Power Igor...

And we have life! Yes I am still alive. Ha!

Prepare for bullet point posting:

1. Finished the A-Z of New Zealand album for a colleague leaving for Australia. Actually more for his kids who were born here. Couldn't let those tender NZers forget their NZ heritage now could I? A few of the pages. Sorry about the awful light but I finished it the night before I had to give it to him and had no opportunity to take a photo in daylight.

2. I planted 2 kinds of corn this year. Indian corn and the usual sweetcorn. The two obviously cross fertilised and we got some kernels reverting to the old fashioned corn. Tasted fine though and looked pretty. :-)

3. Went to the Steam Festival at Glenbrook. DS had a great time with all the steam technology. DD and I had a ride on the cart pulled by the Clydesdales (Guy, Jill and Star). Oh boy it was hot that day! The steam train caused a grass fire and our return trip to the station was delayed by it - having left lunch in the car we were sure hungry by the time we got to eat it. We ended up driving into Waiuku to eat because there was very little available shade and so many people! A great day though. I got lots of photos for Lianne's NZ photo calendar project.

4. I've been awarded some blog awards by some generous ladies. Thank you!

Rachel gave me the Kreative Blogger award. I'm going to give it to Vicky because I want to be like her when I grow up. I really admire her creativity, her style and her dedication to what she believes in. She may not "go in for" these awardy type things but that is ok too.

Ann gave me the Marie Antoinette award. It's for "telling it like it is" I understand. So I'm going to award it to Sandra. She and her blog-hijacking husband are not afraid to put the tough things of life on their blog.

Yvette very sweetly gave me the Fabulous blog award. I'm going to award it to Sharon because she constantly delights me with her photos and layouts. I know she thinks she needs more practice with her photography but I think (and her other readers probably agree) that she has some great stuff appearing regularly.
And Bronny has given me this award which comes with some rules!


We have to say one nice thing about the man in our life. Hmmmm. Well, I wouldn't like to be without him that is for sure. He puts up with my strange foibles, makes me laugh, still thinks I'm hot despite 2 babies and being over 30, and supports my coffee/chocolate habit. Hee hee!
And we have to list 6 ways I measure my success in life. Well that is kinda personal - I'll probably sound a bit religious but... the main way I measure success is if I'm living up to the spirit of Christ's teachings.
But there are some others.
2) if I've made somebody's life better
3) if I've taught my kids to be good citizens
4) if I've learned something new
5) if I've been able to find blessing in something I find difficult to do/live with/deal with
6) if I've been able to find time for prayer/meditation

Now I'm going to award this one to themommykelly. :-)

I am going to post separately about the January reading Round Up and the Book Club Book. Stay tuned.

Steam Festival

Last weekend Glenbrook Vintage Railway had a steam festival weekend with lots of steam powered and vintage machinery on display. DH being a steam buff was keen to go, and DS of course was delighted to get another opportunity to go on the train.

We arrived as it opened and I'm glad we did because it soon became packed with people. DS was too scared to ride on the steam powered carousel (much to my disappointment)! But he was more than happy to ride on the trailer behind the traction engine. His current favourite from the Thomas & Friends series is Trevor the traction engine.

As I sat on the train and fed DD, I reflected how funny it was that last time she was on the train she was inside me!

Gorne....

The long weekend that is.

I did manage one solitary layout. I'm not super happy with it; the title did not work like I imagined it, but I'm not going to go back and change it.
This was done with the Basic Grey Lily Kate papers I got through Kiwiscraps after winning some credit in a monthly challenge. I also used a ghost clock I got from the Tarisota collection which happily came last week! Am very much in love with the papers in that pack!

It was a busy and tiring weekend. The neighbour's car alarm went off from 8.30pm to 4.30am every 2 mintues. Needless to say, our sleep was not restful on Friday night. Obviously, they had gone away for the weekend and set the alarm to be so sensitive that a cat peeing on it would set it off.

On Saturday we took a little train trip into Newmarket for DS's benefit. He's very interested in trains; it makes his day when we see one on the way to work/daycare. The station closest to us didn't have trains running that day, so after that discovery we drove to where they were running from. We waited 30 minutes and finally we were off! The look on DS's face was a treasure to behold.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing all those normal weekend things. I am happy to say that I managed to spring clean the lounge/dining room. A big job and one I've had bugging me for ages. Now I can move onto the next room. Is this nesting? Possibly too soon for that. But I know it won't get done once the baby is here!

Edited to add: Did anyone read the Canvas magazine in the Saturday Herald? In the article about SAHMs two scrapbookers are mentioned, Trina McClune and Nic Howard. I was so excited.. "I read their blogs!" I exclaimed to DH. "Uh-huh" he says, not looking up from the paper. He just didn't get it. LOL!