Nic Howard - One of those days...

2008-04-15T15:34:00.002+12:00

Please visit me at my new blog It's been one of those days - Typepad - I'll be hanging out there from now on, please change your links!

nic

Moving

2008-03-26T09:42:00.002+13:00

Wow. I didn't think the response would be quite as big. I'm thrilled though. It means you all will inspire me as well. It couldn't be more perfect!

I'll be back in a day or so with a post to set it in action.

For now though, can you please add this link to your favourites? I'm moving. After 3 years of blogging on blogger, I'm taking my toys out of the sandpit and moving them to a more comfortable one with places to put stuff. Like galleries to put images. It's a big change for me so I hope you'll follow.

You'll find me here from now on... including the first post for the kiddies album. And a gallery so you can access the images in a decent size to see detail.

Stop. I see you moving on without changing your links and adding the typepad to your favourites. Do it now. I'm afraid of change so you all have to do it with me....

2008-03-25T16:05:00.006+13:00

I did it - I finished the Kindy book. It took me about 30 hours probably and it included around 70 pages. Most of them were not made by me, I merely collated the gorgeous artwork and little cards etc given to me by the children, but it's done. I did scrapbook around 25 pages, but they were so simple I didn't photograph them. I secretly dropped it off to one of the teachers today and quickly took these pics before I did. Thanks everyone that helped! It's been a long process, I started by standing at the Kindy gates about a month ago asking everyone for their contributions to the book - we couldn't let the teacher know so I had to do it in secret! It's been ongoing since then. It's felt good to give a little of my time to the Kindy, I'm not often one of the parents on school trips or cooking sausages at PTA fundraisers, but I do give what I can.

Today marks the start of the Stampin' Up! Project I've been planning. I mentioned in an earlier post that Stampin' Up! had been reading my blog and were pleased I used their products every now and again and they got in touch and said "hey.. why don't we do something.. we have some cool scrapbooking products we'd like to show people". I considered what project I could do for them and came up with something and thought why not.. So here we are.

And I was thinking.

Which is what I do inbetween scrapping.

The project I want to do is one I do for all my kids. When they turn 4 years old I make a book for them. I wait til they are 4 because at that point they start to try and write and recognise their name, they realise they have things that are truly theirs in the way of likes and dislikes etc. It's something made about a child, for a child... so simple and easy and so treasured. I have made Jacob and Braden each one of these books and they are one of their absolute loved items. They have read and re-read them and just lately Jacob asked me to do one for when he turned nine! but he's out of luck at the moment because I need to do one for Abby, lol.

(And just a note here - this was an idea I got from CKU Utah in 2001 - Lisa Bearnson did kits to make these albums as a fundraiser for underpriveledged kits - kind of like we have been doing! More on that in a few days - our fundraiser, I mean!)

So anyway, I was thinking....

Would anyone be interested in doing this album with me? It's not hard - I could give you the list of photos you'd need and questions to ask your kiddos to go in the album. Leave me a comment if you want me to do that, and I'll work through it with you over the next month or so! I don't know if anyone is keen, but I thought I'd put it out there!

Here is my inside cover page. The book itself doesn't have an embellished outside cover. It slips in and out of the bookcase and bed-side drawers so much it would get ruined. I want Abby to do whatever she wants with this book so it needs to be kiddy-proof! I've used an old provocraft album which is around 6 x 9" and has page protectors. You could use what you want.

For this inside cover page, you take a picture of your child telling their age by holding up the right amount of fingers! Wording should say something similar to what I have done. "All About Me" "A scrapbook made especially for me by my Mummy" and the date.

Just because I was feeling nostalgic, I crackled the background. The cardstock is a Stampin Up one called Buckeroo Blue, and most everything else is SU as well. I'll do a materials list below. I must start doing that with all my layouts because I get quite a few emails after I post them. One thing I want to point out about this page though, is the cardstock stickers. They are Stampin Up. I'm in a layering-pop-dotting-scallops and circles kinda craze and it was cool to see SU could help me out with that. I think. lol.

Materials list below. Let me know if you want to join me in this project - I'll help you out! Use any materials - use up your stash! It'd be fun!

Laters.

Cardstock: Buckeroo Blue, Old Olive.
Simply Scrappin' At Home cardstock stickers.
Mixed Bouquet Stamp Set.
It's a Date stamp set.
Spring Bouquet punch.
Buckeroo Blue ink, Basic Black ink.
All by Stampin' Up!

2008-03-24T09:22:00.003+13:00

Rebecca Cameron. You are a genius. Thank you so much for taking the time to search out some ideas for me. This is the link you gave me and this is what I'm currently working on.

It's a total scraplift of 'Coverton' from the Simple Scrapbooks gallery. And I'm thrilled beyond words! The book is still a work in progress. It measures over 13 x 9 inches - so it is BIG and it is already full of stuff, as you can see - it'll be heading towards 100 pages when I'm finished. Many of them are drawings from the Kindy kids, and there are lots of letters wishing Anne well. I'm going to be so proud to have collated this. Thanks again Rebecca. Will update with final pics soon.

(And thanks everyone for sending ideas my way - Scrapbookers really are awesome people.)

laters

2008-03-22T21:20:00.003+13:00

Shhhhhhhhhhhh it's that time of night when all good kiddos should be asleep. In our home Easter Sunday is greeted with squeals from the kids as the trails of little caramello eggs lead to the big one at the end. If the kids would go to sleep perhaps the adults could, well, you know.. make sure things would run smoothly in the morning.

Unfortunately one boy is so hyped up on Willard Price's Whale adventure all he can think of is catching a black sailing ship with white sails to some far away ocean. The other one has just got out of bed and come to tell me he is feeling a little CRaZy and he doesn't know what to do. Sleep might fix that I suggested, but he wasn't down with that suggestion, really.

Thank goodness for little girls that stayed up til 10pm last night playing spotlight. She fell asleep in her dinner so that was that sorted. Good plan.

I haven't shared this layout yet - it's another Tarisota one - it looks better IRL actually, it flows better. Another one that outlining one of Abby's days. It was simply a case of having a pic I loved and wanting to journal and not wanting to tell he how sweet and funny she is. Because quite often she is not sweet and funny, - hey just keeping it real here - so the journaling ended up being a summary of one of her days. And those are my favourite layouts to do anyway. You'll see a lot of them coming from me. They'll never be the same because the kids change so quickly.

My brother, Vaughan, is in Switzerland. I always thought I was the smart one in the family but this dude is clever. He lives in London but chose to go to Switzerland for Easter. I've tasted Swiss easter choccies. I know what's going on over there. Cleeeeeever. Love that boy.

I'm a little late to the party perhaps, but there is a whole lot of fun going on at the Fiskars blog this weekend.

