"Feelin' Witchy..."

 I found this idea here on how to make these oh-so-cute witches hats!  (Thank you Patty!) I used black glitter card for the hat and orange card for the bow.  I get the glitter card for $2 for a pack of five sheets from the $2 Shop.  You get 5 different colours in the pack.

Here is hat and the cut outs I have used.  All from Stampin' Up! except I used a circle die from my Nestabilities.  So much fun and so easy and quick to make!  Have a great day and thanks for visiting!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Fern Fronds

 I live in the Waitakere  Ranges where there are 1,000's of hectares of beautiful Native bush.  Nestled among the thousands of trees are thousands if these Ponga Ferns.  These photo's are of the fronds before they are open.  I am fascinated by them!  I think they are beautiful.

 There is a wooden walkway through the bush beside the Titirangi library and this is where I took these photo's today. 

 Every frond is tightly curled up almost into a knot!  Amazing!

 If you look closely you can see the baby fronds ready to uncurl.

 I am lucky because these ferns grow wild and are everywhere.

 It's so amazing how they are curled so tightly, and if I go back in a weeks time they will be much more open.

 How will they look when they are open?  See the green fern in the background?  That's what they will look like when fully grown!

And this is a fern frond of another kind!  This is commonly known as a "Ladder Fern" and grows very rapidly.  It will take over any space it can.  I have it in my garden.  

Okay, so that's my adventures for the last few days!  Hope you have enjoyed your visit!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

A Beautiful Glass Ceiling

As I was walking back through the tunnel yesterday, to get to the train I saw this beautiful glass ceiling.  It is about three stories up and I just had to take some photo's of it!  I had to stand directly underneath it and lean back looking directly up at it to take the photo's.  It's very gorjuss and I love it!

Hope you are having a great day, thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Watching The Boats

 This is a view of downtown Auckland where the ferries come and go from.  I was hoping there might be a big cruise ship there but there wasn't.  I spent dome time here yesterday just sitting in the sun watching the ferries come and go.  It was very relaxing!

 This was one of the many ferries leaving for Devonport which is across the North Shore.  About a 10 - 15 minute boat ride.

 Sitting there minding my own business I saw this guy!  He was watching me in hope of me  giving him some food!  I didn't!  I said to him, "Can you do something funny for the camera Mr. Bird?!"  

And this is what he did!  Stretched his wings for me!  I called him a show-off and he flew away to find someone with food!  Thanks for visiting {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

What's On My Blackboard Today?!

This is the latest saying I have written on my blackboard.  I came across this on the interweb somewhere and wrote it down because it made me laugh!  With Halloween coming up maybe I could write it in my cards?!  Watch this space... Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

"Bella-Rosa".

I was sitting outside with my camera one day and captured these photo's of "Bella-Rosa" and a bird she caught.  I am not keen on her catching birds and try to make sure she doesn't get any, but sometimes she is quicker than I am!  She was very proud of her 'catch' and bought it over to me and dropped it at my feet!  Then I took her inside to make sure she didn't catch any more birds!

Thanks for visiting, I hope your day is going well!

{HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Random Photo's

 This is "Romeo-Valentino" in my shopping basket which is sitting in  my shopping trolley!  He thought he would go grocery shopping with me to make sure I got the right cat food for him!  He likes getting int he trolley and being taken for a spin around the house!

 These 2 photo's are of a waterlily at the Auckland Domain.  They have a faint pale pink blush to them and I thought they were gorjuss!  I love waterlilies!

 And this is a Blackbird who was obviously very hot!  (It was a hot day that day.)  He didn't seem to mind me taking his photo.  I told him to get in the fountain and cool off!

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Update On Being Coeliac

It's almost nine weeks since I was diagnosed with having Coeliac Disease.  I have been 100% gluten free since then, with the minor exception of when I accidentally ate a small amount of  'something with gluten in it', and became very unwell within an hour!  Wow, that was an interesting experience!  It ended up putting me in hospital for 24 hours - lesson learnt, read labels well before consuming anything!

I feel better being gluten free, however I have noticed four things.  One is I feel very cold all the time.  I know we are only just out of Winter and into Spring, so our weather is still a little cool.  But this is different.  My hands and feet are just freezing cold, numb and white.  If I put my hands in warm water to thaw out, my fingers go from white to a dark purple/black colour.  Eventually they do go pink.  This has never happened to me before and I noticed it  after becoming gluten free.  The second thing I noticed after being GF is my hair has become very dry and 'fluffy'.  This too is not normal for me.  The third thing  is I am hungry all the time and feel like I need to eat every couple of hours.  None of these things are "normal" for me and only occurred since I went GF. I am also suffering from a lot more fatigue than usual.  I have had M.E. for the last 14+ years and know I am fatigued 24/7, but his is different.  The fatigue is much worse than  what I usually have.  My GP did extensive blood tests thinking maybe I had another attack of Glandular Fever, and to my utter annoyance they came back 'normal'!  Except for my Iron levels which were low.  I am working on that by eating more red meat and vegetables rich in iron.  Does anyone else who is Coeliac have the same issues?   Does it settle down?  Will I always have problems with feeling so cold?  I hope not!  Although I have always felt the cold it has never been like this.  

