Author: Nic Howard

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.

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.

I need help.  I've hit a scrapbooking block over the past few weeks and I've finally realised what is doing it.  Photos. 

I love to scrapbook edited photos.  I love the high contrast, saturated look.  Think Kelly Goree.  Think Jill Geraghty-Groves.  Think Steph Devlin. 

I see some of you throwing your hands in the air and saying to me 'that's not what it's about!" and yes.  I know.  Scrapbooking in it's true essence is all about capturing the story.  The memories.  Yes. I know.  Believe me, you are preaching to the choir here.  I know.

BUT I scrapbook a lot.  All day everyday.  So I go through a lot of photos.  And I enjoy using those fabulously edited photos.  I would soo love to use some of those gorgeous snapshot type black and white pics like steph or Suz Doyle uses.  It's just the way I am.  Just the same as I prefer Braeburn apples to Gala.  They are both providing the same end result, both nutritious and fill my tummy, but I just *prefer* Braeburn.

Now I figure I'd get so much more work done if I had the photos there waiting. I'd earn more at what I'm doing if I had the pics.
And I'm sure there are some of you out there with wicked-amazing photo editing skills that could take my photos and do that.  Perhaps some of you that are looking for a little extra pocket money.

I have 2 years worth of photos sitting on my hard-drive unedited.  Clearly I don't expect that they'd all be done – that's just crazy talk – but the point is, I have photos there waiting.

Do you see where I'm going with this?  Anyone keen? 

Email me.

laters.

I'm running here…. it's been one of those days.  Sick girls and rugby playing boys.  Cheeseday forgotten on Tuesday and transfered to Wednesday.  Too much information coming in and some starts to fall out.  Including the fact that I was going to share some BasicGrey with you.

Here are my CHA layouts, the gallery at 2peas has piles more… just do a search for the word 'BasicGrey' in the gallery.

Here is one from the new collection, Nook & Pantry.  It's double sided.  It's a very cool line with lots of possibilities.   

Another one from Nook & pantry, this time using pics from Jill Geraghty Groves.  Amazing photographer.  Loved the chipboard birdie!  Everything on this page is from Nook & Pantry.

My most favourite favourite favourite Christmas line from BasicGrey ever.  It's double sided, it's fresh and it has lots of different possibilities, including, obviously, non Christmas layouts too!  Photos again by Jill Geraghty Groves.

And finally, a layout done with the recently released, colour soaked Lemonade. 

Thanks for checking in – a coughing girl calls.  It'll be another long night.

laters.

Not long to go before the CHA tradeshow.   It's like scrapbooking Christmas, really.  The unwrapping of new presents.  The revealing of treasure.   Like Forrest Gump opening that box of chocolates.  (Yea good one, I'm hungry now) – Here are the new Basicgrey collections.  I'll post some layouts tomorrow.

The first one is called Nook & Pantry.  Despite my 'uh-oh, it's oh-so-themed' thoughts when I first saw the sneaks, this is one collection I LOVE.  It's double sided and full of gorgeous pattern.  Although I was assigned only one layout using this line, I created two and could have carried on and on.  There is so many possibilities in the varying colours.  Loved this line, I really did.

Eerie – for some reason Basicgrey didn't assign me this line!  I haven't created anything with it, but you know, if I had, it wouldn't have been halloween themed!  They say purple is the new hot colour in scrapbooking, so these papers could be used for anything…

Eskimo Kisses – BasicGrey's new Christmas line.  Despite it being my favourite Christmas line from them, did I use it with Christmas pics?  NO – infact, I used some amazing boy photos from Jill Geraghty-Groves.  This line is double sided Christmas goodness, but it has enough non-christmas in it to make it a favourite anyway.

Indian Summer.  I didn't create a layout with this for CHA, but completed some other assignments for BasicGrey using it.  It was rich and full of colour.  It has brooding Autumn tones, but I'm looking forward to mixing it with the bright whites of Eskimo Kisses.  I think this will become a favourite!

So there we go!  I loved the 3 new collections I was sent.  I think they'll be popular. 

SENZ – I have a request.  I had a lovely lady in my '3 layouts' class, she created all 3 layouts in class extremely successfully and was proud of what she had acheived! When she got home though, she didn't have the class pack at all.  There was nothing left in my class.  I can only think that someone has picked it up with their own pack and now doesn't know what to do! 
Please if you know where this class pack is, can you email me?  It'd make one scrapbooker very happy :o)

I talked in my last post about retreats and I have to say I've noticed more and more of them popping up around the place.  I need to take time to mention one of my favourites though.  Megan at Sketchbook does a fabulous job with her Sketchbook retreat, and the next one is in November.  (I think!).  She sells out fairly quickly each time, but if you are keen on a well catered, well organised retreat near the end of the year, take a look at the link.  I sound like an infomercial – but that's not all!  6 steak knives!  But seriously, someone emailed asking me what the retreat was I went to at the end of last year – it was MEgan's!

