My younger brother and I hang out all the time. Older brother? Not so much.
It's his birthday today though - so I thought I'd wish him the best of days and show him the photo he never thought would be taken. (Well done Andrea from Sweet P photograhy!)
Happy birthday, Clown. Hope your day is awesome.
xx nic
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Happy Mother's Day to the most gorgeous, sweetest lady... she's pretty cute too.
Not many Mums shop in the girl's section of clothing stores, love you, Mum!
Younger brother Vaughan, older brother Shane, Mum, me, Dad, at my 40th, Nov 2012.
Yes I know I'm lucky I grew as tall as I did.
No, it's not just lucky genes making her that tiny,
Mum walks 6km every morning and then does weights for an hour afterwards.
Awesome? yes.
Happy Mother's Day, Mum!
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"I'm sure I have better things to do" I say to Lucy as we are trudging up the hill with the wind chill at about 5 degrees right in our face this morning. Obviously the thing that would have been better to do would be writing my blog because I forgot yesterday. How does one forget it's Friday when it is Friday? The same way I forgot the kids' Saturday sports games til it was nearly too late this morning.
So without further ado... Five for Friday. (Saturday, but if you are in New York or Hawaii it's still Friday, right?)
Things I have learnt and highlights of the Howard home this week:
1. Face Off has to be one of the most under-estimated most fun TV programmes EVER.
This programme was a gem that I found at 10.30pm Saturdays on some random TV channel while wishing there was something better on than Geordie Shore. It's a Project Life type scenario but they build costumes and props for movies.. like monsters, aliens, etc, transforming models into all sorts of creatures through the use of art mediums, paints, prosthesis etc. Braden wants to work in animation etc when he is older so he loved this. This series is ending but if you see Face Off advertised again, be sure to record it. I wish it was Prime time for sure.
My favourite episode? When they created real creatures from Dr Suess books. Awesome!
2. Another scrapbooking event on my calender... SENZ is locked in for July 5th - 7th here in Manukau, Auckland.
I had a booth last year and although I had the BEST time, I don't have a booth and I've chosen not to teach again this year. BUT It's an awesome annual event on the New Zealand calender, circle it if you haven't already, hopefully I'll see you there as I'm wandering the halls! (See the website here).
I truly did have the best time last year, I loved mixing and mingling with everyone, doing make n takes and demos, it was awesome - it's a great event on the NZ crafting calender. Classes open for registration 1st June. I hope I'll catch up with some of you then.
3. The Movies.
I don't go often. In fact it's a bit of a joke that I sleep everytime I go to the movies. I barely see the plot through to the end before I'm curled up fast asleep. I braved the movies twice in the past month though and I have to say I had the coolest time with the kids.
Ever wondered how the Wizard of Oz got to be in Oz? "OZ the great and powerful" tells you exactly how. Not a bad movie, would have been better with someone like, wait... Brad Pitt, as the leading role because we see a LOT of closeups of the leading guy but overall it was pretty cool. I was only tempted to fall asleep once about 2/3 the way through, I even closed my eyes and the kids outbursts of hilarious laughter woke me. Back in the game plan and I saw the whole movie. *high fives to me*.
My favourite was The Croods though. Anyone else see that? Not only did I stay awake but I'd go see it again. I know.
Cute guys in it too. In a cartooney kind of a way. Can I say that?
4. I am about to do my first ever obsacle course and I can't wait!
Actually that was just some sort of fake talking-myself-into-it kinda thing, really I can wait. Really actually I might even be a little afraid.
A friend asked me to sign up for ORock (the O stands for obstacles) a few months back. I laughed and said nuuuh I'm not that silly. I hate obstacles and I don't run far anymore.
Then just Thursday another friends had to pull out due to being sick. I was asked to replace her. Paul told me I'd have an awesome time and during the split second that I believed him I also said I'd go in as replacement. Then the split second of believing him was over and panic set in. Cargo nets. Wire. Walls. Ropes. WTF was I thinking.
In fact I freaked out so much I went to the school this morning to see if I'd overcome my childhood fear of the fire-pole and rope walls. Clearly it was spur-of-the-moment because I'm in my jeans.
Apparently I have. I can pull myself up an 8 foot wall, don't know about any further and I don't know how I'd get back down though. I also totally aced the fire-pole but those pics weren't so glamourous. I know. More high fives to me, this time for acing the obstacles designed for 9 year olds.
