It's been one of those days...

Autumn Escape, giveaways, Basicgrey, Fancypants...

I'm finalising some Autumn Escape details with sponsors here.  SO MUCH FUN.  Can we do this every year?    One of my missions for this week was to find the local groups down in Taupo/Napier/Hastings/Rotorua type way.  Does anyone attend local scrapbooking/card making/crafting groups down there?  Drop me an email, pleeeease :o) I'm normally such a last minute girl but I want to get registrations tied up for this event to get class numbers/giveaways etc finalised nd all the events thoroughly planned.  I know, I know...Pick yourselves up off the floor.

Giveaways - on this blog.  Visit.  Leave a comment.  Cross fingers.

Man I love the new FancyPants CHA releases!  LOVE the Kraft stuff.   Should we bring it in to sell at the retreat?  Another fun part of the Autumn Escape is shopping for the new release CHA stuff to sell at the retails space there. I'm just window shopping right now - you should see the list.  Let me know in a comment if there are ranges of stuff you want to see at the Autumn Escape.

Here is a sneak peek from a class called "The Little Things" I'm teaching in Timaru at Embellish It.... at the end of March.  Hello South Island!  Happy to be making my way down there again...

Ok leaving you with another layout from BasicGrey with their new CHA releases... this one is from the range called Marrakech, it is kinda morrocan, kinda teal, blue, orange, corals... so ME lol

Laters

 

10,000 maniacs

10,000 maniacs.  No.  Not Paris Hilton's security as she appeared at CHA.  Yes she really did.  Nor the children in the street screaming and running down the road as Mr Whippy arrived.  No.  It's my new music find.  Who knew 10,000 maniacs (with lead singer Natalie Merchant) would be my new find.. they've only been around for 20 years.  We are a little slow here in the Howard home, clearly.  Anyway.  Here I sit, perusing the internet for CHA updates, listening to 10,000 maniacs with the occasional thought of what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-drag-together-for-dinner-tonight.  Anyone else doing anything similar?

Just a quick post... another CHA BasicGrey layout.  This one with Wisteria.  That border is purple.  It's a soft gorgeous line that has all sorts of potential.  Purple and I didn't really get along well until Wisteria convinced me that it could be done. 

laters

A day of extraordinary.

It was a day of extraordinary.  It was extraordinary that I would sleep til nearly 8am.  Yet be so tired that at noon I needed a nana nap.  Then even more extraordinary to be woken by a helicopter hovering directly over our home.  THEN on walking out to see what said helicopter was doing, I saw the weirdest cloud rainbow formations.  They were rainbow coloured clouds high high up in the stratosphere.  I've never seen anything like it.  Of course being the weather freak that I am, I googled their origins and it's all to do with various freaky kinda coincidental factors that make it happen... and all perfectly normal.  Not extraordinary at all.  Except for the occasional website that said it was a pre-warning of large earthquakes and storms of unheard of magnitudes.  Fan.tas.tic.  I'm going with the first option.  Extradionary freaky weather formations that are really quite normal if one analyses them.

Today was also a big day in the scrapbooking world.  The Craft and Hobby Trade Show opened in Anaheim in the USA.  In the past it was the focus of the scrapbooking year.  Not so much now, but still a big event.  I had projects in the Tattered Angels and the Basicgrey booths.  I haven't heard how either is doing, I'm anxious to hear.  Queen & Co is also releasing a new range of products, see them here and enter a blog competition. 

I'll make today's post short, I have classes to finish for the Embellish It classes I'm teaching in Timaru in March, and I have a good book calling my name.  I also have the GST calling my name but so far have managed to ignore that one.  It's not the 28th yet, is it? I'll leave you with one of my BasicGrey layouts.  BasicGrey have released 4 new lines, Marrakech, Lime Rickey, Porcelain and Wisteria.  This layout is from Lime Rickey.  So bright and bold and full of life, perfect for a huge rane of pics  -  even for those newborn photos.

More tomorrow - OH - A new rate has gone up on the Autumn Escape blog for those that live locally and didn't want to stay at the venue.  I'd love to hear from some taupo scrapbookers - We'd love to see you there - does Taupo have a cropping group?  Drop me a line!
Laters

Back to the grind stone

With Paul back to work it didn't take me long to have the old feelings of 'back to the grind-stone' returning.  Anyone else feeling ripped off?  My summer holiday went far too fast, I feel like I haven't switched off and I'm in panic mode about the kids going back to school.  I don't want them back at school, especially now that each morning I will be packing 3 of them along their way.

