Sooooooo excited!

Wooohooooooooooooo, we are going to scrap camp tomorrow! Cant wait to meet up with Kelly and hit the road!!! On the way we will pick up Stephanie in Matamata. How cool is that 3 chicks on the road to scrapland!!!
So looking forward to meeting my scrappin buddies and other new people!
Just before leaving work my boss came over to our facility and said, OH MY look at Ilka, she positively beams with happiness! 'Hell yeah I said, I am going to scrapcamp tomorrow woohoooooo!!'
I'll let you all know how it went come Monday!

Oh and thanks for the nice comments about my NZ Dare entry. I love green at the moment - from the yellow greens into the deeper richer moss colours. Am really into the black/ green /white combination or green and blue. Had fun using paint on the big flowers to tone them down a bit. They were a bit too yellow , especially at the tips.

Thanks also for your kind words and hugs - much appreciated. It's good to know that it's ok to be real here in blogland.

Thanks for stopping by.
Oh better wish you a fantastic weekend!!! My internet is once again up and down , I might post more tomorrow if I can get on but just in case I cant...
Be good, no be better, be best >>>> PLAY AND HAVE FUN!

Global dare entry

Is she cute or what 0.O Love this photo of myself!

Fill up a whole page, whoowsie that's a challenge for me ;p It feels rather 'full' to me now - quite subjective I know -I know- . I had a blast kinda throwing things at it and re- discovered some goodies I must have had for some time like those 3 slide frames. I really like them, they have a small tiny text type on them and a transparent cover with the words 'cherish', 'remember' and 'memories' on them. Perfect fit! I am very proud of myself for 'not saving them for a better day' ! I am making progress 0.O
I was amazed how fantastic the photo print turned out. Considering I made a print of a print and the original was rather tiny. Will do this a bit more often with some of my old photos. Well worth it!
Here's the journaling, sorry it's in german... *winks*

Ok ok I translate it;p This photo used to live in my Oma's ( grandmother's ) glass cabinett. I would often go look at it and Oma would join me and then tell stories of the past, of her childhood, of Opa and her, of Opa and me... Opa had a weak heart and died when I was really young. So all my memories are the stories that Oma used to tell me. He sounded like such a gentle warm man and apparently he adored me and I adored him. Certainly always felt very loved when Oma told her stories. One of my favorites is ' Opa and Ilka are picking dandelion leaves for the rabbits. I was quite protective of my Opa and his failing health. So I would tell Opa to sit and rest assuring him I am a big girl Opa! I can pick the basket all by myself... which I did too. We spent many hours thus, him on the bench me in the grass, chatting away to each other while slowly filling the basket with leaves. I also shared my sandwiches with those rabbits, one bite me, one bite for the rabbit..
I wish I could have gotten to know my Opa better. I cherish all the stories my Oma told me and love this photo because it is like a book with invisible pages...

My ingredients...

Dont they look spectacular my ingredients for my ' green theme party' outfit for scrap camp!
Cant say more, but will sneak in another photo soon. LOL - I feel like Meg and Andrea - teasing people with tidbits of info ;p
Had a lot of fun playing around with it!
I am sooooooooooooooooooo excited about scrap camp!
Never done anything like it and cant wait to meet all the scrappin buddies I met on the forums.
Counting my sleeps like I used to before x-mas *chuckles*.

Leaving...

