum
  
• ranitidine- Yuk
  
• losec- Yuk
  
• pear (with his losec)- yeah whatever
  

Will has lots of cool friends especially...

• Miss Rae
• Granny Rae

• Room 20 at Torbay school.
• Room 9 and 16 at Whenuapai school
• Ms Corsan
• Mrs Crawford
• Any kid from Mum's G.a.T class and a bunch of other hangers on
• Trae and the bigger Carringtons

Will....

• Still wakes 2-5 times a night
• Has a sleep every 1.5 -2 hrs
• Goes down for the night between 6 and 7pm
• Wakes between 6:30 and 7:30am sometimes as late as 8am :-)
• Get's cranky if he's on the floor too long
• Is starting to cry when mummy leaves the room
• Still pukes a little each day
• Takes Losec 10 2x daily
• Still has undetermined eye colour
• Has a sleeping bald patch
• Is developing a curl on the top of his head
• Looks most handsome in orange and khaki green
• Flails his hand around when he's sleepy
• Looks super cute naked

• Super super cute wet and naked post shower
• Is starting to get chubby bits
• Still has a dummy
  
• Has a lovely shaped head
• Has clammy feet

And most likely a bunch of other stuff that my family will remind me about when they read this...

Seven Part 2

Ok, so maybe it didn't take me so long to get this done as I thought... but then my plans have changed completely so who knows what might have been!

I tell you it's quite a process choosing pictures for these things... some days are obvious, some days it's hard to choose the least crappy and some days there are 5 stunners, or more than photo which include important things that I want represented like eating food, K, M, or a new person on the scene.

I have to tell you a story. Despite taking the camera to the airport to capture the Daddy-baby reunion I didn't and it wasn't till about 10pm that night when I realised I hadn't taken any photos at all. So I set the camera up and put it on the tripod and managed to sneak it into the bedroom without waking Les or Will. I had it set so it would have a REALLY slow shutter speed because it was pitch black in there... aimed it at where I thought the baby was and pressed the button. The servos started for the autofocus and Will woke up! I quickly got him and the tripod and camera out of the room without waking Les who was pretty knackered after his flight. I proceeded to give Will a drink in the lounge and took some (crap) photos with the remote. What a bloody rigmarole but at least I got the photos and didn't miss the day. So I can tell you when I started sorting the months photos the other day and labelling them etc I was absolutely gutted when I realised I missed the 1st of July. Now I will never be able to say I have taken a photo of you every day of your life till.... (I was was aiming for at least the year). Now I will have to say I took a photo of you every day except the 1st of frickin' July!!!

It's a bit like not getting someone to take some decent (better than my lame arse attempt) photos of my pregnancy belly...I will most likely never have that opportunity again.

Yeah, gutted is an understatement really.

Anyway on the brighter side it is done and this month I welcome to the blog some new faces; Ma is Kieley's mum and Will's 'Auckland Granny' (finally got a picture of them together yay!), Logan D is one of my favourite students at school (I never really got to have him in my class unfortunately) but Will being a babe of good taste knows that he's one of the good guys and really likes him, and the other newbie is 'Mrs Thomas' aka Deb who dropped by for a surprise flying visit from Ohakea a couple of weeks ago.

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Seven Part 1

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Ok so I have been seriously absent from blogging this week. I humbly apologise... believe me there's LOTS that I want to blog about but I have a bunch of stuff to do and this damn family and they just keep hanging around... jeeze some people.

So school and work start back on Monday... um... YAY!!!! Sorry Miss Rae I know it's not what you want to hear but... oh my... so ready for it!

Anyway the 7 month montage only just got started this morning which sums up our montn really... generally by this point I have just a few days to add then it's all ready to go out with this post but I am afraid it ain't going to happen and the way the day is shaping up I may only just scrape it in before midnight!

I actually still have half a post written about Will at 6 months... that's sad... I obviously need to reassess my priorities... at least I should also have a page or two to upload as well... so with no further ado.....

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Happy all round

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So Les is back.

This means everyone is happy.

Les is happy;

• to be out of the heat
• back in his own bed
• in the company of his family
• somewhere where the food is normal and cheap
• away from shoeshine guys

I will upload some photo highlights of his trip sometime soon or maybe he will do a guest post. Maybe even video for the flying fans.

Will is happy; he remembered his Daddy and he thinks himself and daddy to be just the bees knees and the combination of the two of them together is utter bliss.... the only non breastmilk related thing better is getting to watch Kieran do funny tricks whilst being held by Daddy!


Kieran is happy;

• because he has someone to play Stat Attack with.
  
• And also because he's been hanging out with his friend Tony in the past couple of days... they are off upgrading their hockey skills today.

Merenia is happy;

• Because in her own words she felt like this....

I am happy;

• because I really love him so it's good to have him around.
  
• And because I don't have to do everything
  
• and for this week at least I don't have to leave the baby to cry if I wanna go to the loo.
  
• And I'm happy because I did some scrapbooking!

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