Paper. Scissors. Chocolate. Louise Williams

shhhh...

I'm preeeetty sure I don't have any rellies other than my mother who reads my blog so I'm fairly confident I can show you this canvas I've just finished. It's a gift for my aunt and uncle for Christmas - they're building a beach house down at Matarangi and I'm really hoping they like this! It's 36 x 18" so is pretty big and hard to hide if they don't! lol

I've used texture paste, some gold finger and a few touches of mica flakes to add a little 'something' more. Anyway it's my first canvas ever and I'm pretty happy with it. I think I'm going to make one for our place once we get to decorating.

TFL

L :) x

Letter to Joshua

Delayed by a few days...

Dear Joshua

You're 6!! I can't believe it... how did my gorgeous little baby get so big already? although you still love to be babied served, you also are starting to really try and do more yourself and be a big boy. Even with a grubby nose you're still gorgeous, always were, always will be.

During this first year at school you've really changed a lot. You enjoy learning and are very smart and creative and are always wanting to invent. You've developed a bit of a mouth on you and a typical attitude but in general are very loving and thoughtful, often making me cards or drawing pictures for everyone.

You recently did your first school show and was a "volcano dancer". I was so proud watching you perform your little heart out, you loved it. Then you got your first certificate from school "for inspiring others". You were called up in front of the whole school and expected to dance and did you what!?! - you have some dancing skills little buddy. :) After waiting for so long and thinking you'd never get a certificate I was so glad I could be there when you were surprised by it.

So now you're 6, it's that age where you really start to be a big boy (and I can't even imagine having a 7 year old). You're an awesome big brother to Lucas, you love him so much and you stick together like glue. He's your best friend (your words) and despite the typical boy rowdiness, you always have to be around each other.

You say the sweetest, funniest things too. This morning you said "Mummy I love you too much, I think I'm gonna boom"... Your big hugs and loving words can always make me smile. So Happy Birthday again, have a fabulous party on Sunday and know how much I love you my sweet boy.

Mummy xx

Letter to Lucas

To my beautiful little man

Two years ago today, I was holding you and having our first morning cuddle. You were born just after midnight so just crept in on the 22nd September. You were a big boy - the same length as your brother was at birth but a whole kilogram heavier! You had a bottle and went straight to sleep for exactly 4 hours before waking and repeating. You were the perfect baby. Happy and beautiful, laughing from only a couple of weeks old. You're an old soul and while you've always known your own mind, you're easy going and a joy to be around.

Your name means "bringer of light", and since that day 2 years ago that's exactly what you've done. You're a character and love to try and make people laugh, saying "I funny" afterwards and giggling. You do the best dinosaur impression I've seen. You adore your big brother just as much as he adores you, in fact I wish you'd leave each other alone a bit more but I'm also loving you have such a strong bond. You always say "bye, I wuv you" before disappearing off to play. You know how to work my laptop and the dvd player and are always turning the TV on and off. You love to draw and love chasing your brother on your new scooter, trying to make him squeal while attempting to run him over. Boys.

You love animals and while you don't want the cat next to you on the couch, you always give them a pat or a cuddle when they walk past. You love music too and are always singing and dancing. A few beats of music on an ad or toy is enough to get you boogying. You know your alphabet already and can count to 15, you're definitely on the gifted scale too.

You're pretty independent, happy to play for an hour or two by yourself in the bedroom, running cars over the sheets on our bed (never the duvet) - please remove the cars before bedtime though, I'm always finding them under my pillow.

I'm loving watching you grow up, I love hearing your chattering and seeing you learning so much, so fast. You take everything in like a sponge and don't miss a thing. We have funny little conversations that I mostly understand, and you're "yep, ok and noooooo's" are too cute but always what you mean.

So thank you little man, for coming into our lives and enriching them so much. You are adored beyond words.

Happy Birthday Lucas

Mummy xxx

I haven't stopped scrapping...

Life's just gotten crazy of late and I'm getting worried about my eldest boy Joshua. We have stuff to get sorted with him but my current main concern is that he's pre-diabetic. DH is diabetic so I know genetically both boys are prone but Lucas doesn't seem to react to food sugars the way Josh does. It's him I'm worried about. We've checked his blood sugars a few times and it's obvious.

We already know he's pre-diabetic, but as well as being ridiculously fussy with food he's also got the trait of refusing to try ANYTHING new. His diet is appalling despite my constant attempts to improve it. It depresses me. It scares me. I don't want him to have to jab himself umpteen times a day and he's not a kid that would deal with that.