After a weeks struggle my collegue died yesterday...
It's been a strange week. I just did not feel right and so many memories came back, also about my Mom and her death. And how XX in many ways was like my Mom, only she was upfront about it - not once would she be surprised if anyone would call her loud ,harsh and opinionated. In a way I had a chance to learn to be myself, back myself up and stand my ground, hard lessons learned with many tears and much inner work. But learned nonetheless. I think people one loves or people one had much struggles with are those that affect us the most... For one learns so much from either type. And she and I had quite a history...
Hidden journaling goes:
XX- would you have been surprised to see me cry and mourn for you?
You and I - we had more than a fair share of disagreements. You are such a staunch, opinionated woman. Lous and harsh. Like a fieldmarshal. Only 1 way, your way, the right way... So much like my mother. You disapproved of my softness, my gentleness and thought it weakness. Dont think you 'got me'. But we learned to agree to disagree. And I think in the end we had a mutual respect for one another.
I will miss you XX. Thank you so much for all that I have learned through you.
Blessings for a safe journey!
This quiet introvert week has been good for me and making the page was another step..
I feel ok now. The funeral is in 2 days time and I will be going with another workmate and a couple of clients from work. More closure.

Good night for now!

Tagged by default from reading Hannah's blog!

20 Questions
1. What countries have you visited?
Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan,Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Germany
2. Would you rather fly, walk, swim or ride a horse?
Fly - simply because one can cover such vast distances when flying and the world becomes my oyster. Having said that, anything above10+ hours in a plane feels a bit? like torture ;p
3. If you could get stuck in an elevator with any celebrity, who would it be?
Dalai Lhama - and lets be stuck there for a good long time please!
4. How would your co-workers describe you?
Effective, organized, knowledgable, reliable,quirky and friendly.
5. Do you have any piercings or tattoos?
I have 2 piercing in the ear but I reckon they are grown close again . Tattoos? Me? Never!I know there is a big chance that what I love now I wont love in 5 years time so why would I commit to something so permanent;p I am all for rub on & wash off tatooes!
6. Which movie character would you most like to be?
The leading lady in the movie 'chocolat'- just because she is so much who she is...
BTW love this quote from the movie:
Père Henri: Do I want to speak of the miracle of our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about his divinity. I'd rather talk about his humanity. I mean, you know, how he lived his life, here on Earth. His *kindness*, his *tolerance*... Look, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around... measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think... we've got to measure goodness by what we *embrace*, what we create... and who we include.
7. What is your nickname?
I have a few of these. Silke calls me Fairy Sis, suga and sunshine, Rainer calls me Engelchen, Suesse , Kleine and my sweety, Dad and my sis call me Ilkamusch
8. Have you ever been arrested?
No and have no intention of changing that!
9. What is your worst pet peeve?
Drivers who don't keep their safe distance to me.
10. Is your music collection alphabetised?
Are you kidding me? Of course not.
11. What's your favourite cartoon character?
Snoopy
12. Do you play any instruments?
No- sadly not.
13. If you were on Survivor, what would be your luxury item?
Paper and pens - to doodle with and write things - my way to 'tune out'
14. If you could eliminate one disease, what would it be?
Cancer and aids - sorry but cant settle for just one.
15. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Guess I am a bit of both- more nightowl though. I love staying up late but these days I often get up early even on weekends! Dont worry I make up for the lack of sleep with a snooze in the arvo ;p
16. What are your secret talents?
Wouldn't be secret - if I told you O.o
17.Who is your favourite author?
I rather think I have a favourite genre which is fantasy.
18. Which TV family would you like to join?
The Adams Family - lol
19. What song would you sing at Karaoke?
Being the friendly person that I am none out of considerations to my fellow human beings;p
20. If you could have only one food for the rest of your life (assuming that this would not affect your health), which food would you choose?
One? Must be two, too much sweet I crave savory and vice versa ;p Sweet - chocolate and savory bread/chips.

Consider yourself tagged;p

What a shock...

What a shock I had today. One of my workmates had a stroke at work.... She is such a strong, stroppy Lady, always on the move, always telling everyone what to do..... There we were waiting for the ambulance - she in recovery position, not responding to us.....me holding and stroking her hand...the other staff stroking her head...
Hours later we find out she had a massive stroke.. It just all seems so unreal. Dont know if she will even make it through the night or has passed on already...
Life, we take so much for granted, as being solid and real and yet it is so incredible fragile, real one minute and gone the next...
Anyways, that's me for today. Sorry not sure if I should post this but then, life is not all about happy happy and pretty pictures... Right now I am feeling sad but ok, getting hugs from Rainer and sending prayers for my workmate and her family.

