It's been one of those days...

Layouts, experiments and cupcakes...

I took pics of a project I made for tarisota today.  I enjoyed downloading the pics, something I usually dislike, but the difference was that today I found surprise pics on the camera.  I found some photos Abby must of taken of layouts she had made.  Mummy takes pics of her layouts, I guess it was natural for Abby to take pics as well. 

This is just one of a few that were on there... altogether now, awwwwww.

 

Other pics I found on the camera - the cupcakes we made the other day...(thanks Becks for the recipe and decorations!) These were super yummy.

 

And this pic - take a saucer of milk and place one drop of red colouring, blue colouring and yellow colouring around the edge - evenly spaced so they are as far away from each other as possible.
Carefully add a drop of dishwashing liquid in the middle... watch the action... so fun for the kids!
we must have stood for at least 15 minutes going oooooohhh ahhhhh... amazing stuff.  Let me know how you go if you try it.  (experiment courtesy of Tana)

Just some of the things I do inbetween creating things with paper and glue.
Laters.

Still a kid, really.

 
(BasicGrey Indian Summer, BasicGrey Alphas, BasicGrey Indian Summer Lace paper turned white side as well as coloured, BasicGrey Woolies.)

It's easy to see that as far as trying to avoid double chins later in life, I was doomed.  Even as a three year old you can see that I'd need the chin-up method when having my photo taken to trying to avoid looking at each and photo taken of me in adult life and exclaiming "Good God" quietly to myself as I press delete.  Clearly, this is my parent's fault.

I will also kindly give them credit for my creative streak.  My Mum painted black and white photos with colour before they figured out the easy way, she did this for a paid income.  And I spend hours trying to figure out how to take the colour out of photos perfectly.  Go figure.

Fresh from watching the Warriors win, I'm in a good enough mood to clean the office windows and wipe down all the benches.  I'll be carefully shifting punched paper butterflies (from my new Martha Stewart Punches from Embellish It in Timaru ) punched oh so carefully by Abby as a gift for Daddy for Father's day, ssshhhhh it's a secret, there are hundreds of them in all colours....) and wiping away weeks of dust from sanding, distressing and generally being creative.  Makes me almost too sentimental to clean it away, really.  Something else sentimental that I'm selling on trademe.  A canvas created with Tim Holtz stamps recently.

Off to make a move on this cleaning before I lose enthusiasm.  Hey.
How do you make Lady Gaga cry?
Poker face :o)

See, still a kid, really.

 

cool cardstock, online books, gallery surfing....

As I sit here surrounded by photos and *stuff* I feel the need for more inspiration.  I'm trying to be more healthy-minded lately so I decided the pantry was off limits to find the mojo I need.  I put a blankie over my knees to kill the coldies, I check out 2peas and the gallery and I decide to turn on the radio.  CD.  Check.  Play.

Doodlebops.

it clearly didn't kick start the mojo so I went blog hopping.  I found this write up on a new book company called Ella Publishing.  The buzz of CHA they said. 

I hopped over the to Core'dinations blog for a while.  There is a really cool cardstock/Prima card on there if you scroll down.  Actually there is tonnes of inspiration on there and there are lots of video tutorials here, I'm about halfway through them.

How cool is this layout on 2peas - Taronga Zoo.  Big double page layout using BG and more detail than I've seen in a longtime.

Wish I had thought of this - scallop album.  (Suzy you are a crazy lady!)

The scallop album obviously tipped me over the edge because I feel I might just be able to scrap now.  After I eat my crunchy pita garlic bread with tomato cuppa soup for lunch.  I might just set the timer for half hour to read my book too.  A timer?  Yep.  Otherwise you'll still find me there when the kids come home from school. 

Leaving you with another Tarisota layout.  Pic edited by LG again.  This boy cracks me up constantly. 
Long may the laughs last. 
laters

 

Walking. Thinking. Posting.

I sometimes surprise myself when I log into my blog.  It'll tell me when I last blogged - 7 days, it will say.  What?  7 days?  I'm constantly writing my blog.  I'm constantly thinking of little things I need to say or write.  Apparently it's all just thinking though, because I checked.  It really has been 7 days.  Clearly it is about time I stop just thinking about the snippets of information I think of while doing the grocery shopping or pounding the pavement before most people are even awake.  The birds are in the trees doing that early morning wake up call, the slugs are crawling across the path in front of me as if they need to dash across it just one more time before the sun fries them, must be some sort of slug chicken game and I'm writing my blog in my head as I walk.  I'll work on getting those thoughts out of my mind and into typepad quicker than a 7 day gap.