We've talked to him about how important it is that he eats the lunch I give him for school and when he needs to eat what, but like most almost 6 year olds his lunch comes home mostly uneaten day after day. Unfortunately that means his blood sugars drop and he then eats whatever he can find causing them to surge. His behaviour goes manic, he can't control himself and then we have a whole other set of things to deal with and in the meantime his body is destroying itself.

We can't just let him go hungry either. If his sugars go to low it'll make it worse so we need to make sure he eats regular, low GI meals. There's no "if he's hungry he'll eat it" with him. He'll go hungry. He'll sneak/steal food. If he doesn't his blood sugars drop to a level he can barely get a sentence out. It's so hard.

I don't want him becoming diabetic. At the moment it's still preventable but I can see his reactions to anything with sugar becoming more obvious and I know he's on that track. If we can get his eating better then maybe we can prevent it. He's not diabetic yet, but he IS pre-diabetic. He's on that road and it kills me.

He won't try new food and is bored stupid with eating the same things all the time. He's starting to look like a chicken nugget but other than the odd mince savoury, it's the only protein he'll eat. He won't even look at eggs, cheese, fish or other meats. He won't eat most cereals, he only wants the sugary ones so has toast and marmite. every. day. For snacks he might have a low sugar muffin bar which is fine if he only has one, but he wants more than one as he's still hungry. He won't eat fruit other than grapes or raisins. He won't eat much in the way of vegetables. He'll eat popcorn and other carb snacks but they're not good for him. There's little nutritional value in anything he'll actually eat and we supplement his diet with kid vitamins as we know he's such an appalling eater. It goes beyond being fussy. It's part of his gifted traits - he won't try anything new unless he knows he'll love it and if I've ever offered him something that I've said he'd love and he hasn't, then he won't believe me again to try anything else.

It's all very well having this list of foods he can eat from too but that doesn't mean he can eat only those. He can't have a muffin bar, popcorn AND something else... it's too many carb's and there's not a lot of low GI food he'll eat. He wants the sugary stuff marketed to kids and it's hard for this little boy who just wants to eat what he sees his friends eating to understand that he just can't. He knows no sugar and he's so good around the supermarket when we tell him he can't have something because of the sugar. He does his best on school food days to choose something without sugar, but then his 6 year old self takes over and he does what kids do - thinks it'll be ok. They're indestructible at that age remember?

I've tried making my own nuggets etc to make them healthier (sneaking cauliflower puree under the breadcrumbs) but if it doesn't look like a store bought one he won't even try it. It's not like I don't try. I try and try and still I see him going down this track as he fights me every step of the way.

I don't know what else to do. We keep trying. We've had to recently deal with his teacher at school too who, despite being told he was pre-diabetic, kept giving him lollipops and fudge. That's stopped thankfully (after a not very nice confrontation about it) but we get no support there on making him eat his lunch before he goes and plays. Is it just his school? do other schools keep a better watch on their young ones?

I've done a lot of venting lately but I've had a lot on my plate. On this any suggestions will be gratefully received.

L x

A bit of steampunk and a video or 3...

I've been Shimmerzing with the new Enamelz and it's lurve...

For this layout I took a tonne of Twiddleybitz goodness and embossed my lil heart out with the new Enamelz and finished off with some touches of Prima and adhesive pearls and swirls from Flourish with a Bling. I've done a recent guest DT spot for FWAB and love their products - head over and take a look at their blog.

And even a video of how I created it...

On another note I've been rather excited to have my first items being shown on the Prima stand at CHA! I spotted them in a couple of video's of the new stuff and sooooo wish I could've seen the stand in real life, it looked amazing!

In this first one I have a christmas layout of Joshie on an easel rrrriiiggghhhht at the end JUST as the batteries ran out... I'll show the full layout on here as soon as I get the ok.

In this one you can see my clear acrylic album which obviously quite took her fancy as she went back to it again for a good look through it! yay!!

My little bit of excitement for the day. :)

Did I share these? I created them for Aussie Scrap Source recently and they were made for my mum (they made her cry when she got them)... we all got to do some awesome 7 Gypsies trays and memory jars and I love how different everyone's were... don't you love the picture of my mum (number 12) in the top left? I'm really happy with how this turned out - I used Pink Paislee papers and some gorgeous Twiddleybitz chippie embossed with, you guessed it, Shimmerz Enamelz. :D

And this is the matching memory jar. I handmade the cotton spools using rolled up paper and some punched out circles all glued together then wrapped with muslin and secured with some pins from Jillibean Soup. Easy and effective!

