It's been one of those days...

Remembering what summer is like…

I feel like the whole country has heaved a sigh of relief.  This winter has been awful.  Not the coldest I remember, but just the worst.  The wind.  The rain.  For those in Christchurch, the earthquakes. 

We’ve just had a long weekend and I feel like God put his hand out and bathed us in sunshine and more warmth than I have ever known at this time of year, just to let us know.  It’s going to be alright.  Never have I known labour weekend to be so glorious.  We were in t-shirts and shorts the entire weekend.  There were drinks with good friends.  There was warmth and laughter.  There were so many boats being towed around the roads, it was so nice to see the summer toys out and about.  Summer really is on its way.

One of the highlights for me was the Awhitu Wine and Food festival.  A blanket spread on the grass, good friends, wine, food, the kids running off and doing their thing.  Jacob knocking down four skittles in one go and winning Abby a soft-toy puppy she named ‘toffee after the horse she rode earlier in the day…

Then after the festival we drove around to Hudson's beach where we wandered knee deep into the tide looking for scallops.  Admittedly the biggest thing we found was a paddle-crab that proceeded to latch on to Jacob’s finger letting him know under no uncertain terms was he to be picked up.  This was about the same time I learnt all the undesirable words that nearly-12 year olds know but don’t usually use, unless a paddle-crab latches on to their finger and blood starts pouring out. 

Anyway.  I feel like I’ve been reminded that there is an end to the wind and rain.  I know it’ll be back, probably tomorrow, but for now, I’m a happy gal.  For those of you in New Zealand, I hope you had a weekend just as glorious.

It’s back to the grindstone though with assignments to do, wedding invites to design (sigh, thanks VJ hehehe)  and even the occasional article to write.  My Big Picture Class ‘Colour! Or is it Color?’ starts on Thursday, and I have things to do for that.  If you’ve been thinking of signing up, but haven’t done so just yet, I really encourage you.  The pre-class gallery is already overflowing, which is an indication that there are lots of keen students with plenty of inspiration to share.  Looking forward to it!

Another idea for inspiration – and this is a must-do-now kinda thing…  Aussie Scrap Source has a Becky Fleck sketch competition each week – I think the sketch for this week has to be in, like, tomorrow, but keep an eye on the blog for updated sketches each week!  I have just seen Becky’s new book and it’s a goodie.  It’s worth entering! 

Hope your day is a good one :)
Laters

The days after the weekend that had the owl movie in it.

I went to the movies at the weekend.  I sat through over an hour and a half of the owl movie.  The guardians of Gahoole.  I was looking forward to it but was disappointed.  My 9yr old and 11yr old are still talking about it.  I guess I got old. 

My highlight of the movie was actually the ‘Roadrunner’ short movie at the start.  I watched it, amused, at the roaring laughter from my kids.   I don’t watch enough Roadrunner.  I need to watch more pointless cartoons.  I just don’t need anymore owl movies.  I used to love cartoons.  The smurfs and the snorks used to keep me occupied for hours.  At what point do we lose the ability to love that stuff?

So the week after the owl movie has been good.  Except for today.  When I shouldn’t even have got out of bed.  I yawned my way around the gym.  I got far too growlie at the kids before school.  I pulled out in front of a car at school drop off.  I waved my hand in desperate apology as I let him past… there were, like 5 silver cars in a row in my mirror, you were the little silver one in my blind spot, I’m sorry.  “Buy a bigger car!” I exclaim, trying to excuse my total pulling-out-of-the-carpark-uselessness, silence from the back seat.  One way to keep the other two kiddies quiet.

I shouldn’t have expected much different from today.  Because it followed after yesterday.  Yesterday was the day when hubby worked his usual long hours, came home and asked the kids “What has Mum made me for dinner?” as he hugged them hello and the kid’s answer?  “Sliced up old gumboots, but it’s ok because the gravy is super yummy”.  Nice.

So the mission today?  Make something nicer than old gumboots for dinner.  Not pull out in front of anymore cars.  Stop beating myself up for the slack workout this morning and get some work done.  Note the underline under get some work done. 

