It's been one of those days...

Blog posts are on my

Blog posts are on my mind right throughout each day. I always intend to work on my post just before I go to bed ... but I'll just clear my email first... but I'll just finish this paperwork... but I'll just figure out my work for tomorrow. So the blog post doesn't get done. And then I crawl into bed and write great blog posts in my mind. I even fall asleep thinking how well it flows and I'll remember that in the morning. I do a lot of composing of journaling, articles, blog posts and other random stuff in my mind as I'm falling asleep. It's a shame all that hard work disappears during the night. I'm sure I should take my own advice and keep that notebook beside the bed. It's a great testament to the 'write it down' mantra.

Aussie Scrap Source - I have 2 new classes for sale at Aussie Scrap Source, if either of these look like a class you would like to take, then contact your local retailer, they should be able to get them in through Aussie SCrap Source.

Ribbon Curling - technique using Ribbonstiff etc.

And my Extreme boy layout - I LOVE that junkitz!!! Like extreme ink and distress.

Ahhh now that Thanksgiving is over in the USA the Christmas stuff starts to come out - including all the internet fun... I forget about it for 11 months of the year and then about now I always get a giggle all over again...
This one... Create a flake... always fun. Then the ElfYourself site... the kids and I sat for hours last year with that one and I had forgotten until someone pointed it out on 2peas today. It's worth the visit.

OK last thing - Friends Johanna Peterson and Leah Fung have developed an Etsy shop together... it's called www.leahjohanna.etsy.com
and here are a few of the proejcts you can buy kits for ...

(Ok only one is showing, you'll have to click the link and look for yourself)

Ok, off to bed. To create a great blog post in my mind.
Laters.

Blog posts are on my

Blog posts are on my mind right throughout each day. I always intend to work on my post just before I go to bed ... but I'll just clear my email first... but I'll just finish this paperwork... but I'll just figure out my work for tomorrow. So the blog post doesn't get done. And then I crawl into bed and write great blog posts in my mind. I even fall asleep thinking how well it flows and I'll remember that in the morning. I do a lot of composing of journaling, articles, blog posts and other random stuff in my mind as I'm falling asleep. It's a shame all that hard work disappears during the night. I'm sure I should take my own advice and keep that notebook beside the bed. It's a great testament to the 'write it down' mantra.

Aussie Scrap Source - I have 2 new classes for sale at Aussie Scrap Source, if either of these look like a class you would like to take, then contact your local retailer, they should be able to get them in through Aussie SCrap Source.

Ribbon Curling - technique using Ribbonstiff etc.

And my Extreme boy layout - I LOVE that junkitz!!! Like extreme ink and distress.

Ahhh now that Thanksgiving is over in the USA the Christmas stuff starts to come out - including all the internet fun... I forget about it for 11 months of the year and then about now I always get a giggle all over again...
This one... Create a flake... always fun. Then the ElfYourself site... the kids and I sat for hours last year with that one and I had forgotten until someone pointed it out on 2peas today. It's worth the visit.

OK last thing - Friends Johanna Peterson and Leah Fung have developed an Etsy shop together... it's called www.leahjohanna.etsy.com
and here are a few of the proejcts you can buy kits for ...

(Ok only one is showing, you'll have to click the link and look for yourself)

Ok, off to bed. To create a great blog post in my mind.
Laters.

With it being Thanksgiving day

With it being Thanksgiving day in the USA and with me being an internet junkie, it was bound to happen that I would come across lots of well wishes and notes of appreciation to those near and dear... and it was likely it was going to rub off on me. So I am thankful. Because today I feel good. As opposed to yesterday when I felt bad. And for the 3 days prior to that too. Thankyou-to-the-God-of-nasty-viruses-that-had-me-sleeping-12-hours-a-day. (not). Today I am thankful that I can walk around without thinking that I am going to crumple in a heap on the floor and fall asleep. Again. And that my sore throat is gone. Or maybe I just talked too much. Which apparently does happen. lol.