Weekend

I just love tulips! Not gonna wait until I get flowers given- I spoiled myself on Wednesday and bought these. Over the weekend they opened up - simply stunning, especially those multi- leaved ones.

Another busy weekend and no scrapping done...
We met Chris's girlfriend's mother on Saturday. What a relief! She seems very nice and we had a long chat. She stayed over for a fish'n chips dinner. She has good discipline and expects her daughter to get an education and not a father for a child. Whew! I tell ya, the oddest things go through your mind when your kid starts dating. I feel I have a lot to learn just like my son..LOL How to be a Mom of a dating teenager - big time learning!
Sunday we went to Manukau City. I had to get some stuff and Chris suddenly 'needs new clothes'. Amazing from the teenage boy who could not care too much to the teenager that showers extensively every morning and is wardrobe conscious 0.O Some changes are sure nice! If expensive;p
Spotlight is nightmare territory for my men.. can you tell? Patiently waiting outside...


2 more days of work and then time off for me! Cant wait! Have a wonderful start to the week everyone:)

World Wide Dare Day

Was so fun sitting at SBO's friday chat night all waiting impatiently for the dares to go up! LOL. Checking and re-checking to see our NZ Dares team entries!
What an amazing concept - a world wide dare -!!! NZ Dares joined forces with the Aussie Dares, The UK Dares and the US Effers for a combined dare. Very exciting stuff!
Here is the dare:
~Childhood Memories or Dream theme
~Cover the whole background/page
~Throw in some paint
~Title on the photo
How cool is that? So much room to move any which way! Some awesome inspirational work on the dare sites. You have got to check them out, the english ones are not up yet - still waiting for friday 11pm to come around. Timezones are a funny thing. I must say the kiwis and aussies are a lot more inspirational and unique than the effers. They tried and pushed the envelope with some stunning results!

NZDares closes on 15th of Nov and Scrappin Downunder provides the cool price - a selection of the delicious Bohemia range! I am so gonna give this a try! Love the price but even more I love the challenge!

Tired as I was I had a great night with the gals over at SBO's. Still sad I missed out on the nov kit :( But people everyone can get the cool journaling stamp that Rachel designed - check it out it's on her nzdare entry! It's just so cool - and even see through- and will be on sale at SBO shortly. I am so gonna get that! Oh and Andrea mentioned they might get the DT to design some stamps each and maybe even do custom stamps. What a cool idea! Cant wait for that!

Now I have to see if I can find the few childhood photos I have. I remember I put them in a safe place. Do I never learn? LOL.
So excited, got a few ideas buzzing through my head . Fun to send the mind onto memory lane!

Ok time for a fresh coffee. Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by:)

DT etc

Well I didnt make it onto either DT. But not phased. When the time is right it'll happen. I told you about the cool surprise and special mentioning for the x-mas boot over at Lisa's. Loved the price - a cool ribbon pack from fancy pants and neat rub- ons from Flair and then some giant cardboard numbers from Junkitz. Those will push me a little.

Below a few pictures of the x-mas boots I made so my friends who are non scrappers and dont go to the online galleries can have a peek too. My beloved silent lurkers O.o. I rather like these boots O.o Gonna put them up on the 6th of december to celebrate our anniversary.

Internet is back Woohooo!

My internet played up big time for a few days...:( Could not access anything international including any blogs only some local sites and those I got constantly disconnected. Drove me wild - so frustrating. LOL sad isn't it when your internet is gone and you start feeling like you lost a limb or 2;p Anyways it seems they finally fixed it Yippeeeeeeeeee!!! I'm back!
Better tell you about my last weekend before this one comes;p It was a rather social affair by my reclusive standards;p
We went out to celebrate Verna's birthday on Friday. Superyummy food and great company at a local little Thai restaurant. Verna and me - sheesh the kids took some horror photos of us!

