Friday Five - More Sccrapbook layouts

This week I've got some new layouts to show you.  Last weekend I went to my local scrapbooking shop and cropped for a couple (OK four!) hours and did two layouts for our wedding album, which give me a total of three so far.  Its been nearly three years since we got married but I've never been sure how I wanted to scrap the pictures but thanks to Becky I got the idea of using the same paper (Bazzil Bling in my case) and using what ever tickled my fancy for the rest of the page.  Anyway, here are five recent layouts:

1.  My baby shower.  

I used Basic Grey Wisteria papers, the flower is Prima, the brads are Basic Grey and rub-ons from Dear Lizzy.  The layout came from a Kelly Purkey sketch class that I signed up to earlier in the year.

 2.  Eilidh's birth story.

Another layout from KP's sketch class, this time using papers from Girls Paperie and Thickers from Dear Lizzy.  I scraplifted the idea for the bunting and the ribbon is the handle of a shopping bag that I cut off and ironed flat.

 3.  Wedding layout 1.

 I did this on Sunday at the shop, the lovely Pat convinced me to use papers I wouldn't normally, i.e. Basic Grey so I stepped outside my comfort zone for Echo Park.  The tag and the bling swirl have been in my stash forever so it was good to use them up.  The title is 'Surfer Dude?' because as some of you may know, Andrew isn't the biggest fan of water!

 4.  Wedding layout 2.

 The second layout from my cropping this time using Making Memories papers.  I love these butterflies using a punch from the shop.  I punch one in purple card stock and the other in the patterned paper.  I then creased them in the middle and glued them together making sure they weren't flat (does that make sense?)  Confession time, under that W (which is for Woody, the type of car we borrowed) there is a huge mistake!! I tried to put three brads around the corner but I put them in crooked so out they came and I had to make something to cover three holes!

 

5.  Wedding layout 3.

 This is a Julie Bonner sketch that we were given as a Scrap Club challenge, and I really went to town with 78 brads!  The papers are Basic Grey June Bug.

 Happy Friday everyone!

Friday Five - Favourites

I'm sorry I've not blogged this week, again I have been crazy busy, Harry Potter at the cinema, highlights in my hair, pedicure, going to my school's end of term party, watching the Year 6 production, and today I'm packing for a long weekend away at a friends wedding. Who said this stay at home mum business would be at home?? Anyway this weeks Friday five is in response to Kat's questions. Here goes!



1. Favourite cuisine: Italian. Hands down, I loves me some Italian food! Spaghetti alla vongole, risotto, tiramisu, pannacotta, you name it I love it! Oh and don't get me started on a really good thin based pizza with artichokes, olives, pancetta and mozzarella!

Our group, left to right: Me, Andrew, Amy, Delia, Fran, Kay, Dr Mel, Dennis, Paul and in front Graham.


2. Favourite vacation: In NZ and the UK we call a vacation a holiday, but I digress. I think (and this is quite a hard choice because I've been on a lot of holidays, both in Europe and further away!) I've chosen Egypt. We spent two weeks in Egypt with 9 friends over Christmas 2007. It was brilliant, I've seen all the sights, pyramids, tombs, the Nile etc etc, but do you know what the best part was? Two or three days in a town called Siwa which is very remote, only 50km from the Lybian border. We rode bikes, ate great food, relaxed in hot pools in the dessert!! and went sand-boarding down the dunes. Sometimes its nice to get off the beaten track.

Sand-boarding.
3. Favourite hobby: I've got lots of hobbies but my favourite is definitely scrapbooking! I love recording our memories, cutting and pasting and choosing the lovely papers. Some people (Andrew maybe) might say that I've got too much stash, but you can never have too much stash surely?

Andrew and I on a sand dune enjoying the sunset.

4. Favourite Holiday tradition: I've not done this in a while because we've been in the UK for Christmases but I love the $5 present. On Christmas night we have anything from fifteen to thirty plus people at our family camp-site (it is summer in NZ remember) and that is far too many presents to buy! Each person buys one present worth $5 that fits the theme set by my mum (she's the youngest of seven and the unofficial boss) last year it was bottles. All the presents get put in the middle and the first person in the circle chooses one and opens it in front of everybody. The second person looks at that first present (still following me??) and has to decide, do I want that present or a new one? If they take the first present, the first person goes back and takes another present and opens that, and then its the third person's turn, and so on. It gets quite hilarious because some presents (one year it was some naughty dice) get hotly fought over and someone always ends up with the duds!

Waiting to go on our bike ride.

5. Favourite “the-baby’s-asleep-the-chores-are-done-now-what-shall-I-do” pastime: Drinking wine. Lounging on the couch, watching some TV and (not often enough) blogging. It’s my way to unwind. Confession, I mostly read blogs, and need to write more, but thanks to Kat for the answer to number five.

