Busy Little Chicken sent me...

Busy Little Chicken sent me some fabulous stuff as part of Tracey's Send a Little Love swap.

My goodies arrived on Saturday - the best day for a parcel to arrive don't you think? (sending a lot of my mail to school at the moment as i have had a few things not turn up... 3 packages posted from USA in December still out there somewhere...)
A very cool Union Jack flag box packed with goodies -

I am such a supermarket nerd... I love things from overseas supermarkets! And heart chocolate from Sainsbury is great! In a red box. And a bar of lindt too.I must admit my taste for chocolate has diminished since my tonils went, but i keep trying and trying to love the stuff as much as I used to... >br> IKEA fabric - did not have enough time to pursue the fabric at the Brisbane IKEA - gorgeous. A beautiful fabric covered notebook for shopping , which will be very handy; star buttons (I find it hard to find groovy buttons in NZ); scrapbooking paper (hoping to do a blitz once exam over); a book mark (great idea using embroidery thread) and a star pin cushion/bag tag.
Very cool items!

Thank you so much Busy Little Chicken! And Tracey for organising the swap too.

I took part in a Aussie dishcloth swap via another blog just before Christmas - my package finally turned up about month after it was posted, but the package sent to me has never arrived.... Mail and I do not seem to be mixing lately! Or technology (school sorted) but i-pad out of action and now this 6 year old laptop has a broken LCD screen with a great big dirty circle with a tail (looks like a balloon) - do not pick up laptop from the screen... I jsut might have to bite the bullet and buy myself my first ever laptop! Any clues what to get??? (NOT an Apple product fan...)

Weekend

Dinner out with lots of lovely Auckland bloggers - nice to put faces to names and to meet some new people. Bit strange isn't meeting people who you have followed for a while... No photos from me though.
Phoenix vs Adelaide at Eden Park - great game! No photos either as I was too busy jumping up and down waving my knitting needles around (yes I knit at Eden Park!) and yelling
STUDY> OVER IT. Pai Marire, Whitaker, Nene, Te Rauparaha, Heke pokai, Te kooti - yes - I myself have no idea who half these people are yet either! A lot of work for a 3% component of the exam - 20 people to know but only 5 of them will appear in exam...
Making banana bran muffins. It is each to their own in this house for school lunches now - year 6 on my boys do it themselves! I just make sure baking/fruit etc all there and they help themselves. We very very rarely buy lunches at school. Huge waste of money to me. (I also very very rarely go to a cafe/ do take-away coffees etc or do takeaway actually - not a fan. Also not a fan of any food court...)
Eating home made bread rolls with lettuce and tomatoes and cucumber from out garden. the best. Now we just need all the peaches to ripen up to make peach chutney with. (we always use the Digby Law recipe.)
So much washing/laundry done. Glorious, hot for Auckland, weather. (of course it is sunny - school is back and the poor kids have to sit in classrooms with no air conditioning units etc.The Ministry of Education will not fund aircon units ...Schools can have them but pay for them themselves.
Learnt about a decile 9 school which is model MLE (modern learning environment) with all the bells and whistles for technology but barely any books in their library - I DO NOT like how this seems to becoming the norm and god help any principal who ends up with my kids in a school like this....
back to study! Hope everyone is having a fab weekend!

Mad About Bags Send a little Love Swap

I took part in Tracy from Mad About Bags blog "Send a Little Love Swap." I was super organised and sent it off to my partner who was busylittlechicken. She received it this week and loves it thankfully! This is what i sent - We had to send something heart shaped or themed and make something heart based - I cross stitched a heart pincushion, found heart paper clips, little cards and tart tins; something red (heart pegs), something yummy (good old NZ Whitakers almond chocolate). All sent in my favourite NZ made sistema plastic lunchbox - a pink version! A fab swap. My package is on the way to school - i think the office always wants to open my mail! :) Thanks to Tracy for organising it. (need to learn how to do links again as I have forgotten....)