No time like the present.  Oh!  I heard a great quote on the radio this morning.  “If you don’t like where you are in life, change something.  You aren’t a tree”.  So true!  And this girl is about to change the fact that she has no work done yet today :)

Oh!  Happy days to Susan Gregory who won a place in my next Big Picture Classes workshop, Colour! Or is it Color?!  Email me, Susan, and I'll arrange for you to get access into the class!

Leaving you with a layout I don’t think I’ve shown you yet… a very simple one done with a Tarisota kit a while ago.  I was in a story-telling mood at the time.  Love a good story.  Laters!

Let’s have a colourful giveaway!

Edited to add:  Comments now closed, the winner (as per www.random.org) is:

Susan Gregory!  Email me Susan!  Congrats!

It’s only a few weeks until my new online class at Big Picture Classes begins, and I have a seat to give away!  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Indigo, Violet, let’s get excited about COLOUR!! 

Do you love colour? Would you love to improve the way you use colour in your projects? Do you want to immerse yourself in a workshop that takes you through a whole rainbow of possibilities?

Join me as I use instructional videos, handouts and audios to guide you through a variety of techniques to create stunning scrapbook pages. If you want to be part of a workshop full of fun colour theory, techniques and step-by-step assignments to extend the way you include colour in your projects, then I’m here to help you achieve your creative scrapbooking goals!

(Read some of the FAQ about my new six week class, here).

All you have to do, to be in the draw is read the class description at the big Picture Classes website, and leave a comment here, letting me know what you want to know about colour!  I’ll draw the winner on Wednesday 13th October!

Inspiration, wednesday and prerecorded messages

I’m back in the scraproom and feeling inspired.  It had been a month since I created a page and I was feeling uninspired.  I had gorgeous product.  I had awesome photos.  Because who goes to South Africa without getting awesome photos.  I just.didn’t.want.to.scrap.  Don’t tell me I’m the only one that feels like that sometimes.

I finally got a page done yesterday.  And three cards.  All for assignments.  Pleased to have got scrapping and I feel like the inspirational floodgates have opened. 

Thank goodness for that!

So, today is Wednesday.  Voting closes for the local elections and thank goodness because if John Banks rings me with a pre-recorded message one more time, I might pre-record him a nice message and send it along.  Just so any budding politicians out there know, sending pre-recorded message is top of the list of the reasons to NOT vote for you.  Just sayin’.

Right now I’m off to browse a few blogs and check the 2peas gallery.  I’ve found South African friend Candice Greenway on there.  If you aren’t familiar with Candice already, check her gallery out.  She’s an amazing talented scrapbooker and a warm kindhearted person on top of that.  I’m losing myself in your gallery, Candice!

Right.  Scraproom is calling again.  I’ve got a giveaway planned for the next blog post, so check back :)

Leaving you with a card I created for a Scandinavian mag. Created with Prima of course…. It’s a gorgeous mag, pity I can’t read it, but fun enough, my neighbour can!  laters!

Teal. Don’t forget the teal.

We all have a favourite colour, right?  One of mine is teal.  Even better is teal with a pop of red. Love it.  I steer towards the teal in the scrapbooking products.  Find myself browsing the teal aisles in the clothing stores.  Editing my photos to include teal somehow.  Now the pic in the layout below was edited by extremely-talented-you-must-check-out-her-blog-if-you-don’t-follow-it-already, Lady Grace.  LG is a world of inspiration, she is an amazing scrapbooker, she has some fabulous technique like the faux pleat one I share in my new Big Picture Class, and she edits my pics sometimes.  Just a little shout out to a lovely lady that deserves a little recognition sometimes.

Anyhow.

As some of you have seen on facebook, I was looking for a website designer.  I have found one, but it led to a lot of questions.  Yes, the website is scrapbooking based.  It will have a few purposes but one will be that it’ll be a way to bring Autumn Escape on to the web where it should be.  I also have other projects in the planning stages.  I’m not one to jump ahead too soon, I have some meetings to attend this coming week, details need researching and I’ll let you know in due time if it’s all go!

So I’ll leave you now with dreams of Autumn Escape websites and a layout I created for a Scandinavian Magazine.  This was a Prima layout  and my technique was based around the circle of flowers.  And teal of course.  Don’t forget the teal.  ..

Laters.

(Oh! FAQ updated in the post below for those interested in taking my 6-week full on fun class at Big Picture Classes!  Scroll down for details!)