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!

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.

Listmania 12 : Childhood Favourites

It has been a very hard week of parenting here on the ranch and I am running on fumes. My list will have to be short and sweet but I don't want to miss out!

Books

As a young child I really liked assorted Little Golden Books, The Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy and a book called Put Me in the Zoo which came in the same format as the Dr Seuss books. There was also a little picture book called Daniel and the Coconut Cakes which was a big favourite. I found a copy in a school library a few years ago and all the memories came running back.
As I got older I devoured all the Enid Blyton series including the Famous Five, Secret Seven and all the boarding school series. I was also a big fan of the Nancy Drew mysteries. I still love mysteries and thrillers so I blame this addiction on Caroline Keene.

TV

When I was young I remember watching the New Zealand versions of Play School and Romper Room. I was actually on Romper Room as it was made in Christchurch where I spent a big chunk of my childhood. When we moved to Singapore we hardly watched an TV as most of the popular programmes were on after my bed time (not that different to the schedule here now to be honest) and there was not a huge amount of programming in English in the early 80s. We read a lot and listened to a lot of music and the BBC World Service on the radio.

Some of the stars of Play School

Music

I got most of my music off the World Service when I became aware of pop music. As a result I love the sounds of the early 80's - Depeche Mode, OMD, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys. If it was electronic and British, chances are I liked it. I never had many American bands that I really liked. I used to read Smash Hits and got a lot of my tastes from there. As I got older my tastes expanded to include bands like The Smiths. 

Toys

I was never allowed Barbies growing up as my mother felt very strongly that they were a bad role model toy. I scrimped and saved for months to get the bottom of the line model and I loved her. When I was younger I was a fan of weebles and I had an old school spinning top that gave me hours of pleasure. I tended to read or play imaginative games rather than play with toys.

Does anyone else remember the Weebles?

Thanks for the opportunity to share some of my favourite things from the distant past. If you would like to join the Listmaniacs please link up at Home Life Simplified. I would love to see how you spent your childhood.