Oh man

Study seems to have made this house slip......... well this is one kid's bedroom. Diabolical. And this is last year's school work, while he tries to organise this years stuff. The kid used to be perfect until he started in year 7 and year 8 seems to be getting off to the same standard as year 7... This mother is not touching one thing in here! Give me strength! :) The whole house is a tip - i have an amazing husband who cooks dinners most nights - I walk in from school and attempt to study/write notes (soooooooo behind with stuff and exam in 2 weeks....). But floors need to be cleaned (not done for 6 or so weeeeeeks), bathrooms etc. I do keep up with laundry because I really do love it, but there are now 5 baskets of clean laundry around the place and another 3 loads on the clothesline outside... sigh. (Now what is it with all this talk I hear about overseas people thinking it is hilarious New Zealanders and Australians hanging washing/laundry outside??? is this REALLY uncommon??? Line dried is the BEST! I hardly ever use my clothes drier even when it is 4-8 degrees overnight... ) Anyway, back to Gate Pa... A bloggy dinner out tomorrow night meeting with lots of Auckland bloggers.....

Facebook Pass it on

I signed up via Facebook and a few friends to a "Pass It On" last week.
The idea is that you come up with something random any time over the next year - it could be a visit, an outing, a gift, a good deed, a ticket etc.
My random thing which i am giving to 5 friends is a dishcloth knitted by me, a dish brush and a bottle of dishwashing liquid!
i've told them no-one will have my idea. ;) It was a fab idea gained from Cat of Catalina's Cottage blog fame when she sent me a gorgeous dishcloth and dishwashing liquid in a swap last year. I loved it!
My first friend just laughed and laughed and loved it. I am hoping the others do too, when i catch up with them next week when the last school finally starts!
(Kikki K ordered far too many bags and red tissue paper in for Christmas, so I was lucky to score a decent bunch of both!) >br>

back to reality

Two back at school last week,; my school today (IT whizz I am after a bit of angst over file importing etc but i have had success today!) and the last one will be back next Wednesday. (joys of NZ school system!) Last tiny adventure for the days when I need to get out of the house, but cannot be bothered going far, is geocaching in our neighbourhood. fab looking for little items people have stashed all over the world in suburbs/parks/bus shelters etc. Take a look at www.geocaching.com . But, um, you do get funny looks from people whne looking in clumps of trees behind bus shelters, in parks under sea-saws etc etc. Hilarious really.

end of holidays

I feel like we have all had great summer holidays (some since December 6!) Loved all the freedom - semi- freedom to me due to study. But also stoked that a few days before Christmas and up to now I have written 2 decent size essays and am now studying for the exam in 17 days..
Hurdle will be school and dealing with that and the rest of my life. it is just crazy at the start of the end with loads of students turning up that we have no idea are coming and the piles and piles and piles of hundreds of books to sort for teachers etc. All good - mostly. Few things to iron out. And the $1200 dollars I spend on new books over the hols - all stacked up at school waiting for spare time.
Loved my travel around the North island. I know Kieran had the time of his life at the NZ Scout jamobree - only super-ceded in his life by our England trip in 2009 and the Europe trip in 2011. I do feel a bit that I have spent a lot of time on study and kinda left the boys to their own devices, but that they are growing up and do not want their mother hovering over them.
last few days... dishcloths - love the new pattern! And a sock knitted in lickity quickity time! Adore the wool used from Knitworld - NZ merino by John Q (Impressionista Autumn.)
A pile of new magazines bought last week which are taunting me - to be opened up once exam over... testing my willpower once again! (yes we are weeks behind in New Zealand with issues!)
And the gorgeous new impulse tin bought at Typo on Friday night.
And a growing pile by the front door for next op shop drop off.
Nice simple things giving me great pleasure at the end of the hols!
Hope everyone is relaxed and ready for the back to school rush (and that you have a bit of money left in your wallet for a mum treat - we survived 6-7 weeks - yeah!)