Christmas evening

We had 20 people, family and friends for Christmas dinner. It was wonderful, and all done on two hours sleep. We had a lovely Christmas day and Merlin and I were just so thrilled with the thought the girls had gone to with their gift giving this year.


My best present.... when my 16 year old suggested they all sleep together on Christmas Eve, much to the delight of Lili (6 yrs) .. so sweet and precious. I really am blessed to have such an amazing family.

I hope your Christmas was fun and relaxed as well.

Kate

Summer time

I made this layout using Pink Paislee patterned papers and some vintage lace and flowers. I really like the sweet summery look. And the yummy ice creams.




I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas Day and you are enjoying this glorious summer. I am on anuual leave and have started my regime of walking up the goat track on Te Mata peak. It feels bad at the time but it feels so good afterwards.

I'm looking forward to some fun days on the beach with the kids.

Happy holidaying

Kate x x x

Quick, easy and cheap last minute gift idea.

After a recent melt down by one of my teens, I thought that it would be a good idea if we had journals to note down the things that we are grateful for. (Not a new idea I know) So this afternoon I altered these hard cover school note books. Because it was a last minute kind of thing I have kept them pretty simple. I have used fabric and paper scraps and bits and pieces I had around the place. I hope the girls will write in them at the end of the day and in the process learn to be more aware and thankful for all they have. I think I better make myself one too!!
SO for 70 cents, a few scraps and a bit of time you have a cute little last minute gift.

Have a very happy and thankful Christmas

Kate

Here's some pressies...

Look at the pressies under the tree. Amazing what you can do with some junk and a glue gun!!

Summer is....

Ice creams at the Strawberry patch. Yes this is definately something we look forward to every year. These ice creams are the best!!!!

How good is this?...

I have just recieved the news that I have been chosen to be a part of Scrappin' Patch's design team. Yes... you better believe it coz it's true... I have, along with 3 other awesome ladies, Annelie Maddock, Tracy Leroy and Delys Cram, been asked to make up the first design team. So I am like a pig in mud actually. Totally stoked!!! (A little surprised). Slightly apprehensive, for all sorts of reasons,not least my persisting lack of faith in myself, but mostly excited. Yeah, so bring it on!!! Its a great team. Also Beverley Cunningham and Heidi Barclay are guest designers so that's awesome too.

So doing a huge happy dance over here at my place.

Also made this...


yes another recycled tin.
I just love the little gold bird.
I have no idea what I'll put in it.
Still it just looks good hanging around
the house spreading it's Christmas cheer.

And this is what our Christmas tree looks like at night... well sort of... only better. Hmmmm, I'm dreaming of..... a DSLR....


Lili had a haircut the other day. She specifically requested a fringe, (try explaining a cowlick to a 6 year old) so here she is with her fringe.. so cute. However I had to follow her around the house to try and get a shot of her and she did NOT under any circumstances want a photo taken. This was one of the best... yes you should see the others.



So that must be enough boring dribble from me. Happy mid December to you all.

Katepai. x x x

I made this.

I made this last night. I am so pleased with how it has turned out. I hope to make another one at least. I love using old stuff, and re-cycling bits and pieces. Rachel spotted these tins when we were out for a walk. They were in someones recycling. Cool coffee tins. We walked by thinking, no we shouldn't, then I thought nah stuff it they're cool I want them so we grabbbed them. So glad I did.
I am totally in love with the tissue paper flowers. They are gorgeous!!!
SO when I'm not working a the hospital I will be busy creating Christmassy stuff.
PS. Anyone know why my 1st Dec post has the 30th November date and how to change it???
See ya!
Katepai

Of mice, flowers and the first day of Christmas...

Ballet recital time, how cute is this....



My little mouse and my gorgeous flower in Waltz of the Flowers. The mouse was cute but I question how much ballet she has actually learnt this year. LOL. Brylee shone on stage as usual and I was very proud Mummy!!

Oh, also the December challenge is up on Scrap the Girls. It is a sketch this month. Here is my layout based on the sketch. Pop on over and take a look at the rest of the creative teams layouts.


