A post at last...

This will just be a short post. Its been ages since I last posted but I have been in the midst of a major attack of OCD. I seriously didnt think I could get better this time and thought I would never be able to post again on here. ut time... and little yellow pills and three weeks of work and.. here I am again. One thing I do when i do get sick and am recovering (even though it feels like Im not recovering) is to craft. Its my rehailitation and my meditation, Its the feel goof factor I need if only to feel good about one thing in my life at the time. And so i present to you some of the crafts(there. First up is the Advent calender (we will now have FOUR) that i bought as a panel From Spotlight. A lot of the quilting on this i did in  my lunch hour at work. HONESTLY stitching in the breaks was the ONLY thing that keep me from major panic attacks at work.. Here is a close up below. I was happy to find candy canes had arrived at our brand new Warehouse store (Its HUGE!!) and so I could fill up the pockets. two in each for each of my girls..some have mysteriously dissappeared..

Scrapbooking has been HARD Oh so hard since Mum passed away and then a few weeks later it HIT me..but over the course of four days I managed to complete a kit I had purchase from Hastings Ruber stamps. I still find it heartbreaking to scrap Mum and Dad But I think Im slowly getting my mojo scrapbooking love back...slowly...

Arnt they gorgeous. I miss them SO much..

 And now here is a quilted origami Christmas tree. As I made this up I could not believe it was going to actually work out. To my utter amazement it did. Hurray...Im not doing another in a hurry tho..

Im also making a Kiwiana quilt for my brother for Christmas. It is completely handsewn. I took it to work as well for the brak times and it too got me through. Im at the quiltingstage and Im enjoying using a larger needle than the betweens and using a heavy thread. Its quilting up so much easier than normal.

So that is all for now. We are currently in the last week of the school term. Two weeks off.

Georgia and Alex are both in the operatic thatres production of the Wizard of Oz in the holidays. Eight weeks of rehearsal is going very fast. Maybe because I had to open my BIG mouth and offer to sew costumes..i never learn..

e happy whereever you are and if you are not then do as I am doing and reread Loise hays excellant anniversary book

Love Cherry

Beautiful Bo Bunny

I havent done much of anything since my Mum died.  Ive been sorting out photos and have been given some gorgeous shots from her childhood that I had never seen before. So Ive had quite a few reprints done before giving back the originals. Lately I have felt quite justifies and it certainly has been good for the soul to capture these memories in scrapbooking. i have been quite free and easy with the spending infact! One of the most gorgeous things Ive seen of late is this Bo Bunny mini album. I  have put all the photos in it of Mum and her two next eldest at school age siblings in it and it is by no means finished as althought my local store sold this album it doesnt store Bo Bunny...so..I travelled to the next scrapping stoe  but it onlu had a few matching Bo Bunny (Timepiece ) pieces. I have embellished as far as I can go with what i could find and what i could make. But now Im on the lookout for further embellishments that will go with this album. I just love these photos. Mum was born in 1931 just prior to the big earthquake and so these photos are mid thirties. My poor nana had already lost one child to a epidemic and as well as these three eldest was yet to have or had as babies three more children..and before her eldest (muy Mum) was seventeen she would lose her husband.. It never fails to impress me the hardships and the way that she and her young family dealt with them back then.

Any ideas on other embellishments let me know. Other things Ive been doing are: knitted two "gumnut" hats, pulled out a unfinished quilt top of "school houses " to finish and watching several re runs of the Good life and wishing I  was Barbara Good!!  Its gotten very cold here. It is the greatest sinful pleasure to forgo any housework and curl up infront of the fire each night. 

We helped my elderly friends from their "paradise  on earth" farm , who were moving and came away with a few things they didnt want to take to their retirement house with them. I have got the most gorgeous treasures...one of which is a cedar chest that I am sanding back and with redo. I cant wait for it to be finished and will post pictures next time.

Happy memories wherever you are tonight
love Cherry

For my Mum

Who left this earth at 1.00pm 23 may 2011.

In the middle of all the grief and all the preparations I stayed up late that first night doing (who can sleep anyway), I set up some paper and a favourite photo to scrap. This was the end result. I used kaiser Chanteuse paper, homemade calico flowers and homemade stamped butterflies on transparency and some bought paper roses. This layout sat along with one other that i had done at a class awhile ago with Mum at the funeral home and on her coffin during the service. I have no hesitation in saying she has gone on to a better life but I do hope she popped in to see the layout. I made it with so much LOVE !

I dont feel like doing much of anything, but have gone back to work .  During the service we ran a photo slide show from Mums life. Right from baby to her last days. It was so beautiful but it SLAYED me. Totally along with the most beautiful music.

