It's been one of those days...

A sneak inside the Prima Warehouse….

While I was only in the USA for a few days, I did have time to visit the Prima warehouse and see a little of CHA (the Craft and Hobby trade show) while I was there.  Since I know you’d all love an outsider’s view of what it was like, I’ve compiled a few photos. 

I arrived in California expecting it to have weather similar to New Zealand in September.  Or October.  Because California doesn’t really get that cold, right?

Wrong.  That’s snow.

And while it was sunny the whole time I was there, full sun meant no cloud… no cloud meant the temperatures plummeted to below freezing (I regularly saw –1 or –2) early in the night, like by 9pm.  I know I’m going to wear some abuse from those in the Sth Island but this northern girl couldn’t handle it!  Which is why I live in the Nth Island, not the Sth!

One of the first places we visited was the Prima Warehouse.  This is what it looks like from the upstairs offices.  Boxes and boxes.  And boxes.  Boxes as far as the eye could see and in each box was gorgeous Prima product.

And even more boxes…

Exit signs … seriously… who would want to EXIT this place?  (Would you?)

Rows and rows of boxes with little holes in ready to pull a packet of goodness out.   I ran around like a mad thing putting my hands in boxes and seeing what surprise I could pull out.  That is some seriously cool lucky dip material, right there.  I wish you could all enjoy the experience.  It was mind boggling.

But it wasn’t all running around playing with gorgeous products, sometimes we sat down… I was in California with Janine Koczwara and Anna Dabrowska (Finnabair) – there’s a treat right there, right?  - we worked our butts off the night before CHA creating fabulous demos to teach at the Prima booth.  This is the classroom at the Prima Warehouse, I wish I’d got some of my favourite Prima staff in the shot too, but it was late at night and they’d already gone home.  Check out the winter coats.  I told you it was cold! If you look carefully you can see some of Jamie Dougherty’s artwork on the right… that lady is one AMAZING artist… if there was one lady I felt like I would have loved to watch work, it was her.  Can’t say enough about the talent she has.

And the next day it was booth set-up.  Here are some of the Prima staff ready to go home after setting up.

That’s my artwork centre stage right there.. proud?  yes. 

I loved the way these layouts hung under the cast iron hangers.   Have I been shopping on trademe for similar items?  Why yes I have.  The Prima frames look amazing with them.

Artwork above by myself and Janine.  It was a huge treat to see where my artwork was used.  I’ve sent artwork off to CHA for years, never really seeing how it’s been used.  It was great to be able to view the process of how everything is displayed.

This is outside the gorgeous Prima book – this was the table I did Make n Takes at.  Loved the wishes and dreams tree beside me.  Loved the gorgeous Prima product around me.  Loved the ladies I shared this space with… more of that next time.

Oh – before I go – my favourites in the Prima booth?  Has to be this line by Anna Dabrowska (Finnabair).  The line is below - will I be getting it in to sell at Autumn Escape in April?  Why YES I will.  How could I not?

Laters – more Prima CHA next time.

Charity Wings

The evening before I went to CHA I got an email from Prima asking me to donate a piece to the Charity Wings foundation.  It was to be something that could be auctioned off at the Prime Art*Venture I was attending in California.  

And you can cue the panic right there.  I had nothing I could think of to donate.

 

So Abby and I – who have been loving creating Finn-style tags together – got busy with Prima flowers, mists, trinkets and other gorgeous stuff and together we created this wishes and dreams photo frame.

 

 

Wishes and Dreams was almost the ‘theme’ of the CHA booth for Prima.  With Leeza Gibbon’s new Wishes and Dreams collection being released there was a lot of reflection on the whole theme.  Abby and I had fun putting this little tag together in the sun on a rushed Wednesday afternoon – and we’re pretty happy with the result.

I wasn’t at the event to see the frame auctioned off or to see who purchased it, I was proud that it made it there though, and all in the nick of time.  Amazing what can be done with a little mist, some resin shapes, some stick on sparklies, a few flowers and a some metal trinkets and shapes, keys and steampunk goodness from A Dozen Ideas.  (Etsy) or A Dozen Ideas (web).

House-sitter is here, I’m off to the beach for 5 days.  Much deserved break and family time together.

Laters.

A time to reflect.

AS I put the kids to bed tonight I whispered in their ears “Sleep tight, Mummy will be home in the morning”.  Each laughed at me and said “But you are home!”.  Yes, but tomorrow was the day I was meant to return home from my lengthy trip to the USA.  It’s wonderful to be home but I can’t help feeling a little sad that I didn’t finish what I started out to do in the USA.

I’ve been home a week now.  One minute I was eating dinner at a fabulous old-style Mexican restaurant in California, the next minute I had news that Paul’s Mum had been given hours to live after a brain haemorrhage.  Within hours I was on a plane home, having had the news that she had passed away.  Paul was having to deal with 3 grieving children alone, plus have to organise his Mum’s funeral alongside his sister.   Those hours before deciding to leave California (and Prima were amazingly supportive in letting me go from my contracted teaching work) and then those hours spent making trying to sleep and make small talk on the plane were some of the loneliest and saddest I have ever felt.  I thank goodness for great employers, fabulous friends and a wonderful family.