Kindy - ok I need help here.
A teacher (well 2 of them actually) are leaving and I am in charge of collating a scrapbook for each. I have been given a pile of kids drawings and letters wishing them good luck, a pile of photos ranging from 10years old to recent, some other random stuff and I'm meant to be compiling! Argh! So anyway. I have some plastic stationery sleeves and I'm going to make chipboard front and back covers and hold it all together with book-rings.

Trouble is. HOW - WHAT do I make this cover look like? What do I call a book with all that kind of stuff in it? *Shrug* completly lost here. They aren't scrapbookers so I don't want to make them toooo scrapbookey, ya know? But I need to impress as well. We aim to make the teacher shed a few tears so - help! Anyone? Has anyone got images or links to images that might help me? Any ideas? Fire away - I'm all ears , I'd love some suggestions. It's almost as if the scrapbook needs sections - room for the kids drawings/memories - room for pics, room for other stuff. OK I'm lost and ready for help. Bring it on. Please? I have 2 days. lol

Wish me luck!

Happy Easter everyone.

laters

Busy days

2008-03-20T12:20:00.002+13:00

I thought it would be calmer once summer started to come to a close but if it's not one thing it's another, and renovations on our home are taking over at the moment. Computer time has been cut dramatically as I spend a lot of time supervising the children while they watch things like concrete trucks and jackhammers etc. I haven't scrapped a page in nearly 2 weeks. I've done other stuff but scrapping, no.

I did go to the dentist the other day. I used to think people that were scared of needles needed to harden up. I thought it was all in their mind but I tell you, I lost the plot somewhere along the way and now it's me shying at the thought of a needle in my mouth. I've had plenty of spots cut out and stitches put in, and don't worry about those needles, but take one near my mouth and I'm a basketcase.

So I walk into the dentist. I nicely question her about the possibility of doing this without the numbing up bit. I must have had "complete wuss" written across my forehead because she kinda went..."mmmm...noooooo, I think we better give you the pain releif..." and she tried to go into conversation about the new type they have that doesn't numb the tongue and I responded by bursting into tears. I take back every single thought I ever thought about how silly it was for people to hate the dentist. Make room for me on that couch because, baby, I am there. I can be the president of that club, if you like, because I cried. Like a baby. Poor dentist - she was so nice. I did get the added bonus of a nurse to give me a head massage as the needles went in - that had to be worth it, right?

So anyway. I was at Ngaire's blog the other day, and she pointed me towards Mel's blog which in turn pointed me towards Fiona Carter's blog. No wonder I get no work done. and Fiona made these yummy looking cupcakes. And being the incredibly domestic person I am - my husband is laughing, why is he laughing - I decided to give these a go. So I made cupcakes. I dropped a little easter egg in the middle of them, you don't need to cover the chocolate up, it rises around it when it is cooking, and I cooked choc filled cupcakes!

So now I am the cupcake making president of the I-hate-the-dentist club.

I'll leave you with some images of a wall hanging I did. I made this for a book called "Show it Off" which is about to be released in the U.S.A. through Memory Makers Books. It's all about using scrapbooking in your decor. Showing it off, sharing it with the world. Which is something we should do more often. 700-800 layouts on a shelf isn't going to be any use to anyone really. Am I the only that has that issue? yes? oh. lol. OK so I did this wall hanging. I used cheap frames from the Warehouse and I hung it from some old meshy stuff that I found in the garage, I have no idea what it's really for, all I know is that Paul has never asked after it so it can't have been important.

Other supplies - from memory they were FancyPants Designs rub-ons and maybe some WeRMemory Keepers papers. Thanks for looking!

Laters.

Sunday Morning.

2008-03-16T10:44:00.002+13:00

Being awoken by a smoke alarm going off at 5.40am on a Sunday is never fun. Physically I flew out of bed and was running down the hall before my mind caught up with what was going on. When I got to the living area the smoke alarm stopped and I quickly ascertained there was nothing on fire, or even remotely smokey even. I decided it was a cruel trick being played by Daddy-Long-Leg spiders crawling over the sensor, who were probably at that very minute trying to muffle their giggles behind one of their 8 hands and I went back to bed. I have no clue what set the alarm off but I fell back to sleep wondering why it happens on a Sunday morning and not any other morning when 5.40am is actually quite normal.

I told the kids this morning when they got up that it was probably just a Daddy-Long-Legs. I was quickly corrected by Abby who told me they are infact called "Deadly-Long-Legs". Jacob followed quickly after with stories about how Daddy-Long-Legs are infact one of the most venomous spiders in the world but they are harmless to us because they have no biting mechanism. Nice.
I love the Deadly-Long-Legs thing though. One of my other favourites of Abby's right now is "Oppsidently". As in "I oppsidently turned the TV on when I wasn't meant to". Aha. Right.

This week holds a lot in store for me including a dentist appointment, sending more SCKC layouts to Australia - we are hitting to supply ALL the camps with layouts now and it's not going to be hard thanks to ladies like Vanessa M & Rachel R who sent me half their scrap-room in the form of over 120 6x6 layouts! Also Heidi B and more from Christine C as well - thanks so much ladies!

This week I'll be starting on some Stampin' Up! stuff. I hinted at this a while back. Stampin' Up! has been in New Zealand around a year now (guessing!) and I've been in touch with the company since their introduction here. Just recently I was asked to join them with a promotion to show you all what they have to offer. Why not, I thought and I'll be starting to work on that this coming week. Each week I will post an ongoing project I'll be working on. It's a cute book for Abby, I make one for each of the kids as they turn 4. With each weekly post I'll hopefully introduce you to some of the Stampin'Up! products and perhaps a technnique or two. With each post I make there will be a Stampin Up giveaway. It's a win-win so keep an eye out for that in the coming week.
And I've just been to the SU site and they are retiring lots of their stamps! If you are a stamper or a scrapbooker that likes to stamp go check it out!

Ok, back to my Sunday. We are having Hot Cross Buns for lunch. It's been quite the culinary weekend, yesterday I made Lemonade Scones (you know the ones where all you need is self raising flour, a can of lemonade and cream?) - anyway, I didn't have lemonade and used L&P instead. Not quite the same. lol.

I'll leave you with another Tarisota creation. This is done with the "Life's a Hoot" collection. Which I think has one of the best galleries ever. I'm not big on the cliche type crowns etc, but I loved the crowns in this collection. Especially the one I used in this card, which is actually a brad by Delish Designs.
(Love quote transparency by Delish, Crown card by My Mind's Eye, papers by My Mind's Eye)

laters

2008-03-13T09:36:00.002+13:00

I've got an extra voice around home this morning. Jacob is due to get his cast off today so he stayed home. Mainly because the rest of the senior school have gone to swimming sports. I'm looking forward to having that cast off as much as him. It's harbouring all sorts of dirt and grime - much more than the average mother likes to see. The trick now is to get to the nurse to request that she tells him he can't keep it - before he gets to her. It'll be a rush in the fracture clinic door. lol.

