Project Life Catch Up Week 31

I have a few light weeks coming up in my Project Life. Sometimes there are just not enough photos and stories to justify a double page spread. Week 31 was one of these weeks.

There were a few exciting things that happened but some we were not permitted to take any photographs which was a bit frustrating.

The Hi 5 bubble mix photo may appear a bit random but this was part of a goody bag that Miss Three received for working on the show. A few girls from her ballet class were selected to film some of the filler spots on the show. She and her friends, danced and jumped and shouted Hi 5 repeatedly over a 90 minute session. The new series of the show is due to be aired here shortly so we will be keeping our eyes peeled for her.

The crowd shot was a snapshot I took of the grocery line at the supermarket that week. They only had two counters open and it took over thirty minutes to pay for my groceries. If I hadn't had a full trolley I would have left the store! I emailed a complaint to the company while standing in line and attached the photo! Gotta love technology!

The final photo (see what I mean about it being a light week) was of Miss Three eating chicken rice at one of our local restaurants. We have been eating there since we first moved to Singapore and all the staff there spoil her rotten and tell her about when she was a baby whenever we visit. The food is delicious and cheap. Who knew steamed chicken and rice cooked in chicken stock could be so delicious?

Regular readers will be pleased to know I have two sketches that I really want to have a go at on screen so I may interrupt the deluge of PL with some normal scrapbooking.

Happy Tuesday.

Project Life Week 30

Welcome back to Project Life catch up. If you are still hanging in here I really appreciate it!

Week Thirty really was a return to reality. We were back in Singapore and back to the daily grind.

 

It really was a back to reality week as Tet headed away to Thailand for work for three days. Miss Three was very happy to be back at school and ballet. The top ballet shot shows her enjoying playing with the Swiss balls before class starts. I am so glad we caught this image as we cannot take photos of classes and now she has moved up to the next class she goes in straight after the toddler class and doesn't get a chance to play with the Swiss balls anymore.

The journalling really focused on our flight home. No pictures but we really loved flying out via Auckland and leaving near midnight. Even with the hassle of changing planes and going between the domestic and international terminals it was so much better flying back at night. Miss Three slept from before we got on the plane and for seven hours on the plane. We also got to see Neil Finn in the Koru Lounge so that was a nice surprise.

 

We also made an effort to keep up with spending time outdoors upon our return with a trip to West Coast Park. One of my favourite things that I saw on that trip was the Bose speakers outside at the McDonalds there. I imagine they would last less than 24 hours in New Zealand before someone would pinch them. I love living in a low crime nation!

Miss Three has completely mastered using chopsticks for eating over the last few weeks. She can eat noodles, rice and pretty much anything with them. It isn't a perfect technique and can be messy but it makes her so happy to be eating like the adults.

We had a pretty quiet week. We were a little jetlagged and Miss Three had a few naps which is not the usual run of things. Poppy also received a new house/scratching post after the demolition of her old ones by a certain small girl. We thought Poppy might be too big for the house portion of the post but she proved us wrong!

I am glad the weekend is nearly upon us. We do not have anything exciting planned but I am just looking forward to our regular library visit, ballet and football sessions. I hope you have a relaxing weekend and that the arrival of the silly season is not too stressful.

Project Life Catch Up Week 29

This week is the final week we spent in New Zealand. There are slightly fewer photos to share than last week but it is still a pretty full on section in the album. As with the previous weeks, I have used the Dear Lizzy, Amy Tangerine and Maggie Holmes PL Mini Kits with a few embellishments from my stash.

As I mentioned last week, Miss Three loved the winter clothes. She was a huge fan of scarves, gloves and jackets as these are things she never gets to wear in Singapore. I love these photos as I think they give a good indication of her personality too.

One of our favourite memories from the trip was Miss Three and Aunty Anne making gyoza (Japanese dumplings) from scratch. Miss Three had a really good go at making the dumplings and while hers were not quite as perfect looking, they tasted just as good as Aunty Anne's. 

The bottom image in the spread is the view from the playground in Clyde. We loved being surrounded by mountains in this part of the country and we never tired of the fresh air and long views.