Saw an interesting thing on tv tonight about Fodmap's... it could definitely be the cause of many of the issues I have with my Crohn's disease especially when I eat right! It makes me so frustrated that I can't diet and exercise to lose weight like everyone else as when I start eating fruit and vegetables too regularly it sets it all off and I'm back to square one. It's looking like going gluten free and cutting out high fodmap foods could definitely help so I'll do a bit more research on it and give it a go. I miss having some energy and just feeling well. I'm not sick, I'm not suffering but I have had ongoing issues with my disease which has otherwise been in remission up until a few months ago, and with two young children and lots to do I refuse to spend my life sitting on the couch. Stay tuned...

ArtLab is in 2 weeks and I can't wait! I have boxes of goodies for everyone and it's all come together like a plan no less!! it's going to be so much fun, can't wait to share the photos afterwards.

There are places available for the retreat at the end of October too, make sure you register as it's going to be sooo much fun! I'm teaching a Prima class (with Twiddleybitz and Shimmerz) and Liz's card buffet is looking awesome. Roll on October.. but not too fast because of course in September I'll be in Brissy teaching at the Papercrafts Festival! Make sure you book in for all 3 workshops too (myself, Jane Clark and Janine Koczwara are teaching)... you don't want to miss out on these ones either.

Righto, that's enough for today :)

L :) x

2 weeks to go...

yep, officially school holiday time here in New Zealand. I wish I could say I was one of those mother's that relished every. little. second. that I spend with my squealing, fighting, loud (but gorgeous) children. But I'm sorry, I'm not up for that particular prize in this years Mother of the Year awards ceremony. I love my kids and I love to spend time with them, but as someone who works from home I find having them with me 24/7 and trying to achieve anything is not only frustrating and stressful, it's also a no brainer that it's just not gonna happen. I have so much to do right now too. This month is CRAZY busy, more so than any other month and having them home means I'm just seeing my workpile increase and me slipping a little more behind with it hour by hour.

However - (whinge over) - I love both my kids more than anything else in this world and if they force me to take a break (from what really isn't that important in the scheme of things) to watch them chase each other on their bikes or build "the most amazing train track ever", then I'm grateful they want me to watch. I know there'll come a time when they really won't care if I see them or not, or want me there at all. So I'm trying to chill out a little and take the time to just be with them, have them around, let them climb up on my knee and take over my computer mouse as I'm trying to type an important email. Coz I love them, and just need to remind myself sometimes about what's really important. It's easy to get caught up in deadlines and worrying, but I want them to remember that they had a mother that took the time just to sit with them and watch the Gummy Bear video for the MILLIONTH time.

On that note of taking the time I took Joshie to his first school disco the other night. He was so excited and nervous to be going, he got himself all dressed in what he decided to wear (and yes I know he's well overdue for a haircut, he'll get one over the holidays!) and we headed out. When we got there it was quietish (we were there bang on time when it started),so we purchased the obligatory glow finger thingy and he wandered around looking for his friends.

He knew that at disco's you were there to dance so of course when the first song started he took off onto the dance floor to bust some moves.

All the other kids were just running around though, and when he realised he became very self conscious and didn't want to dance again. Despite the fact that as the evening wore on most of the other kids were all dancing and having fun, Josh tended to just wander around looking for people he knew and being sad about the fact "it wasn't what he expected".

I told him that now he'd been to one, he'd know what to expect next time but how proud I was of him that he'd gotten up to dance (it was a big thing for him as he's quite shy about people watching him do something like that). He's keen to go to another one and just have fun with his friends without the expectation of having to dance so I'm glad the experience didn't put him off.

The usual question of what to do with the kids in the holidays has already arisen (and it was only day 1)... lol... Both my boys love to create and draw though so I set them up with a little table, some chippie, pens, a couple of canvases and a snack and let them go for it... (note the giant WHOLE cheezel in Lukey's mouth)... that kid can eat...

And a good time was had by all...

So that gave me time to get on with some of my own projects. First up is this wee ATC I made for an upcoming show for Twiddleybitz (have you checked out the ning site yet? full of competitions, galleries and fun stuff!). I used a chippie cog and a frame which I embossed with Shimmerz Enamelz for a really cool mirrored look. It didn't photograph as well as i'd have liked but you get the gist...