More Tarisota!

This layout talks of Jacob's nightly routine. His struggle to get to sleep and his amazing reading skills. Which in turn can really be blamed for his inability to get to sleep. What 9 year old boy lost in the african desert with Willard Price would be able to fall asleep easily.

I had a question about this layout in particular which featured on ScrapScene today (and wasn't that a pleasant surprise!)

I was asked about the dimension in my layouts - I admit I do like dimension. I've always been envious of those scrapbookers that can put together beautifully graphically balanced pages. Cardstock and photos. Shapes and design. I've never been able to do that. I think of myself as more of a paper-crafter type scrapbooker. I love to cut and scrunch, change and craft the papers. I'm not neccessarily successful all the time but I have fun trying :o) So dimension is my thing.
I was asked whether I use pop-dots or something similar. The answer is sometimes. Usually not. I use tombow green glue and it sticks everything. As in, everything, my laptop keys wish I was a little more careful. If I feel something needs popping off the page, or sometimes one side of an embellishment needs boosting because the other side is already boosted by another embellishment (getting confusing now?) I sometimes just cut a corner of scrap chipboard and glue it under there. We waste a lot of chipboard from around alphas and chipboard shapes. I guess I found a use.

Ok, time for that appointment - a quick note though that Tarisota has the new BasicGrey on it's way to them and they are due to ship the limited BasicGrey FourYou Take two as soon as it arrives. (Scroll down to see it - as you scroll you'll notice some gorgeous digital downloads that Jo Kneller has been creating - amazing stuff, we are lucky to have that girl on board!).

Gotta run
Laters!

Missing in action.

2008-03-09T21:18:00.003+13:00

I've been missing in action. I had good reason though because despite the fact that after having our 3rd child we thought we'd never get any look at acting on a whim again - let's face it, a trip to the local park takes a finely tuned routine and a minimum 15 min organisation time, we packed up on Thursday and went to the beach. And it was not so hard to do so on a whim. With the blessings of both the boy's school teachers. To be with Vaughan for the final few days before he flew home. We had planned on just one night over on the Coromandel, but had such fun playing Scumbag over a few drinks late that night, that we decided to stay another. And again. It wasn't so hard. It felt good.

Vaughan left yesterday. That was hard. The night before he left we saw videos from his computer on the stuff he does overseas. Christmas in Bulgaria. Raves in London. I had been sure it was time for him to come home but after seeing those videos I realised he shouldn't come home yet. It's such a big world and he is having a ball. I had a mortgage by the time I was 21 and didn't travel. I kinda thought I'd travel later in life. In the meantime I lost the party attitude though.
So anyway. Vaughan went home. It was an emotional day and the funny thing was that it made me want to scrapbook. On our return home I needed to sit and write. And write. And write. And I wonder sometimes if it is the stories that makes me a scrapbooker, not the 'creating'. And sometimes I think I should just stop thinking about things so much and just scrap.

Thanks to Rachel Tucker and Kate Mills - beautiful pages for the SCKC arrived in my mailbox over the weekend. Thanks so much ladies! Don't forget to check in with Julie's blog - she has pics of what 1600 layouts look like - because we have reached our goal! BUT WAIT - we are supplying for other camps too, including one that is held in New Zealand every year. Don't stop creating! I've seen the corrospondence about how much difference these books make. So keep it up for just a little while yet!

And finally a layout to share. This was in this months Tarisota gallery. which just went up yesterday.

It's one of my fav layouts for a while. I think it's the pictures. Abby & I were at Kindy last December and Nannie & Grumpr arrived to see her at the Kindy Christmas concert. Abby was on the playground when they arrived. She rushed to them as soon as she saw them and this is the look on her face as she was telling Nannie all about kindy. If anyone wanted a definition of absolute glee, I think this would be close.

laters.

2008-03-05T21:11:00.002+13:00

Hello Autumn, actually it's been Autumn since the middle of February we decided. We've given up all hope of showing Vaughan a true NZ summer, he's about to go home and that's the last of the fun summer things over for me. I have nothing but dental appointments that I had been putting off until after Vaughan left and winter to look forward to. That was sarcasm, I hate winter. Except I like to cook more in winter. I'm not sure if that is bad or good. lol

Tarisota time, I'm knee deep in blues and greens at the moment. Quite at home, no layout of mine is complete without blue at the moment. Usually I'm pairing it with red but I'm enjoying the relaxed tones of this collection. Here is the collection and here is a sneak peek of one of my layouts, gallery due up 8th March. One of my most favourite layouts in ages actually. I've been doing a lot of instructions and classes so it might be my only layout lately, actually lol.

I hate seeing the date 8th March on anything because it means I should have paid our last installment of provisional tax already. Which I haven't. I blame February for that, it always flies past far too soon.

Kids pages - still rolling in. Thanks so much to Ann Mclachlan, Naomi Carrell, Kate Anderson, Melissa Davis, and Leila Norton. This makes another 240 to send to Australia! This has really taken off for more than just the camp we originally started to make these pages for... it looks as if we will have enough for Melbourne and perhaps even the NZ camp as well... watch this space as Trina, Jules and I have been talking (far too much as usual!) and there are plans. Check Jules' blog for the tickers for both the SCKC and the Melbourne SCKC...

I see details for ScrapCamp are out, if you didn't get the email, here is the blog site with all the details - Rotorua in May with Lianne, Yolande and Kelly Rotherham.

Anyone else having problems with xtra? I know I'm not recieving or sending all of my emails. If you have emailed me and I didn't answer really when you thought I should, then please try until I do. I'm hoping it'll be over soon!

Alrighty. One last thing. A lot of you know that I have a friend, Shauna, in the U.S. that is very dear to me. I dedicated my book to her. It's time to ask for all your thoughts to go her way again. She's hit a bit of a tough road... her indicators aren't looking fantastic and it frustrates me and angers me really that she is having to go through this. Thanks for everyone that already stops by and drops her a quiet word of encouragement, even if you don't know her. She has some poetry on her blog at the moment (scroll down just a bit) that truly explains the fight she is fighting. It's incredibly touching so pop by if you can. The more positivity the better!

Laters

2008-03-01T21:59:00.003+13:00

I must be one of the luckiest scrappers in New Zealand right now, you should have seen my mailbox this morning. Thanks so much to Rachel Tucker who sent me a pile more - I took pics straight away which I'll share in a minute.. and then later in the day I got more pages from Christine Cleary and Ruth Ross, all sending piles of pages my way to donate to the SCKC in Australia. I sent a box to Aussie last Monday, it has reached it's destination already.. I guess I'll be headed back to the post office again this coming Monday!

