Road Trip Album Part Two

I have really enjoyed watching my daughter enjoy this album. It is  helping her remember the names of places and people we visited on our road trip. Even my husband has flicked through it a few times. I think I will make a lot more of this type of mini. I hope Amy Tan is going to keep on making them!

We stayed with Tet's sister Yaeh and her Fiance Henry for two nights in the resort town of Wanaka. They have such a lovely home. I was so excited to finally be able to use the Potty People stickers from the original Amy Tangerine collection on this spread.

Scarlett loved sitting on the deck at Yaeh's. I framed this photo with some Smash Washi tape.

Wanaka is a mountain town with great skiing in the winter and wonderful hot summer days by the lake. Scarlett really enjoyed running around on the town beach.

Wanaka has a permanent population of around 5000 people but this can swell to triple that during the ski season. Scarlett enjoyed visiting her namesake cafe The Cheeky Monkey. They had a lovely garden adjacent that she ran around and burnt off some of that excess energy all toddlers seem to have.

Enjoying the freedom down the long drive to Aunty Yaeh's

I love the pages with lots of journalling space. The pocket has a wee story about Scarlett's first crush.

It was so hard to leave Wanaka behind but our next destination, Tekapo was just as lovely. To top it off Yaeh and Henry drove across to spend an extra day with us!

There is one more section of this mini album to share. I hope you are enjoying this little insight into our trip home.

Road Trip Album Part One

I mentioned a while back that I was working on a minibook of our brief road trip in New Zealand back in December. It is still a work in progress but I thought I would share some of it with you today.

I am totally in love with the Amy Tangerine Daybook that has formed the basis of this album. It has been a joy to work with, although it is a little harder to photograph than I expected!

I used the inside cover as an extra page. I have listed the places we visited on our five day trip above the photo of Scarlett enjoying a picnic lunch on the road. The second page picture made us wonder if we were on a hidden camera show. Could there be anymore of a cliche in New Zealand than being stopped by a flock of sheep on the road. The funniest thing is we were stopped by a herd of cows on the way home!

I loved the fact that there was ample room to write lengthy journalling in this daybook. We squeezed a lot into the trip and it was great to be able to include a great degree of detail in the journalling.

We took quite a number of shots as we drove inland. After living in urban and tiny Singapore, it was bliss to have such long views. I adore the Inspire flair which is from Sasha Farina's Paper Play etsy store.

We had a brief stop in the little town of Twizel. We have spent a number of visits there as good friends of ours have a holiday home there. It is a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains and lakes. We were really excited to take Scarlett to one of our favourite spots.

After a stop in Twizel we drove onto Omarama. We have friends who spend their summers there. Omarara is one of the best places in the world for gliding. Von is a world record holding pilot and she spends her summers taking the gliders up at the aerodrome there. She and Bruce have a caravan at the aerodrome and it is a lovely spot. A river runs nearby full of trout and salmon. It has a lovely warm climate and is a perfect place to while away the days. We had a lovely visit there, catching up on all the gossip and watching the gliders soaring high above.

Bruce introduced Scarlett to the joys of the water pistol on this journey and she was very taken with the new toy! We were sad to bid our friends farewell but we had to get to our furthest destination by the end of the day. The mountain town of Wanaka where Tet's sister and her fiance live.

I have kept the book very simple. The story is what is important this time as I have found I am already forgetting things from this trip. I have tried to keep the embellishments thin so the book does not get too bulky.

I hope to have more to share with you next week.

Fun Times

Don't you love going to visit a friend and feeling really comfortable and relaxed in their home? Scarlett and I went to visit my former workmate and her husband and son today. It was lovely going to a house where the parents were relaxed about child noise and drama, the house was child friendly and we both just had a lovely time. It was hard to get Scarlett to leave.

We love living in Singapore but it can be a little isolating. As a SAHM who is not here on an amazing expat package I can't always keep up with the neighbours. We have a lovely life but I don't have a helper and I don't have huge wads of discretionary income to spend on babysitters and other such activities. It was nice to spend time with a couple in the same position. It can be hard to remember that life here is a bit removed from reality for many expats.

I had hoped to be able to share some pages of my mini album today but the light is not flash and I think I may need my assistant to help me work out how to hold all the pages open. I am about halfway through and am really enjoying remembering the few days away. It was a real holiday.

Here are a couple of photos from the trip to give you an idea of why we enjoyed it so much.

McKenzie Country Skies

Constantly Changing Weather

Mountains, Lakes and Fresh Air

A Very Happy Munchkin

Now I am feeling a bit homesick!

I'd Totally Forgotten

I had great plans of completing two mini albums during my four week holiday in New Zealand over Christmas. I had obviously forgotten that I had a 22 month old and would be sole parenting for half the trip. Throw in a couple of earthquakes and the plans were in tatters.

I did complete my December Daily a little while after the end of my trip but the Amy Tangerine Day Book that I had planned to fill with images of our mini break down to Wanaka never got beyond a title page. Fast forward to this week and I stumbled across my daybook. I coincidentally just ordered 160 odd photos from the holiday. I think you can see where this is going...

So my aim this week is to get this daybook filled with photos and thoughts. I hope I have something to share with you by the weekend. I am excited by the stacks of photos from this trip. Let's hope the enthusiasm lasts!