Fran on the main street of Siwa
PS the photos are from our visit to Siwa!

Friday Five - My little bro

I've been thinking about my brother a fair bit lately.  We don't see each other very often, only three times in the last six years actually but I'd say we were quite close and we get on well.  It hasn't always been the case, our late teenage years were a bit tough but on the whole he's a cool little brother.  So my Friday Five today is all about my brother Scott.

1.  He lives in the USA.  Scott lives in Vermont and is the Director of Tennis at Stratton Mountain.  I haven't been to visit him there but we are going in September and I can't wait.  He's also lived in Miami and Indiana.  In 2008 my friend and I went to Miami for a week and stayed with Scott.  We were driving over the MacArthur Causeway from Miami Beach back to his apartment when he decided to stop at Star Island.  Star Island is a private man-made island that loads of celebrities have houses on, Gloria Estefan, A-Rod, Rosie O'Donnell to name a few.  Anyway there is a gate and Scottie just leaned over and asked the guard if we could go and look around since we were from New Zealand, I was sooo embarrassed and was sure we were going to get told to get lost, but no, it worked.  That's my brother for you, bold!

2.  He was the MC at our wedding.  Scottles loves to speak in public, in fact, my Mum, Scott and myself all like to, doesn't scare us.  He told funny stories, made sure everything ran on time and generally did a great job.  He also read a beautiful poem during the ceremony, The Key to Love.  About a month before the wedding I had dream that Scott stood up to speak and to get everyone's attention he clapped his hands teacher style, and everyone clapped back.  He then started to speak just like a teacher, e.g. oh I can see that Bob's table is ready to go and get their food, they are sitting nicely.  Thank goodness he didn't do this, but I was a little bit worried.

3.  He's quite tall.  6ft 5in even, yep my little brother is a giant.  Being tall has lots of advantages, and these two stories show a few of them.  Scott used to threaten to give our mum, Marg G 'The Rack'  The Rack is when you pick someone up by their feet and dangle them out in front of you.  As Marg G is only 5ft 4in it was definitely possible to give her The Rack.  And apparently one day he did!!  NB this may just be folklore, I wasn't actually there.  Sometimes when Scottle Modottle and I used to catch up when I was away at uni he would stand on my feet (without me knowing) and then push me over.  If someone is standing on your feet you can't regain your balance and you fall over, which I did.  I then went to get him and he would put his had on my forehead with his arm out straight (can you picture that?)  Basically because he was so tall and his reach so long I couldn't get at him, rather comic really.

4.  He comes home for Christmas every year.  This is quite a feat really, Vermont is a long way from New Zealand!  He runs a business with some friends selling ice to festival goers in our town and then goes to the festival itself for NYE.

5.  He is incredibly generous!  As a brother, brother-in-law and as an uncle Scott is kind and caring and we (Andrew, Chicken, and I) are  very lucky.  He also buys great gifts!  So far Chicken has been given Crocs, a Dior shirt, a giant bear, loads and loads of clothes just to name a few.  Scott is very excited about being an uncle and can't wait to meet his niece in September.

Friday Five - Tips for flying with a baby

Today I am typing with a sick Chicken on my lap, so no photos sorry, my laptop got too full and now all the photos are on the external hard drive which is too hard to hook up, excuses I know! 

Anyway, in late April Chicken and I travelled to New Zealand for a three week visit.  That's four, eleven/twelve hour flights on large planes and two short (one hour) flights on much smaller planes.  Also, two days after we got back, we went on a family holiday to Italy which involved two short flights and one airport delay.  These eight flights, (six of which Chicken and I did by ourselves) have given me quite a lot of experience, and so here are my five tips for flying with a baby.

1.  Try and fly in super quiet times.  Chicken and I left London on Easter Sunday and our flight was very empty. This meant I got three spare seats (yes, very spoilt I know) on the way to NZ and one on the way back.  This was a godsend!  It meant that I could leave our bag of tricks (nappies, toys, spare clothes etc) out to get at whenever I needed it, which was lots!

2.  Make friends with the flight attendants.  As soon as I got on the plane Chicken and I said hello to all the flight attendants, thankfully she is a smiley baby, which made them smile back at her!  This meant that they were all very obliging, helping out whenever I needed them.  One lady, Ngaire was amazing, she held Chicken when I needed to go to the loo, came and checked on us regularly and even directed us to domestic check-in when I saw her in the terminal.  Without these lovely people our flights would have been much much harder!

3.  Pre-order food for collection.  Because I was only breastfeeding Chicken when we flew meant that this didn't apply but now since she is eating food (or if I was feeding her formula) I would definitely make an on-line order at Boots (UK Chemist) and arrange a pick-up at one of the air-side stores.  This means you don't have to open all the food and formula when going through security.  It also means that you don't have to pack as much, and have more space for other stuff, nappies, clothes etc.