While we were down south we spent a wonderful day playing tourists in Queenstown. We absolutely love this town. There is so much to see and do and the food options are really great too. It was a stunning day weather wise which is always a bit of a lottery mid winter. After our adventures up the gondola and wandering around the lake we went to pick up a young friend of Aunty Anne's who came to stay. She and Miss Three got on really well and we stopped in at Arrowtown for an ice cream treat on our way back to Clyde.

We made another stop on the return journey to look at the massive hydroelectric dam just above Clyde. It is pretty impressive and generates a large chunk of the electricity used in the South Island. Sadly that was our last full day in the region and we headed back to Christchurch in one day. We were dreading the journey a little as it is about 6 hours of driving, but Miss Three slept most of the second half of the trip so all was well. 

The final photos in this spread are really special to me. The bottom left shot is of the children from our ante natal group. The group still gets together at least once a month and it was lovely to see Miss Three at play with these children. They got along pretty well and as they were all born within a month of each other (MT is the youngest) it was a fun morning. The other shot of MT with her Grandad is another favourite for obvious reasons.

The final spread for this week is some of the photos from the photo shoot we did with Alpine Image when we visited Wanaka. Tet's sister gave him the shoot and images for his 40th birthday present. It was a wonderful couple of hours spent in the bracing 2 degree temperatures. We got so many amazing shots that we have been a little overwhelmed when it comes to choosing which ones to put on canvas. 

It really was a wonderful break away from reality. It was very hard to leave this time and we have put a lot of thought into how we can get back to New Zealand to live. We don't really have any answers as yet as there is very little work in my husband's field in New Zealand any more. We have been contemplating starting our own business or franchise as a means to get back. Time will tell if we can manage it.

Project Life Week 28

Sleep training Miss 3 is resulting in insomnia for me so this will be an earlier post than usual. I am hoping all the hard yards will pay off on that front but based on last night's effort I can't say I am feeling positive.

Week 28 was the first full week of our trip to New Zealand and it is quite photo heavy. We spent the first half of the week in Christchurch with my Dad and the second half down in Central Otago where my sister and sister-in-law live.

 

We relished all the open space and blue skies. This spread was kept very simple. I loved the little labels from my Life Paper Scrapbook kit. They are so versatile. As you can see we did encounter some snow on our journey south which Miss Three was very taken with. The novelty of tights and warm clothes had not worn off at this stage of the trip either so she happily dressed for the weather.

I decided to include an insert in this week. This side is devoted to food. We really enjoyed the standard of food and especially coffee on this trip. Two weeks and not a bad or even average coffee in that time. Miss Three renewed her relationship with the fluffy on this trip. The one pictured above with sprinkles and chocolate sauce was her favourite and she requested a special second trip back to the cafe in Clyde to have another one.

The rather amazing looking dessert was hubby's Creme Brulee at a Japanese restaurant in Tekapo. We all fought over the candy floss (cotton candy) that came with it. We even managed to squeeze in the kiwi favourite takeaway of fish and chips. 

The reverse side of the insert shares a couple of our favourite activities in Christchurch. We made the trip to the Antarctic Centre and it was an excellent outing. Lots of interesting displays, penguins and best of all, the Haglund ride. This is an all terrain vehicle used in Antarctica that takes you on a short obstacle course style ride. We all, including my Dad and Miss Three, loved this part of the day.

The other highlight of Christchurch as far as Miss Three was concerned was the Chipmunks indoor playground. We ended up going three times in the eight days we were in Christchurch! It was a great spot to catch up with friends who have small children as it has a cafe attached. We have already had to promise that she can go again when we are back in April!

This page is all down in Central Otago. We stayed with my sister in the tiny town of Clyde. It is a beautiful part of the world and I am a bit sad that she is moving into Alexandra next year as we really enjoyed being in Clyde. On our arrival in Alexandra (where she works) we called into school where Anne had arranged for Scarlett to spend the afternoon with her class. She had a lovely time playing games and reading stories with the big kids. It was the last day of term so a perfect time to be there. We went over to Wanaka that weekend to see Tet's sister and her fiance. No rest for returning expats, that is for sure.