I am still waiting to see a dietician and will ask her/him about these issues.  Some immediate help after being diagnosed would have really helped:-(   I am also struggling to find local cafe's  that serve gluten free food so I can have lunch while I am out.  Sushi is the only thing I have found so far!  Just as well I like Sushi huh!!  *Sighhh*  Crack open the Rice crackers...

Okay, that's it for now, thanks for reading this!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

New Die

This (top photo) is a die I bought a few months ago and have only just used.  The die is the blue one.  I made a card with it yesterday but white is so hard to photograph!  The die is a Marianne Createables die.  The card is much prettier IRL - don'tcha just hate that?!  I will make a card in a colour and hopefully the details of the embossing will show up better.  I live in hope! You run the die through your die cutting machine (Cuttlebug for me) and then you emboss it using the tan mat.  

Okay, that's all so far for today!  Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

SU Bird Punch Cards

These cards are both the same colour, but the flash hit the card on the right so it looks like a different blue!  Love this SU bird punch and use it often!  Thanks for dropping by, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Little Pocket Cards

These were inspired by Andrea.  Please check out her blog here.  I made these pockets by hand, meaning I measured and scored them on my scor-pal.  Nearly killed me so I have ordered a pocket die so I don't have to make anymore by hand!  Sometimes you do things the hard way..until you discover they make a die for it!  Bliss:-)

I used some SU paper to make these pockets. Love SU papers!  In fact I  love everything SU!! Okay thank you for dropping by today,

{HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Another Snoopy Card!

Okay, so I am a little bit obsessed with Snoopy right now!  But he is SO cute I just had to make another Christmas card starring him! Forgive me of my obsession.  I will get over it.  In time!

I hope you are having a good day!  It is raining here in Paradise and it isn't warm either:-(  I am not a "Winter Girl" at all.  I live for Summer!  My heart (and body!) yearns for the long hot humid days of summer...

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Funnies For Sunday!

Cruising the interweb today I found these pictures that made me crack up laughing!  I just had to put them on here - maybe you will get a giggle too?!  I have some funny photo's I have taken of my own two Purrito's and love to see others photo's.

I needed a giggle today and I certainly got it:-)

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

From Flower To Butterfly In A Few Steps!

 Okay, here is an easy butterfly card made from a flower die!  So quick and easy... 

And here is how I made it!  My flower die is a Spellbinder die and the black body of the butterfly is one of my SU dies.  I have to say, I use that die for a lot of things!  You can decorate the butterfly wings as you like, or not.  It's up to you!  I saw the idea on Dawns blog, check it out!

One of these days I am going to learn how to do video tutorials on my blog!  Oh yes, I also used a smaller flower die to make smaller butterflies.  So much fun on a WET Spring day here in Paradise!

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Snoopy's Christmas!

Here is another Snoopy card I made.  This one is a Christmas card...can you see the Angels I added?!  I think they are a Memory Box or Poppy Stamps die of five Angels.  So cute!

I hope everyone is having a great Fathers Day today!  Happy Fathers Day, dad!

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Yippee! My New Die Storage Pockets Arrive!

The top three photo's are my new storage pockets for my dies.  Photo number four is a larger pencil case type thing I got from the $2 shop and it holds four sets of dies.  I have two of these cases.  The bottom photo is two smaller pockets I found which holds some smaller dies.  The new storage pocket are from Kaisercraft and are A6 size which is big enough for 99 percent of my dies.  I have a few dies that are either too long or too tall to fit but that's ok!

I love these new storage pockets as they are SO much easier for me to open and close, as well as being neat and tidy!  It took me almost 2 hours to get the dies sorted and into their new pockets because of my thumbs being so painful.  But it was worth the pain to get it done!  Yippee!  No more searching for the right die...I am happy stamper today:-)

Thanks for visiting, hope you are having a great day!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

New Die Storage Pockets

This is the two boxes of my dies in their NEW storage pockets!  SO Much easier for me to find and easy for me to open and close.  These are Kaisercraft storage pockets.  They are A6 size which fits most of my dies except for a few longer dies.  These were on sale for $6 for five pockets.  SO glad I found them!

Thanks for dropping by, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

My Old Die Storage System

This is how I used to store my dies.  Messy and not easy for me to find what I wanted.  I used to store my dies in zip-lock plastic bags but it was very painful for me to open and close the bags as I have arthritis in my thumbs. As you will see in the above posts I found some new storage pockets!

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)