SO it's back into the swing of things for me - and for those of you asking about the travel/teaching thing - I've pretty much turned down any teaching stuff next year. It's only a year until Abby goes to school and I want her to have a chance at being my little friend - I love that year - I remember Braden being my little friend for that year, as was Jacob. They are old enough to help out with stuff but still too young for school. It's a precious time and I'll enjoy it.

I do have a few new jobs that I've taken on that will keep me fairly busy anyway. I have enough paid work to call this a full time job now ( I hear my accountant laugh, lol) , but at least this way I can still tuck my own kiddies in their beds at night.

SO! Congrats to Courtney Walsh who I saw had a new baby boy on the 19th. Awwww.

AND! I found this gallery on 2peas the other day. Capucinno I have no idea of this ladies' name or even where she comes from as she doesn't post on 2peas but I thought I'd point out her gallery. Love it. She needs to post more LOL.

I love that we have had 8 days of sunshine in a row and today it was 24 degrees. (See that Vaughan? You need to come home!) That is 80 degrees for those that are hemispherically challenged. I see on this rain radar - love this thing - that we are going to get some rain over Saturday - but hey.. we can't be too greedy. I don't like that petrol has gone upo to like $1.73 a litre. I like that I drive a deisel. I dont't like that deisel has gone up too. lol.

Leaving you with a layout - which my scanner chose to make extremely bright - I tried to calm it back down. This is the Scenic Route Salem. And although it is bright IRL, not quite so much. Anther pic of Abby. Paul asked me the other day what I'd do when my kids grow up and I simply can't take pics of them anymore. I told him I'd have to take more pics of hinm. lol. Unimpressed. You watch. I'll turn that into a title for a layout ;o)

laters

And then it was over..

And then it was over, Crafting Connection has finished, most of the ladies from the U.S. should be just about home by now and I'm just grounding myself too.

I have been on 11 flights in the past 45 days, and told Paul I had slept in 11 different places too... it's nice to know that the days of waking up and wondering whose bed I'm in is over for a while... ahhh such gossip could come from such a statement but sorry it's all so innocent. All in the name of scrapbooking. When I told Paul about the amount of flights/hotels he said "Wow... and all in the name of sticking coloured pieces of paper to other coloured pieces of paper... " Little does the man know the social side is just as important. Actually he does know. lol.

Crafting Connection Wellington was fun. Again, I really am expected to say that but honestly, truly it was great. A really social event I think - everyone loved the venue, the classes, the people. Not so keen about the frosted glass walls in the bathrooms, I'm sure that was done to spark conversation, a true icebreaker if you were just getting to know your roomie, I'm sure ;o)

Here's a few photos I took from Kent Pearson's Family Talk Blog.

Classes - flippin loved them. Loved teaching them, loved what everyone did with them, and again I need to thank my awesome support from the manufacturers Scenic Route, Queen & Company, BasicGrey, Finishing Touches Ideas, FancyPants Designs, and CherryArte. Send me pics of finished albums etc if you have them! And as I said - I dont normally push push push in classes like that, but hey... it's probably my last teaching I'll do in NZ for a long while so I had to go out with a bang, huh?! Thank ladies for sticking with me!

Hey - talking of BasicGrey, I saw this morning they have a new line of paper out, Two Scoops. Click the link and you'll see they are bringing out brads, acrylic stamps, chipsticker shapes, and books of rub-ons. Bring on the BasicGrey, I say. lol.

Alrighty - I have Brady home sick today, I have some work just arrived so I'm settling into the batcave for the afternoon. Thanks ladies for making Crafting Connection so awesome.

laters.

Onward....

Onward with the next chapter in Crafting Connection. I am looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow. I am anticpating the fun at the other end. I am excited that for once it is a one hour flight, I've seen the inside of far too many planes lately and I am thankful that the winds in Wellington seem to have calmed. (and that I wasn't on the Cook strait Ferry with the US tutors and their families) yesterday.

Some fav pics from today - it was full of cards and flowers and hugs and phone calls. And cake. Two of them even. I have great friends and family. Only one cake was photographed - the other didn't stand a chance. lol.