5. Autumn Escape is SOLD OUT.
Our event in April 2014 sold out within 8 days. Eight days. I can't tell you how happy it is that we have created an event that is obviously enjoyed by so many. It makes all the hard work worth it and it makes the whole crew excited to create yet another totally memorable event.
We know some have missed out because we are getting the emails! We have a waitlist but we also are suggesting those that miss out might be able to get into our September event, "ArtVenture". This event is shaping up to be exactly like Autumn Escape but it has more teachers, a bigger range of classes, more prizes,and is full backed by a large US manufacturer, Prima Marketing Flowers. A lot of people think it might be too flowery for them but with teachers like Janine Koczwara, Trina McClune and Louise Nelson, there will be just as much technique, inspiration and creativity as Autumn Escape - including those boy pages! Yay! I did a full blog post here if you want to know more.
Prima ArtVenture still has spaces at the moment but the overflow to Autumn Escape is headed that way.
Alrighty, retreats to brainstorm, rope walls to fret about. I'm sure I'll be tagged on facebook while on the Orock obstacle course, one can't make a fool of themselves an stay untagged these days, can they? Have a good weekend!
Laters.
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Autumn Escape in review - grab a cuppa, this is a LONG blog post - there's lots to tell!
Autumn Escape has come and gone for another year and I can happily say that it was our best one yet. We've been doing this gig for five years now and it's like we had everything perfectly in place to pull off the perfect event.
And perhaps that's easy when you start with a venue like this: Wairakei Resort, Taupo.
The pool has quickly become a favourite after-hours haunt of many of the ladies. It's super heated and a gorgeous relaxing, (gossiping) time. We have some hilarious photos of some of the shenanigans that went on in there. It's one of the things I really look forward to each year!
Autumn Leaves falling, gorgeous accommodation, amazing conference facilities, a hot pool to soak in, a cosy bar, the BEST barmen in the world, even delivering drinks to the classrooms, and the best part? We've been coming here so long now that Wairakei is our very own version of that TV programme 'Cheers'. The staff all know our names, the whole resort feels like our home, they treat us wonderfully, we arrive and just do our thing. It happened exactly like that again this year.
I loved our super-autumny theme this year. I don't know if people really realise the thought processes or planning that goes intoan event like this, but we do have the best crew on the planet, and although we are spread all over the country, we managed to come up with a very Autumn theme, colour scheme, and all the little touches that go with it.
This looks easy, right? Hundreds of hours went into these. From the brain-storming, to the trial centrepieces - many different versions - to the chopping down of a friends' dead tree, to collecting leaves to dry, pressing the leaves, drying hundreds of slices of oranges in the summer sun, tracking down and purchasing the right candles, figuring a way to cover them in seeds - then constructing each centrepiece.
And of course each table was set with a gorgeous box of goodies, decorated up in ribbons and Autumn coloured Prima flowers. Lucy actually did herself an injury as she squatted and stood 130 times to tie these. Because we couldn't tip the contents of the box up to tie the ribbon, she had to crouch underneath and then stand back up - doing that 130 times was not the workout she expected. She could barely walk for days. Seriously. (poor thing!)
As usual, Rachel always did the most amazing job of the candy bar. She always creates new decorations, tying in with the new colour scheme we choose for each event.
Can you believe that we go through around 40kg of lollies at each of these events? That's even with being fed 6 times a day. A lot of is sneaked into my pockets but do we count that? No? Just the Granny Mints. Did anyone see the Granny Mints this year? ;)
Rachel has the most gorgeous vintage touches. We know we are super lucky to have her as part of the AE crew.
We had the usual scones, cream & jam for morning tea registration time. This year our registration packets were little autograph books, wrapped in brown paper with everyone's tickets included and more of those Autumn flowers. Again, lots of hours when into planning this stuff. Lots of 'meetings' over a few drinks on sunny Sunday afternoons. Again, the jam and scones are something I look forward to each year. Is that bad?
All the names were typed on a real typewriter. It was hilarious watching Lucy thread 130 cards through an old kids typewriter! Of course those old typewriters are hard to move, there was some serious one-fingered typing going on! And laughing...
The crop room filled up - 130 ladies, many of which have been coming to our retreats for years. I think one of the best things about AE retreats now is the fact that we are familiar with each other. The vibe is awesome - it's like a huge girl's weekend away. Those that are new to the events are quickly welcomed in and soon feel like they've known everyone forever. Everytime we have new people at AE they leave saying they will come again (and bring 3 friends!), I think this is why we sell out so quickly year after year.
(photo courtesy of Brenda White).
Then there is the shopping...
Enough said, really.
