It Was One Of The Best Days Of My Life! and then...

Kia ora koutou


...Well, I don't know where to begin?    I will never  forget Saturday, 19th October 2013 and the 24 hours that passed - we had a birth, death and a marriage :( not in that order.

Prior to that, I had a wonderful weekend at Glentui :) a blissful weekend of scrapbooking, cardmaking, crafting with an amazing group of ladies that are just as passionate about creating as moi! We were given two creative challenges:
1.  Vinyl Record Challenge - must alter it using three different papers, some bling, a bit of paint, a flourish, at least three flowers and something metal
2.  Thank You Card Challenge - must use fabric and card is A5 size.

OH MY GOSH - the entries were amazeballs!!! My pitiful attempt of both challenges was well and truly blown out of the water....oh well, next time I'm going to make it my number one mission to knock their socks off!!!  Yes I am competitive when passionate about the subject, lol.

Altered Vinyl Record

Thank You Card

Since I was in the process of making my wedding dress, I used my wedding dress fabric :)

Front

Inside

Back

A couple of projects I worked on at camp

I have decided I am making all the ladies in my family (mum, my two sisters, my daughter and two nieces) a personal, fun and very cool album/journal - they will all be different because I hope to make them to match each of their personalities.  I have already made one for my youngest sister Latoya.  At Glentui camp I completed one for my daughter Louise, and worked on mum's one, both still need finishing (the fun part, embellishing!).

Each page has pockets, pull out tabs, lots of space for photos, journalling, keepsakes and little bits and pieces.

Louise's Album

Mum's Album

(Oops, forgot to move the ironing board and Bigshot from the background, lol). Pics of the finished albums (covered and embellished pages) to come....

Anyhoo...had the bestus time Glentui and the ladies even put on a little impromptu 'hen's party' for me  :) spoilt!

The Big Day....

After returning from the Glentui camp, I had one week left to prepare for the wedding - that is:  Finishing making my wedding dress, pick up the flowers and drop them off to my friend Maureen to make the bouquets (thank you Maureen), finish making the wedding favours and table decorations, bake the red velvet wedding cake and cupcakes - Maria came around and showed me how to make the most perfect cream cheese icing, she frosted the cake and cupcakes for me, thank you my friend :) 

All of my family except my brother and I, live in the North Island - beautiful Tauranga, so I had to do a few visits to the airport to pick up, my daughter, my sisters and mum & dad.  Friday the 18th October was the busiest day - pick up mum and dad from the airport in the morning, still needed to finish the wedding dress, convert my youtube playlist to mp3 for the wedding reception music, do the seating plan for the tables, finish off the wedding favours, then pick up my sisters from the airport, then all us girls off to Zippity Doo Beauty Salon owned by our friend Ena (thank you Ena and Stacey), for a lovely pampering session, then FINALLY...off to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens to show the girls where the ceremony is being held and then across the road to Canterbury Horticultural Society to decorate the hall and tables for the wedding reception.  Whew!!! what a whirlwind of whanau, intense, frantic wedding stuff...it got done, thanks to mum, Gina, Latoya, Louise, Martin, Ryan, Henare, Brad and Shane, except I didn't finish my wedding dress until the next day - right before I had to put it on for my wedding :)

Moi, getting my nails done at Zippity Doo, we all had such a lovely time there :)

Saturday 19th October 2013...Yay, finally the big day is here!  Early start for me, shower then off to get my face put on lol, aka makeup, done by Stacey at Zippity Doo, then back home, get my hair done by a talented beautiful friend Tracy (thanks Tracy), finish my wedding dress and then go get married! woop woop!!!

A big beautiful red cadillac pulls up our drive 15 minutes early, which is good - we had a change of plans, my sister and maid of honour Gina, decided to give up her seat for dad, his leg was giving him a lot of pain, we decided it would be more comfortable for him to ride in the cadillac....And dad had agreed that my brother could take him to the hospital after the ceremony - finally (I underlined that word finally because after constantly asking dad, he would not let us take him to the hospital until then).

One Of The Best Days Of My Life

 A 'selfie' of my beautiful daughter and I just before our cool ride arrived :)

The grooms ride, Mustang, what a sexy car!  Both cars are owned by Michael, Ryan's (the groom's) boss  . Michael drove the Mustang and Richard drove the cadillac, thank you guys, it was awesome :) 

Mum and dad walked me up the aisle, it was a great honour and priviledge to be escorted by my parents, it was so humbling - love you mum and dad <3  

Pastor Stan did the honours :)  We both said our own vows - I practiced for two weeks saying my vows...oh my gosh, failed every-time because I would end up a sobbing mess.  So on the big day, you guessed it - I cried!  Gahhhhh, useless! lol.

My beautiful bridesmaids, from left to right - Louise (daughter), Latoya (baby sister), Gina (sister)

 Our son's Xavier and Bronson were part of the wedding party and long time friend Shane was our best man :)

My handsome husband cracking-up at the Best Man's speech, oh it was so funny, everyone was in stitches - good on ya Shane :)

I would love to put up photos of our stunning, beautiful wedding guests, but chose not to as it would not be fair to my friends and family who would like to remain private.

After the wedding ceremony and a few group photos at the Botanic Gardens - as promised, my brother took dad a short distance up the road to the hospital.  One of my wedding guests received the news that she was a nana for the second time yay, so she left just after the ceremony and returned to the reception later.  My brother returned to the reception later as well, he said that dad had renal failure and would be in hospital for a few nights - he was okay.

Later that night, while we were having a good time at the reception, my brother got a call from the hospital.  He went with Latoya, not long after they called us and said we needed to go to the hospital....nooooo, had a terrible feeling of dread, lucky the reception was just across the road from the hospital, it was a sobering walk to the hospital - all of us still in our wedding gears.
Dad passed away 12:20am.

The last words I heard dad say was "She's all yours now Ryan" as he gave me away.

Dad, thank you for giving me away, I know you waited for us to all be together and happy before you passed away. But it hurts, my heart aches for you, everyday I cry, I miss you terribly, wish you were here <3 <3 <3

It has been three weeks since I got married and dad passed away.  I still think my wedding day was one of the best days of my life and dad's passing still hurts like a mofo!  I know the pain of losing dad will never go away but life goes on.  After dad's tangi (it was a beautiful tangi), I took a week off work and cards - I'm back on track, it's not the same though, now I have a pain in my heart :(

Monday Card Class

I thought we could get a head-start on Christmas and make a couple of Christmas Cards.  They are simple but hopefully they will fill the ladies with inspiration and get their Christmas creative juices flowing...

I emotionally choose colours, yes I was feeling blue when I created this card. 

Flowers are my favourite subject and muse for creativity, so it's only logical to make a lovely Poinsettia Christmas card :)

The next card I created is a big thank you to all the ladies that have supported me and come to my class and purchased my card kits. All the components are made and ready to stick on, so that all the ladies have to do is put it together.

Thank you Monday Card Class

Thank you for visiting my blog - it has been an emotional roller coaster ride of late, writing this blog has helped ease the pain of a broken heart a little...

Ka kite ano

BCHS (Keri-Anne Halliday now ^_^)

Tweet