A Huge Challenge!

Firstly, I do have a card challenge further down in this post ... just to keep it to stamping!

But first of all ... the huge challenge ... 6mths ago I started jogging, I could hardly run a minute without feeling like I was having a heart attack, my aim was to get to 5km and lose a few extra kilos. Well, I got to 5km, lost a few kilos and then aimed for 10km - I've now run a few 10km fun runs and yesterday ran the Harbour Capital Race, aiming to beat 65min - I ran it in 64min and was thrilled with just that! We went along to the prizegiving and you can just imagine my open mouthed, dropped jaw, stunned look when they read out my number and name as the big spot prize winner!

Yep - that says LONDON ... as David said when I rang him, you mean London, as in England?!

So the challenge? Well, the London Marathon is a huge event, and not that easy to gain entry so it looks like I'm going to have to attempt it ... whether by running or walking *gulp* ... whatever the case, I'm going to London - a much dreamed about, "one day" dream :) :)

Righty ... on to the purpose of this blog! I can't believe how busy I've been since I last posted, just before I went to Australia for Convention, which seems a long long time ago! I actually have a freeish week this week, so hopefully I might even post here a few times before my nutty couple of weeks of each month starts again.

Saturday night, I felt like stamping rather than knitting or stitching which is what I usually do while sitting my tired self in front of the TV, so I printed out a few challenges - hopefully I'll work on the others during this week - and did my ask one of my girls to choose for me so I don't have to think so hard, Charlotte chose Makeesha's Challenge and the new Flower Fancy stamp set. The hardest part of this challenge was the fact I'd looked at Karen Thoma's card earlier on and I couldn't get it out of my head, but didn't want to copy it! I think it is similar ... but different as well, thank you for the inspiration Karen - I think! LOL

Ugggg I have a new camera (okay not that new, but shows how long it is since I posted anything!) and can't work out how to rotate the image - so you'll have to look sideways for now! I might try and work it out later and change it around.

Hopefully you'll see more of me this week! Stay warm and enjoy all that crafting :)

Convention Swaps?

Oh yeah, Convention ... oh yes, I'm excited, counting down the days ... and yes, I have my swap card sussed, I have some of them made, Rhiannon (my 10yo) helped me with a bit of a production line on Saturday, but I am no where near finished. So what do I do? I knit booties! LOL - one of my younger sisters is pregnant and just found out she is having a girl (she has two boys 11 and 13yo and has always wanted a girl), and she mentioned to me that I'm the only person she knows who knits so I should be knitting! ... well, doesn't take much, I haven't knitted cute little baby stuff for years ... so amongst the classes, workshops and supposedly making my convention swaps, I went and bought wool and just couldn't resist any longer.

I'm going to drop the little box on her doorstep sometime today ... I know she'll love it :)

Now, can you see the little pink buttons? (see, this IS related to convention swaps in a round-about way), I took a close up photo of them as well. That is the flower from the Always stamp set, stamped on shrinky stuff, holes punched, heated and shrunk - aren't they cute! ... I was supposed to buy some yesterday and never got near a button kind of shop. Then, as I was stamping about 60 of these flowers (okay, Rhiannon was stamping them), and thinking of the joys of cutting them all out, I thought 0h, button! and it worked! (love it when an idea works ;)).


Today ... I really have to get on to finishing those swaps ...

Cricket Thank You ... and Stefano

End of the cricket year and that means thank you cards! Our HK Rep Team has done SO well this year, 11 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw - Horowhenua-Kapiti has never been the strongest Association, we usually struggle to put one good team together, whereas the likes of Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki and others have a much bigger pool of players to choose from - it's been a great season, great group of kids, great parents :) Did I mention our Cameron is the Captain (just slightly proud Mama ;)).

Anyway - thank you cards! one of the parents got the job of taking some team photos, turns out her battery went flat and she got only one photo - eeekk! But it was the best photo - really captures their personalities. I went and got three printed and made cards out of them for the boys to sign and give to the Manager, Coach and Scorer. The Just Cricket set is probaby one not used a whole lot, but perfect for what I needed.