Here they are! Verna's gorgeous gals!


On saturday night we had a blast! Game evening with Verna and Errol. We played Cranium. A first time for everyone. This is such a fun game - basically you need to guess an answer to something and use a variety of ways to guess it. Aacting, drawing, blind drawing , singing, humming, clues all sorts of stuff. Real fun and had us in stitches. Rainer was the hoot and his acting cracked us up!
















The audits went really well on Monday. What a relief!!! Thanks for everyones well wishes and positive energies! Only afterwards did I realize how freakin stressed I was and now I am still slowly destressing. Guess I have been running a bit on adrenaline and now feel so tired this week, hit the zzz mark first time at 7 pm and by 9 pm ready to fall asleep. Hopefully the last stress will leave me over the weekend!
Gonna tell you about the DT comps in next post.

Crazy life

Well that was a big surprise to see my x-mas boot getting a special mentioning and prize. Gosh I love surprises and presents! Thanks for your support and well wishes!Timing was perfect too - I really needed something to cheer me up!

Came home from another extra day at work which was like stress times 100. I swear every hour the audit gets closer management gets crazier and more stressed out. My boss looks like she didnt have a decent sleep in weeks. I guess with $2 mil at stake thats understandable. 2 minutes before I left for home I got another huge pile of paperwork to fill out... This was supposed to be my week off - yeah right ;p To top it I am now the lucky one to go in on my day off on Monday and get interviewed. Another big wad of paperwork came my way yesterday- all stuff I should be able to rattle off. So my reading material for the weekend is secured ;p
Todays list is another long list not to mention the clients have been disturbed by all these handiman coming and going and fixing things as well as us getting extra training and spending so much time doing paperwork. So much yelling, screaming , shouting and other behaviours I wont mention here lol.
I am a bit nervous about the interview but also so relieved that soon this will all be over and I get my life back!

Between being tired as and my internet probs I havent been able to post much on forums and I miss that.Will post on your blogs tonight or tomorrow - still need to do some work before going to work.
My ISP has decided why not test my patience further. We are in the unlucky group of customers whose internet fails constantly for many days now. Rainer had a talk with them, they are working on fixing it. Meantime their advice is to turn the pc off for 15 minutes and try reconnect. It's an exercise in how not to loose your cool... Try doing that for a few hours with no connect. I feel like screaming!

Finally managed to get a connection and send my DT entry to Meg. She will announce the DT on Monday! So the wait is on...

Gonna go out for dinner tonight and celebrate Verna's birthday. Love it when I have something good to look forward to. Because today is going to be the madest day ever, last chance to 'fix all' which reminds me, I better go update the site specific hazard list now and burn it on a cd to take to work so I can fill more forms out;p

Only great thing about all this extra work is that I promised myself a bit of spending spree for scrap stuff. Want to get some of the new fancy stamps and papers and and and;p
Have a wonderful day!

Winners of Lisa's DT are out

So exciting this morning I open up my email and see Lisa has announced her new DT.
I did not make it but I am not phased by that. My time will come eventually:) I was excited to recognize a few names though!
The winners are : Andrea Senn, Christi Nelson, Gwen Kirman, Jacqui Jones, Jo Kneller, Lesley Cooper and Margaret Bennett.
Congratulation Ladies! What a talented bunch! Can't wait to see their design team works. I know a few from forums and of course Christi from blogging also. How exciting is that Christi!!! Cant wait to see her posting about it!
Oh did you see? I finally figured out how to make links on names! So dead easy I dont know why I did not click on it earlier;p
Well- better dash and get ready for work!

Sun is out

Thanks everyone for your supportive comments!
Christi your honesty. Your words made me feel heaps better and understood. Thanks for being open and sharing.

