Happy New Year

Firstly, I just wanted to welcome my new followers - half of my followers know me in real life and are duty-bound to read my blog (ha!) but to have people I have never met actually want to follow my crafting journey is buzzing me out.  I hope you like what you find here.  To my dear friends, thank you for your encouragement along the way, your support means so much. I read all your lovely comments (sometimes several times if I need a boost - just so you know).

I thought I would share what I have been up to in the last week or so before I launch into more craft projects for the year.  The family block of land lies an hour's drive from Wellington, which is where we spent our Christmas holiday relaxing with family and friends.  The children love escaping to this part of the world, they spend most of their time playing outdoors, exploring and making their own fun. I hope it gives them the same kind of memories I have of my own childhood growing up on a farm.

I took so many photos but not very many came out well at all.  I am from the Point and Click School of Photography so my New Years resolution is to improve my photography skills and learn how to use my camera properly, especially with nighttime shots. Even so, I hope that you get a sense of what the past few days with my family was like.

Here they are testing out the Christmas presents:

Paintball started off well...

...before a little gremlin came along and stole one of the course flags.

Ushering in the New Year - at 9.30pm.  My girls struggle to stay awake even until this time of night (if I'm honest, so do I):

Home again.  Just in case I gave you the impression that this is the view from our house, I had to walk a couple of minutes down the road to get this shot.

I am feeling rejuvenated and excited about the year ahead; there are so many projects I want to start and others I can't wait to complete and show you.  I hope you all are looking forward to 2013 too.