The cake is a tradition my family. Since I can remember my Mum would make a cake for a birthday and the three of us kids would decorate it. We would buy pick-n-mix lollies and Mum would ice the cake. The icing (frosting for those southern-hemispherily challenged ;o) the icing would not be set too much and as we placed the lollies on the cake they would often slip down the side. In the end the cake would be covered in icing and lollies with no pattern to them, just a pile of sweet goodness really. Those were called 'sliptey cakes'. This one isn;t too sliptey but as my kids were decorating it, it reminded me of those days.

The kids stayed home from school today, out of the last 4-5 weekends I have only seen them for one I think - and with me going off to Wellington tomorrow I just wanted them around me. I was honest with the school and told them the kids needed a 'mental health day' and they agreed. All is well :o)
We decided to take the kids for a swim at the rec centre. I can't remember the last time we went. As we were driving there Braden announced "Oh my goodness I think my heart is going to burst into lots of little hearts!" How.cute.is.that. Excitment is so cute in a 6 year old.
Just as I was quietly thinking to myself how innocent and cute that was there was this huge "KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" voice from the back seat. Boys will be boys. He couldn't resist adding that.

Another Tarisota layout... this one is nothing extra pretty, it's all about the journaling here for me. You all know how I love to tell a story. Especially you Sydney ladies. I had a sore throat on Sunday and most of Monday. I thought I was coming down with a cold or something but now I really I think I just talked too much. lol.

ANyhoooooooooooo this layout is more about the story than anything. The journaling tells about how Abby is going through the phase where she blames everyone else for anything.

I can visualise this child jumping on the couch. We can make eye contact as she is doing it, yet as I ask her to stop she blurts out "It wasn't me!!!"

Apparently a Pokemon, Mr Mime, is the culprit. Mr Mime is a 2cm pokemon figurine that Braden placed on her bedside table (supposedly to ward off the Crazy Frog, whom Abby is terrified of) but as well as a protector-from-crazy-frog Mr Mime also does a lot of naughty things around this place. If abby were to be believed.

Ok. Apparently I do talk too much.
See you in Wellington!!!!

LAters.

Whirlwind

The whole last 4 days have gone at a record speed really - I felt I owed it to myself to sit and record a few things. You know, note things down while they are fresh in one's mind. As ya do. ;o)

Kiwiscraps Sydney was a blast. Of course I was expected to say nothing else but in all seriousness if you had looked inside my classroom (I stayed in one room the entire time) during the event you would have literally thought that a paper and craft factory had exploded in there. KABOOM. It was hilarious. It was fun. It was unexpected by myself. The particular class guilty for said mess was renamed "Chaos 101" by most ... the awesome TA helping me out was overheard to say that she handles cardiac arrests at work (being a nurse) with less stress than what I put her through. I laugh. We had to, huh Tracy?

So. It went well. Those that have sat in on my classes before know I have a personal rule that everyone has to finish before they leave, I can't stand the thought of projects going home and being placed in the abyss of unfinished projects that most scrappers own. (Go on, hands up those that have one of those?!)One of my classes especially kinda breaks that rule. But we do our best. We did pretty good at acheiving this in Sydney except for those ladies in that first Confessions class (ah yea THAT woke ya up, huh?!)... but for anyone that sat in on ANY of my classes this weekend, I'd love to see jpegs of projects if you have them.

I plan on adding pics of completed projects to my slideshows if I can, especially in conversations - the different covers and titles, colour schemes etc. SO if you have pics you wouldn't mind sharing, please send them through to me? Be sure to include your name (email addy's aren't always indicative of one's real name, are they?!) so I can credit you on my slide show.
Actually send me any old pics you think I might be interested in.
I'd really appreciate it. Please and may thank yous!
My email address is nic.paul(at)xtra.co.nz for anyone that would send those through.

Oh - I need to reinterate - if you are taking any of my classes and you have one (don't go buy one especially!) bring a crop-od-ile!

Ok. I know you NZ ladies are starving for info on how things went in everyone elses classes too! Kent Pearson (Renee's hubby) has a family blog. I noticed Stacy posted he link so here you are.
He updates everyday.