The sun is shining again outside and inside me too. Feeling heaps better now. I looked back at the 'I am messy 'LO and had to grin and was proud of myself too. So that is my response to the 'never good enough daughter' . Talk about selfaffirmation and selfacceptance aye?
Have done a double LO for Meg but not sure I want to enter that one, so will have another go today. Luckily no work today.
Catch you laters, have a good time!

Feeling out of sorts..

Phoned my Dad and my sis in Germany yesterday morning and ever since I feel out of sorts. Likely because my sis and I spoke in length about Mom. How she was not an easy person and how it all effected us. We were rather honest which was good but I think it brought up a few issues... grieving takes so many different faces.

I tried to work on my double LO for my DT entry for SE but somehow it just didnt float the way I wanted it to. In the end I 'gave in' and started to play around a little. Here is the result.

Hope everyone enjoys themselves this long weekend!

TGIF

Yeahhhhhhhhhh weekend! Sheesh- what a mad rush day I had at work again. Nothing ever goes as planned in that place. I felt like that ever ready bunny only my speed was wound up a few notches. Madly dashing from one job to the next, just to be thrown a new task in midtask. Seems like I am the unofficial official photographer at the area office now. So in between trying to get a new fire alarm and fix that - meeting the glass man who bless him fixed the window within a days notice..., filling out forms, picking up signs, doing orientations , getting clients dressed for a funeral, which naturally entails a drive of 20 minutes each way and a gently rushing them along. Oh dont forget the paper run - picking up unread newspapers from various petrol stations and shops, buying shower mat and soap - health and safety - baked beans and spagetti - civil defense kit, doing the banking and and and... I also ended up taking photos from 2 people at their work, naturally at different workspaces and working at different times;p. . I also had the pleasure of taking photos of their gorgeous 6 year old daughter at a 3d time of course;p Gosh had a ball with her - she's a true poser but only had a 5 min time slot;p Burned 2 cd's one for the big boss and one for the family, just had to give the girl her pics!
I came home pooped... but elated.. Loooooooooooong weekend!!!
Finally managed to get my DT entry send to Lisa. So it's done. My first ever entering anything besides the forums and the nzdares.
I just love going to bed on fridays with this feeling of so much free time ahead of me!
Hope you all enjoy a great time too!

Tagged!

Ahh I got tagged by the lovely Christi! Trying to get me to blog more aren't you! I better get onto it then.
I'm more tired than usual. Had a class with Lara last night, making handbag files. They look absolutely stunning - not that I have mine finished yet but looks great so far. I had to go to bed I was too tired to continue. Poor patient Lara - having to instruct me when my brain was asleep. After a long day of Health & Safety issues, filling papers of medication, infection control and more health and safety audits my brain decided it had worked enough and was on absentee leave. Not so good when you have to follow a list of instructions....lol.. I really wish I could have done Lara and the project more justice by being more awake. Looking forward to finishing my little handbag file over the weekend.

Eeeps I digress, so back to the list, here is mine :

1.Things that scare me:
- worrying about accidents ( Rainer and Chris on the road)
- violence
- watching horror movies


2. People who make me laugh:
- Rainer
- Chris
- friends

3. Things I hate the most:
- backstabbing
- work overload, mine and Rainer's
- ham and pea soup

4. Things I don't understand:
- gosh so many things, physics
- cars and other technical stuff
- the motivation of some people

5. Things I'm doing right now:
- thinking about all the things I have to do at work today
- drinking coffee

6. Things I want to do before I die:
- be blissfully myself
- see our kids grow into well adjusted adults and meet their loved ones and offspring ;p
- marry Rainer

7. Things I can do:
- daydream
- be helpful and supportive
- create things

8. Ways to describe my personality:
- quirky
- idealistic and daydreamer
- open to enjoy the diversity of people and their new ideas