And then there was the news of Layle Koncar leaving Scenic Route.  Made redundant because of the economic situation.  I've been involved with Scenic Route forever, they were my first 'school-girl crush' in the industry and we've worked closely on a lot of things.  To see this happen was heart-breaking and had me questioning for the first part of the week just whether I was going to be able to make a living this year.

This morning I woke up an email that was extremely positive in thought so I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself, try harder to deal with the cat-that-had-surgery-and-is-now-caged-in-the-lounge and not get too frustrated at his meowing, I'm sure he feels worse than me, enjoy the summer sun with the kids while I can, stop reading my current book which I'm not enjoying so much, it is ok to stop reading a book halfway through, right?, and I stood up from my desk with the biggest positive attitude, walked to the garage to change the loads of washing to the hugest mess on the floor.  Which is what happens when one leaves a full bucket of water on top of the washing machine whilst it is spinning.

Lesson learnt.

And on with that positive day.  Lucky it is summer and everything in the garage will dry out just fine.

Did you notice the subtle changes at Tarisota?  We welcomed in Rachel Tucker, a very exciting addition to the Tari team.  There is also a new look Tarisota talk, we'll all be adding bits and pieces to that each month.  I have the February kit here at home and will be creating a class from it so that'll be released early Feb. 

Talking of Tarisota, I don't think I shared my projects from December - I thought I shared this one but on looking back I can't find it, apologies if I have before... this is a layout based around a song I sing with Abby.  See the song on youtube here, it is the cutest thing ever.  I stamped the lyrics on the background.  Never again will I be so keen with my stamps.

 

So on with my day - oh!  Project 365.  Nope, I'm not participating. However when I went to Heidi Swapp in Brisbane we created a 9x9 calender.  I'm not one to easily create things like that without some excellent purpose (besides just being a means of keeping track of the days).. so I'm using it as a diary.  Each day I write down one or two words to summarise the day.  At the end of the month I'll put a favourite photo in the photo space and at the end of the year it'll be my own version of the 365.  Perfect. And not too much commitment either.

Here's to a positive day.

laters

In search of the perfect breakfast chocolate...

Here I am.  The obvious lack of blog posts was the result of our annual holiday to Hahei.  We went.  We fished.  We walked.  We ate mr Whippy ice-cream and fished off the wharf.  We drank copious amounts of alcohol and read good books.  We let the kids play rugby on the road and sleep until 9am.  We enjoyed the sun and were witness to the most amazing thunder storm I have ever seen.  And those that know me well, know that I am a weather freak and that would have made my holiday.  Which it did.  If anyone was in the Coromandel and got photos, let me know.  The lightning was so constant that I took forgranted that it would ever stop.  And I forgot to pick up my camera.  If I clicked every few seconds I would have got some great shots.  I just didn't think.

So I'm back.  And I intend to blog more regularly.  I'm settling into a full year of work and not only does writing my blog break the monotony of a layout that just won't work, but it gives me someone to talk to.  And it means uncle Vaughan can see photos of the fishing in New Zealand and wish he was here.  Perhaps photos like this one.

 

This is Jacob's effort - a rather large parore caught off the wharfe.  The coolest thing happened with this catch... Jacob was on the part of the wharfe where the people line up to get on the ferry.  There would have been 30 people waiting.  He reeled it in squealing for his dad to help him with his big fish.  He landed it on the wharfe and it promptly broke the line and a guy in the queue helped him re-catch it.  And everyone in the lines clapped and cheered so loudly for Jacob - i don't think i've seen him that proud in so long. And yay for the people on the wharfe joining in on Jacob's obvious excitment and cheering him on.  It's that kind of thing that brings back faith in humankind! 

CHA is creeping closer... I've done my BasicGrey layouts and look forward to posting them when I can.  I've also done projects for Tattered Angels and love their new colours and new alphas etc... will post those when I can...

Did you hear that Simple Scrapbooks is ceasing publication?  And that Fiskars is dropping their paper/rub-ons/embellishment lines?  I'm glad each company is doing what they can to keep up with the changing market, but on the other hand the changes make me nervous.  Hold on ladies, it might be a wild ride. 