So no pics from me at this stage - (hoping I'll get a few by email... or leave me a comment with a link if you have them on your blog!)

ON other scrappy news - The tarisota gallery went up while I was blissfully unaware... It's a great looking gallery full of teals and pinks etc.

This is my fav layout from this month.

And I see Tamar has listed the limiteds - among the Inklination (stamps that go with with the pizza boxes of scrapping goodness) and other limiteds, Tamar has also introduced the small "In the bag" collections. They are little albums with enough embellishments and fabric to decorate the album and make a little bag. I did mine in a few hours last Thursday. lol. They are only small but so easy.

Queen & Co blog still being updated regularly... the Dt blow me away with what they continuously come up with, so I'm going to keep linking it here so everyone can see. At the moment we have a guest designer.

Alrighty - time for some lunch - send me images if you can!
laters

Today was a strange day.

Today was a strange day. It was cold enough to put the fire on. So I did. My excuse being that paul had filled up the fireplace with scrunched up paper. Yep. I had to get rid of that paper ;o)

And my computer came home. I purchased a new computer at the end of August and it's spent more time having parts replaced than it has here. The last visit to computer hospital was 5 weeks long. Everybody cross fingers now that it is perfect. I'm crossing mine but not holding out much hope. I bought a new computer because I feared the old one would crash and die soon , just to have my new one crash and die, not once but 3 times - 3 new hard drives... that has to be the definition of irony.

The Aussie Scrap Source blog has been updated - I did a small article (for want of a better word) on one of my favourite manufacturers - BasicGrey. You can see the post here.

These are the layouts I created for the article. (note the stampin up spiral punch!)

These are the layouts I showed you the sneak peek of a month or so back.

Talkin of Stampin' Up! - I received an email today that might interest those of you in the Rotorua area. They are holding a free open night in Rotorua next Tuesday night. 13 November 2007. 7 – 9pm

They will be making free projects on the night and there will be demonstrators over from the States especially for the event.

Rydges Rotorua
272 Fenton Street

Registrations can be made by calling 0800 202 722, visiting www.stampinup.com or even emailing Sarah [email protected].

So there you go. Free stuff. Open night. Rotorua girls. Be there.

Count down til Sydney is on. After the beautiful 10 degrees we had today I'm looking forward to a little more warm in Sydney? Well as warm as 3 days in a convention centre with the air conditioning set at 18 degrees can be. lol.

laters.

So I dropped off the

So I dropped off the kids at school and carried on driving around the block to drop Abby off at "Nannie's School". Abby often goes to see Nannie June and Grumpr for the day, she packs her bag with lunch and other random essentials, you know; a barbie, the occasional toy she has picked up that the boys wanted to play with but she decided to hide, various pieces of ribbon with no real value to anyone other than a 3 year old... and she goes to Nannie and Grumpr's house. So. I was driving past another school, and the road is narrow, and I pull over a little to let a car past. There was no noise except for the radio, which was quietly playing some random song. Then out of the back comes this huge voice. "You STUPID COW!" I'm like.. "You WHAT?!"... and she says ... "Grumpr says it all the time. you Stupid COW!" and she yells it again. I hope she was talking to the car coming the other way. That trip to Canada I took was educational for all, it seems.

It's November 2nd. Happy Birthday Ms Goree ;o) and congrats on becoming an Auntie!

This time next week I'll be in Sydney. That's pretty cool. I'm already missing the kiddos though. They are all such fun at the moment. Abby has finally finally dropped that tough 2yr old exterior she has been carrying around like protective armour for the past year or two. She has dropped the attitude a little and decided to let us near her and actually be friends. It's cool. She spends a lot of time on my back. No really. Literally on my back. She's a real monkey. She sees me getting up and she leaps on my back and we walk around like that - to do the washing, clean up the kitchen, whatever.
I see a layout in that.

I have pics but photobucket is doing some sort of site maintenance. So we shall be pic-less.

For those of you participating in the ScrapBoxx 'That's Life' challenges - I have just posted month 2's winner. See the forum. Look out for next month's challenges posted soon.

ok. still photo-less.
tomorrow.