I thought these journaling spots on Rachel's were a great idea. This is an extremely bad pic of some great pages, I hope you can see them OK.

Keep sending them in, scroll down to earlier posts to see what the fuss is all about!

Oh look - some pics that my SIL took of myself and my two brothers. Mum wanted a nice pic since we aren't together very often. Good luck to her. lol

I forget why my brother's name is Clown?

Yea it's all fun and games til Mum gets all growly because she isn't getting a good pic.

I think at this point I stood up ready to have some stern words with Vaughan. (he looks so scared?)

Sorry Mum, this is the best you'll get!

Ok scrapping - Tamar tells me she has my Water Play class kit for sale. Very cool.

I did some work on some inklination stuff for Tarisota this month - this is the stamp that they have for sale as a limited edition .. images of what I did with it to go in gallery ..um...soon.

Oh and the featured product for Tarisota this month was birdies. I wanted to create a card. I'm not big on the birdie thing but the packaging on some Bohemia stuff had been looking at me begging for me to make them into wings on a bird - so I cut the 'B' and the 'O' off the packaging and a birdie was created. It seemed a good idea at the time?

Laters!

In a past life.

2008-02-28T15:57:00.003+13:00

Sometimes as I sit procrastinating over what coloured piece of paper to stick to other coloured pieces of paper in my scraproom, I wonder what I'd be doing if I wasn't so busy scrapbooking. In a past life (the one before kids) I thought I'd be a florist. Or teacher. Or journalist. I was always going to write.
And so now I think I write my blog to procrastinate while I scrapbook. Funny how things turn in circles. Thanks for being at the other end of my writing.

I haven't had much in the way of scrapping stuff to share lately but this should change soon since I'm creating lots for Tarisota this month. I'm also itching to do more pages for the kids (click here to read more about it - and the froggie jumping his way across to the target with each page Julie receives). I'm receiving more and more pages in my mailbox every day. Thanks so Linda L, Kris, and the whole group of Timaru girls who sent me 121 pages! the Timaru package included some pages from Bronwyn's 9 year old daughter, Natasha and I swear when I got that package I said a big awwwwwwwwwwwww outloud.
This campaign to provide these kids - many of which come from foster homes - with scrapbooks is amazing and due to the generosity of you all, it's grown so quickly. Thanks to everyone that has linked it on their blogs and who has sent me pages. We still need more so if you feel like creating, read this blog post. For every 8 pages you create and send to either trina or I, you go into the draw for a prize or two.

I was talking about my quiet contemplative middle child the other day. I briefly mentioned my bull-at-a-gate oldest child. This is what he looks like right now. Yes, that is a plaster cast under that bandage. And yes that is a fractured wrist. This is a direct result of a 9 year old boy failing to judge correctly the consequences of cycling extremely fast down a hill. Actually not only did he fail to judge correctly, but he failed to think at all. I think. He did this at cubs. His words when he came in the door holding his wrist and bleeding from numerous other scratches and bruises. "This is serious". Ya think?!

laters

The quiet, wise one.

2008-02-25T20:44:00.004+13:00

Every family seems to have one. You know, the quiet, yet wise one. Our Braden, now 7 years old, has always been this way. Sometimes we'll travel somewhere and not hear a peep out of him for the whole journey. Jacob and Abby will have bickered and fought all the way, yet Braden will say nothing. I say again. He is a wise boy.

When Braden says something, it's usually a gem. He can come up with the most amazing philosophical things. Well, as philosophical as a 7 year old with no front teeth can be.

Today we are driving back from swimming. Jacob is contemplating how incredibly amazing his swimming was. Abby was arguing that really she should be going to lessons everyday and Braden says nothing. And then he says, ever so questionably. "I've figured it out... that food thing. You know. That good food thing. I can tell a food is good when it tastes really bad. And I can tell a bad food because it's going to taste reeeeally good, right Mum?"
The kid is a genius. I didn't argue. I've recently made new food rules for myself. They include not eating bad food in my own home. If I go to someone elses else and I am offered it, then it's fair game. There is a small possibility I may even make a pig of myself. But I cannot eat bad food in my own home. Do you think this will work?
Disclaimer: This does not include alcohol. It also does not include Swiss chocolate if it is hand delivered by said Swiss friend that then might knock on my door and hand it to me, but not come in for a coffee. You know. Should that happen, like.

Talking of food. I took this pic at the weekend. Paul was teaching Braden how to prepare a fish for the smoker. Uncle Vaughan looking a bit green around the gills in the background. hehehe. Cool pic though. Just a random son-father moment. Since Paul has huge plans for both our sons to be fishing-crazy, it's fitting I get a starting out pic.

And this is a bad photo, but I just had to take a pic to show you. I don't know if you remember I had a post about 3-4 months ago where I had a green passionfruit with Vaughan's name scratched in it, anyone else do that when they were little? and I said it was for him when he came over? Well that passionfruit stayed on that vine for months. It fell off onto the ground on the day Vaughan arrived on the big plane from England. I kid you not. How freaky is that.
bad pic. I just took it now. bad light. sorry.

OK in scrapping stuff. This week I work on the march Tarisota kit as well as finishing details of Basicgrey Four you. I had it mostly finished but because I knew it'd be March when the Basicgrey got to Aussie, I left the rest of the instructions for a while. Now I hear the BasicGrey is not far away I'm finishing up. The kit is available here (scroll down) if you are interested. A sampling of Boxer, Sugared, Sultry and Cupcake plus a heap of embellishments including a inque boutique stamp and new BG rub-ons, buttons, brads etc. Instructions for 4 layouts and 2 cards all ready to ship as soon as the BG hits Aussie.

Lastly - something has been on my mind. I love the comments I receive and often I get questions asked. I'd love to be able to press reply and answer but I don't have that option through blogger. I'd also like more choice of sidebars etc. Is it time to move on? Has anyone moved from blogger to typepad? Can you move your whole blog? I've been blogging 3 years now and I'd hate to lose things. Just contemplating things. As ya do.
While ingoring the bickering coming from the back seat of the car on the way home from swimming.

laters.

2008-02-22T14:46:00.003+13:00

It is indeed one of those days. One of those days where one washes half the household linens and clothes all with good intentions. With the gale force winds I'd be sure to dry it all, you'd think. It was fairly obvious as soon as I pegged the first towel on the line that it was going to be a battle of the spinning clothesline. I'm not so tall (be quiet Lucy!) so I have to let go of the line while I reach down for the next towel out of the basket. By the time I stood up again the clothesline had spun a full 360 and I was being whipped around the face by the previous wet towel. The dryer looked awfully inviting although I perservered and was rewarded with washing that was dry in 15 minutes. I saved 11c an hour not using the dryer. If I did that every day for a while I'll save enough for an icecream by winter ;o)

Good to have the phone back on. 9000 lines in Pukekohe were without phones for quite a while. It is nice to have it restored and know I am meeting all sorts of people I didn't previously know as the number you ring isn't guaranteed to hook you up with the people you were trying to get. When I ring my Mum's number I get a lovely old lady across the other side of town. Back to square one for Telecom I'm thinking.