Next up is a Twiddleybitz treasure chest that I put together and created a memory box out of... it's a bit like a scrapbook page in a box! The outside...

And a close up - I used distressing embossing powder along the bottom edge to make it look like it had just been dug up out of the sand.

And on the inside I decorated it with more Twiddleybitz goodness - the pirate coins which Joshie helped me emboss with some more of the gorgeous new Shimmerz Enamelz embossing powder (you totally need some of these)...

And a close up...

I used some dry oasis (that you put silk flowers in) that I shaped and spray painted gold as the base for the pile of coins. I hot glued all the coins into place and added some junk jewellery and sparkly trim to finish it off.

Ok, back to creating! Got something exciting coming up soon classwise (as well as my upcoming one in Brisbane - have you booked yet?)... loads on, mojo's amped and my wandering parents have found their way back from the sun again so yay, busy exciting week ahead!

L :) x

A personal post

I don't share that much personal stuff on here these days. I tend to keep family stuff a bit closer to my chest but I wanted to post a bit about my eldest son, Joshua.

Joshua is a special little guy, he's turning 6 this year and we love him to pieces. He's bright, beautiful, loving, creative, thoughtful and funny. He's also a lot of hard work. We've had behavioural issues with Joshua since he was born pretty much. He wasn't a good sleeper, is a lousy eater and tended to be way more extreme in his reactions to things than other kids. There is just no middle ground with him, it's either all on or it's all off and it's caused a fair bit of friction in our household over the years.

We knew he was a bit different but have never been able to quite put our fingers on what it was. We've looked into all the usual suspects: Aspergers, Autism, ADHD, OCD etc... but nothing quite fit. He had a little traits of each but not enough of anything to be able to actually say "yes! THAT'S what it is".

A little while ago a friend, who was also one of Joshie's kindy teachers, pointed me in the direction of gifted children. I did the online checklist. He scored 98%. We were onto something. Finally, I felt like we were on the right track. We booked him in for an assessment to find out exactly what was going on, and it's been the best $540 we've ever spent. When she nodded and smiled and said "Yes, Joshie is very gifted" I teared up and started to cry. I was so relieved. Finally we were going to be able to get some help for his often extreme behaviour that was, quite frankly, starting to tear our family apart.

Yesterday was part 2 of the assessment and we've found he's learning at a 7 year old level in a number of areas, but is only average in others and that is where his frustrations lie. He's such a perfectionist that he expects to be amazing in ALL areas and can't handle the fact he's not, so he gets aggressive and gives up. We have a way to go and one step will be to get him into the one day school programme. It's a day a week where he'll go to another school to learn with other gifted kids in the way he prefers - visually. It's hands-on, lots of fun and apparently kids that have gone there usually immediately start to find some balance in their behaviour. They learn they're not alone in thinking differently. They get some self esteem instead of punishing themselves for not being perfect. We've tried everything to boost Joshie's self esteem, and he veers from thinking he's the bees knees to being so very hard on himself that it breaks my heart. In the end his self worth has to come from him, and I'm confident that being amongst other kids like him and having teachers who really understand gifted kids will help him see what we see - just what an amazing little guy he is.

I feel like this is all the start of a very long road of working with him to try and find that balance, but at least we're on the right road now. I'm so proud of my boys. I love them both with everything that I am and I just feel so RELIEVED and positive about the future now. I now recognise that parenting a gifted child IS a much harder job and that maybe I haven't been doing the lousy job I thought I'd been doing all these years. I also know I'm not the only parent that feels this way (don't we all at some stage?) but just the knowledge of that has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. The guilty feeling that maybe I was to blame for everything has diminished (it'll never go, I'm a mum and we thrive on guilt don't we?), but I think just KNOWING and having someone else VERIFY that yes, he's gifted; yes, he's going to be harder to parent than other children but yes, I'm doing a good job with what I know how to do has given me a real sense of peace.

I know we have a long road ahead. I know I have a lot to learn about my son and know it won't be an easy, quick fix. Our house will still be noisy and yes, we may seem to others to be THAT family in the street but I no longer care about what the neighbour's may think about us when hearing the meltdowns that I believe will become a rare event. It's going to change for the better. I'm sure of it. And that makes me happy. 

That's all, just felt the need to get it out there

L x

I blame the Home Show...

