It's been one of those days...

What'll it be, Timaru? The money? Or the bag!!

I want to move to the South Island.  I fell in love with the area when I was teaching in Timaru at the weekend.  Although I can't get that line out of my head... "what'll it be, TIMARU?  The money or the BAG?".  The subtle differences in the landscape, the relaxed feel, all those little things that made an area special.  Vaughan.  You have my blessings to move to Hawea.  I will come visit.

I met some pretty cool ladies down there.  I was so tempted to put 4 r's in that worrrrd. Ok enough teasing.  

I came home to the most gorgeous sunniest day and got straight out of the car and into my neighbour who was holding her arms outstretched - ahh so sweet, there was a glass of rum in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. lol. It was a long afternoon sitting in the sun. Gosh I'm thirsty today.  And I've spent the day catching up on emails and a few assignments.  I caught up on the forum at Scrapbook Outlet NZ, they have a huge HUGE competition right now - guess I need to tell you all about it.

Scrapbook Outlet NZ are giving away a weekend at the Autumn Escape!  Plus some travel allowance.  It's a huge prize.  They are also giving away 2nd and 3rd prizes as well as copious amounts of spot prizes. 

The competition is set up as a raffle - so the winner is drawn from a big pile of tickets.  To 'earn' tickets you could do a range of things, from particpating in challenges to posting on your blog about the competition to uploading layouts to the SBO gallery.

Check the forum out for more details.  (and if that doesn't take you straight in there, it's worth registering, that's a massive prize and all of us at Autumn Escape promise to make it something special!!). 

And in the words of someone not so famous but incredibly cute (that be you Kate Mills) if you are not in, you're out. lol.  So visit SBO and join the fun.  I have heard SO MANY people say they didn't feel like they were allowed to spend money in a recession, here's your chance to win a ticket!

Did you know KaiserCraft are looking for Design team members?  See the info here at sketchbook.  Talking of which - good luck for the sketchbook retreat this coming weekend, ladies!

Leaving you with a page created for Aussie Scrap Source with some of the latest Cosmo Cricket. Thought not overly excited in the way of technique, this is sometimes my favourite type of page - the kind I'll still be proud of in 10 years time.

laters.

Wisteria. Tears and something cool. Really. Cool.

How gorgeous are these girls.

  Although my one isn't that gorgeous right now, lying in bed with somewhat of a broken heart after Daddy growled at her for not doing as she was asked, when she was asked. 

 "You do know that Daddy still loves you when he growls at you, right?" I'm saying to her in bed as her big eyes are looking at me with tears overflowing and little chin waivering trying to supress those tears.

"He's never done it before" she says.  Well you got off lightly, I'm thinking... the boys have had your share, obviously!  Or perhaps a short memory. Obviously.  Or perhaps I'm the growlie parent.  Interesting perspective.  A big lesson learnt tonight.

It was another layout with BasicGrey Wisteria and a little Crate.  I'm still using the diecut papers.  Still loving them. Hoping they are good for another few months worth of layouts. No?

Looking forward to hopping the plane to Timaru on Saturday.  Tomorrow's mission?  Fudge.

Talking of the South Island.  Scrapbook Outlet has something going on.  it's cool, apparently, really cool.  And if you blog about it you get a 'ticket in the draw' so here is my blog post about it, see more here and join in the blog linking to get your own tickets in the draw.  You know.  For whatever it is Andrea has planned.

Hey thanks everyone for your kind comments about the book.  It's certainly hard to let go.  For months I have been 'researching' without really realising. Noticing trends.  Seeking out contributors.  Talking with manufacturers.  Researching galleries and message boards and watching what was going on. It's been hard to drop it all.  Full credit to the publisher for recognising the troubled market though.  And as they say , one door closes and another opens.  We'll see. 

My diary emptied out there for a bit.  I've spent the entire week filling it back up with random things .  Taking myself off long term leave.  Adding my names on assignments.  Making sure I keep the stress levels juuuuuust high enough to have me fidgety.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

laters

Recessions, Lotto, Blue bottles and life lessons.