Spending time in Central Otago really made us rethink our future. We were quite impressed by the quality of life in that part of the world. Miss Three loved the fact that people had chickens in their gardens and plenty of space to run about and play. The slower pace of life and friendliness of the people we met also reminded us why New Zealand will always be home for us. The bottom photos here are of the main street of Clyde. The middle set is of Miss Three having a massage from her aunty. Anne used to be a massage therapist so knows what she is doing but overall, S was too ticklish to last long.

This last spread is all about Miss Three. She was lucky enough to be lent a running bike while we were in Clyde and she loved it and got pretty good on it by the time we left. She also met a gorgeous and incredibly tolerant Cavoodle who enjoyed being pushed around the pram and showered in kisses. The opportunities we had to get outside and run were frequent and it would be true to say that Miss Three struggled with the lack of play spaces when we returned to Singapore.

Congratulations if you have made it this far! It has been a bit of an epic post. I apologise for some of the bad reflections on some of these spreads - nothing seemed to improve them much. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Project Life Catch Up : Week 27

Good morning and welcome to Project Life catch up fortnight. This is what happens when you get seriously behind and then have a massive catch up push in your Project Life album. These weeks have formed the beginning of album two of PL for 2013. I am confident I will only need two albums a year and I am comfortable with that amount of real estate dedicated to our daily lives. With me likely to start work again next year this will probably be a much more detailed album than future efforts.

Week 27 was a bit of a transitional week for us. The first half of the week was full of the usual, school, work housework activities. On the Friday night though, we hopped on the plane for a two week trip back to New Zealand to catch up with family and friends. It also happened to be the week that my husband turned forty.

The layouts for this half of the year are definitely very minimalist in terms of their presentation. I purchased the Dear Lizzy, Amy Tangerine and Maggie Holmes' mini kits and have used them almost exclusively with a few stickers and labels from my stash. I have found that the three collections mix and match really well and keeping my supplies limited has really made the process much faster. I cannot rave enough about the Persnickety Prints 3 x 4 rounded edges photos. Having the photos all cut to size and ready to go has saved me so much time. I am definitely going to be sending batches of photos off there in the future. The shipping cost is reasonable and definitely worth it in terms of the convenience.

 

The second half of the layout shows Scarlett helping our gardener at the building we live in. What it doesn't show is that both she and I were drenched from head to toe after she got a bit cheeky with the hose. My phone was lucky to survive that particular adventure. I have also included a shot of the playground at Changi Airport that we love for tiring S out just enough to sleep on the plane almost from take off. We have a couple of shots of family welcoming us to Christchurch Airport. Our plane had such terrific tail winds that we landed an hour early beating everyone to the arrivals hall. It was a nice chance to relax with an excellent cup of coffee and enjoy the sunshine. Fortunately my dad only lives ten minutes away! 

The first weekend home was flat tack. We had lunch with some good friends and their children. It was lovely to catch up and let the kids run wild in the playground afterwards. We had a great dinner with my Dad that night. Sunday included a much needed hair cut for me and celebrating Tet's birthday with a surprise party organised by some of our dearest friends. 

I am nearly totally caught up with Project Life (well to the end of September - I need to sort photos and place an order with Persnickety Prints) so I am hopeful that I will have some new layouts to share soon.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We had a 40 hour trip to Bintan  as a lovely break to the regular weekend routine. It was a really relaxing break and even though it was short we all feel so much better for it.

Born to be a Dad

I have been very patient about starting to scrap some of the photos from our photo session in New Zealand. I received a great set of new supplies recently and they included some beautiful Glitz Designs papers. I grabbed one of the black and white photos from the day and whipped up this very simple layout.

I knew with all the action in the patterned paper I needed to keep everything else pretty simple. I added a couple of additional heart embellishments in the form of a paper strip and some stickers to go with the paper I mounted the photo on.

Here is a close up with the journalling.

I love this photo and it was the last shot of the session, taken as we were heading back to the car. We had a wonderful time having the photos taken and there will be a number of the images appearing in layouts in the future.

It was a bit of avoidance working on this layout. I had received 14 weeks of Project Life photos and they were a little overwhelming. An unrelated layout seemed like a much better bet.

I should give fair warning that I am working hard to catch up Project Life. I have completed a couple of weeks worth already this week and this blog could be PL heavy over the next couple of weeks.