The Easter Bunny paid us a visit yesterday, hiding eggs all over the house and leaving photo clues for the boys to follow to find them. Joshie LOVES doing the egg hunt, and as usual then rehid all the clues and made us do a repeat performance. :)

It's been a good Easter weekend, I've enjoyed just staying home, vegetating and catching up on some work and scrapping after all the illness in the house this past month. Today we're off to see Rio at the movies, it's our one Easter splurge this year as we decided to forego the Easter Show. At $10 for a bouncy castle ride ($2 everywhere else!) we couldn't justify the money to wander around half empty pavilions trying to waste a couple of hours so we didn't feel totally ripped off.

The Easter Show used to be my favourite thing as a kid at Easter. Every year we'd go and spend hours in the pavilions looking at all the stalls before heading off to watch the horse jumping, log chopping or the like while eating hot chips and sauce. As the evening came in and the lights came on we'd venture up to the rides and I'd get to throw myself around and every which way on the rides - I loved the Rock 'n Roll - always made me suitably ill and scared... We'd tackle the Ghost Train and the Crazy House, we'd look at the animals and go watch some of the amazing free shows in the Logan Campbell Centre. We'd be there for a good 6 hours or more. In the end we'd happily head home with some cheap plastic prize from the laughing clowns (I once won a brake pedal cover), and a bag of candy floss and I'd fall asleep that night in the memory of the haze of bright lights and carnival music. The best year ever was when my mum and aunt took a stand at the show so we were given some money and free reign on the place while we were there... bliss...

I wish it was like that now. But you pay your $45 entry fee (family pass) and there's really nothing much there now. The Home Show came along and stole all the pavilion stands and now there's only a few stalls of Chinese imported plastic wonders and some mini rides inside. The same rides are repeated outside along with some that are too big for my kids to go on, and all really expensive. There's still the usual wood chopping and some of the shows are still really good, but without the free circus it's hard trying to kill time between events. I've read they've taken people's complaints on-board and will do something about the prices etc next year, I hope so as Lukey would be a better age for the rides then and both boys might get something out of it. I'd hate to see the show go altogether but there is definite room for improvement.

Anyway I have a new video for you for Shimmerz, this one also features some of the gorgeous lasercuts from a new Australian company - Flourish with a Bling. Check them out, they have some great stuff!

And the video:

 

Also a sneak peek of a couple of other things I've been working on...

full reveal shortly...

L x

2 weeks already?

Crikey, that's what flies by when you're sick! we've had a shocking month for illness in our house, it started with an odd rash that kept Joshie away from school for a couple of days and then Lukey spent 24 hours vomiting spontaneously. That followed 2 days later with me unable to move more than a metre from the bathroom and Joshie also vomiting for a full day and night. A couple of days later DH came down with it as did my mum, although in her case she very nearly ended up in hospital.

After almost a full week of it the virus seemed to have disappeared from the house, everything was disinfected and washed but Lukey still hadn't really come right. He was still vomiting periodically, had a recurring fever and just wasn't himself. He's normally such a happy, bright, busy little boy so it was obvious when he was listless and grouchy that he wasn't well so I decided he'd better go to the doctors. We were sitting in the waiting room and he threw up all down me again, proof he wasn't feeling too good.

Sooooo little guy is on anti-biotics but seems to be responding really quickly to them. He's back to being naughty busy and is his cheeky, mischevious self again so I'm assuming the diagnosis of a probable infection somewhere was correct. Really be glad to get all this behind us!

The other week I went to a crop night over at the lovely Trina McClune's. It was the charity night we donated for the Christchurch auctions that was won by the also lovely Christine Steel, who bought a bunch of her besties to come and share the evening of scrapping and laughs. It was a great night (thanks guys!!) and big thanks to Trina for hosting it. We gave them a goodie bag and I made these for it:

We've also had 2 new additions to the family - Finn and Goldie - goldfish for Joshie to teach him some responsibility. He LOVE's his fish (Goldie is his, Finn is Lukey's) and has been drawing little fish and attaching them to the tank to amuse his new friends. He keeps saying how he can't believe he has fish of his own... so cute. So far so good with keeping them alive, I apologised for choosing them when we brought them home... lol

It's Easter and I'm really looking forward to it, it won't be a restful weekend as I have a tonne of stuff to catch up on but I don't mind working when the phone ain't ringing! We've put the order in with Mr Bunny for Sunday (who's decided that individual mini maps directing said children to next egg spot is in order) and as it's likely to be a wet weekend I can see baking, DVD's and giggling children in the mix. :)

The Autumn Escape is out of the way for another year so time to get sorted for the Indulgence Retreat. I have some serious plans for this and you DON'T want to miss out so make sure you register really soon. Forms are available for both that and the ArtLab by clicking on the download buttons on the sidebars of this blog.