There has been lots of cool things happen this week though. Here is a pic of my very jetlagged little brother, fresh off the London-Dubai-Singapore-Brisbane-Auckland flight that he took. In front of him is the birthday cake my kids decorated for him as it was his birthday when he travelled. Any excuse for cake :o) Great to have him home, pity about the tropical storm. Thanks Queensland.

Abby had her 3rd swimming lesson. She has just turned four and has taken to the swimming thing like a duck to water :o) She is working on her straight legged kick in this pic.

And another cool thing - the pages arriving in my mailbox! I received them from Margo and Rachel this week. They'll both be in the draw for the prize on my blog as well as Trina's blog. We'll join lists when we draw names for prizes, so keep the 6x6's headed our way!
Check out these pics. How cool are these 6x6 layouts. I'm so happy I get to look at all of these!! Both days I recieved layouts I felt like going to scrap straight away! lol

If you are clueless as to why we are creating, take a look at this post.
And this is how it all started...

Anyone else think that the declaration "I don't love ANYONE ever AGAIN" by Abby from the lounge needs attention? Me too.

laters.

2008-02-18T12:04:00.005+13:00

Who has been busy scrapping 6x6 over the weekend? ... ME!!! Unintentionally, what started as a quick visit over to the neighbours for a quick drink ended up in me running home to grab a bit of scrapping stuff (and you'll see I grabbed my BG Color-Me-Silly and some other random things). We sat down and just started cutting and layering and inking and gluing and before we knew it, both Lucy and I had created 28 pages each for the Kids Camp. Put that with the 4 I had at home and between us, we had done 60 pages. It was easy when we just let all our fussy inhibitions go and just got scrapping. So here are my efforts - simple ... yes.. but they have to be fairly generic as we don't know what pics will go on there? Hopefully the camp will have access to some alphas or something so they can dress them up.. anyhow.. here are some of the pages I have done. (See here for more details of the kids camp)

(Some Stampin' Up! ones from the other day - my favs and you'll see these a lot, are those label stamps...)

Color Me Silly, I always loved those froggies!

I got a bit girlie there for ...oh...15 minutes... lol

One sheet of BG CMS tags went a long way really!

I knew I'd find a use for that Dr Suess paper at some point!

So remember! For every 8 pages that you do and send to me or Trina (we'll keep a list between us) - they need to arrive at either my house or Trina's house to be counted in the draw ... for every 8 pages you complete, we'll put you in the draw. I have a prize from Stampin' Up! and Trina has one for Fiskars - I might find more prizes, so get creating!!
Trina has updated her blog with more details I see :o)
Oh - for my address - email me (email button up the top, don't leave me a comment, blogger doesn't let me reply to your comments :o( and then you can send your pages.
Thanks to everyone that said they will participate - as I said, I can't answer my comments but I read every single comment - thanks!

Other scrapping stuff - I see Heidi Grace had another baby! This lady is amazing! She jsut released an amazing amount of stuff at CHA and has a daughter that has just turned one AND has another gorgeous wee bubba.

I have finally chosen my favourite CHA new release. Well. For this half an hour. Till I see another favourite. I haven't got a pic of this but it's called the 'Threading Water' Border punch. Fiskars are releasing it and it's a scallop with the little holes. Flippin fab idea!! Go Fiskars!!

Oh wait! I thought of another thing from the CHA postings I thought was pretty cool and that is the Sassafras Lass papers. OK these ladies take the cake for thinking power.. they have created papers where the strip at the bottom is scalloped or zi-zagged or whatever. And a coordinating pattern. So you can either cut like 1/2 inch off the top of the paper and have a shaped lower edge, OR cut it off and use it as some sort of border. Clever thinking!!!

Righto. Off to create an Aussie Scrap Source class. Double page this time. Have to keep thsoe Timaru ladies happy ;o)

laters.

For the kiddies

2008-02-16T16:30:00.004+13:00

Two more sleeps til my brother arrives from London. I've been boasting the 30degree days and the lack of rain to him for weeks. If the person that took the sun could kindly send it back my way now, I'd be a happy girl. I can't believe how quickly this weather has turned. Happy to see rain, disappointed that Vaughan won't arrive to those glorious summer days we had. Send. the. sun. back. lol.

Want to contribute to a huge scrapbooking charity??? You'll have to do some scrapping... might be tough goin...
I got this email from Julie Stone talking about a kiddies charity. I took a look, thought about it and didn't think again. As ya do. Then I was at Trina's blog the other day and saw that Trina is coordinating the NZ part of this charity. I read further and thought why not?

Now this happened to be the same day that I recieved some cool stuff from Stampin' Up! - I'll be doing some projects using Stampin' Up! on my blog soon...anyway I'm chatting to Stampin' Up about this charity and all of a sudden they want to help out too! COOL!
So this is the deal.

This is the Southern Cross Kids Camp in Australia. Its a camp that is held for abused and 'at risk' kids . The camp is run by volunteers who help them put together 6x6 scrapbooks - they take photos and put them in scrapbooks. SO cool. Alot of the time these books are the only photos these children have of their childhoods.

So last year they created the pages all at the camp. This year they are having twice the kids and since they need 1600 pages they decided to do it all beforehand. So.

Who's in? Julie needs 1600 6x6 pages. I've started to scrap a few and here are pics of the ones Julie suggested you copy - and some I have been creating. Now these are all done with Stampin' Up! stuff - except for that tiny bit of BG blush you see there.

So they need 6x6 pages. Really simple. Room for a 5" x 3.5" photo.

AND this is the bonus.
For every 8 pages you scrap and send to me or Trina, I'll put you in the draw for a prize from Stampin' Up! YEA! more GIVEaways!!!!

You don't get entered into the draw until Trina or I have received your pages in the mail - but you have 5 weeks! Imagine how many sets you could do! I made 4 this morning in under an hour and that was really mucking around with these stamps - I just had to play lol.

So again - It's 8 pages - you can get those out of 2 sheets of cardstock! Simple simple easy simple. Create 8 and send them to me or Trina and I'll put you in the draw.
AND I'm pretty sure people on other blogs are going to follow suit...Trina mentioned prizes on her blog for creating 8 pages too - we'll make this a true group effort... so you could be entering for prizes all over the place ...
Who's IN?!!!! You have til March 21st.