I used kraft card, folded a whole A4 in half, stamps red caps and versamarked the bat and ball over one whole side, folded that in half and centred the backed photo on top (that way it can be folded back and put in an album later on. Then stamped Thank You on the inside in red, and versamarked the caps, ball and bats again - so the boys could write over the top. Stamped out the cap, bats and ball on white and cut them out and added them to the front corner - actually a very simple card, but effective!




While David took the family to the cricket prizegiving and end of season BBQ, I met up with my sisters for a 10km run ... and look who we saw while we were there! My younger sisters are wayyy braver than me, they were quite happy to go on up to him and ask for a photo, we all had quite a nice chat too ... apparently Barbara is the one we should vote for ;)

(BTW, I had one other sister there too - she went off to her car to change and missed the photo op - she was gutted! LOL).

Right, off to tidy and prepare for a class tonight :)

Mojo Monday #81

Slipping in just before the next Monday's challenge is up, once again! This is another one I did on Saturday afternoon, and another stamp set I got just as the Summer Mini was finishing ... and more old paper as I wait for my new stuff!

I've used my pens for the stamping, rather than inkpads, so I could use the two colours on two of the images ... I love how our stamp sets all co-ordinate so nicely!

Another day, another holiday :) ... I'm FINALLY sorting out my retired stuff today - I can hear some "about time" sighs out there ... so those people I've promised a preview list before our catalogue launch this weekend ... yes, I'm finally doing it and I'll have the list to you later!

Kwernerdesign Colour Inspiration #49

Love these colours! ... and I think I'd love the fabric too ;)



I got out my uninked Eastern Blooms for this, I got these at the end of the Summer Catalogue, I spent the whole three months after making myself choose just one flower set from the mini wishing I'd got this one too, so finally decided to just do it ... and then was doubly pleased that it made it into the new 2009/2010 Idea Catalogue.

Anyway - I had the hardest time making this card, this is nothing like I envisaged to start with! I've had the idea for the vase for quite a while ... and am hanging out for my new eyelet punch to try it with. As you can see from my old papers - I'm still waiting for my April 1st order *sniff sniff* it'll be Tuesday before it arrives now!

It's been a lovely long weekend so far - my husband's job this weekend is to rebuild our back fence that got blown over nearly a year ago by a mini twister that went through our yard, he spent Friday doing the hard work, putting posts in, concreting them etc - tomorrow he and a friend will nail the pailings up - it'll be nice to have an enclosed backyard again!

I ran the lovely Waikanae River track, down one side and up the other, on Friday (and then felt less guilty about eating lots of chocolate! LOL) and Charlotte and I made homemade hot-cross buns. Yesterday I had fun playing with my stamps - I've been doing a couple of challenges and just generally mucking around. Today we've been watching Mr 13yo play soccer in the annual local Easter Tournament, it's been a lovely sunny weekend for it! Tomorrow I need to get serious and tidy the house and get some classes ready.

I hope you're all having a great long weekend as well :)

Kwernerdesign Challenge #48

I picked out an old favourite that I just don't use enough for this - Pick a Petal ... this was my "must have" from the last catalogue, and I'm pleased its made it back into the new one ... maybe I'll use it more this year!

I made this pretty quickly yesterday afternoon, I loved the colour combination and wanted to give it ago ... but had a workshop to pack up and get ready too! The rest of the day before the afternoon rush was spent with my two girls shopping and lunching - we had a lovely day :) The primary school had a teachers only day, the boys were still at school (at High School) ... so we decided to take advantage of the extra day and have a girls day out. The two girls now have boots and warmer clothes that fit them and are set up for the colder weather ... plus a few beads/crafty stuff that somehow found its way home from Spotlight, not sure how that happens - must be something genetic! LOL

Anyway, back to the card ... the paper is from the new pack "Good Morning Sunshine" which as demos we were lucky enough to be able to pre-order, I must admit to not liking it in the small photo we got ... but the real thing is SO much yummier, now I love it :) ... the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Righty, I think this is my last "freeish" day for a while, I need to spend it folding pamphletts and helping Rhiannon deliver them as DH is away on a work conference for a few days, so I get that lovely job this week. Then I really do need to start working on my Convention swaps!

Have a lovely day :)