Winding down to the end of the post – but one more thing.  Anyone know where to buy Core'dinations cardstock in New Zealand?  I was very kindly sent some samples, and want to show you here on the blog.  That'd be silly though, without letting you know where you can buy it.  Link me if you know.  (they have a cool website, BTW, I was just checking it out).

Ok.  Countdown to that box of chocolates. uh.  CHA opening.  Prima gorgeousness.  BasicGrey reveal.  New Tattered Angels GlimmerMist colours – because the one hundred I have are clearly not enough.

bring it on.

Laters

Cheese-day comes but once a week in the Howard house and every single Cheese-day I think to myself "I must blog that" and I never do.  Apparently it's Wednesday or Thursday before I catch up enough to find time.  The tradition started a year or so ago when the price of cheese rocketed.  The Howard children were clearly previously spoiled in the fact that I let them have cheese on toast for breakfast whenever they liked. It was, of course, one of my favourite breakfasts as a child so I never said no.

And then the price of cheese rocketed and it cost the equivalent of a small car to buy a block of cheese.   Something had to give, and it was the favourite breakfast.  And so cheese-day was born.  Tuesday was re-named cheese-day and there is no whining about what to have for breakfast on that day.  ooooooh noooooo.  No cheese unless it's cheese-day and it's now a one day a week treat.  2 slices of toast with vegemite and cheese, standard. 

And I wonder how long Tuesday will be called Cheese-day in our home.

So SENZ came and went here in Auckland.  I didn't see much of the shopping area but I saw a few of the classes.  I also saw the smiles on the faces of the ladies coming back from the classes and admit asking for sneaky peeks of the fabulous projects they were creating.  I think it's one of my favourite parts of something like SENZ.  As a teacher we see the same class repeated over and over and by the end of teaching 200 students, as I did over the weekend, I'm inspired beyond belief. 

I admit my teaching weekend wasn't my best.  I had been very sick for the week beforehand but thought I was better. Apparently not as I ended up with no voice.  No exageration.  NO voice.  Trying to sign language instructions to 36 people at a time is darn near impossible, go on, try and imagine that! so thank you SO much to those of you that hung in there, completed the classes as best we could and didn't laugh at my attempts to get messages across.  I was most frustrated by my predicament and was incredibly grateful for a fabulous audience! 

There are rumours that this was the last SENZ – rumours are incorrect as planning is already going into SENZ 2010.  Go here to vote on your choice of destination.

Autumn Escape 2010 has sold out with a wait-list already in action.  We announced Kelly Goree as our third tutor but I think it really was the fabulous ladies we met at SENZ that filled the last spaces. 

Talking of events, I saw this one on my cruising around the blogs.  Paper Symphony is run by a lovely lady from further up north, with support from Crafty Tart, who is a fabulous retailer.  It should be a good weekend if you are looking for somewhere to go in early September. 

Another quick update.  I've had some crazy nights this week with wrong number phonecalls through the night, the kids alarms going off at random hours and cat fights breaking terracotta pots outside my window.  I need an early one to start fresh – I have a chat with my big Picture Scrapbooking Class tomorrow.

Oh – I have all the new Basicgrey and have been creating my little heart out with them – check back on the 29th for those images!

Leaving you with a layout I created with Collage Press Knave of Hearts (again).  Created with the June Tarisota kit.  I hear some schools are bannig rat's tails.  I'll be encouraging Brady to keep his.  He's a fabulous kid and it's the only ounce of rebelion he posesses.

Laters

I'm buried…  As you can tell by the lack of blog updates.  I'm buried under BasicGrey CHA work, my Big Picture SCrapbooking workshop (last day to register, I believe) and SENZ preparation this week.  I've been working 12-14 hours a day solid, while trying to involve three gorgeous kids on school holidays.  Actually I'd be lost without their help.

Anyway, on a trip down to the shops to buy new printer ink, Abby must have picked up on my anxiety about time.  And how it was slipping away.  We'd just passed 3 police cars in one spot.  Jacob asked what they were doing and I said it looked like they'd just picked someone up for doing something wrong.

"You can go faster then, Mummy, because there are no polices here.  They are all back here.  Noone will see you.  Go faster, go faster".
I thought you had to be at least 16 before you started to mentally keep track of where all the police were in the town and figure out that if you just passed all three community cars then the liklihood of getting caught for speeding was near-zero.
No.  I didn't go faster. 