We had awesome make n takes again.
Lynda & Lianne spent hours creating dolls with the new Julie Nutting Mixed Media stamps
Everyone had the chance to play with the stamps, the chalk inks were out, the tag pads were there.. it's all about being able to play with new products without neccessarily buying them first, right? I spent a lot of time at the table too and I have to say the best part is sitting and chatting with the ladies as they come up. Again. Girl's weekend away. Gossip time.
Delys also did a really cool make n take with Stampin' Up! products. (she's the lady to go to for Stampin' Up! at AE!). Poor Delys was trying to pack up when some of the AE crew had their kids arrive, all of a sudden Delys was overwhelmed with girls wanting to create handbags. We are so grateful for Delys's generosity with her time and her inspiration.
And then there were the classes - in all we had 7 different classes running multiple times and most were sold out. Jenni Bowlin came over from the USA and taught alongside Rachel Tucker and myself. There was a huge range of things to learn from amped-up Project Life, to mini books and piles of layouts and lots of technique.
One of the layouts from my 'Black & White' class, and some creating happening in Jenni's class.
Busy at work, some of these ladies fitted in 7 classes over the two days! Some ladies come along and just hang out in the crop room or just do a few classes. It all depends what kind of weekend people have planned with their friends I think.
Ok so then Saturday night always gets a little bit more energetic and this year Lucy & I planned a pass the parcel game. Have you ever played pass the parcel with 130 people sitting at tables? We had 6 different parcels and a crew member assigned to each parcel. Lucy was the music-extraordinaire (coughcough*OneDirection*coughcough) and we boogeyed, danced, ran and laughed ourselves hesterically through the game. I knew it'd be fun but what I didn't count on was the absolute work-out it'd be running around that room.
Yea those blurry images are of me running madly around the place. Throwing that parcel around missing delicate layouts and glasses of wine on tables, was quite the mission in itself.
I could go on, really. This event really was my favourite yet. I think it was partly because of the easy-going relaxed vibe you find when something has been running so long, everyone was familiar with how we worked, both the delegates & crew were so relaxed, it was that 130-strong sleepover that your mum never let you have, ya know?
We had a few hilarious moments...
Scooter antics... and a random guy that turned up on the Saturday night. Everyone thought that he 'belonged' to someone and it took quite a while and him doing about 3 laps of the room before we realised he didn't. His comment as he walked in the crop room and saw 130 ladies and a candy bar should have given it away "Oh, there is a God!" ... we shoulda known. It was hilarious, a lot of us were speechless as we were laughing so hard at this guy's antics.
And then there was this group. ..
"Paying off the Bar Bill". I told you the resort staff are fabulous. Where else could you go where they help you out with photos like this one? very cool! (I'm thinking this pic is probably thanks to staff members Charlie & Co over at dinner!).
I'll stop there but first I need to say once again how incredibly lucky, honoured, amazed, I am at these fabulous ladies. They are the best friends a girl could have and they make AE Retreats run beautifully. Yes, we have our hiccups, even the best laid plans do, but with the support of this amazing group of girls, nothing is a problem in making my weekend, and the delegate's weekend nothing short of spectacular.
Lynda, Jenni, Nic, Lianne, Lucy, tana, Rachel & Shelley. Photo courtesy of Sweet P photography.
So that was Autumn Escape for another year.
And yes, we are doing it all over again. ArtVenture in September is our next retreat, it runs exactly like Autumn Escape but has MORE. More teachers, a bigger range of classes, more prizes, more of everything. It's like Autumn Escape on steroids. A lot of people think it might be too flowery for them but with teachers like Janine Koczwara, Trina Mc Clune and Louise Nelson, there will be just as much technique, inspiration and creativity as usual - including those boy pages!
Edited to add: In answer to the emails and Fb messages I am receiving! Yes, we still have space at ArtVenture at the moment! You can find out more by visiting here.
We have also opened registration for Autumn Escape, April 2014.
We opened registration a week ago and we only have about 6-7 spaces left. By the time this blog post goes live I expect it may have sold out.
Just about sold out already. That just blows my mind. It makes me happy to know we are making you all happy and it's thanks to the amazing crew as well as a huge group of amazing ladies that makes it all so successful. I'm thankful of the friendships I've made through these retreats and each year it only gets better. That's my favourite part of the whole retreat.
I think everyone feels the same. Thank you, ladies for being so awesome!
laters.
