DH has always wanted one of these!
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Author Archives: Margot
Being in Christchurch
Last week I had a train-the-trainer course in Christchurch (on the new Library Management System we will be using in our libraries from June). I didn’t get anywhere near the Red Zone to see the damage in the central city, but the effects of the earthquakes are still obvious to the visitor. Nearly two years after the second quake, there are many homes with bracing where the porch should be, boarding over gaps created by falling chimney stacks and fractured picture windows, and gardens where ordered loveliness has been invaded by weeds and grasses. It is those houses that seem saddest to me, as it means the house isn’t occupied – or if it is, that the occupants have given up caring about the garden.
Taxi drivers – as ever great sources of local information – shared their own situations with us, telling us of the difficulties of getting resolution to their issues. One had been assured his home repairs would be completed this year – but was caught in the middle of the insurance sandwich as EQC and his insurance company argued over the value of those repairs ($50,000 vs $200,000 – a considerable mis-match). Another had been told his repairs would be made – in 2015!
Yet the spirit of Christchurch is strong. People smile at each other, help each other out and more-or-less cheerfully shrug their shoulders when they find the route they planned to take today is cut off by road closures (at least it means some much-needed infrastructure repairs have started there, right?).
Go Christchurch!
A tale of Hugh Sheeply-Wittingstall
Once upon a time there was a generally well-behaved sheep named Hugh Sheeply-Wittingstall. He lived on an olive grove in the country, and had a long rope tether to one of the trees. He could wander around the trees, out into the surrounding grass, drink from his water dish and generally have a good time – to the end of the rope but no further.
One day Hugh discovered his rope had got a whole lot longer. At first he stayed close to his trees and ate the long grass near the water race, but when that stopped being interesting he started to venture further afield. He had a look at this, sampled a taste of that, and was wandering past the house when he heard a surprised voice say “Well hello Hugh! What are you doing here?”. Hugh was pleased to see one of the people as he was beginning to wonder just how long this rope was. It was nice to walk beside the woman, but he decided she wasn’t that nice after all when she put him in a pen. She took his collar off and Hugh felt decidedly uncomfortable without its familiar weight. When the woman came back with a bucket of water for him he played it cool and drank lots to lull her into a false sense of security. Then he charged at her!
She obviously wasn’t thinking clearly because she held the bucket in front of her as a buffer. Ha, ha, she forgot it was half full, and the force of the charge meant the water ended up all over her!
However she had the last laugh, as the bucket was rather old and it broke – ending up jammed over Hugh’s head. The woman wasn’t any use at first, because she was almost helpless with laughter – but when she finally stopped laughing she took it off him. Hugh shook and shook to get all the water off his face, and then sulked in the corner of the pen, pretending that none of this had happened.
Hugh would like it known that he didn’t mean any harm, and asks that you join the “Free Hugh Sheeply-Wittingstall” campaign by leaving a comment.
January review – and goals for February
On 14 January I posted some goals for the rest of the month. I am pleased to report the following:
- I have finished my Photo-A-Day/Project Life album for 2012 – as reported here
- I rode my bike on six days, varying my route. I’ve ridden into Greytown, around the block, and out to Woodside on the rail trail
- I have restarted my yoga practice – and rediscovered some muscles; I managed six sessions (and bought a yoga mat)
I met up with my bestie last week, enjoying a lovely lunch with her and afterwards joining her in the air-conditioned coolness of Harvey Norman to print off some photos
- I sent two thank you cards
I went to see Quartet and really enjoyed it – I love the gentle British sense of humour. Did you know this movie was directed by Dustin Hoffman (perhaps he yearns to be a Brit himself)?
With those goals achieved, it’s time to think about some goals for February:
- continue with being active, riding my bike, walking briskly, doing aerobics or yoga on two days out of three
- investigate a yoga class (I think there is one in Greytown, and there is a new fitness centre beginning operations in Carterton that might have a session as well)
- send out four cards – to say hello, thank you, or ‘just because’
- make four scrapbook layouts
- go to the movies again – perhaps to see The Hobbit, if I haven’t missed it already
- attempt to go for one week without sugar in my diet (I think this is going to be a big challenge, not least because sugar lurks in so many foods where it has no business – have you read your cornflakes packet recently?)
I know there are others out there setting goals on a monthly basis (it’s a manageable amount of time to tackle). If you decide to join in, please link to this post.
5 things about Summer
Here I go with Listmania # 2 – five things I love about the current season, and 5 things I’m not so keen on. 
It’s SUMMER here in New Zealand – my favourite season. I like most things about summer, but especially:
- higher temperatures (I hate being cold)
- longer days – I can get so much more done, and I’m more likely to exercise
- people are generally more relaxed, and casual clothes are OK at work
- lots of my favourite special events seem to be in summer – Christmas and New Year, summer holidays (aka vacations to those from the American continent), summer reading programme at the library where I work, celebrations and parties just because it’s summer
- summer fruit and vegetables that make it easy to eat well
The things I’m not so keen about are:
- flies – especially the clustering variety (hopefully it will be so dry this year they won’t be able to get out of the ground and I’ll only be annoyed by the usual kind)
- hot nights – I like being hot in the daytime, but I find it easier to sleep when the nights are on the cooler side
- sweating – ugh
- sunburn – and having to avoid it
- having to have all the windows open in the car to make it bearable to be in, but then getting blown away at open road speed
I admit, I had to stretch a bit to find five things I don’t like. I’m a summer girl!
I love this project – especially now it’s finished
Right through 2012 I tried to take a photograph every day. If I missed a day I didn’t stress about it, I just took an extra photo the next day (usually of something that would have been the same the day before).