4. Take a variety of new toys.  Even though Chicken was only four months old I still took two new toys for her to play with.  I chose ones that were fun but didn't make any noise, because a) I didn't want to make other passengers cross, and b) I don't like toys that make noise (grinchy mum huh?)

5.  Make sure you have all your documents in one easy access place.  I have a travel wallet and in it were our passports, tickets, my marriage license, our visa letters for the US, and a letter from Andrew approving our travel.  The reason I had a letter from Andrew was that Eilidh and I travel on different passports.  I am a New Zealander and while Eilidh will one day be one too, she currently is classed as a British Citizen.  We also have different surnames, which could have aroused suspicion.  Thankfully it didn't but having that letter made me feel much better.  I carried my travel wallet in the front of my rucksack, where I could pull it out quickly whenever it was needed.

6.  Oh I'm cheating I know, but my final tip is, have fun and go with the flow.  Babies are incredibly resilient and can cope with almost anything, its just us adults that have trouble!

Friday Five - Random photos from 'my pictures'

I've been having trouble thinking of a category for this weeks Friday Five, and I was browsing through the random photos in the 'my pictures' folder on my laptop.  All our photos are stored on an external hard drive so these photos are a real mix, here are my five favourites:
1.  Our gorgeous God-Daughter Emma.

This photo was taken at our first engagement party.  We spent a glorious day in the garden of our favourite pub.  Emma was fifteen months old at the time and was so well behaved the whole day.  I remember she was quite taken with both of those wooden spoons.

2.  Our Engagement party invite.

I (with the help of two very good friends, and Andrew's cousin Fi) made these invites, about one hundred in total.  I love all those photos because they show us having a really good time.

3.  Us on holiday in Spain.

In May 2008 eleven of us rented a villa in Spain for weeks holiday.  The house was amazing and we had such a good time.

4.  My cousins and I circa 1985.

This photo was taken at my grandparents fortieth wedding anniversary party (I think).  We had a 'Miss Universe' competition, and I won!  I guess that was one of the perks of being the youngest there.  Can you guess which one is me?  And, can you guess which one of the 'girls' is actually a boy?

5.  Andrew's work Christmas party 2009.

Andrew's work throw really fancy Christmas parties, they are always black tie and held some where fabulous.  This one was at Madam Tussauds, it was really cool because they had all the 'celebrities' out on show.  My friend Leilia did my make-up which I really love, she is sooo good at it, love those fake lashes!

Friday Five

This is another link-up with Kat at Living Like the Kings for a Friday Five!

My favourite early spring outfits!

This week I've bought Chicken some new clothes, some denim dresses and dungarees from eBay and a couple of cheap summer dresses.  These are not them, that will be another Friday Five in a month or two.  To say that I like to shop would be, well an understatement!  I also like a bargain which is why clothes from eBay are a perfect for me, I mean babies don't exactly wear out clothes do they?  Anyway, back to the Friday Five!

1.  The dungarees are hand-me-downs from a friend Nancy, the bodysuit, is from Gap, a present from Scott and the tights are from Boots (I love tights BTW, socks that come off are a pain!)

2. Purple trousers and top from H&M, hand-me-downs from Rebecca, a nice change from the usual girly pink.

3.  T-shirt and dungarees from Sainsburys supermarket.  Girly but not too 'pink'  Its also got easy nappy access with poppers round the inside leg, very handy!

3.  The super girly girl outfit!  Dress, bodysuit and hair band from H&M, tights from Marks and Spencer.  Don't you just love those ruffles on the bum!

5.  My little French girl!  Jeggings from Primark and T-shirt from Sainsburys.  The t-shirt came in a three pack with the pale blue spotty one and a pink one, guess which one doesn't get much use? 

Friday Five - Simple Suppers (on a Sunday)

Hey there, another Friday Five on a Sunday, I do genuinely have an excuse, a 10lb bundle of screaming joy! Not only has Chicken gotten a cold and mastered the smile this week she has learnt to roll from her back on to her side, we'll have to watch her more closely on the change table!  The other new skill she has learnt is prolonged crying at night, not colic at 5ish but when we are trying to put her to bed, any time between 7pm and 11pm.  And it seems to last for an hour or so, hard on our eardrums, the neighbours, my blogging and of course her.  To help this, we are starting to introduce a night time routine, bath, massage, feed, cuddle, sleep, mum and dad time!  Two nights in and the score is Chicken 2- parents 0, but hey ho we will persevere.  I think she's getting enough sleep, its just not when we want it!  I'm going to buy a baby monitor this week so that she can sleep upstairs without being disturbed, currently we are putting her basket in the darkened hallway, but it seems there is too much action there!

