Kiwi As (Becoming NZ Citizens)

My poor wee neglected blog. It's been a while since I've been posting regularly hasn't it? Life has been rather full lately - I've been busy with the stuff that turns into interesting blog posts without any time to actually blog about it!

We had hubby's birthday which was a fun day and the next day (the 21st June) hubby and I became New Zealand citizens.

We went to a ceremony attended by 60 people (including us) becoming new NZ citizens. We were presented with our certificates by the Mayor, got a native plant to bring home and had an afternoon tea following the ceremony.

As well as pledging allegiance to the Queen (hilarious considering we both grew up in the UK) we sang the NZ National Anthem.

I thought it was a fitting ceremony which made me really think about what was happening and what it meant to me.

We've been in New Zealand for 7 years now, we got married here and our son was born here and becoming citizens was the right choice for us. I am glad we've done it. 

The Mayor and CEO of the local council each spoke and it was interesting to listen to what they had to say. I especially liked it when they talked about us bringing something to NZ with us as well as us getting a benefit from being here.
You heard it here first - NZ is a better place for having me here ;-)

We've even had 5 minutes of fame as our photo was in the local community paper along with some other new citizens :-)

To celebrate we had a Kiwiana Afternoon Tea on Sunday (which was the 7th anniversary of our arrival here). I'll try and share some photos from that over the next few days.

My Creative Space: Crochet Yoda

It was recently my hubby's birthday and I wanted to make him something as well as buy him some gifts. He likes Star Wars and I'd bought him some Star Wars DVDs for presents so thought I could have a go at crocheting a Star Wars character to go with his other gifts!

I did a search online and found this free tutorial for a crochet Yoda.

It was a wee bit fiddly and to be honest I didn't follow it exactly (I am useless at counting stitches as I go!) but I was really pleased with how he turned out.

I couldn't find my stock of googly eyes so ended up using card and a black pen to make eyes which I glued on.

I am pleased to say that hubby knew who it was supposed to be as soon as he opened the parcel and is very happy with his mini Yoda!

He's not super sturdy so he's been put up high on a bookshelf away from little toddler fingers (Mr Mischief was most keen to play with Yoda when he saw him!)

Now I might have to aim to make one Star Wars character each year for hubby's birthday!

Linking up with Our Creative Spaces.

Scrapbooking: Document 2012: April

Here's a look at my April pages for my Document 2012 album. 

It's great to be a third of the way through this project. And if I can get my May pages done before the end of the month (I have the photos chosen and printed so there's a chance!) I'll be all up to date.

We were in the UK for two thirds of April so there's a fair bit of double-up between these pages and my UK holiday journal. That's okay though because they are 2 separate projects. 

The first pocket page highlights different days out we had on holiday... 

The main page is all about family time and all the family we caught up with while we were there. (Sorry for all the blanked out faces but this was quicker than asking for permission from everyone to show them here!)

Mr Mischief was 20 months in April so I picked a selection of my favourite photos and summarised what he was loving, doing and saying which I've been doing every month. This is a great way of recording what he's up to and easily done by keeping a "Note" file on my phone to type away in every week so I don't forget anything!

The final pocket page shows the rest of the UK trip, getting back to NZ, completing my holiday journal, my photo-a-day mosaics, and settling back into routine.

Another month done :-)

You can see all of my Document 2012 posts here.

Jubilee Celebrations

Perhaps it was our recent trip to the UK that got me in the spirit of the Jubilee or perhaps it's the fact that this will likely be the last celebration of all things British where I'm wholly British (more on that soon I promise!).
But whatever it was - got into the spirit I did...

We had yummy roast beef with amazingly good homemade Yorkshire Puddings (thanks to hubby!) for dinner on Sunday followed by Sticky toffee pudding and Ambrosia Devon Custard from the UK shop!

My Mum sent us some red, white and blue balloons with Union Jacks on so we blew a few up and the dog popped most of them!

She also sent some Union Jack bunting so that has been adorning our front window in the lounge.

And while we were in the UK I bought some Cath Kidston Jubilee paper chains which me and Mr Mischief had fun putting together last week (he licked the gummy bits and I put it together!)

And my most favourite - I made butterfly cakes with white, blue and red butter icing and Union Jack cupcake cases from Lakeland. I made 12 so I could get some photos of them on my cupcake stand with the Keep Calm and Carry On picture in the background!

It was a fun weekend. I'm really hoping they show the concert on TV as it sounds like it was great with Madness performing on the roof of Buckingham Palace!

Did you do anything to enjoy the Jubilee?

photo a day : : May

Wow - how did it get to the end of May people? 2012 is disappearing fast!

Here's a look at my May photo-a-day mosaics from my phone app...

I have to admit some days with the light fading early I panic a bit if I haven't taken any photos! If that happens I've been trying to find something that symbolises what I've been busy doing that day and taking a picture of that (i.e. when I was so busy with the editing of the Parents Centre local magazine I took a photo of my Editor's Note!).

Without all these daily photos I wouldn't remember as much about these toddler days of Mr Mischief so I am so glad I'm capturing a lot of his funny moments :-)

You can see all of my photo-a-day posts here.