(and thanks Stampin' Up! for the prize for my blog!).

Oh - something for the designers, For Keeps is sponsoring a prize or two for the Scrapbooking Industry Australia Commercial Designer Awards. It's a different kind of competition as it recognises those people in the scrapbooking industry that are trying to become established as designers. Prizes for Outstanding commercial design for an individual and for a design team. Aaaaaaaaand I've just read the rules and it seems it's Aussies only - go you Aussie girls! Good luck to everyone!

So. That sun. Who's going to reassure myself it's on its way back? Drinking a rum with my bro on the deck just isn't the same when it's raining ;o)

laters.

2008-02-12T20:40:00.000+13:00

I'm a proud New Zealander tonight. So proud. I smiled watching the news as I heard that the Flight of the Conchords have won a Grammy. A Grammy? I think I got that right, but it's just flippin awesome. I've been a fan for a while - ever since seeing this clip on Youtube actually and just about wetting myself laughing so hard. This is huge though - GO Flight of the CONCHORDS! Yea! I think it's one of them that does those awesome L&P ads on TV too. I'd love to see these guys in concert.

Business Time. Crack me up.
Ok seriously.

More BG layouts. This one "Living for Today" was a mix of Sultry, Two Scoops and Sugared, which goes to show that if the papers can mix and match. I'm a huge fan of doing this with the older BG papers too and to be honest it darn near killed me not being able to do it with the other assigned layouts. Because I loved doing it, I curled the papers and used brads and buttons and other gorgeous stuff.

This next one is a Two Scoops layout but I used a heap of the new BG stamps. The word 'unique' and the label and swirls, butterflies, birds etc are all stamps - as is the thing that looks like one of the old BG rub-ons.. SO cool they come in stamps now.

BTW you'll notice I often use photos that I have used before in my layouts for manufacturers. Mostly because I use the best pics I have and also because I never really know if I'm getting them back. One assumes so, but never really knows.

BasicGrey Four You - take 2 - I've had questions - Are the layouts on 2peas the ones that are in the Tarisota collection? Ummmm nope. Ok so one is. the really super cool one - I'll let you choose which that is. One is close. Two are totally never been seen before and the 2 cards are still floating around in my mind ready to fall out onto my scrap desk any minute now. I'm sure. All have instructions and embeliishments and stuff and face it, you'll have 4 layouts and 2 cards done with 4 new BG collections of papers before most people even receive it in their mailbox. Lovin that idea. LOL.

CHA - I have found that this site is the best for looking up CHA booth pics if anyone is interested. I'm dying to see some of the Queen & Co & BasicGrey booths. Link me if you have links!

Did I mention it's 6 sleeps til my brother comes home from London? Yea. All those pics of large snapper and glorious summer days paid off.

Laters

BasicGrey

2008-02-11T10:48:00.001+13:00

As mentioned in my post below, BasicGrey Four you, take 2 is now ready for pre-order.
It is loaded under Limited Editions on the Tarisota website. Last time I created one of these collections it sold out within a day - Tamar got more onsite and it sold out a second time really quickly too.

Ok. On with the day. Monday feels sooooo much better than Sunday. lol

laters

2008-02-10T20:46:00.000+13:00

Monday tomorrow and for once I'm looking forward to it. For one thing, Sunday has felt pretty darn bad, I can't handle a night out specifically the drinking actually like I used to. That's the second time in a week I'v had a wake up call that I'm not erring on the side of youth anymore. Earlier in the week I had a telemarketer ring. I was just about to give her the "Don't you know it's dinnertime and I'm really busy and please can you take me off your calling list" speel when she asked if there was anyone 18-34 in the home. My mouth dropped open to answer and give her the big grumpy rev and all I could manage was a little "no..." "thankyou.. bye" - I put the phone down slowly and dragged my middleage butt back to the kitchen and cooked dinner LOL

But anyway. Monday. CHA starts, and finally I get to share the 7 Basicgrey pages I created. BasicGrey have 5 new lines releasing this CHA season, all of which I worked with in varying degrees. I have my favourites and finally I have been given the go-ahead to show you a few of my layouts! (And I'd love to hear what you think of the papers! The BasicGrey releases always seem to be one of the most anticipated!)

Boxer is a new line by BasicGrey that incorporates gorgeous masculine reds and blues, but has touches of grass green and whites. On first look it is a masculine line, but the patterns have a slightly architectural, floral touch, which meant to me that this line was suitable for anything the colours suited, really. As you can see, by the pics of Abby I used with it. I'm personally amused by the patterns and the names of the papers - like low-rise, commando, courduroy, it's truly all about the boxers huh?

Archaic is a more subtle line. It has the old-age qualities of clay orange, moss greens and earthly browns. Add a touch of blue to this line and my first instinct was that it could be used for outdoorsey pics, beach pics, boys, anything masculine really. I created a few layouts with this line, but the one below fell together so easily. There are a few dinosaur prints in there which points to pages with young boys, but in the true Nic tradition, I ignored that and used them as a cool pattern more than anything.

For those of you that are wondering and that have asked me by email YES I will be creating another 'BAsicGrey Four you" limited edition pack for Tarisota. It'll be in the limited editions area and isn't quite ready just yet, but check back in a day or two to pre-order. You'll get a taste of 4 of the lines - Boxer, Sugared, Sultry and Cupcake along with instructions to create a layout from each, plus a few cards, along with various alphas and embellishments. The prep for this is already done. The layouts have been mostly created and the instructions aren't far away. This means as soon as the BasicGrey papers hit Aussie shores in the first-second week of March, they'll be kitted and sent out to you with those instructions. Cool huh? I'll remind you when the link goes up for that.

(And more BG layouts tomorrow perhaps! I love this part - I often stress and curse and throw my hands in the air and go stare at the pantry for hours on end while I am creating and I swear it's the sharing on the galleries and blog etc that makes it all worthwhile. )

Did I mention the free felt giveaway on the Queen & Co blog? Open til the 14th.

The winner of my last giveaway was Yvette - email me with your address and I'll get this package on its way!

I haven't posted any of the past packages yet - I'm looking to do so on Wednesday.

Aussie Scrap Source class kits are up again. Ask a local retailer to get the class in if you fancy completing this layout set - it has a minibook built into the layout to fit all those extra pics. I think you might even be able to get them through Scrapbook Outlet or maybe even Embellish It even maybe. not sure on that one...

Can you see the mini-book? It has the string tied around it.

ok. It's bedtime for those that really hardly went to bed last night. lol

laters.

Waitangi Day.