So a week on we have done some of the sad stuff – a funeral and then a burial up north.  There is so much more to do though, and I had no idea just how heartbreaking some of the after-the-funeral stuff could be. 

I’m also feeling sad about the USA.   Months of work, and it really was months of work (on and off, obviously), that didn’t get completed.  No closure.  All the preparations for me to be away from home, the work that I put in during times I should have been relaxing with the kids.  That is all sitting heavy with me.  Regrets that I didn’t spend enough time with certain people in the USA – had I known I’d be plucked away so quickly I would have done things differently in the few days I was there.  It’s all laying really heavily on me right now.

I love scrapbooking, or maybe I love storytelling.  I haven’t figured out which right now.  But sometimes.  Just sometimes I wonder the value of what I do with the teaching and the travelling, the eventing and being out there in public.  I can say in the hours that I wasn’t with them when they needed me most, that the distance apart from them was far too huge.  The last week has been a massive thinking time for me. 

For those of you at Art*Venture, I wish I could have been there.  I hope you understood.   I loved my projects dearly.  It would have been fabulous to teach them in person. I have heard the event turned out to be something out of this world, I knew it would be.

I have lots of people to thank.  People that sent flowers, texts, calls, emails, facebook messages, cards and best wishes.  The friends that got me on the plane, Prima who encouraged me to be with my family, the whole Prima team that one by one each consoled me during the craziness of CHA.  From the people I haven’t seen in years that turned up to the funeral, to the community of Mangakaramea that flew their town hall flag at half mast on the day we took Nannie North home to rest, to those that helped us drink to Nana North on Friday night, you were all part of making us feel better.  Each and every one was appreciated and I can safely say that my faith in humanity has been restored.  This is an amazing world we live in.

Laters

 

Abby and Nana North with some flowers picked from her garden, 2008.

Art*Venture project 1 – an altered from with removable layout using some of the newest Prima products.   There was also a 2nd layout to go with this class.

A colour challenge...

One cool thing about being involved with Prima Marketing is that I get given assignments or challenges to complete.  They push me to do artwork I might not otherwise do.  Sometimes I find myself creating things that aren't my usual.  I felt that way about this challenge. 

Here is the layout I created... it's a little different than my usual. 

If this colour scheme challenge looks like a bit of you, goodness knows it was a piece of me, check out those blues! , then see this blog post on the Prima blog.  You have til Jan 30th, Have fun with it :)

Laters

Heading to CHA

I’m a few hours from getting on a plane.  I’m a jittery wreck.  Luckily my kids have stepped up and are being helpful and kind.  Although I love the thought of being involved in CHA and being overseas, the day I leave is tough.

This is the scene that met me when I went to bed last night.   Looks so peaceful and deeply asleep, right?

Earlier in the evening we had tears and sad times as she tried to go to sleep.  She asked me not to leave.  When I asked her why she would miss me, she simply said “Because I love you”.

Cue melted heart.

I eventually tucked her into her bed and hoped she’d go off to sleep.

It seems she couldn’t, because a little while later I found her in my bed, with my jammies wrapped around her favourite teddy bear, the one she cuddles when she misses something.

I can only tell myself that she has a fab Dad, amazing grandparents, two strong brothers and my bestie to look after her.  And that she will be ok.

Something cool though – she woke this morning to an email from Tattered Angels requesting her artwork to display at CHA.  I sat her down and asked her if she understood.  “Do you know what this means, Abby?, the owner of the whole company wants to show your amazing artwork at the big tradeshow in America.”.

That cheered her up – her artwork is going with mama to America.

(Yep, she really made this by herself.  She really did).

Laters

(Metal Trinkets & heart thingie from A Dozen Ideas, lots ofother cool scrapbookey stuff from Scrapbook.com )

Prima Art*Venture–more class sneaks

Is it possible I could be more excited?  (and nervous, and apprehensive and crazy busy running around in circles all at once – my biggest worry at the moment is whether I’ve packed enough snacks – seriously, isn’t America the land of snacks?  What am I thinking??).  I leave on Thursday to go to CHA, the twice annual Craft and Hobby Trade show for those that don’t walk down the crafty wild side, and Art*Venture in Desert Springs is just a week after that. 

 

All that and then add in a visit or two to the Prima Warehouse (my hostesses don’t know this yet, I’m planning on slipping the suggestion into the conversation early on in the piece) and I’ve got something super special planned. Yes, Disney is in California but how many of you think that perhaps the Prima Warehouse would be the real happiest place on earth? 

 

So it’s about time I let you know more about this class I will be teaching in California.  There is a whole lot to it.  Several layouts and something extra amazingly fabulous as a bonus … here’s some more sneaks!  (And yes those are new Prima products you can see – are you looking closely?  These are some of my favourite lines ever!)

Enough for now – can’t wait til I am able to show you the whole lot. 

Counting down the days,

laters