This is the title page – the easiest to complete because it was a simple “fill the slot” page, and all the components came in the Project Life Amber Edition kit. I’d purchased this in late 2010, but didn’t use it for 2011 as I took a break from the photo-a-day thing.
Through the year I placed the photos (7 for every week) into the slots in the divided page protectors, and filled the other slots with journalling and bits and pieces I picked up.
I was still going strong in August. My routine was to sort out the week’s photos on Sunday evening, and then print them out in draft quality on plain paper. On Monday night I’d complete each week’s spread, slotting in the images and writing about the events of the week, using the collected ‘ephemera’ from my handbag, mailbox and recycling bin to create mini collages for any slots left over. Every couple of months I would take advantage of a printing special at Harvey Norman and get the images printed, slotting the photos in place of the paper place-holders. I kept up with that routine until mid-September, when I started getting behind. I did a big catch-up at Stamp Camp in early November, but the rest of the album had to wait until this weekend to be finished.
But finished it is!
This year I am continuing to take a photo every day, but I will return to the format I used in 2010 when I create my album.
Starting Point
Lovely – a new scrapbooking page starting point from Shimelle Lane. Go here to see her example, and compare it to my page made with pieces of a similar size:
As usual, I had fun adapting Shimelle’s ideas and putting my own spin on them. I have a feeling a certain person may regret all those faces he pulled when he sees this post though!
Listmania #1 – Currently I am…
Joining in the fun (see Mandy’s blog here, and Deb’s post here – Deb is the one who has started us all off).
Currently I am:
Reading: 1356 by Bernard Cornwell (I love his novels – he writes about battles better than anyone else; his novel Agincourt is one of the best historical novels ever)
Listening to: the sound of the TV news, and of DH, DS and DS’s girlfriend talking about the current item – the Cabinet re-shuffle – with some amazement as to who has apparently kept her portfolio.
Laughing at: Ninja and Scruff – it’s an unexpected bonus of having a kitten (now a young cat) that the older cat discovers how to play again
Swooning over: summer fruit – I adore peaches, apricots and nectarines and the fruit bowl doesn’t stay full for long
Planning: my work-flow for pesto and chocolate spread production, so as to have enough ready for our stall at the Martinborough Fair #1 on 2 February
Eating lots of: salads – and using our new Citrus infused olive oil in the dressing (it tastes like sunshine to me!)
Feeling: that this year is already rushing along far too quickly
Discovering: biking the extended Greytown-Woodside Rail Trail is a great way to start the day (the link is to the event marking the official opening, but it’s actually all available to ride now)
Looking at: photos from my phone – I’m a little embarrassed to admit I have only just worked out how to get them from the phone to the PC (so some of the shots were taken in 2011!)
Wearing: shorts or skirt & t-shirts; I love the casual look and it’s important to be cool on hot and sunny days
Cooking: more new vegetarian recipes. Tonight we had Spiced Rice Scramble from Alison & Simon Holst’s Very Easy Vegetarian Cookbook and it was yummy. Next time I make it I’ll put in two tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce though, as it wasn’t quite spicy enough with only one
Wondering: how it is that yoga poses I could do with ease only a couple of years ago are now impossible
Trying out: hybrid scrapbooking. I’ve downloaded the Storybook Collection #2 elements from ACDigitals, printed & cut them out and used them on a layout (for some reason the link to the actual page isn’t working, but if you go to the main link, you can find them on page 5 under the Journalling Cards tab).
If you would like to play along with Listmania, create your own post using this list. The best bit? There will be another prompt next Monday!
Inspired
It’s been a year since some of my on-line friends, the Scrapmates, visited Fantail Grove for a retreat (you can read about the 2012 event here).
Last weekend we did it all again – and it was just as good this time around. As you can see from the image below, we worked hard. (Followers of this blog may realise why we are working in the living room this year, and not the garage craft space – go here to see the reason). 
I was very pleased to get my 2012 Photo-A-Day project album up to date as far as the beginning of December, but the highlight for my own creativity was completing three layouts:
DH takes amazing photographs. These are from his daily walk between the railway station and his place of work and showcase just a little of how lovely (and busy) Wellington’s harbour can be. I wanted to try something new with my title lettering, and used plain chipboard letters from Kaisercraft. I inked these and then embossed them to give them a shiny finish. Next time I will have to remember that the grey of the chipboard substantially darkens the colours – but I’m pleased with how they turned out anyway.
This layout was my response to the challenge I laid down to the Scrapmates: use machine stitching. I have stitched on the scalloped border strips, and over the lettering. I also used up some Scenic Route journalling cards that were already quite old when I got them – as part of my challenge to myself to make a good sized dent in my stash this year.
This is my favourite of the three layouts I made. I think I am at last beginning to get to grips with layering items and I love how the clusters look. I am so glad to have used the Kaisercraft chipboard embellishment and some very old diecuts. I will forever be grateful to Shimelle for showing me how to repeat elements to bring unity to the design and lead the eye through the layout. I am sure I have lots more to learn, but I think this this is real progress.
Have you found that working with others inspires you to create more than you might have if you worked on your own?
January Goals
I’ve just read this post, and thus motivated I’m going to try something similar. It is quite intimidating to set goals for an entire year; goals for the days between now and 31 January I can manage. Here they are:
- finish my Photo-A-Day/Project Life album for 2012
- ride my bike on at least five more days (I’ve done one big ride and two round-the-block rides so far in January)
- start again with my yoga DVD – exercise along with it on at least five days
- make a date to have lunch with my BFF
- send thank you cards to two people who have recently been especially kind to my Dad
- see Quartet
Thanks for the inspiration, Amy!