Edited to add: If you missed out on registering for Autumn Escape 2014, perhaps we'll see you in September at ArtVenture when we'll do this all over again. In the words of one of our excited delegates: "Like Autumn Escape but on steroids, bring it!"
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It's International Scrapbooking Day which means thousands of people all over the world are celebrating this fabulous hobby together and all of us at Prima are joining in the fun!
If you made your way here from Frank's Blog, then congratulations, I'm next on the list, and if you found me accidently, why not join in! The Prima team is worldwide so this blog hop will take you for miles, checking out fabulous projects and inspiration on the way.
Before I send you to the next blog on the list, check this out - this link is perfect for tuning in from 9am when Prima are running just about non-stop 'Live with Prima' classes, many of them streamed live right from the Prima warehouse.
There'll be classes by Cari, Sharon, Jamie, Drew, Jodie-Lee and Frank. There will be live chats, prizes and non stop inspiration - a Live with Prima Marathon, perfect for those at home. Like me. Autumn rain outside, kids playing lego and enjoying the 'May the 4th' star wars marathon I've organised and I'll be scrapbooking with some of my fav Prima instructors all day long.
Right - so let's get this blog hop moving, from here why not check out Janine Koczwara's blog, always full of inspiration, Janine is one of my favourite Prima Educators as she mixes masculine and Prima so well. We loved her work so much we have her coming along to the Prima ArtVenture retreat here in New Zealand in September, along with Louise Nelson, Trina McClune and myself.
I'm leaving you with a sneak peek of a little something I have coming up with Prima - but before that, if you want the complete list of blogs to hop, here it is - have fun with everything International Scrapbook Day has to offer around blog land - enjoy!
Engraver & Lyric, some of my favourite pairings with the Prima products (say that 10 x fast) thanks for visiting and enjoy Janine's blog - the next on the list of blogs to visit!
Laters
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Autumn Escape has come and gone and I'll be doing a full run-down of the event next week. For now it's Five for Friday, my favourite blog post of the week.
So this week I learnt:
1. There is no limit to the cool apps out there.
This week's cool find, through seeing other people use it via facebook, is an app called Project 365. Download it to your phone, open it up, assign a pic from your photo gallery to each of the day's months and there we go. A month in review, just like that. Send it to your email in hi-res format and it's printable as well.
Yes, there are gaps in mine. Those were the days I was in Taupo, running around like a mad thing at Autumn Escape and then the days I was asleep on the couch afterwards. Thank goodness for school holidays.
2. I don't need paper to be creative.
The April photo above reminded me of that. Check out what I did with dinner ingedients, some scroggin and a single orange jellybean. This little creative piece was in response to a photo challenge on instagram, I carried on the challenge for 30 days but fully admit there was no day more creative than this one. #MMNZ30days for those of you fluent in hashtag-ese.
Yes the orange jellybean was the first thing I ate when I finished taking the pic. No I'm not in the habit of making pictures with carrot sticks but it wasn't all bad, really, was it?
3. Although I choose that lifestyle, I'd quite like this right now.
Pinterest strikes again. This. looks. Devine. How well would it go with feijoa & apple as a filling?
It's possible I may have to find out.
Thank goodness Jacob is home from school on holiday and thank goodness he is the most amazing cook.
4. My husband is a clown.
Well not literally, but sometimes I do wonder if he missed his calling. This is one of my favourite pics from our family holiday around Rotorua/Taupo after Autumn Escape. This is my family, Lucy's family and Jenni Bowlin & family about to climb aboard the Huka Jet. I asked them all to pose for a pic and Paul was the first to dive on to the ground and pose - love him for his clownliness. And this was even before his first beer for the day.
Christian, Braden, Izzy, Lucy, Tana, Jenni, Jared, Noah
Jacob & Paul in front.
5. I have the best friends ever.
As I said, I will do a full run-down of Autumn Escape next week. But I couldn't resist mentioning how awesome this group of girls are. Although we live all over New Zealand and are rarely in the same place at the same time, we single-handedly (together) organised, planned and ran the most amazing AE Retreat ever. 500 people through classes, 130 goodie bags, 40kg of lollies, hundreds of kilos of shop stock, several vodka-lime-lemonades and even a few toilet-papered rooms.
Lynda, Jenni Bowlin, me, Lianne, Lucy, Tana & her blue sparkly shoes, Rachel, Shelley.
Best crew ever...
Still smiling. Andrea tells us to do our best pose. We pose, Lucy photo bombs and Shelley is ready to catch her. Love it. Might do it all again in September ;)
See you on Sat (Sun NZ time) for a special NSD blog hop - until then,
laters.