Wiahing you all love and happiness with your dearest

Cherry

doggy compost and other interests..

I am interspersing this post today with several pictures of recenet scrapbooking endeavours. I had to improvise for the royal weddingone as I could find no union jack or royal m,emorabalia to make some pages up...

I really love Becky Higgins Project life however I cannot get it at the moment in NZ. So I found these pages at the scrapping shop and have bought a few. They are great and its means I can catch up on my scrapbooking AND keep things in chronological order. This is my first one....

 And the other side..... With these you can be creative or as boring as you want. And the varieties of photo sleeve types are many..

Here is double lO I did at scrapping class the other night...

Then we finished early so our lovely tutors ran around and at no further cost put togehter another few bits for us to do this simple but effectiove LO....Another few photos from this year put away now and I feel SO on top of things.!

 From the beginning of the school year another WR Memory Keepers photo sleeve completed.:

 I need some smaller photo sleeves to store these wonderful treasure handed to me today after school:

Ill buy some tomorrow when I attend a four hour layout class. Four pages in four hours..:) Four baby pages..just what I need for the as yet unscrapped million and one baby photos.

And on to news from the Urban farm. The chooks are laying about four to five eggs a day. There is a bit of moulting going on although sad chook is now growing back lovely silky  feathers and looking years younger than her two and a half years!! This is CHristmas, leadre and general pretty girl showing me how sick she is of the murky muddy chook yard. I managed  to put a bit of sawdust and hay down inbetween rain showers but there is still plenty of mud to cover up.

And the broad beans are bolting...

The beetroot and Rhurbarb are running...

The brassicas are blooming...

 I know I post a lot of my hobbies here ut this blog is also meant to be about our ongoing challenge to find more ways to be frugal, eco friendly and self sufficient as we can. And on that note i introduce this new consept to my blog....



 I have a giant labrodor..and for the past five years of hios life I have been cleaning up after him....ugh..hate that job!!! Anyway normally i have to dispose of this at the dump..and its a hassel anyway i do it. Plus its really unenvironmentally friendly what with the leechlates and the plastic bags and the whole landfill issue...and its a hassell. But recently i read about making a doggy toilet by adding septic starter to a barrel especially for the purpose. When I looked at this further i discovered that some people actually make compost with the doggy doo. NOW this is a pretty funny subject. Some people rave about this and some people DONT!! I fugured I would give it a try. NOTE this compost is not for the edible garden!! Anyway the idea is to only put the doggy doo in and add earthworms. I have been doing this and adding both red wrigglers and earthworms, aies and giants...we have plenty of both. The first lot of tyres was full, so I covered it over and began another. The other day after only a week unattended and covered I pulled ack the cover and the heap was HEAVING with worms, who all dissappeared under the surface at the sunshine. I cannot tell yo how happy this made me. IT. IS. WORKING. Woo Hoo!!!! I hope I havent made any one sick!!
Ill now post a pretty picture to make things all better..

Anyway take care.

The first game of the netball season is on tomorrow morning (before scrapping course) but rain and not just any rain but heavy rain is forecast.

Whatever the weather have a happy weekend

Love and happy gardening

fom Cherry

The School holidays

Its the School holidays her in NZ. Two weeks of fun with the kids. Pjs til lunchtime, sleeping in...bliss. The thing is every holidays I vow to clean up, find lost library books (so far found1/3!!) and keep ahead of my girls and thier messes/ playchaos. Again I appear to be failing..... I also cant seem to get my act into gear to finish off Georgias PJ pants. I have sewn her top and she loves it and wears it with some old ottoms, and youd think that would motivate me wouldnt you?? ut no..Ive cut out one and cleared a space on the kitchen/craft table and cant seem to take the next step. However I have begun walking again. Boy am I knackered!!! My shoes are rubbish and I feel as if all my toes have been hammered tonight. Honestly I can hardly walk! I really need to svae and buy some decent Nikes (they fit my hooves well last time)

I am trying to get all my wedding photos scrapped. Gets a bit tedious. Their is no journalling or not much. Not really a lot I can say and so its just coming up with different artwork for the photos. Sometimes it all comes together and Im really happy with the result others Im not so happy  with and I keep thinking i should have used the same colours or papers throughout...but it is what it is and if in the furure some grear great grandspring enjoys them then my work is done!!!!

So this one I have actually written in white pen the guests pictured here..Im semi-happy with this one..  kaiser paper La di dah collection..