2008-02-06T07:04:00.000+13:00

Waitangi day - the last public holiday before the summer festivities die down and the kids go back to school. Which, by the way, I'm not looking forward to. Has anyone else noticed the "I'm so proud to be a New Zealander, Happy Waitangi Day" adverts on T.V? It's true that I'm proud to be a New Zealander. And it's true I watch the proceedings of Waitangi day with interest, but I have never heard anyone say "Happy Waitangi Day". It seemed really unusual for it to start appearing on TV advertisements. On that note though, Happy Waitangi day to you.

Ok the tidy trays from Embellish It. I have a double set (large and small) to give away as well as a small tray. The winners are: Large set , Christine Cleary. Small tray: Lisa. Ladies, get in touch with me and I'll get these sent out! Congrats ladies! I might even sneak in some Queen & Co extras for you :o)

I'll keep comments open on this one for a while longer.

I have been catching up with Trina's blog and saw she mentioned lots of activity and giveaways at the Fiskars blog.

Thanks SO much for the ladies that offered me their copy of the Scrapbooking Memories magazine. I have 2 copies now - both going to my proud SIL. Thanks so much!

Thanks also to those that mentioned my Aussie Scrap Source class kits - I get the occasional email and comment asking where mine have been lately. I took a small hiatus through October/November last year due to teaching commitments, and it meant through January/February, I didn't have class kits up. I do have one coming up for March. (It should go up on AussieScrapSource around the 10th of Feb for preorder - it's one of my favs actually) I will also continue to do probably two out of every three months kind of thing. I didn't realise they would be missed! Your comments were encouraging to say the least :o)

Ok I'm working on layouts for Scenic Route and here is the first. This is Grafton. The papers are saturated with colour. Really suitable for summer and beach layouts but as you see here they are suitable for anything really. I've used the water paper here just because I like the colour.

I love this time of year. Talking of which, I saw Baker's Delight had Hot Cross buns out yesterday. You know, when I was buying vegies at fruitworld next door ;o) No soooner does school go back but they are trying to force Autumn upon us. What is up with that!?

Laters.

More Cake

2008-02-04T08:56:00.000+13:00

Comments closed - Congrats yvette!

February has always been a big celebrating month for us. Paul and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary yesterday. We always have a quiet day, usually spent celebrating one of the kids birthdays. Yesterday was Abby's turn.
4 years ago exactly today, right now, I was just starting Jacob on his first day of school. I was a bundle of nerves, my biggest baby starting school. I sat in his classroom for an hour doing jobs for the teacher knowing full well I was in labour. I picked Jacob up at the end of the day, driving the 2 minute drive to school inbetween contractions that were 7 minutes apart. By 10.40pm that night my big boy had completed his first day at school and I was holding my new baby girl.

Happy 4th Birthday Abby :o)

We celebrated with a trip to Butterfly Creek. Which I have always loved. But which didn't impress me yesterday. There didn't seem to be many butterflies, although Braden managed to find a friend which everyone thought was so cute as it rode around on his head for about 5 minutes.

Back home for more cake, more drinks, more socialising and I *think* we are done for birthdays for a while.

(And a little note - Happy Birthday to Chris Millar for today also!)

Giveaways!! Tuesday's giveaway - congrats to Kirsten N (nthrn NSW) - I'll get this stuff in the mail to you ASAP if you email me your address!

I'll leave the comments at this post open for a bit longer if you want to leave your name to win one of those trays. Actually Abby hasn't finished playing with them yet. LOL.

Today's giveaway - and perhaps the last for a while - is pictured below, leave me a comment if you want your name in the draw. There are rub-ons, flocked alpha, Making Memories stuff, a little Queen & Co, some gorgeous ribbon...

OK now I need a favour. I desperatly need a copy or two of the Scrapbooking Memories Magazine Vol 9 No2. It has a layout I created with my nephew in it and I have never had a copy to show my SIL - I need to give her a few copies really. Does anyone have one they wouldn't mind sending me? I'll pay for it - pay postage - no probs, I just really need to get my hands on a copy or two. Email me please!

Interesting thread on 2peas with pics of one of the new BG lines... I'm dying to post my layouts here. I am loving the sneaks slowly coming out.

I'm currently working on a layout about the conversation we had with Abby about her 'Whole World'. It's not for anything. Nothing. No restrictions on topic, product, anything. I can't remember last time I did this. I'm kinda stuck. lol
I'll show you when I'm done.

Edited: Here is the layout. Cosmo Cricket papers (Hey Sugar), My fav alphas ever cherryarte, SR ledger paper and circular disc thing, MAMBI swirl, a bit of hambly, a little bit of CI and a bit of stamping. The photos are not so blown out IRL, it's the stupid light and the stupid person using stupid photoshop to try and fix it!

YES. It's blue-green and red-orange again. I know I use blue-green or light blue for every layout I do. I like it. Isn't that what it's all about? I am also loving creating the little cluster of embellishments right now too. It's my fav part of a whole layout at the moment. I layer some papers and then sit and play with little clusters of embellishments for hours. Paul would much rather I cooked dinner. lol.

Laters.

Friday

2008-02-01T10:27:00.001+13:00

COMMENTS CLOSED: Congrats to Lisa in Canada, and Christine Cleary.

The 1st of February - this time 9 years ago I was holding my newborn baby. Happy birthday to my big boy Jacob, who turned 9 years old today. May the day stay sunny, may the cake be yummy, may the smoked BBQ spare ribs for dinner be tasty, and may the Pokemon master do whatever a Pokemon Master is meant to do in that game you are playing right now. lol.

Giveaways - congrats to Julie Dudley who won the first giveaway. There is still time to put your name down for the last one. I have more!

This next one was actually sent to me for 2 reasons. Firstly because the team at Embellish It.co.nz know that I love working with beads etc. And secondly because they wanted to help me with my giveaways! So here we are. These are the tidy trays and I understand Embellish It are distributing? Maybe? If you are a retailer interested? I might have made that bit up? I know they sell them retail to the public. Anyway.. these are the trays and they are perfect for embossing powder (hence the really big one, it fits your whole project in there!) or a tray for beads or whatever. I have a big one and 2 small ones to giveaway.
YES! GIVEAWAY! lol.

They will only be slightly used but don't tell Rachel at Embellish It but Abby thinks they are perfect to tip her little jewellery bead things into and the clean up is super fast. So they will only be slightly used ;o) lol.

So add your name down the bottom and we'll see if we can give them away! More than one prize, obviously!

Layle now has images of the 2nd new Scenic Route Line - Grafton. Brighter colours, beachy... love it. My fav out the 2 new lines I think. Also images of rub-ons etc. She is giving away 20 collections of the new stuff I believe, so don't forget to go there and leave a comment too.

I'll leave you with images of a tiny mini album I did for Tarisota. I was given 2 chipboard butterflies and I decided they were begging to be made into an accordian album. Thanks so some input from Lianne and Lesley and a few other ladies too, the butterfly mini accordian album was born. (And I just notice the February kit are up on the Tarisota site this morning).