Dark time Monday morning, a new week starts.  I had one of those weeks last week. 
Unexpected tax bills resulting from a mis-understanding of the company accounts.  Delays in shipping items I need for classes.  Sick kids.  People owing us money for building contracts making it hard to pay the wages.  You know. Little things just piling up.  I was hanging out for Saturday, which was 'crop day' for me.  Trina stayed Friday night, we stayed up til the early hours laughing and chatting.  It was just the medicene I needed.

Then I woke to the news on Saturday morning that my second book, which had been in proposal since 2007, accepted in December last year and contracted to me this year, has been stopped. I am being paid a break fee and all production is to stop.  Nothing to do with my writing or organisational skills, or of the quality of my artwork.  All to do with the recession and economic forecasts just released by the publishing company.  I did try and suggest we carry on anyway.. wait..

"Dear Editor of the fabulous book publishing company,

Thank you for your concerns regarding the economic climate, but I am not particpating in the recession.

Love Nic Howard".

It didn't work. 

Anyway.  Thank you to the four amazing wonderful contributors I had lined up.  Thank you to the manufacturers that were lined up to support me.  Although no product had arrived and I am grateful of that.  And thanks to the book publishing company for the faith they had in me in the first place.  The book was going to ROCK.  Seriously.  I loved it.  I loved the concept, and the public was going to as well. 

Cest la Vie, I guess.....

Back to scrapping life memories for myself and my other commitments.  Which I can now come off long service leave from.  You probably didn't even realise I had gone on leave.

And back to organising Autumn Escape.  The worse the economic situation is, the more determined I am that this is going to be successful.  (And yes I wish I could pay for you all to come... I book in with Lotto every week for a big influx of monetary aid, but no one seems to listen).  Actually, more than successful.  Amazing and something to take me away from it all for the weekend.  Somewhere where we do not mention the recession.

I'll leave you with one of those life memories I mentioned.  The layout is nothing flash or amazing.  Nothing to ooooh and ahhhh about.  It's just memories on paper. 

Actually this was a life lesson for me. 

Lesson #264.  Even when you are super sure that something will not happen, never ever ever promise 100% that it will not.  There is always a chance it will.  I'm hoping that applies to winning lotto too.
Laters.

 

 

Mojo, the fire service and girl friday

What a day.  Seriously.  The mojo was lost somewhere in the provisional tax drawer and even the email was no fun to be around.  My Adobe 9 reader thing has forgotten how to read, how does one forget how to read? and my washing machine stops once a minute to turn itself off, back on and then bleep to tell me there was a power cut.  I'm hoping if I ignore it, it will miraculously fix itself. 

One of those days. 

I had a good weekend though... maybe my scrapbooking days are over because on Sunday I found this outside my house.  And I quite fancied it.  So I tried it out. I think I found my new career.  What do you think?  When I was growing up I was always going to drive a fire-engine.  My brother and I were going to drive it together.  We agreed that Shane would drive the front and I would drive the back.  It wasn't until I was older that I realised that all through those years that we had this grand plan, that I was getting ripped off.  You can't drive the back of the fire-engine unless you are on some Hollywood movie. 

This time I'm sticking with driving the front.

Talking of the fire-service.  Have you seen that new ad on T.V.?  It says that a lot f house fires are caused by unattended TVs, toasters and computers.  A lot of house fires are caused by these things and if we turn them off at the wall, lot of house fires would be prevented.
Paul and I watched the ad together.  Then he turned to me and said "Wow nic did you know that?".  I shake my head and mention, nope, I didn't realise that those appliances were guilty of causing fires."

"Not that.." he says.." I mean did you realise computers have an OFF button?"

Sarcasm will get him nowhere.

Leaving you with another Tarisota layout.  Base papers here are Cosmo Cricket.  Girl Friday.  I've been seeing it around a lot.  KInda cool.  Oh, and my SIL Lesley took this photo.  Cool huh?  I love Paul looking on in the background.

Laters.

 

Fairy Party

Ever seen what happens when I'm shut in a room with some paints,a bunch of Urban Lily, new Cosmo Cricket, a tonne of Tim Holtz goodies and some Collections alphas?