It is the 1st of December. The advent calenders are up, (my husband asks why we have three... duh) I am still looking for one which seems to have been carefully put away.. so carefully we can't find it. LOL.
Anyway I whipped home from work, piled the kids into the trusty, rusty Volvo and we trooped to the Christmas tree shop/field thing. We were underwhelmed by the size of the trees but found one we liked the shape of, had it chopped down thrown into back of station wagon, scored lollypops and drove home (stopping on the way to purchase cherries). We then took to decorating said tree. Guess what!? 6 year olds don't "get" the idea of a themed Christams tree much to my 12 year olds disgust. it's all about "more is more"!!! Here's a few pics.












It's starting to look more Christmassy around here. Now off to find the missing advent calender. It's the one which the candy goes in it so it's high priority!!!!

Happy 1st of December to you.

Katepai xxx

Before I go to work....

My christmas wish layout for the Scrapbook Outlet competition. My teenagers were not convinced about the santa hats but the photo shoot was fun. We didn't get too many good shots, partly due to the subjects and partly due to my pathetic photography skills. I have threatened them with a repeat shoot. Maybe reindeer antlers this time. LOL. Heres some more photos from the shoot.




Have a good weekend everybody. Oh and if anyone can tell me how to put the blinkie Mel from STG sent me via e mail onto my blog and onto my signiture on the forums then I would be most grateful. Thanks Raewyn for telling me how to do links!!

Katepai X X X

It's official

I got chosen for the Scrap the Girls contibutors/design team. This is my first go at this sort of thing and I am very excited. I must say with 4 daughters I am certainly qualified in the girls department. Anyway I am uber excited and it went up on the STG's blog today. Congratulations to the other 6 ladies aswell. I am so definately doing a little katepai jig around the place. I've got a couple more layouts to put up but I am actually off to work. Just wanted to post this fabuloso news. Annelie I see your name there too, go you. And Kim, Whoopee.
Katepai x x x

Here's another one.

This was my entry for the October sketch challenge on SketchbookNZ. I used Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers from my Tarisota kit. Yes I was lucky enough to recieve 3 months Subscription for my 40th from some very special peeps.
It's very exciting cos I won this one. Also it is on the Basic Grey gallery and if I could turn Basic Grey into a link I would but I can't. Someone might tell me how to do that one day.

This one is also in the basic grey gallery. I did it for the Sketchbook Friday night challenge. I was picked out of the hat to win this aswell which was hillarious and got a lovely RAK from Scrappin'Patch.

I am also taking part in The Scrapbook Outlet's Very Sweet Christmas Competition.
First challenge was to create a Christmas countdown calender. I was admittedly a bit stumped for this one (I'm very afraid of Off the Page) but managed to put this little thing together made out of an old frame I had hanging around. A bit of BG some bling, tags and some beading.




Challenge two we were asked to make a set of three cards. This has set me on quite a card making spree. .




Lili had birthdays to go to last weekend so I made these



And then last but not least (for now anyway) there's nothing like a good catch up!!
My layout for the last No 8 wired challenge blog.



That's all folks. That certainly killed some time while I wait for my Tarisota pack to come. Rachels has come so I am eagarly awaiting the arrival of a most exciting pizza box. I think I better go out before I drive my teenage daughter crazy!!

Some stuff I've been doing...

I bit of a back track here. I did this layout for the Sketchbook celebrity challengein October. The brief was to cut out patterned paper and use it on your layout. I used a beautiful Karen Russell pp and some lovely old hand made lace/doily.
Now believe me when you were married in the early '90's it's not easy to scrap wedding photos. My sister in law took this on black and white film while the photographer was doing his thing in colour.
Sadly,my wedding dress was stolen from my home not long after we were married but Mum still has her petticoat which I had borrowed for the day, I thought this photo showed it off as well as any.

Ok I can't work out how to stop any further photos going to the top so I will have to do separate posts.
Heck, I hope I get better at this.

Katepai

Up and running

Oh my gosh.. here it is, my first post. I want to write something unbelievably earth shattering but I can't think of anything.
I have been pondering a blog for a long time now and here it is at last. It is definately going to be a work in progress and I'm sure it will change along the way but it's good to be up and running. Ok so I guess nobody will actually read this except for my dear friend who I will insist on coming to have a look so I can just say "here I am, blogging.... Yay!!!"