Just something little with the January Tarisota kit.

Laters

Tuesday

2008-01-29T16:59:00.000+13:00

COMMENTS CLOSED - congrats Kirsten N NSW!

Tuesday - today has been spent avoiding the pantry and working on my Big Picture Scrapbooking classes. They aren't far away - I promise! The silly season and broken collar bones and blue bottle stings and trips to the beach and enjoying summer far too much held me up just a touch, but they are nearly done now. I'll be both releived and proud when that one happens.

The kids have been away today resulting in an altogether too loud volume of music coming from the radio. I'm hoping the neighbours were also away because it also resulted in an altogther too uncoordinated spate of dancing in my home. By myself. Just for a minute.
This song by Shawn Mullins came on and I was taken back 9 years to when I was extremely pregnant with Jacob. It was about the last time we had a summer this hot - 1999 and I was neck deep in prenatal depression, soon after to turn into a nasty case of postnatal depression - another story really. But as soon as I heard this song it took me back. It was one of the number one songs and it was played a lot. I found solace in it being played extremely loud at time, as I did again today. I'll be downloading the song and putting it on CD and scrapping *something* about that. I like to keep my scrapbooks real, but I also don't like my kids to find negative stuff (about themselves)- I'll be putting my thinking cap on about how to attack this one.

So. Links. Jo KNeller is giving away some stuff on her blog. The giving bug is going around.

I see Elsie has details of her new book on her blog. Her book is actually a recipe box full of 5x7 cards - interesting concept!

Scrapbook Savvy interviewed me last week and the link is here. (Reading it again to see what I said that will come back and bite me....)

Layle has posted the entire Providence line on her blog, again, sign up for giveaways!

I posted a heap of NEW Queen & Co CHA releases on this 2peas thread. Keep an eye on the Queen & Co blog where I'll be posting layouts using the new products and after Feb 3rd I'll be giving some of this product away!

Thanks for the comments on my last post - it's still open for comments for the giveaway.. so leave a comment if you haven't. I saved one of the comments as it sparked some journaling in my mind - thanks 2sweetmom for your words.

Oh and another link - This blog has a book club and this month they did layouts inspired by my book. I was especially blown away by the one called "With Love". Amazing inspiration in that blog post - support the girls and click through to visit their blog!

And todays giveaway! (I have more this week, so keep on checking back!)
It's older Queen & Co product but it's still gorgeous and I want to give it away to someone - leave me a comment, whereever you are from - I'd love to hear from you.

laters.

Monday

2008-01-28T13:47:00.000+13:00

COMMENTS CLOSED - WINNER IS JULIE (Perth- Life Happenings blog) Email me with your address, Julie!

It's a holiday Monday here in Auckland and I'm soaking up the peace and quiet. We've been to the beach and back, stayed the night and everyone is relaxing after a busy beach day yesterday.
BUT I was lost without my desk. More specifically, I was lost without my computer that sits on my desk. But even more-so, after a week of scrapping 16 hours a day I missed my scraproom. I sat on the beach yesterday in the glorious sun with the cicadas rattling out their summer symphony and the waves crashing on the beach and thought of layouts. I swear if I could digitally create layouts in my mind, I created at least a dozen yesterday. I saw a t-shirt walk past - no doubt there was someone in it but I didn't notice that part, I was too busy trying to memorise the design - but I was lost without my notebook to draw the design on the front of the shirt. It seems I am addicted.

On the way to the beach we travelled out the Bombay Road, and just as you get to Pukekohe East you look left into a huge crater - except it just looks like a farm really, but it's a massive valley. Abby yells and I wish I could show the excitement in her voice on my blog "Oh my GOSH! LOOK! I can see the WHOLE WORLD!!"
She then grabbed Braden's arm and said "Look! Look! and it has a racetrack in the bottom! - Braden! have you ever been on that horse track in my whole world down there?"

And as if my heart wasn't melting with oh-my-God-that-is-SO-cute already, Braden's answer...
"Yes Abby I have! And last time I was there, I won!!"

Oh man. So cute. It was for her. He had no interest in the horse track at the bottom of the random gully really, he just did it for her.

Anyway. I'm loving scrapping again. All is well.

SO another side effect of the CHA work I do is that all of a sudden I get new product. Lots of it, sucks to be me, I know. BUT it makes me want to clean out. Gather things, Give them away.
So I figured I'd give it to you guys. I did a few giveaways before Christmas, so I'm going to carry on.

So the first giveaway is some Queen & Co felt. No packaging, because being on the DT doesn't mean we get luxuries like packaging but the felt is what counts. I'll give this felt away to someone I randomly pick from the comments on this post. So leave me a comment and I might draw your name.
And remember, spread the word, I have more to giveaway this week so keep checking back and spread the word I'm feeling generous.
I'll give it a few days.

Ok other stuff - Scenic Route it releasing alsorts of cool new products at CHA - new types of products for them including buttons and stamps. Exciting - for images of the new stuff and some sneak peeks of one of the new lines, Providence, go see Layle's blog. She is promising big giveaways too.

Ahhh the season of giving really does not stop at Christmas. Leave a comment.
laters

Friday.

2008-01-25T11:31:00.000+13:00

I'm exhausted. I've been missing in action from everywhere except the scraproom. The rest of the house misses me. The cleaning misses me. The sunshine misses me. The supermarket misses me.

And I'm feeling it - I do this every CHA season. I start to feel like this whole hobby is crazy. I'm here in New Zealand and I'm cutting up coloured pieces of paper to glue to other coloured pieces of paper and courier them to the USA to go in a tradeshow. It blows my mind, I'm tired and spending hours a day in the scraproom and sometimes I wonder if the stress is worth it. I ask Paul. "What the heck am I doing?".
His answer "Dude if I had $1 for every time you asked me that... I'd have like $18 by now" and he walks off.

Men.

But anyway. I have a short moment of wondering why I stay in my stiffling hot room for days on end cutting and glueing, cursing and eating nothing but rice crackers and water (wait, that is because I'm counting points again - not the fault of scrapbooking).. and then something like this happens.

Abby comes in, grabs paper from the kids stuff, draws a pic and says "Look, it's you and me! We are hugging! And it's an A for Abby and a M for Mummy".
And in particular I love this part...
Awwww... look... we are hugging...

And my first reaction? I didn't know what to scramble for first. My camera to take pics. My notebook to write it down, my papers to start scrapbooking. To tell the story. Because I'm afraid of how fast time flies and that I'll forget some of this gorgeousness.

And THAT is essentially why I take coloured pieces of paper and glue them to other coloured pieces of paper.

Because I can.