I get asked often how work is going for me.  "How is the scrapbooking, keeping you busy?" and truth is that I have been busy, but probably not as busy as I could be.  Which is a good thing because I can actually find the occasional hour to help out at school and similar things.  For a few years I was working a good 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week at least, as well as fitting in all the typical mum stuff.  It is nice to slow just a little.  BUT just this past week I got a large assignment within the industry - very large, in fact it'll take me a good 3 months full time.  I've also received other big assignments, so things are looking up.  It's encouraging!

Did you see that Tattered Angels is having a DT call?

Thanks for the comments on the layout on the last post - someone emailed and asked about Ingvild.  Here is Ingvild's link and if you go to her blog now, she is having a massive giveaway of the most gorgeous stuff.  She also has the biggest amount of Prima layouts posted if you scroll down.  All done with gorgeous new product, she is endless inspiration.  Janine Koczwara is another lady that has a tonne of this gorgeous projects on her blog, lots done with the new Prima, and she edits her photos so beautifully, in that style I hope to one day master.

Ok time to start emptying my neglected inbox (I try not to email at the weekends)but I need to share a layout first.  This is another layout created for Tarisota with their new kit, with photos that weren't edited by me. These ones were edited by LG.   I just love that I have some pics to use that are different from my usual.  It's like a whole new pile of inspiration. 

laters

 

Supplies: Layout made from the August Tarisota Kit.  (Papers are  Graphic 45, Graphic 45 blog found here, Ink by Clearsnap, Touches of Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels, alphas from BasicGrey).

A bag of chips at 10.30pm...

It just wasn't the same, was it.  Telethon, I mean.  I camped in the lounge for the kids until I could stand it not more, and despite staying up til the wee hours, there was no nostalgic feelings.  No goosebumps as I watched the fun celebrities conga through the crowd, which despite queuing for 4 hours outside, only had 10 minutes to give their money before being ushered out of the building. There was no panel of phones on site with pledges for silly behaviour coming through.
No one took their shirt off for money.  Nope, that was all over 16 years ago and it just wasn't the same.

Despite the lack of nostalgia for me, the kids did enjoy camping on the lounge floor and there is no doubt that the bag of chips I let them eat at 10.30pm won't be forgotten.  It's a pity they didn't come away with the same memories of Telethon as I did.  All credit to TV3 though, they did manage to coordinate the raising of nearly 2 million dollars for a charitable cause.  I just hope next year they try and make it more reminiscent of the old days.  Don't ya think?

Anyway, this weekend marked another fun event - the Tarisota gallery went live.   This collection is truly arty with the addition of lots of dolls, doll forms and everything dress-like.  It was something very different for me to work with, with a lot of darker prints in the collection.  AS usual though, it's the products that push me outside of my boundries that result in some of my favourite layouts, and it was the same this time.  I'm leaving you with one of those layouts.  I was clearly channeling my inner Ingvild in this layout - More to follow in the next few days.

laters.

 

The end of solar winter. Pics and cherry trees.

I feel so much better now that August has arrived.  I just enjoy months that have less than 5 letters in their name.  As the month names get longer, so do the days.  I start to feel like we are emerging out the other side.  May, June, July... just not nice months.  Hello August.  And to add to the happiness, today is the last day of the Solar winter.  That's the 3 months of the year with the shortest days.  It's all a downhill slide into the glorious days of summer from here. And the sitting out in the late afternoon sun with a drink in hand watching the kids on their bikes while enjoying the company of some amazing neighbours...

For those of you that have my book - there is the page in there about the Cherry Tree sweepstake we hold each year with our neighbours.  I feel like it may blossom early this year, how's that for positive thinking.  In fact I named Sept 1st as my day this year. Keep your fingers crossed for me.  And let me know if you see my neighbour cutting the early blossoms off his tree in order to delay the sweepstake til his day!

THANK YOU so much for all the comments and emails over my plea for help with my photos.  Listening to advice and offers was quite the education for me, really.  I play with my photos in photoshop, but I learnt there are so many other ways to do it.  I also learnt that I really do hate doing it and have a couple of ladies that are helping me out.  I've already created my first layout using a pic that someone else edited and it was so refreshing not to spend the time and the mental energy doing it.  I love scrapbooking.  I love paper and glue.  I don't enjoy the editing process.  I guess it is something I will still dabble with a little, but it will be nice to let go of that part of it for a while.  Thanks again to those of you that helped me out in all sorts of ways!

Leaving you with a page that I created for my BPS class.  It is very similar to one I've done before.  And yep, I edited these pics myself. 

Laters.