Recently

I'm sure the summer holidays get shorter every year! At least, that's what it feels like. I guess it's more general than that though, all of life just seems to speed up as we grow older. 

My laptop adapter finally did arrive, so the technical difficulties have been overcome and I just need to find {ahem, make) the time to edit my mountains of images and then post them here. (Cheer me on guys ;) :P)

Over the past few months I have accomplished a fair bit of walking; an hour plus most days. (Xj why am I applying French pronunciation to English words now?! *insert 2015's word of the year* The above image was taken on one of said walks, on my iPhone admittedly, since I haven't been taking the camera with me.

In January the rest of the fam abandoned me (kidding) for a couple weeks and went on holiday to the Taranaki. I did have several good study days, but somehow I didn't manage to catch up on sleep like I planned lol. Ate plenty of good food though!! ;P Got in some good catch-ups with friends and finally went to a couple of services at a friends' church. It was different than I'm used to lol but I won't complain. And being in a church that didn't feel like it was trying to give Antarctica a run for it's money was a very welcome change. (I'm not telling the time I'm writing this, and yes I am sarcastic normally, but this is probably worse.)

Life took a sad turn midway through my time home alone when my nana in Wellington passed away. My family drove straight down from the Taranaki and I flew day on the Monday, in time for the Tuesday funeral. Hopefully a post in the near future will feature a number of photos from Nana's life. It was a pretty short trip for me, as we all left on Wednesday, with the others dropping me in Marton at the ATI Student Conference, and then driving back to Auckland. I spent a day and a half-ish with my awesome friend Susannah (first time seeing each other since we swapped numbers back in July last year lol), talking heaps,  drinking way too much coffee, and not sleeping a lot (paid for it when I got back :P) before I came back on Friday. (That bus driver had no de Bruin blood in him. Or the trip would have taken half the time. Just saying.)

Now that school has gone back I'm into teaching again (privately) -- and at this stage I've managed to get all my classes in just one afternoon!! *clapping emoji* This term half my students are returning from last year, and the other half are new students, learning the basics of how to hold a recorder and such. Putting students through exams is exciting, and it's amazing to reflect back over how far they've come, but it's pretty special as well to see new students grasp the basic concepts!

I finally have managed to make a start on job hunting, so to speak; I expect to have an interview pretty soon to discuss details, and then I should be picking up some part time work. I've made a second enquiry somewhere else so we'll see what comes of these two and take it from there. I'm half thinking about joining Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator too. (Anyone interested in a party?!)

And that's my update for now. If it changes it's because I changed my mind about how much I wanted to share once I had more sleep. Lol. 

Monique's Birthday || Stampin' Up! Party

For Monique's 13th this year, she organised a Stampin' Up! party which she ended up having at the manse, since our pastor was away and Monique really wanted to have Mrs. Smith (our pastor's wife) at the party. It turned out to be great for us because when Mum and Monique left, we had baking utensils, ingredients, you name it (just about . . . ) all over the kitchen and dining table (lol). 

Overall I think the cake turned out pretty good, no?

: : Talking before making cards : :

: : Cardmaking! : :

: : Treble Clefs!! : :
{Guess who piped those lol?}

: : Amelia Smith (7yrs) made this for Monique's birthday cake since I only made a cake last minute : :

I melted more chocolate than I needed, so I piped this pony as well. I think we ended up using it for Danielle's cake (photos still coming of that one lol)

Do you think?!

Recent Crafty Fun

Mostly my season's greetings cards, plus a few others . . .
So glad I bought Stampin' Up!'s Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set; I just love it!

And this one was lucky enough to get a matching envelope! 

Thought I'd have a go at decorating my own letter paper.
When I finish a textbook for school I like to also finish with the notebook I was using,
but leaving a pile of empty pages at the back of old notebooks seemed like a waste so
started ripping them out to write letters on; I used the guillotine to slice the ripped edge
off. I guess blank paper works fine but I prefer something more exciting (lol) so I tried
stamping it. Definitely some designs turned out better than others :)
And hey, now I don't have to buy expensive letter paper :P haha
Oh yeah, now I have to actually use it, right?

Mum's Birthday | | Stampin' Up! Party

Usually we have a family dinner with presents for Mum's birthday, but this year she thought it would be nice to spend some time with her friends and make some cards together (one of her hobbies, when she finds time {smile}). So last Friday night she had a Stampin' Up! party. We had a fairly small group but that worked out well, with more space around the table and everyone being able to talk.

Why do I always try new recipes when we have visitors coming?!
I had never made eclairs before, but I was flicking through my recipe book looking for inspiration and this recipe looked easy so hey . . . my first ever attempt at making eclairs from scratch succeeded! 

Eclairs, custard squares, vanilla cupcakes (If you use your imagination, the icing looks like beautiful dark red roses [Mum's fav] haha), and choc cake. All but the cake were new recipes :P

It was a late night, but we all enjoyed it. (Yep, I love experimenting in the kitchen! ;)) So, happy birthday Mum, and thanks to everyone who came :))

17!

For my birthday this year I decided to have a Stampin' Up! party with some of my friends and their mums. I had hoped to have it soon after my birthday, but with busy schedules September 2nd (two months late lol) ended up being the date. I realised on Saturday night that I hadn't done any planning (the 2nd was a Monday) . . . oops! So Monday saw me hurriedly writing lists and then {seemingly} visiting every shop in Manukau. I discovered balloons, tablecloths, and ribbon is hard to find in specific colours :/ I ended up missing the ribbon but I got the rest of the food et cetera that I wanted (phew!).                    

       

Meanwhile, the others were baking (usually I try to do that a day ahead, but being a Monday night that couldn't exactly happen this time!) and cleaning/tidying the house. When I got home I passed the balloons out to be blown up, and made several more desserts. Somehow the afternoon flew by, as the clock seemed to speed up!

Finally, we {mostly} completed our last-minute preparations, and guests began arriving.

Somehow, we squeezed all fourteen of us around our dining table; the next two or so hours quickly passed as we made our cards.

: : Making cards : :

: : Fun times : :

After we finished our cards, we made for the dessert table. (I'm sure it was feeling lonely having been on it's own all evening ;))

Dad must have had something funny to say lol

: : Yup, the food : :

And thus concluded the celebrations for my seventeenth. Thanks everyone who helped/attended etc. ;)