Botheration!

Rats! DH has managed to lose all my special brushes in his upgrading of Photoshop. I shall have to go looking for them again.

Got any special ones you recommend? Leave a linky in the comments and I'll collate them and make a section on my side bar for them so I don't lose track of where they are.

Here are some that I like:
Misprinted Type
Spyglass
Deviant Art
Scrapjazz post about brushes

BTW - for some reason I'm having difficulty leaving comments on Wordpress blogs. It might just be my laptop/Firefox... so I am reading and trying to share the love but it's a bit sporadic!!

Photoshoot Disaster

Tried to do a bit of a photo session yesterday with the kiddos but it was mostly a waste of time. Small Boy was so busy being "helpful" taking pictures with his "camera" that it was annoying, and Small Girl would not smile. Most of the shots aren't sharp because the target or my hands were moving.

However, Small Girl is now 6 months so I thought I'd better record it. She is sitting up well and is working on her top 2 teeth. Won't be long and she'll be crawling judging by her tummy time behaviour these days.

I must get out to some better venue than my lounge and my dodgy black back drop....

A tisket a tagit

I've been tagged by Ruth! :-) These tag thingies remind me of the stuff we used to do at school with our friends.

My roommate and I once: ate a "midnight feast" which consisted on pickled onions, chips and licorice bullet lollies. eeeuw!

Never in my life have I: been to a tropical island.

High school was : a mixture of great times and some big time cringe factor moments! LOL!

When I’m nervous : bite nails, jiggle my legs, pee a lot

My hair : is getting darker as I get older. I used to be much blonder.

When I was 5 : I was living in England and went to Primrose Hill Primary School. I had a friend called Anunga who was from Africa - we used to feel each other's hair. Mine was long and blonde, his was tight black curls.

When I turn my head left : I see the laundry on the clothes horse and a pile of scrapbooks.

I should be : doing housework or scrapbooking or sewing

By this time next year : I'll be another year older.

My favorite aunt is : is not really my aunt but a close family friend.

I have a hard time understanding : some maths concepts

You know I like you if : I tease you

My ideal breakfast is : Hmmm.... that depends. Yoghurt and muesli is good. Can't go past Toast and Vegemite either. Porridge is good especially with naughty cream and brown sugar. But I wouldn't say no to bacon, egg and pancakes either.

If you visit my home town : you won't find it hard to get a decent coffee

If you spend the night at my house: Small boy might get into bed with you

My Favorite blonde is : my family

My favorite brunette is : my family

The animal I would like to see flying besides birds : pigs? Nah... imagine the mess on your windscreen.

I shouldn’t have been : spending money

Last night I: Went to bed round about 10ish and Small Girl woke me at 1am for a feed.

A better name for me would be : Hey! Small Boy called me a Good Mummy today.

I’ve been told I look like : Brooke Shields - it's the wide mouth ;-)

If I could have any car, it would:be so much better than the one I drive now!!!!

Mystery Revealed

The mysterious parcel has been opened! It revealed this! I am thrilled!

I've been throughly spoiled this birthday. Not only did I get my highly-desired-above-all-others cake mixer in Empire Red, but I also was given this by my folks....
Yep... that's a Cuttlebug (+ 2 dies and 2 embossing plates). I was totally surprised about this one. I hadn't asked for it because it seemed a bit OTT to ask for. It was on the wishlist for 20 years down the track. So it was a beautiful surprise.

And... my friend gave me a voucher for Shop'n'Crop; someone else gave me chocolate (mmmm).

I am the most spoiled birthday person. Hope I don't sound too mercenary- I'm just really stoked about it all! . DH made me a card using PSE and one of his photos. The words he put in the card made me cry --> in a good way. ;-)

I've made my birthday cake with the mixer and now I am going to order some goodies so I can play with my Cuttlebug. Small Boy has been also delighted with my gifts and has been haranguing me to use this so he can "help" me.

Turning 34 has been pretty exciting! :-)

What inspires me?

Mel has a meme going - write down 6 random things that you love. Not people, but places, buildings, art works, inspiring places etc.

1. Children's clothes - I think since I've got kids and make layouts for them, I tend to see inspiration in the designs and colours. Related to this point - fabric stores.
2. Interior decorating stores - particularly the fusion stuff that we're seeing these days. It appeals to me.
3. Fruit, veges, plants, flowers, the beach etc - I like looking at what nature puts together and how.
4. Old houses like Highwic, Alberton and Katherine Mansfield's Birthplace. I like to touch the walls and think of the life people lived there. How people played in the gardens, made love in the bedrooms, conceived their children and maybe even died there. How the kitchens once buzzed with activity. Cooks laying out their ingredients for making jam from the fruit they got from the garden.
5. Universities. I feel most comfortable in academia and get a "buzz" from learning. Related to this point - museums, libraries and their collections. I'm the one who can spend ages looking at beetles pinned on to polystyrene! I love the smell of the stacks in the library. I could spend a happy morning pulling out files at a herbarium to look at their contents.
6. The written word - novels, poetry, my Bible, even blogs have a place inspiring me.