A fairy party happens...

 

I painted.  Wonders will never cease.  I feel like I broke out of my usual a little with this.  Paint and urban lily.  Really.  You'll have to drag me kicking and screaming from the die-cut shaped papers and layouts, but at least it was products I'm not used to using.  All from the latest Tarisota.
The Urban Lily didn't come diecut, I just made it that way.

Creme egg count?  Seven.  Creme Eggs I have wanted to have?  45,887.  I reckon I'm doing pretty well.  I'm holding back.  Anyone else want to confess??

Did you know that the new NZ magazine Innovations, has a forum? Yep. I found it last week, I keep meaning to mention it.

If you haven't seen this already, go look at the video currently posted on Emily's blog.  Even those of you that aren't scrapbookers.  Anyone know anyone that can do that for us here in NZ? That piece of videowork is priceless.  And I'll leave it there because after you've seen that video, you'll feel like going to hug your family.  The sentiments may only last until the next time your oldest son yells in your daughters face that she is a poopoobumhead but at least you'll get all sentimental for a minute.

laters

Autumn Escape....

Quick post today...mostly about teh Autumn Escape...  .Tarisota Gallery goes up tonight so I'll be back tomorrow with some projects from the latest Tarisota kit!  here's a sneak peek.

   

More tomorrow!

Laters!

Exciting news from Autumn Escape!

The Autumn Escape is looking for a creative team!! We are looking for 3 Autumn Escape attendees to be part of the inspiration for the weekend!

What will the Creative Team be doing?

The Autumn Escape weekend is going to be huge. We have a whole lot planned. From classes, to make n takes, competitions, not to mention endless inspiration. We will have a retail space with a large variety of new product, and we want to dress it up!

The Autumn Escape Creative team will receive a selection of product in the mail. Their job will be to play and create to their hearts desire with predominantly exciting new product! Layouts and projects will be used for display purposes at the Autumn Escape. It's that simple!

How do I apply?!

It's easy - you don't need to create anything new or unseen. We don't want this to be tough! Send along details about yourself with three examples of your artwork, plus links to galleries or blogs if you have them, to [email protected] by 5pm, 26th March 2009. Please put the title "Autumn Escape Creative Team' in the subject line. Please keep images under 150kb each and no more than 6 images per email please.

What will you be looking for?

Firstly, we won't be judging! We know too many people going to the retreat for that to be a fair option. We'll be passing that part on to someone totally neutral in the U.S.A. We might even get some of our sponsors to take a look at the entries! We won't be looking for anything fancy schmancy, we will be asking the judges to look for good use of scrapbooking product. The kind of style that will inspirational to many people.

What will the benefits be?

Firstly - new scrapbooking product! Scrapbook Outlet NZ, in conjuction with other sponsors, is kindly helping us with this initiative. It's not meant to be something burdening, in need of payment or reward, it's meant to be a chance for three attendees to receive new scrapbooking product and create projects at their own pace. Projects will be displayed at the Autumn Escape, for the weekend May 1st - 3rd 2009. Artist's names will be displayed by each project, giving exposure to the large range of scrapbooking industry people at the event. Images of the projects may also be used on the internet, both on the Autumn Escape blog, and the Scrapbooking Outlet NZ website.

Any fine print?

Of course! Keep reading...

1. Applicants must be registered as an attendee of Autumn Escape at time of entering the Creative Team call. Registration of the Autumn Escape is open until 7th April 2009. Applications for the Creative Team close 26 March 2009.
2. Autumn Escape will endeavour to have products in the mail to each chosen member by the 4th April 2009.
3. Creative Team Members will create a minimum of 3 projects by 20th April 2009, more can be created if the Creative Team member desires.
4. Creative Team Members agree to send through web-ready images to the Autumn Escape of each product they create.
5. Creative Team Members understand the images can be used on the internet on both the Autumn Escape blog, as well as Scrapbook Outlet NZ blog. Creative Members cannot be bound by any previous contract that prevents them from sharing images on either site.
6. Creative Team members retain ownership of the physical artwork and it will be returned to them.