Ok so here is the start of the new year.  A year in which I will honour my 'word' and those that know me well know I hate cliche stuff, so to even pick a word in the first place is a biggie for me, but yes, I'm going to honour a word.  Balance.  This word means I will be at my computer/scrap table for a certain amount of work hours per day.  And I am with my family when I am not working.  One where I actually put layouts in albums.  One where I choose what work to do and what not to do and don't feel guilty about saying no.  One where my constant worry of missing the kids childhoods while trying to preserve the memories is no longer a worry. Balance in work and play.  Balance in activities such as reading and watching TV.  Balance in a time to scrapbook and a time not to.  Balance in my meals - like making sure chocolate is not only for dinner, but occasionally for lunch and breakfast as well.  You get the picture. 

Right.  Getting to it...

Laters.

Project 365, happy places and the Autumn Escape

Anyone doing Project 365?   I thought about this far too long and before I knew it, it was the 7th of January.  Imagine the sense of obligation you'd feel every single day.  I don't know if I could handle that.  But then it'd just be a case of taking one photo a day and writing in a diary what it is.  At the end of the month, or periodically, you put them in an album.  Don't even scrapbook them.  Just put them in an album with a sentence beside each one.

Imagine the sense of obligation and guilt if you didn't manage to do it.  But imagine the sense of acheivement at the end.  One year depicted in an album.  One photo a day.  Not scrapbooked.  Just collated.  Can you tell that I'm secretly considering still doing this?  Someone tell me I can't even organise myself enough to download and edit the pics from the middle of last year, never mind deal with a photo a day.  But just imagine how cool it'd be?! I have a serious devil/angel thing going on here...talk me out of it...

The Queen & Co blog recently featured this lady.  Talk about inspiring.  Her work is so clean and crisp.  Something I find darn near impossible.  Wishing here that I could scrap like that. you know, just once or twice before slipping back into my paper curling, layered, clustery embellished kinda happy place.  it's funny how we all have our happy place.  For my kids it is a playstation-even-though-it-is-an-amazing-day-outside kinda happy place.

Talking of happy places, this would be my worst nightmare kinda place.  Seriously - throw a bucket of water out the door and it freezes mid-air?  um. No.  thankyou all the same.  I'll take my 99% humidity, 8 minute burn time and 30 degrees anyday. 

I'm still getting emails about class kits - I have sold out of the 'So Tell Me' mini album, but I have a few of the others still around if anyone wants them - scroll down for details and email me!

I'm full on working on the Autumn Escape at the moment - just this morning I picked up Pink Paislee as a sponsor - registrations are going well, several of the classes are at a point where we might have to put the SOLD OUT sign on them.  We are unsure whether to increase class size, or call them Sold out.  It depends on how registrations go over the next week or so, so if you are sitting on your registration form - send them in so we get an idea!

Leaving you with some projects from the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  I used one pack of Hero Arts stamps to create these cards.  Using my latest favourite colours, of course.  Favourite colour being anything and orange. lol.

laters

 

 

 

A new year...

Time goes faster in summer, of that I am convinced.  The daylight hours are longer but they travel at twice the speed as winter hours.  December was but a blur and January is here already. I am completely in my happy place right now.  I adore summer time.  I just need it to slow down.

Bakugan were the hit of the Christmas goodies in my household.  Well, for the boys anyway.  I enjoyed a loot that included a puppy (it looks so real, I must share photos) a new set of paintbrushes from Braden, a set of pink rub-on letters from Abby and a stash of chocolate to last me until next Christmas from Jacob.  I love what the kids buy me.  It just goes to show what they think my priorities are by what they bought me. 

New year's resolutions, anyone?  I, for one, started one few months back .. reading.  I can sit in this office and work 16 hours a day and I'm still making sure I read at least 10 minutes before I fall asleep.  It's a biggie for me to carry that on.  My favourite book of the past few months?  well, one i can actually talk about online, is 'The Lovely Bones'.  Book that didn't quite live up to it's reputation?  'Twilight'.  Book that I wish I'd written the name of so I could recommend it to others?  That one about the girl and the fishing village and the guy that got shot and she is accused of doing it.  The book I'm going to start tonight?  Tuesdays with Morrie.

Another resolution?  Carry on walking.  I started walking about mid November, I was going at about 6am to be home by the time Paul went to work as he goes quite early.  I haven't walked since well before Christmas though.  I need to get going again if I am going to use it as an excuse for being able to eat copious amounts of bad food and consuming large amounts of alcoholic beverage in the sun for the next few weeks.

Talking of new starts - here is a layout that recently featured on the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  Yep Paul and I can tick off "Getting Married in Vegas by Elvis in the little white Chapel" off the list.  Next mission...

Laters