Anyway back to the topic at hand, simple suppers, another Friday Five from Kat.  For us a simple supper is what you make on a week night when you come home and are really hungry and need food in a hurry/can't be bothered cooking/there isn't that much 'exciting' food in the cupboard/doesn't have a recipe, is just made.

1. Meat, bag salad and carbs (cous cous, wedges, boiled new potatoes etc)
This is my favourite summer meal, especially when you barbecue the meat, grab a bag of salad leaves and cook your carbs.  Total cooking time: 20 minutes.  If I'm feeling snazzy I'll have corn on the cob instead of potatoes, or have both!

2. Spaghetti bolognese.
For years I didn't like spag bol, I blame Bryant Hall, my hall of residence at uni.  While most of their food was good, the spag bol was dire!  I like spaghetti and meatballs, but making meatballs takes that little bit longer.  Slowly Andrew introduced spag bol into our dining repertoire and made a few changes for me - fusspot that I am.  Firstly the onion - its got to be cut up very small, I like the flavours onions add to a dish, but I don't like the texture, slimy yet crunchy, blergh!  Secondly, you have to use cans of whole peeled tomatoes.  I also have a 'thing' about tomatoes, like them cooked, but raw, well they are the only food I think I'd refuse point blank to eat, nuff said.  Cans of whole peeled tomatoes are better than chopped tomatoes because they've left the skin off, obvious really!  Now it has to be said, spag bol is one of my favourite week night meals!

3.  Sausage and mash.
Living in England means that we get to choose from a huge variety of sausages, and man there are some good ones out there!  My current favourite is a plain pork version that we buy at our local farmers market.  The market is only on once a month which means we have to stock up and freeze them.  For mash, I like a fluffy, lump free mash with grain mustard stirred in for a bit of extra flavour.  The gravy is the ultimate simple supper, straight from a packet!

4.  Chicken drumsticks/thighs, and wedges/chips and salad.
We flavour the chicken in a couple of different ways, for example sprinkle with chicken stock (thanks Ange for the idea), or honey and soy or honey and mustard and bung it in the oven with chips or wedges.  If we're feeling particularly perky, they'll be home made, otherwise Aunt Bessie comes to the rescue!  Add bag of salad and voila!

5.  Pizza (from a box)
This is the ultimate in simple suppers and to be honest we don't have it that often, but occasionally (on a Thursday it seems) we're just too tired/disorganised to cook.  My favourite pizzas have ham/pineapple/olives on them while Andrew prefers peperoni/chillies/onions/peppers.  It can make choosing difficult, which is why we usually get two small ones from the supermarket (thin base of course) and bung them in the oven when we get home, and ten minutes later dinner is served!

So there you go, our 5 Simple suppers, enjoy!

Friday Five - Baby things I couldn't live without (on a Sunday)

One of the blogs I follow is called Living like the Kings. Kat is also a new mum and writes about her life.  On Friday she wrote a post about the five baby things she couldn't do without, and suggested others do the same, so here goes.  My Friday Five (on a Sunday)

1. Phil and Teds Explorer

I love this pushchair!  It has to be said, its huge, and is heavy to lift, however, it really suits us!  It can be used from birth to four years old and has an attachment where you can add another seat for a second child.  It also has a coffee cup holder, perfect for those afternoon lattes when in town!

2. Star footmuff

This footmuff is great!  It keeps Chicken warm and snug, and will last for ages.  I love the funky design and it really suits both boys and girls.

3. Grans blanket

My fab mother in law Moira knitted this for Chicken.  I'd seen a similar one in a store and took a picture of it on the iPhone and send it to her.  She got knitting and came up with this wonderful creation.  I really love the colours she chose, it was no mean feat considering she didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl!  Its really soft and warm yet light, and I'm sure Chicken will use it for years to come.

4. Prince Lionheart Slumber Bear Plus

This gadget is great, it reproduces a variety of sounds to soothe a baby.  My favourite is the womb noise, but there is also sea, radio static, and classical music.  It also has a sensor that goes on when someone makes a noise or moves.  The womb noise really calms Chicken and helps her to sleep in her moses basket at night, something we found quite challenging to start with.  We don't actually use the bear, just the sensor which sits at the head of her basket.

5.  My iPhone!

While its not a baby product per se, I couldn't be without it, especially at night when I'm feeding Chicken.  Sitting in the semi dark while I breastfeed is a sure fire way to get me to fall asleep.  Having the iPhone on hand is a great way to ensure I stay awake, and its a good way to catch up on gossip, New Zealand news or find out more about babies.  My personal favourite site however, is Mumsnet, I find its full of great advice by real mums for other mums.  Its also got a 5 mega pixel camera that takes good photos!

I'm sure that my five things I can't live without will change, but for now that's me!