This one I started to pull apart and rearrange half way through still not sure what I think. I used kaiser love Notes (lots of Kaiser in Spotlight at the moment!) I also bought  a new bottle of gloss for the embellishments and have gone a bit crazy...youll see lots of glossy accents from here on in..

I used some stazon ink and acetate for the butterflies. First time Ive used this medium. The papers were free with a magazine and I pretty much copied thier layout they had used as an example inside...lazy huh?

More free papers, a copied layout and glossy accents going on here.......

More of the same here........

ANd this one I got from this site. Loved the sketch and practically used it exactly as it was drawn. I have so many gorgeous photos of the ballet days with Alex and am sad they are over. But now we are going to riding lessons so onwards and into new directions.

I have good news from the chook pen. My concerns over Sad chook not being well were quite true. SHe became jittery and upset and I couldnt get near her. Then I read that often chooks heavily in the moult can be paranoid. Now that a few new feathers are coming forth she has calmed down a lot more and with the new glossy feathers I keep telling her thats she going to be gorgeous!!
I do love my chooks. Everybody knows it!
Im sore and tired and Sons of Anarchy has begun so I bid you happy scrapping and happy chook keeping, until next time
Love Cherry

Forever...

Bird is the word challenge blog has chosen the word Forever as their new word. You can enter by sending a LO with these words on it. This is my second entry with this site. See if you can join in!!

Happy challenges

Cherry

News from down on the (urban) farm...

I was reading a great simple life type blog here

and there were pitures of the chickens on this particular urban farm, with good and evil listed. It gave me the imputus to get into the yard and remember my camera to take pics of my girls. It has been raining really hard today and for the first time is fire starting cold so the chook pen is in a bit of a state ...(just warning you)

First up is Sad Chook. Somethings up with sad chook the grande dame of the yard. Shes eating, and drinking, occassionally pecking the young guns and looks bright and cheery enough, BUT something is up. I just feel it. Hopefully it is justthe moult. Sads has feathers poking out everywhere but a lot of glossy ones now to replace her rather dull old brown ones that living ina cage the size of a mouse trap gives you after righteen months..... I thinkshes responsible for laying the monster eggs every four or sodays and Im sure her laying has mellowed off. Im pretty sure its the moult and my GHIU can just stop making knife across the throat gestures when I mention it.... my poor babies. They will die as god intended. Hopefully falling off the perch replete and happy..

And then theres the ever gorgeous Christmas, UNdisputed Queen of the pack. She lays her cute little rown eggs every day and looks such a sight with bare feathers sticking out of her bum like pieces of straw. Bless her shes sucha little character. She is small but mighty. Look at Hokey next to her. Shes hoping for some green scraps (they had last nights left over stew a couple of hours efore at lunch so neednt look so hungrty and needy)

Here are the girls in their muddy yard . I really want to put some straw down ut the stuff Ive got is so full of grass seed and I have nightmares using it in their nesting box as it is of grass seeds embedded in bodies and inhaled down throats into lungs (this happened to our labrador Sam ....Marleys younger dopier brother..) .

From the back we have Sad Chook,Hokey, Pokey, Christmases bum, and Shelley (fitting the evil label in this photo) helen Cluck is out of shot.

 So that sums up the Animal side of the farm. Now onto the winter garden..

 Bok Choi and (can you see them) our onion seedlings are up!~!!!! First time we have ever grown onions!!! (musnt get too smug too early obviously)

Nasturtiams and beetroot, baby brassicas and (below the ground) hopeful broad bean seeds.

And just when you thought it couldnt get anymore photographically more exciting. The brassica patch interspersed with celery, spinach and the last of the basil..

 Of course i couldnt finish with out some scrapping.  last Tuesdays class was this double layout. I had just torn my muscle in my shoulder and was in pain, but nothing comes between me and my scrapbooking outings..

You can tell though that this is not my bestwork. I really was in pain and the rest of my body seemed to be in sympathy with the shoulder and so I made lots of boo boos. Ive yet to write in the little tags we made to fit behind the photos, Maybe some writing will lift this L/o

I was speaking to our gorgeous tuor who comes up with these l/os and she uses her granddaughter as a model in her layouts. She said that she had about elevan albums of her that she had used. I told her what a great legacy she was leaving her and that when she was older she would treasure it. Then I thought Golly am I doing the same thing!??
I have another photo of a layout of my father duckshooting from years ago and it was in a truly AWFUL layout I did a few years back. I have redone it and was quite pleased but my camera battery just died before I couldl get it to this blog.
Check out this sketch too. I want to use it soon..
Happy scrappin, good living and frugal thoughts
until next time
Love cherry

Project life

I thought I should show you that i do do other things..other than scrapbook!!!! Its just that scrapbooking has been my addiction of late. UT before I talk of other things I am desparately trying to get hold of Becky Higgins Scrapbooking project life kits..anyone know where to get them in NZ??? A few years back I had a chance to buy one ut as I was still only dabbling in scrapbooking (fabric having taken over my life) I dint by one. NOW my local shop or any shop around here doesnt have them.... Has anyone else been invilved in them...I have beenn looking on You tube and Im afraid that i may just have become obsessed....again....

