Welcome to my world

I thought I would share some photos of Puhoi village, where I now have my shop. Summer is on it's way and the weather is finally getting warmer. And with the warmer weather comes more tourists to the area, which is great.

At the moment I am opening the shop 6 days a week, 10am to 4pm, closing on Tuesdays.

A Weekend of Fun, Friendship and Laughter

The weekend away with the other "pink angels" was amazing. It was a lovely weekend filled with lots of chatter, fun, laughter, eating and friendship. We all have a unique bond of going through our radiation treatments for our breast cancers together, earlier in the year.

The guy in the photo is an Egyptian tourist who, with his girlfriend approached us and asked if he could take our photo, and then wanted to be in the photo as well (smiles).

We wore our pink halos and pink bandanas EVERYWHERE we went from Friday till Monday morning.

The tourist town of Taupo didn't know what had hit it (smiles) but our fun, carefree antics had everyone smiling and asking what we were celebrating - to which we replied - WE ARE CELEBRATING LIFE !!

Back /Away Again Briefly /Store News

We got back from Melbourne late Sunday night - had a lovely relaxing and also tiring time away. Will update you more on what we got up to next week !! As I need to get organised for going away briefly again this coming weekend (from Friday to Monday) I am heading to Taupo for a weekend get together of some of the ladies I spent my time with at the Cancer Lodge during my radiation treatments, earlier in the year - so should be a fun weekend.
And some exciting news - hot off the press so to speak lol - yesterday I agreed to a 6 month lease of the shop next to the General Store at Puhoi - so hope to have The Craft Barn store up and running again within 2 weeks.

HAVING A GREAT VACATION

Sadly our vacation is almost over - we fly back to New Zealand on Sunday - its Friday morning here right now - but its been a fantastic vacation - very relaxing and at the same time busy, busy as well.

The day after we arrived I spent a very enjoyable day at a Craft Day teaching everyone how to make an accordian book with tags. Lots of laughter and chatting and a little crafting too - HAHA.

Heres a photo of the ladies showing off their books.

The next day was spent shopping till we dropped at the Paperific Craft Expo - lots of craft supplies brought - can't wait to get home to play !!

We have spent wonderful times with friends - old and new - eaten too much lovely food; done some sightseeing - beautiful scenery and historical spots; and yep more shopping.

Beautiful scenery at Halls Gap.

this is a Rock Art painting done by the local Aboriginal people, thousands of years ago.

Hope to be able to close the suitcases Sunday morning and not have overweight baggage costs at the airport!!

TTFN

tata for now !! Yep I know I havent blogged for a while - busy busy here. And now its 4am Wednesday morning and in a very short while we will be heading for the AIRPORT!! Our flight to Melbourne, Australia leaves at 7.30am - 4 hour flight gets us in to Melbourne at 9.30 am - then we will be picking up the rental car and heading out to Ballarat. Lots planned and I will try and pop in with updates during our 11 days away.

THE CRAFT BARN

opps keep meaning to upload a picture of where The Craft Barn now is. Luckily I got to "take over" the games room in the house before my husband decided on buying a pool table to fill up most of the space; which is now well filled up with all my "stuff".

MEET THE COWS

Meet the young "ladies" - Black Eye and Fifi (please don't ask about the names - grins). They are settling in okay except for one"break out" last weekend - a few scarey and hairy moments along the main state highway but alls well that ends well.

Spring is on its way - and along with it warmer weather which I love.

Also looking forward to our vacation to Melbourne, Australia in less than a months time.

Blog Giveaway

check out this great giveaway on The Stamping Queen blog
http://thestampingqueen.blogspot.com/2008/08/august-blog-giveaway.html

Early Morning Start

Early morning for me today - woke up round 3am - still lying there awake at 4am so decided to get up. No sense in tossing and turning and annoying Doug. So having a coffee and catching up on some emails.
hmmm don't hear any rain at the moment - heres hoping for a fine day for a change - would love to be able to go for a bit of a walk around the farm today - I so need to start getting more regular exercise !!
No cows have arrived yet - the stock agent said it would depend on what he could find at the auctions so maybe next week ?
So far this week, amongst other things, I have done a couple of entries in my Art Journal and made some ATCs. Here's a couple of them below.

Counting down to our vacation to Melbourne, Australia in October. Seems hard to believe its been a year, almost to the day since our 2 month vacation to the States. Oh the memories !! We are hoping to get back to the States again next year to celebrate Dougs 50th birthday !

What A Difference A Week Makes

After the disappointment of the bad weather and flooded Barn, what a difference a week can make in your mind-set.

Almost all set up in the rumpus room up here in the house and its looking pretty good if I do say so myself. Will take some photos and upload them later.

I even took some time out from all the moving and organising to make some cards using my 'bug. Waiting impatiently for some of the newer folders at the moment too so once they arrive I can't wait to play with those ones as well.

Welcome to my world at the moment

The second major storm hit in the space of a couple of days earlier this week.
Photo above is once the water and mud had receded a bit in the Barn.
To say I am upset is an understatement but life goes on and it could have been much worse.
I am now in the process of packing it all up and moving it up to the house. The floor down there has got water and mud all over it - everything that was in boxes out in my office part that i had partioned off is wet and everything else feels very damp so can't be left down there.
I have decided I will set up what i can fit in the games room here in the house and leave the rest packed up, up here and not use the Barn - I just can't take the risk right now.

Another minor setback but in the words of the song by Kanye West - "now that that don't kill me, can only make me stronger"

Once I am set up here in the house, I can't wait to get creating again !

Latest cards

Have had fun last week playing with some new techniques.
Hope you enjoy taking a look....

The Craft Barn

The Craft Barn - opening 16 July

DRUM ROLL PLEASE !!!

The Craft Barn will be open for business from 16 July 2008.

Open Wednesday - Saturday 10am to 4pm.

Sunday - Tuesday - open by appointment.