First date

Today is the anniversary of our (DH & mine) first date. As DD kicked beside me and DS bounced around on our bed this morning I commented that I hadn't foreseen this when I agreed to go out for dinner with him! :-)

His phone call was rather unexpected. I had been working for a while, and had various projects on the go. My last relationship had fizzled (a happy escape) some years before. While I hadn't given up hope of love 'n' marriage, I also had decided to make the most of single life. My sister and I were saving up to go on an OE together. One evening the phone rang and my youngest sister came into my room with a puzzled look on her face, "It's for you" she said, obviously wondering why some guy was calling me. A very nervous DH said,
"Hello, how's it going?"
Me: "ummm... fine" [*thinks* Who is this?]
DH: "It's Rodney here."
Me: "Oh! Hi!" [*thinks* Why are you calling me?]
DH: "I was wondering if you'd like to go out for dinner some time?"
Me: "Well..er..sure! When were you thinking of?" [*thinks* I'll give anyone at least one try]
DH: "Ummm... I hadn't decided that yet." [*thinks* Sh**! She said yes!!]
Me: "Okay - well when you've decided let me know" [*thinks* Poor guy!]
DH: "Okay - I call you"
Me: "Okay. . umm"
DH: "See you"
Me: "Bye"

I hung up the phone and turned around to see both my sisters waiting to know what it was about. No privacy in our house! LOL! The day came. My sisters were all agog of course. "Please will you let us pluck your eye brows?" they said.
He took me out to Valentines - not the most romantic venue but we were both kind of nervous so at least there was nothing unexpected about the menu.

So were there stars in our eyes and fireworks in the air? No. I can't say that there was a magical pixie pointing at him saying "He's the one!" What we did have was animated conversation and by the end of the evening we had discovered quite a bit in common. We both felt "comfortable" with each other and decided we'd date again.

Eventually, there was an another entry in my diary.
And my sister went on an OE by herself. ;-)

Saucy!

Something about this time of year makes me want to eat puddings. Specifically, carb-fat-rich puddings. Most of the time I resist this but last night I did not. I had some left over pumpkin and felt like pumpkin pie but was too lazy to faff about with getting cream and making pastry so I modified this recipe.

Banana Caramel Self-saucing Pudding

110g butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 very ripe bananas
1 tspn vanilla essence
1 tspn baking powder
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tspn baking soda
2 cups boiling water

Soften butter. Beat in brown sugar and egg. Mash bananas with vanilla essence and stir through butter mixture. Sift over the flour and baking powder and baking soda and combine well. Spread pudding into 28 cm x 19 cm ovenproof dish. Sprinkle over topping. Carefully pour boiling water over the back of a spoon onto topping mixture. Bake at 180 degrees C for 35 mins approx.

Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons custard powder
50g butter

Combine brown sugar, custard powder. Chop up butter roughly and add to the custard powder and brown sugar.

My Pumpkin "Pie" Version

Replace bananas with approx. 1 cup mashed pumpkin.
Add 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon each all spice and ground nutmeg, pinch of ground cloves
with the flour. Continue recipe as above.

It was delicious. I'd probably add more pumpkin next time for more pumpkin flavour. It's probably ... actually it is best served with cream but I had it (virtuously) with milk.

World Breast Feeding Week

Thanks to Amy's blog I discovered it's World Breastfeeding Week in August.

Here's a quote about it:

What is World Breastfeeding Week?

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is August 1st – 7th and celebrates the signing of the Innocenti Declaration** on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding. It is celebrated in 120 countries on various dates.

* According to WABA, "Initiation of breastfeeding within the 1st hour of birth is the first and most vital step towards reducing infant and under-five mortality, by reducing the overwhelmingly high neonatal mortality rate."

** The Innocenti Declaration was produced and adopted in 1990 by participants at the WHO/UNICEF meeting on “Breastfeeding in the 1990s: A Global Initiative.” The document lists the benefits of breastfeeding, plus global and governmental goals.

I've been fortunate that both my kids have been able to benefit from good ole human milk. For me it is as much about convenience as the Good Things that are in breast milk. Learning to breast feed was difficult at the beginning and it took me about 6 weeks before I felt confident with it when DS was born. Luckily for me DD has been really easy to feed, and apart from a couple of blocked ducts I've had no trouble this time.

I know that breastfeeding isn't always possible and I don't think that formula is Evil Food from the Dark Side. But if someone asked my advice about the choice I would strongly advocate breast feeding.

Amy has a photo contest going to celebrate WBW if you'd like to enter.

Where is the strangest place you've breast fed? I think for me it would be at the lookout at Waiere Falls down near Te Aroha. We'd just walked to the lookout so DH could take some photos and DS decided he was hungry.