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School holidays are some of my favourite times of year. No rushing around in the mornings. Less rushing around in the evenings. Taking a quick nap in the late afternoon, dozing to the smell of caramel slice being made in the kitchen. Love it. I've got work to do but I've been working later into the night with it recently. I'm enjoying this glorious weather with the kids while they are home.
I've had a little break from my blog, enjoying the time with the kids, but Five for Friday will be back this week. For now I thought I'd share this card, created for My Prima Place, an online magazine FULL of glorious Prima projects (it's free, click the link, grab a cuppa and enjoy!)
Have you registered for Prima ArtVenture yet? Click here to learn more - or click here to register.
It's a full-on, awesome crafting weekend. Ask anyone that attended our recent Autumn Escape in April. We are all still recovering, right?
laters.
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It's not really Friday, it's Wednesday when I'm writing this but as I'm up to my chin in inks, gesso and mixed media goodness at Autumn Escape, so I've got all organised-like and set this to go ahead of time. I know. Such organisation is so unlike me.
So, FIVE for this Friday....
1. My children are not too young to conspire.
How do I know this? Because I caught them whispering at the fruit bowl as they packed their lunchboxes. "Leave those two bananas because if they go spotty Mum will have to make a banana cake". Really. Will I. And so the banana cake conspiracy was born.
2. I have a new i-obsession. It's called Free Flow.
Do not download this app. Do not sit with your important GST tax return open on your laptop screen and play this game until you realise your computer has timed out. Do not put this game down and declare that you are stuck because some 12 year old will pick it up and solve it in 3 seconds.
3. Car batteries are not meant to ooze pretty blue crystals.
Yea so apparently the picture below isn't right. So when most of Pukekohe was yelling "Ford!" or "Holden!" at the top of their lungs and waving chequered flags during fast car fever that took over the whole town last weekend, this Ford was not going anywhere.
Pretty, yes. Highly acidic and eaten through the entire battery terminal? Yes. Did I learn to check my car essentials more often? Yes.
4. I have a lounge.
We have a huge lounge. I'm not into clutter so there isn't much in it usually. But this past 3 months has seen boxes for Autumn Escape grow so plentiful that we had a walking track inbetween the boxes to the TV to turn it on and off.
I'm happy to report that now everything has been shipped to Autumn Escape, that I have a lounge floor again. Little things that make me happy.
5. I still scrapbook.
Someone asked me that the other day. "Do you still scrapbook?". Why yes. Here is one of my latest creations - well, a sneak of it - those at Autumn Escape may very well be making a page just like it about *looking at watch on wrist* now.
Here's hoping your weekend is awesome.
I'll be having the best time with 130 of my favourite ladies in one of the prettiest places in New Zealand. Autumn Escape is happening now so is pretty much over for the year but if you missed out on that, why not join us for the Prima ArtVenture in September? Same thing, more teachers, fully supported by Prima. Sounds awful doesn't it? I wish you could hear the sarcasm in my voice.
(BTW we'll be updated #AEretreats and other related hashtags on Instagram as much as we can over the weekend, follow us there for the weekend to see the fun happening!)
Laters.
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Recently I was given an assignment to create a mixed media tag for the Prima Blog. I love creating with flowers, gesso and coloured mists, you’ve seen me do a lot of that in my work recently, but I decided it might be fun to do it in a ‘white’ or a ‘pastel’ mixed media kinda way. And so I got creating.
Any excuse to get out the paper and paint, right?
Enjoy your week,
laters
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I was going to be a writer 'when I grew up'. That or a florist, I've mentioned it before. It's kind of ironic that I've ended up creating scrapbooking pages for a living, in a way it combines my love of both.
But although I don't update my blog as often as I should, or create scrapbook pages as much as I should, I'm constantly 'writing' in my head. I'm constantly thinking of things I can write about on my blog, in my pages, in my Project Life, all of those things.
These lyrics, looked for and saved about 6 years ago, were one of these instances. I heard them, loved them and knew one day I wanted to use them. When I was contacted to be a guest designer for PaperHaus magazine, I found a pic I loved and it seemed perfect to use these lyrics. Even after 6 years.
I love the idea that our future is unwritten. We can sculpt it the way we want, we can be anything we want as long as we genuinely try and discard the things that are holding us back.
The full Paperhaus Blog article can be seen here, or go make a cuppa and settle in to read their 121 page Spring Edition of the magazine - all online and all gorgeous. A fabulous online resource. Treat yourself.
Laters.
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