ch ch ch cha cha changes....

Who knows that song??? bet you all knew it when you read it and it has nothing to do with anything really :D
But anyway.
I had a lovely weekend, went to visit my sister and her family down country, was nice, havent been down for ages! (bad sister/aunty) also caught up with dad who thoroughly liked his Father's day gifts (books books and more books!) even though I think he was genuinely surprised that I have read them all... My sister said the same thing, he seems to be surprised at any sign of intelligence, we mustn't scare the poor man again by doing anything that might be construed as intellectual!!!
Onto other news, we have an acting CEO at work, our normal boss was in a nasty accident on Friday on his way to the final afternoon of the Mental Health Conference, got hit by a courier bicycle man and has a dislocated shoulder and broken (in a few places) arm.
That was the email greeting first thing at work. along with another email stating to beware of noises, try to work outside of the building etc etc because of the building going on in the boardroom - its close to our dept so best if we stay away, I had my ipod on and doing my work and out of nowhere heard a big bang and spilt my coffee- not a little bit, I mean the WHOLE cup of coffee, alllll over the desk.
and of course for the rest of the day, there wasnt a peep. no noise whatsoever. brilliant.
I need to do my decathlon challenge... again i have one done but it doesnt scan or photograph very well at all so I think I need to redo it... before midnight tonight :D

Random KITS and peices...

Well I'm not sure about you girls, but I have found the most adorable stuff, you know how you see someone else's work and go "oh man, that's so cool, I wish I could do that but I don't have any of that stuff" and you don't want to buy like the whole shebang?? WELL. check out this baby! AWESOME awesome idea, and I reckon I'll be hanging out there regularly!!!
Enjoy!!!

My Email...

I did not realise that my email wasnt on the blog! how silly!!! sorry Scrappy Sue, but I REALLY want to know what you thought of the cake! please email me danice25@hotmail.com and dont forget to include your postage address so I can send you your prize (great isnt it? you make a yummo cake and then ALSO get a lil pressie!!)

The Bossy Scrapper

I finally remembered (a bit too early even) to join in this week, and this week the Bossy Britches was Kelly (aka ScrappyDo) and she did a fantastic job of keeping a bunch of unruly scrappers in line and actually doing a lovely layout. Heres my take on it: Its a good way to get a layout done in a night, and ive also finished the Olympics challenge for tomorrow so I shall post that tomorrow or Tuesday anyway. Meanwhile I'm watching Constantine, which is totally weird and I dont get it at all, lots of religious stuff I think which is pretty much why I dont understand whats going on! but its better than infomercials or at least better than the crime channel!

Cake .. MUST eat Cake....

And this is the cake I am continually making (at least once a week) It changes weekly too, but I'll put the usual recipe up .. and the first person to make this cake and show me a photo will win a RAK. Its gonna be a GOOD RAK too, Im thinking a 6x6 album... so get to it!

I got clever tonight and instead of fighting with my flatmate over it, I made double the mix and made 6 large muffins, 6 small muffins AND a cake.... so no fighting over who gets 3/4 and who gets 1/4 of a cake :D everyone is happy now. ooooh yeah, except Derek, he is a fussy bugger and refuses to eat raisins so umm well TOO bad he doesnt get any cake. I keep telling him I'll make him a banana cake.. but then I notice I have all the ingredients for a Lumberjack cake so the banana cake is still unmade. oops, I'm a MEAN girlfriend.

Lumberjack Cake (Danice styles)
1 tin of pear halves (drained)
1 cup raisins
1 teaspoon Bicarb Soda
1 Cup boiling water
125gr butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cups plain flour

Topping

60 gram butter
½ cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
½ cup milk
2/3 cup shredded coconut

Method:
*Grease 20cm cake tin, line with baking paper
*Preheat oven to 180 C
*Combine pears, raisins soda and water in small bowl, cover and put aside
*Beat butter, vanilla essence and sugar in a big bowl with electric mixer until light and creamy, add egg and mix until combined.
*Transfer the pear and raisin mixture, (don’t drain but don’t use all of the liquid) into the sugar mix, alternate with flour.
*Pour into prepared pan
*Bake in over for about 50 mins

Make topping:
*Combine butter, milk, brown sugar and coconut in microwave dish, heat on high for about 1 minute or until butter is melted.

*When cake is brown on top (approx 40 mins) pour topping evenly over cake and cook for another 10-20 mins

Enjoy with cream while still warm, or let it cool for a nice morning tea cake
(lies really, I eat it all the time, breakfast, lunch and dinner)

Oh and I'll be at Spotlight Manukau tomorrow doing some Make n Takes for the kids, Fathers Day cards, so come say hello if you're around!