Also had a lovely email this morning telling me my blog was featured as one of the favourite top 50 scrapbooking blogs over at onlineclasses.net. Nice way to start the day and you can find the full list here

I'm also finishing up a new video for Shimmerz, and have a new project to share with you on Saturday. Also working on a couple of new classes including one I'll be doing on my blog for FREE so stay tuned for that one. And finally after a break from it I've rejoined the amazing team over at Twiddleybitz so keep your eye out for some more chippie goodness coming soon :)

Have a wonderful Easter holiday and stay safe on the roads!

L x

Just brushing the cobwebs...

off my blog! it's been over a week (yikes!! where'd that go?) and I've been busily creating stuff I can't quite show you yet... I will give you a sneak though:

Other than that the colder weather has definitely hit! I've had my first coffee of the season (I tend not to drink it in warm weather), have brought my slippers out of their summer retirement and the winter sheets and blankets are about to go back on the beds.

I love this time of year myself. I'm not a summer person and much prefer to be snug inside at home with a hot coffee and the wind howling than deal with oppressive humidity and heat.

I've also begun walking. No marathons but it's a start and I'm feeling better for just doing it :) Good job too as I have a sick 5 year old home from school at the moment and he and Lukey are NOT condusive to achieving much workwise!

I finally got my camera back from Canon so am learning to use it now. Just having fun snapping away and am getting better shots than with my old camera so I'm happy. This last weekend provided these shots of children being launched at the bed (note the circus colour scheme of our bedroom currently):

and then the obligatory water fight in the bath...

totally one sided so Lukey got him back:

Those two veer between adoration and wanting to kill each other, mostly adoration ;)

And Joshie's been having swimming lessons down at the new Northern Arena complex. It's only a little dearer than the Leisure Centre where we used to go, and I think the lessons are so much better. He's gotten so much more confident in the water and is quite the fish :)

And Lukey loves watching him. Lucas is teething big time right now and has 3 large back molars coming through at once so none of us have been getting much sleep. He's generally a happy little fella though, his talking's getting really good and he's sooooo smart it's not funny! He's playing with a lot of Joshie's toys and knows what to do and how to do it. The benefits of having an older brother I guess.

Such a cutie...

What else? I spent the night before last writing scathing reviews of the "Little Toot" - The Whangaparaoa Narrow Gauge Railway. It's somewhere we've frequented over the years and the boys love the little train ride through the bush but we will NOT be going back. The other day mum took them there and gave Joshie a go on the pedal cars. The cars are old and have no rubber or anything around them and long story short, Joshie was coming down the slight incline and didn't get the brake on in time. He had a very small bump into a parked pedal car (absolutely NO damage) and the woman in the booth screeched at him to get out. Joshie was a bit shocked and surprised by her reaction and then her son came and yanked him out by one arm and yelled at him to stand at the side. Poor Joshie was upset and had his hands up trying to explain it was just an accident but the guy was going off at him. Mum saw it all but was getting ice creams at the time and came charging over to tell him to keep his hands off... if I'd have been there I would have said a lot more than that. If these people are running a family amusement directed at children, you'd think they'd actually like kids! I can understand these cars aren't dodgems, but he wasn't deliberately hitting anything and their reaction was over the top to say the least. Anyway I've been around posting online reviews about the incident and will never return there. I can only encourage other people to boycott the place that would treat a child like that too! they don't deserve a dollar of my money and won't be getting any again. They're also about to get an angry letter of complaint in the mail from me, along with a picture Joshie drew of a group of children holding hands with sad faces. Some people just shouldn't be in business.

A big congrats also to my bestie Deb for raising $200 in a charity walk and managing to do the whole 10k in 2 hours, 7 minutes!! Fantastic :)

Also I'm just awaiting the final paypal funds to draw down into the account and I'll be able to do the transfer of all the money from the Christchurch auctions! Yay!  Thanks again to everyone that contributed either through donations or bidding :)

Limited places are still available for the Indulgence Retreat and the ArtLab. We have a fabulous group coming to both so make sure you register and pay your deposit now so you don't miss out. As usual with these things a lot of people hold off until closer to the date but there's no guarantee of a spot if you do.

Anyway lots to do, lots of great things coming up and I need to go finish a fairy... as you do.

L :) x