With the Project life I could happily scrap delightful but everyday photos such as this one of Alex ...And a million more I take and dont want to keep in the packet or put in a doozy old album (please Im trying to get everything into scrapbooks OUT of those old photo albums)

 So to other happenings on the "farm"...investing in these gorgeous days of Autumn we have been planting out the garden for  Winter. Lots of brassicas, spinach and cabbage butterflies too. Still no sprays here and so we have lots of predatory insect swatrming too..its all good. In the second raised bed I have plante3d onion seeds( Which are up hurray!) and silverbeet..actually there is plenty of beet around growing for the chooks..just not that big yet. I am looking forward to putting in my garlic again and also broad beans. This is a picture of the first vegetable garden. You can see the brassicas doing their thing. I will be planting a lot more for winter yet.

The chooks are laying up a storm we get between five and six eggs most days. I think sad chook is responsile for te monster eggs we get every other day..bless her!! Hokey is very lame but seems healthy and happy in every respect so Im crossing my fingers for her.

We have all been sick, georgia has been having unexplained severe stomach pains and Alex has been under the weather. I had a night full of terrible headaches so its a day of work and school all around!
The weather is beautiful. No photos UT we have had heaps of monarch butterflies from our swan plant. The first lot ate the plant clean seemingly overnight and died. I cant believe I didnt go down to the nurasery and buy another plant??!! But the plant came back to life and now the second lot are preparing to fly off to wherever it is that they fly off to. it is a glorious sight and one I should be photographing for project life..Help someone please!!

Take care and enjoy the changing summer to Autumn  Winter to spring season wherever you find yourself,
Love Cherry

gutted....

That title isnt great but its how I fel right now. I should explain that for the last month or so we have been looking at a possible two year tenure on the Chatham islands. we were all excited about it even the children (who would have swelled the school numbers to 38) and were promised skype to keep in touch with their friends. There is not a High School there so really the time is now to take up this opportunity. Anyway its all turned belly up and we are just a bit devastated. The liklihood of eing able to do in wo years time is really highBUT then Georgia will be due to start High School.  I could home school her, but whos to say that she will want to be going there. Anybody who knows me and my ideal of living in an isolated location living off the land will know just how appealing the Chathams was for me. It will take a while to get over ut im goping to have to trust in life the universe or the greater power that all things work out for the better.

Anyway...latest scrapping...

My pages are getting more lumpy bumpy and I will have to buy more ring file type albums. The flowers on this one I learnt to do off the MANY tutorials on youtube, and I love making all these embellishments I am finding on You tube. Its like a mini classroom!!! Off course we are whizzing through the gigbytes too fast and so i have had to put the brakes on!!

So as not to bore non scrapping friends I have included some pictures I took of the girls the other day in the park. The great ginga monster joined us as he often does and I took these pics for a double page layout I will be doing at my favourite hangout at the scrapbook shop on 1st April. Im hoping to put four photos over the two pages. Nothing special but just mygirls as they are today. Growing up , changing every minute and

 becoming wiser every day.
And tonight...da da!!! Our first fire. That wonderful dust burning smell of the first fire. The scary thought we havnet had the chimney cleaned in two seasons, Alex cosing up in one of my quilts, the cats looking very pleased with themselves ready to take over from Alexs position shortly. The fact that the door lock thing still isnt closing prooperly, we didnt get it fixed over summer and the heat therefore goes up the chimney. All these things reminisent of that first fire. And talking of cosy one of the lovliest things I read in blogland recently was on Rhondas down to earth site here about her bed and the making off it. My bed is alwaqys the exact opposite to her explanation but it has been inspiring and I really want o have abed exactly like hers..check out the cosy quilt and the peaceful ambiance..

 Another layout.....

 I may have already blogged about this..have I??? Im such a ditz. Im also in love with butterflies and I found out about making them with stamps and transparency the other day  its on YOutube (where else) and Ive lost the link now, but WOW it looks great. I cant wait to try it. I am however on a scrapbooking financial stop at t he moment and this would entail me to uy transparency, styzon ink and buterfliy stamps.

Ill say adieu now
happy scrapping...
Love Cherry the slightly melancholic scrapper.