Meme

Five Reasons the Best Writers Come from West Auckland
1. Who can argue with the black singlet and black jeans fashion... surely inspirational.
2. Our mayor can moon with the best of the them.
3. The beaches can kill you.
4. It has the only joint library between a local body and an educational institution in NZ.
5. There is always the wine...

Need a book to read? Try some of Rosina Lippi or her other writing name Sara Donati.
This meme comes from here.

Tied to the Tracks by Rosina Lippi. July 3, 2007. ISBN: 0425215326

"[This] is a hilarious, smart, sexy novel with a heart of gold." -- Susan Wiggs

"[Lippi] turns her buoyant creative talents to the romantic comedy genre with an effervescent tale of a trio of offbeat Yankee filmmakers plunked down deep in the heart of Dixie." -- Booklist

Read an excerpt. (Adobe Reader required)| Watch the book trailer

You can find Tied to the Tracks at Amazon , Barnes & Nobel, Borders, Powells, or at your local independent bookseller.

This meme has been entered in the Tied to the Tracks contest, originating on Rosina Lippi's Storytelling2 weblog. If you'd like to enter the BUCKS & BOOKS meme contest, get the rules here.

Supermarket 2.0

Okay - I know this is probably going to appeal more to the librarians out there but this cracked me up... especially the last bit about the egg...

glumbert.com - Supermarket 2.0

Layout for Sketch Competition

There is a competition at SBO to win a copy of Nic Howard's book by creating a layout based on a sketch of hers. For once I had suitable photos to fit the sketch!

Comfort

comfort

Made with April's kit from SBO.

loser

I am now 1 kg under my pre-pregnancy weight! YAY! Last time I got this far I managed to get pregnant again mostly by surprise rather than intention.

Now I need to lose about 7 kgs to get into my BMI range (my goal).

Pity about the saggy baby tummy still but I'm pretty happy about the progress. I think breastfeeding is helping me this time (it didn't last time).

Note to self: Do not get preggers.

NZ Dare 23

Here is my entry for the NZ Dare 23.

Introducing....


The Lesser Footed Satin-Eared Sniffler (Zaitunauris micropedia)

Note: Not to be confused with the Greater Footed Satin-Eared Sniffler Taringa megapedia which is an entirely different genus.

Characteristics

1. A terrestrial species inhabiting wooded areas abundant with rotting vegetation (.e.g. The Tulgy Wood).
2. Possesses a velvety exoskeleton with 4 unsegmented appendages.
3. A tubular proboscis is used to seek small insects and grubs under logs and leaves.
4. A discus shaped body and sensitive spotted cilia on it's back enable it to find suitable crevices to hide from predators.
5. Will do tricks for chocolate.

DS kept saying, "What's that? What you making?" while this critter was created. Took most of the day too... I hope he's a lucky critter!

Attitude

Ali E had this on her blog recently. I needed the reminder.

A quote by Charles Swindoll:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.

We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes.

My italics...

Some things I have difficulty dealing with are entirely because I need an attitude adjustment. As someone said, opportunities are often disguised as inconveniences and so if I have the right attitude I can take advantage of them in a positive way. It doesn't have to be in a looking-on-the-bright-side-Pollyanna type of way (because some things are just not happy situations). But as a maturing adult I can change my attitude towards some situations to improve how I cope.

It's done

I posted off my resignation letter this morning. Shed a few tears about it. It's a bit of a step into the dark for me but I hope it will work out for the best. DH and I have discussed it ad nauseum and we think it is the best option for now.

There were so many different factors to consider and this seemed the simplest option. MPOW has been very flexible in the past but their situation and management has changed and I don't think they have the ability to do it this time. To be honest, I don't want to go back into the position I was in anyway. Then there is the child care issue and the logistics of two.

Anyone want to hire a librarian to work from home? Have a broad subject knowledge including natural sciences, health and alternate health science, and engineering. Highly web literate. Could do cataloguing at a pinch....

*sigh*

She's going to hate me...

... when she grows up. I made myself a red winter skirt after hunting the shops for something I liked and not finding it. Giving up in disgust I went to Spotlight and found some nice wool cashmere poly-something-or-other mix. It was expensive but fortunately I didn't need too much just for a skirt. I got enough to make a little dress for DD as well.

"Mother and Daughter matching clothes! That's so 70's!" I can hear the cries of a teenage daughter already. I am making the most of the chance I have now to dress her how I like.

I got some felt and wool to do the decorations so now I feel more confident about decorating Mel's bags I'm giving to my sister and SIL for their birthdays in September.

kindy boy

kindy boy

A layout using SBO's April kit and loosely following Donna's sketch.

interview

interview

You may recall the interview I did with DS. I finally finished a layout of it.

Some curious goods

I occasionally read Popgadget blog for fun. Check out these ones and tell me which one you'll be requesting for Christmas.
Animal bike seat covers





Then there are the Glass fishbowl bookends. Or the Panda chair. Or the fridge recorded message thingo.