9. Things I can't do:
- ski
- run a marathon
- be a perfect housewife;p

10. Things I think you should listen to:
- your inner voice
- your friends
- laughter

11. Things you should never listen to:
- gossip
- complainers
- selfrighteous people who know all answers for everyone else

12. Things I'd like to learn:
- be more me and have fun with it
- how to be more organzied
- how to weld and work with metal

13. Favorite foods:
- Latte
- anything sweet - I got a big sweet tooth!
- anything with chicken breasts, no bones I hate chewing bones

14. Beverages I drink regularly:
- coffee/ latte
- water
- diet coke/pepsi

15. Shows I watched as a kid:
- Die kleine Maus
- The Flintstones
- Polnische Trickfilme

16. Persons I'm tagging:
- Kelly
- Ruth
- Rachel

Thanks for reading everyone and have a good day!

orange and green and black

Had my NZ dare ready for a few days. That's rare for me and a nice feeling for a change. Somehow I am so slow and I am going to challenge myself to work faster. Also finally finished my altered project for the DT entry. Rather like how it turned out :) Still need to submit to Lisa. LOL as usual all on the last minute 0.O

Good things

So nice to have a tidy scrap space for a change. Too bad it will be messy right about this time tomorrow! LOL -I cant help it I am slightly chaotic.


Sooooo happy!!! We went to the local second hand shop today and got some real bargains. I spotted the shelves below and asked Rainer to haggle them for me, max $15. He's a natural, got them for 10 bucks!Perfect for my plastic storage boxes. That will free up some much needed space on the big shelves.

I'm so so lucky. Rainer is incredible supportive! Big smile on his face he came up to me and dangled this tool thing in front of my face..' Look what I got for you' Me? 'Yep a heatgun - 5 bucks and working! you might need this is you want to try out embossing, but be careful it's gonna get real hot !'... am I blessed or what? He laughed and said, oh no an excuse to buy more stuff for you now;p Guess I will try my hand on embossing soon *smiles*.
Did I mention yet I fell in love all over again!!! Well off to snuggle with my sweety!
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

spring cleaning....

One can take only so much spring cleaning in a weekend!!! As a treat in between we went to our favorite cafe 'Sorelle' for a nice lunchbreak. Gawds their food is divine and the athmosphere had us relaxed in no time! They had some new interesting art work - metal scultures by a local artist- on display. That was a real bonus!

Now I know where some poor piggies go on a sunday afternoon... to a butcher of course ;p Things you see in main street Waiuku ;p

Had a little outing at work yesterday. The weather was so miserable that noone even wanted to get out of the van for a quick look. But we will return here on a sunnier day ( above Tuakau Bridge ) Love the view!

What's with the weather anyways?
Really warm for a few days and now it's all hail and rain storms and cold winds.
Brr I want my proper spring back!

Yeah - grunge time ;p

Chris has been so cooperative lately. Allowing me to take photos and even commenting on some of my LO's. I thought it's time I make a real grungy feel LO for him. One with all those things any 'decent' t-shirt must have, like a skull..LOL . And voila - here's the result. Entered it into SE fortnightly challenge - theme- number inspiration. He likes it, especially the skull of course;p I had much fun doodling away. Tried to make my doodles a bit grungy and tatoo - y. Oh forgot to mention, it's called - Not so sweet 16 - talks about how it's not been all sweet and easy for him this year with a lot of changes and growing up to do. Like leaving highschool for MIT etc.

Guess I got a bit into the grunge mojo and did another LO for NZ Dares - male + flower challenge. Lets face it, I put a pretty flower on a Chris LO and he might object and call it 'teenager abuse'. He didnt mind these flowers. They are ok... Ok = good in Chris lingo. Had fun with this one. First time I used a mask ( from HS) then grunged it up with chalks, paint and inks. Love using my fingers for that, such fun!!! It got hidden journaling under the got tag - talking about how we are so different in many ways ( looks- personality- spirituality etc ) but so nice we got the same eyes.
Good night and have sweet dreams and great days!