Some Funnies

When I say Funnies *I* think they're funny, you lot will obviously not completely understand just how amused I am... because of course I haven't scrapped these photos, (I only got them today from my cousin Travis on behalf of Aunty Miriam in Aussie) so I've not journalled about these photos.... and oh what journalling I could do! specially this one: its the Woodridge Flea Market.. and yes thats my mother and I with the van (we had a camper van not a normal car) but worse...

those bloody horrible diamond jumpers. I did not choose to wear that of my own accord, in fact I have noticed in all my photos, I wasn't allowed to choose my own clothes until well, until after I got kicked out of home at 14... no wonder I have no fashion sense!!! Mother used to do alot of volunteering work at the salvies so I pretty much lived in second hand and home made clothes, I had MASSES of these ra ra skirts which I notice in the latest K Mart catalogue!

This is obviously a Christmas Day, I don't know when tho, because I thought I spent all my Christmas Days at Dad's - obviously not! We used to fly home to NZ every summer and I stayed at the farm, so I might have to do some investigating as to when this one taken!

I was really skinny too, didnt remember that, but these photos were all taken pretty much at the beginning of my ballroom competition days and I loved athletics etc at school, so I USED to be a fit young thing, these days I am a HAPPY thing as opposed to skinny or fit or young, and I LOVE it that way!

Im off to NZ Scrapbooks' Product Preview tonight, exploding boxes!!! yay!!! fun fun fun with Three Bugs in a Rug :D

I sent my first Olympic challenge layout off last night, not the most exciting, it looks far far better in real life, working with circles and certain materials just doesn't scan up properly, and I did another layout which I think I really like, but I'll decide properly tonight!

Whats up with this weather?

I love the rain and wind, but its strange to have a lovely day then suddenly wake up to wind and rain everywhere. So Ive cleaned the kitchen and cleaned out the cupboards and now im allowed to sit in my warm cosy scrap room allllllll day!
Im mostly finished my layout for the Sketchbook Olympics, its going to be good fun- similar to the Scrapbook Studio thing but Im guessing with more all over judging. This weeks challenge is to use circles and round bits.
I am still fine with the non smoking thing, so far I can't imagine ever lighting another one, too happy with myself to start the cycle again.
I still havent figured out how to stitch my layouts together so i cant show you any work ive done yet!

I feel I can safely post now ....

And Beth- dont hate me, but I am calling myself a .............. yesssss ................... wait for it .............. its pretty shocking............ in fact............ Its one of the strangest things ever.........................ok............. get ready for it...................






a NON SMOKER.

oh dear!! call the ambulance for those that have keeled over in shock!

yes folks, I am a non smoker. I intend to stay this way too. I have been smoking less since Sunday 10th August. Just cos I felt like it, I was using patches and in conjunction with Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking book.
I now dont WANT to smoke, dont FEEL like smoking and Im doing fine, I don't "miss" doing something so silly every hour, or half hour or whenever I get in the car, I am pretty comfortable not WANTING to smoke - I'm aware that every other time I have attempted to "give up" I felt like I was denying myself something good, I'm Finally at the stage where I can freely admit, I'm not sacrificing anything, I'm not denying myself pleasure, Im giving myself something pretty precious.
So I'm trying my best to keep busy, do what I like doing with no major "life changes" as is usually suggested - honestly, I dont want to CHANGE my life, I just want to stop smoking. And for those that wish to do the same, I absolutely recommend Allen Carr's book and as trite as it sounds, I think it works!! its a fantastic tool and I would especially like to hear from any non-smokers that read it, would be quite satisfying I think to hear their opinon too!

So thats The main reason I have been quiet on the blog, that and the fact I have nothing better to report right now, I'm working on some things, did a lo last night but havent figured out how to use the flash new Photoshop on my flash new pc to stitch it, when I tried at midnight last night I got completely confused and gave up. - IM A QUITTER THIS WEEK !!!!!!!!!!!

oohhhh It's me!!!! I got a prize from NZDares! yay! and note this dare Niella is a guest designer- so go check it, hard dare too. perhaps ill sit this one out (hehehehehe)
and also its Friday which is a fantastic day of the week!
The weather is horrible again (YAY!!!!!!!!) I love horribe weather, so little guilt about leaving the house and scrapping :D
I am scrapping tonight, I feel the need, and I havent finished anything lately so must get to it!

This is a boredom post.

Im at work, and umm well cant decide what to do, so I plugged in the Ipod, and remembered I havent told y'all my new favourite song.... "Swing" by Trace Adkins, I enjoy this artist, he has some rightly amusing songs - check out the lyrics to "I got my game on" for a giggle.
So there ya go, thats ny new favourite along with Carrie Underwood's "Last name"

couple of other things, kelly, I lost your email address. oops. and to Andrea - your comment made me laugh- thank you (I think) its ok to be nutty isnt it!?? yeah I think so.

Right sooooooo umm working hmm yeah. unfortunately I dont even have any mind numbingly boring reports to do... I've already done them, soooo it is possibly a Bubble day.. for those that don't know bubble and need some OSH approved time out, email me and I'll send it to you, you do need Excel tho to use it. danice25@hotmail.com