My great niece

One little thing I'd like to share is the arrival of my great niece.  This is always a tricky thing for me - family dynamics and all but I am so happy for my niece Janine and her husband Winkie that I have indulged myself just a little and created a layout of when wee Manaia was born - 6 July 2014.

I may never get to meet you little one but that does not stop me loving you and being proud of you and your mama.  You will always hold a special place in my heart Manaia Grace Sia Leului.

Little house creations & layouts

This year I have been privileged to have been part of The Bevan Fund.  This is a fund that was set up to help the son of a friend of ours who is terminally ill in Australia.  Bevan has a rare condition, there is no cure, and nobody knows how long he has got left.  He has been in Australia for a number of years and unfortunately he was not entitled to any financial assistance from the Australian government.  He also cannot come home as there is no treatment available here and he has young children in Oz.  We decided that, as a community of scrapbookers, we could help support Bevan through various events including running classes, holding raffles, and creating items to sell at markets etc.  Some of the pages I made that were raffled off - just add your photo and go ...

 

 

and some of the little houses made for the markets

Gingerbread house

Christmas house

Birdhouse



Home sweet home

Church

House with different roof technique



 

 

 

 

 



2014 - year in review

The year started pretty quietly, mostly unpacking and setting up our new home.  Much smaller than we had in Hamilton we struggled to find places to put everything and even though we had given away quite a bit of ‘stuff’ it became obvious we needed to de-clutter even more.  The local Hospice shop benefitted as we decided what we didn’t REALLY need to keep.

It wasn't long before I managed to secure a job as the Activities Assistant at Redwood Lifestyle Care & Village, a nearby resthome facility - best job ever.

Michael finally decided in March it was the right time to ‘pop the question’ and he and Anna got engaged - they hope to get married in 2016.

April brought with it the opportunity for Jan to also find work as an Activities Coordinator but with another facility - unfortunately it went into receivership in October and she was again out of work.  She has since started as a healthcare assistant at Redwood. 

May, June and July were fairly quiet, we struggled a little with the colder climate but love being able to see the snow - me thinks we might need to invest in some nice thick padded jackets.

Now, what do you think of our wee cutie pie.  Ellie turned one in August and Jan & I were lucky enough to be able to go down to Te Anau to help celebrate with the family. She is a really happy little girl and has the most delightful giggle.  She is changing so fast.  We get to Skype her from time to time but she is really not that sure about the Nanas on the screen.  She loves having stories read to her and gets quite a puzzled look on her face from time to time if she's not sure about something.  Wish we lived a bit closer.

We had an adventurous trip south though with snow closing roads behind us as we travelled – a little too exciting at times but a fabulous time all the same.  We had to buy snow chains but fortunately did not end up having to use them.  This photo was taken out of the car window somewhere between Balclutha & Gore - I'm not sure exactly but it was just so beautiful ... and treacherous ... and cold.

 

I sold my little green car toward the end of the year and bought a scooter to get around on.  It is cheaper to run and I love it - put my first lot of petrol in the other day $5.86 and that is for a whole months running around. It is so easy to zap down to the shop and it has a decent sized storage compartment under the seat - I look for any excuse to go shopping.  The grin says it all.

Christmas has now been and gone and it was a busy time workwise with taking residents out to see all the Christmas lights and all of the other Christmas activities.  We had family here for a few days and it was lovely to see them and share Christmas Day with them.

 

I promise to be more onto it next year with my blog.  I want to focus more on creating in 2015 ... here's hoping!!!

 

 

Tim Holtz Tags for 2014

I just realised that I haven't posted on my blog for almost a year - shame on me.  So much has happened in that time too. 

I decided early on in the year to have a go at completing Tim Holtz Tags of 2014 and have today completed the final one - here they are in order.


January
Thanks to Beth Barnes for letting me use her 'stuff' to create this tag

 

February
My first attempt at going it alone - not altogether happy with this one, but I'm learning

 

March
Simple tag but interesting background technique

 

April
I love the way the cogs have turned out, will be using this technique again

 

May
Not sure about this one either but I like the background technique

 

June
Had fun creating the background on this

 

July
First time I had embossed a transparency - quite like the effects on this tag

 

August
Great resist technique and I love how the texture paste absorbed the colour

 

September
Not sure about this one either - it's hard when you don't have any of the products Tim uses

 

October
I love how this turned out - it has to be one of my favourites.  The cat was fun to do - will be using this technique again

 

November
I like the overall effect of this tag but it is nothing like Tim's

 

December
This is my other favourite - I love how it all came together