It's that easy!! So the search is on N.Z.wide... be sure to spread the word on blogs and messageboards, this is something we really want to get out and about! We want to see piles of entries in our inbox!
Thanks to our sponsors and to Scrapbook Outlet NZ with their help in this venture!

http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz
http://autumnescape.blogspot.com/

Monday Morning

Monday morning.   I haven't updated for nearly a week.  That was not in the January 16th resolutions.  I never quite made it for January 1st, and I really did want to make some resolutuons, January 16th was going to have to do.  In fact i had hoped to update every few days.  BUT along with the resolution to be a better mother, eat less bad food, drink more water, (anyone else hear a tui's ad?) I made a resolution to try and be out of this office between about 3pm and 8pm every day.  You know.  For the kidlets.  I'm doing pretty well but it seems the blog is coming last. 

I usually LOVE March.  It's still warm but the searing sun has left.  Apparently it has been replaced by 120km hr winds every Friday and Saturday but hopefully this weeknd won't repeat that.  I've got stuff to do.  Like a 4am - 6am stint on the school's Relay for Life team.  I'm disappointed to not make the earlier stint with some friends but kinda determined do be there in some aspect. I'll keep you up to date.. should be fun.

 

Ok so it's Monday the 9th which means I need to tell you about the Tattered Angels and Crafty Secrets March Madness fun.   We've got a entire month of "Playing together" planned. Yep.. the Tattered Angels Design Team and the Crafty Secrets Design Team are going to be working together this month... using both Manufactures projects together.

Every Monday some of the girls ( some from each DT) , will be posting their projects on their blogs. We will be linking to them on all our blogs , each Monday, so that you'll all get a chance to see all the projects from all of the girls by the end of the month.

This week it is Vicki Crisman, Michele Kovak, Melissa Phillips and myself :o)

So yesterday I played.  I had some vintagey notebookey papers from Crafty Secrets to play with and I wanted to pair it with some Tattered Angels stuff.  I admit now, I'm not a vintagey images kinda girl.  but I paired it with some white cardstock and some Tattered Angels Glimmer Chips, a little inking, a little Glimmer Misting and there we go.

A bookmark.

 

For all that reading I'm doing.  You know, that other January 16th resolution.  I've just finished City of Bones by Michael Connelly.  Good book.

 

Laters.

 

 

Got any brocolli?

"Got any brocolli, Mum?" Braden asked last night as I was making dinner.  Is the boy serious?  Has he mistaken the hairy green beast vegetable for something half edible?  I double check his intentions, I ascertain that he does indeed fancy brocolli for dinner and then spend the rest of the night swimming in self guilt for not having brocolli when he asked. 

This is the same boy that didn't want to go swimming with school that day because "It's too cold".  When I told him he really had no choice and that I wasn't writing a note to excuse him from swimming he looked at me like I was a freakin idiot.  "Mum.  Serious.  Who writes notes?  I can just email the teacher and she'll think it's you... you won't have to do a thing".  I swear the age of technology is going to make forging a parent's signature on a note to excuse from P.E. far too easy.  When I was young... here we go... when I was young... we had to use a pen and paper and make the signature believable.  None of this email stuff...

Anyway.  Scrapping.  (He swam, that day, BTW...)... scrapping. 

Autumn Escape... Not sold out, yet.  Last day for registrations is the 7th April, classes are close to being sold but the actual retreat isn't.  I posted a seak peek of the gorgeous Prima Make N Take we are making available to everyone here on the Autumn Escape blog.  We are updating the sidebar with new sponsors regularly.

Anyone else remember Drowsy Doll?  "I wanna 'nother drink of waater".
Random question there.

 

Back to scrapping - here's a layout, created for Aussie Scrap Source blog - the scalloped border under the photo is actually buttons.  Abby and my neice.  Loving playing with the baby pics!
BasicGrey Porcelain and BG Sugared.  I love the black cosmo chipboard and use it all the time.

 

Right.  BAck to googling random vinage toys so I can show the kids THAT is what I had to play with when I was little.  None of this nintendo gameboy playstation kinda stuff.  Not that I let them play with that anyway...

Laters