I wish I could have. 
But the results will be worth it, these class kits are looking great.  I wonder sometimes if it is some common gene crafters have.  Anyone else love looking around office supply stores?  Stationery shops? Anyone else love putting little crafty bits and pieces into bags?  Just me? !!

Leaving you with a layout that has recently gone up on the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  It was done just about completly with Tattered Angels.  I've seen the new colours coming out at CHA and once again, they are gorgeous.  Adding those to the list. 
That's a huge list these days. lol

laters
 

And the worst movie ever award goes to "Ace Ventura Junior – Pet detective".  Taking a successful Jim Carrey movie - don't enjoy the man myself but he has a great following – and trying to remake the same movie without him was real ambitious.  I thanked God all the way through I wasn't stuck in a cinema and I could at least, make excuses to get off the couch and relieve the awful monotony.

First day of holidays. 
Tasks for the day… take all Mummy's buttons, sort and arrange into rainbow colour order.
(no you can't have the TV, playstation or computer on).

Followed by drawing pictures of lightening bolts. Why lightening bolts?  We've had a few thunder-lightening type storms over the past week or so.  that's an awfully colourful lightening bolt there, Abby, but my favourite part?  He attempt at spelling the words.  Clever chicken.

Sad days.  I found out today that Cadbury changed their dairy milk recipe.  I didn't actually shock horror like the last packet of freddos I had – I guess these news articles shows why.

Looks like CK has sold…

Please check out this link – the Creating Hope Blog.  Lots of artists – we are hoping up to 100 artists creating to this one piece and every is able to buy raffle tickets.  I don't get involved in a lot of this kind of stuff but couldn't turn this one down.

Aussie Scrap Source has some new challenges on their blog.  They involve colour challenges and words – this one went up recently.

And this was my contribution.  Ya know, when Pink Paislee first appeared on the scene, I wasn't sure about them.  They have quickly become a favourite.

This week is a whole lotta BasicGrey creating for the CHA booth, and a whole lotta class kit packing for SENZ.  And a whole lot of avoiding the TV and playstation.  Good luck to me.

laters.

Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler.  Anyone seen it?  Oh my.  Loved it. 
Sometime during this coming school holidays promise me you will gather your children with a sinful amount of hot fish'n'chips opened up in the newspaper on the lounge floor and laugh til can't laugh anymore.  I'm not a huge fan of Adam Sandler but this may have changed my mind.

Feel free to return the favour in recommending other DVDs.  We also watched the dragon story, Eragon, and Brady was enthralled.  Glued.  Amazed.  Anyone know of any other movies like the above?

And of course the movies this past weekend were a result of heavy rain warnings and near-on a thousand lightening strike storm coming over.  As soon as someone says heavy rain warning I head , well actually I head straight for the nerd weather blogs, but second of all I head for the DVD and duvet.  And cuddles from the kids.  LIke I need an excuse.

Just a quick hi from me today.  I'm head-down working on Big Picture Scrapbooking Workshop, Point of view, and projects with new products from BasicGrey – CHA is only a few weeks away.  It's head down creating booth work for me this time of year.

Laters

Are we there yet?  July?  It certainly feels like it, the sun is barely making it over the neighbour's trees on it's lonely trek across the sky , a sure sign that we are in the depths of winter.  As if the 8 degree days weren't a clue.  Good news though, is that we have passed the shortest day.  Celebrated in our house with a few drinks (and a few drinks more just to make sure we well and truly passed the shortest day, we can't do anything by halves) and a toast to the downhill slide to summer.  Through all that nasty equinox wind and rain. 

State of Origin tonight.  Despite being Queensland supporters, we'll be screaming for the Blues tonight.  There is nothing like a one-all result to make the final game somethin' special.  Go the Blues

Random fact – did you know that the NZ ministry of Health is on Twitter?  Regarding the Swine Flu epidemic?  Iknow.  Totally random.

Another more fun and entirely more relevant fact – Cosmo Cricket is having a DT call.  I love the quote at the top of their page.  "If we were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters"
And did you know that Cosmo does fabric.  Ahh yes, apparently so.  Scroll down their blog and read for yourself.

And a new scrapbooking company, here.  Shabby Green Door.  I've taken quick peek – long enough to be told 3 times my browser was out of date.  Yes, Shabby Green Door, my browser is indeed out of date.  As is my wardrobe as I fight tooth and nail to avoid the tights-boots-long-top-with-belt trend… it's Ok.  Accept me as I am (in my jeans and sweatshirt, no sign of tights-boots-long-top-with-a-belt) and let me see your gorgeous new product. 

Leaving you with a layout now to go watch that league game – go the blues.

This one from the latest Tarisota Collection. Laters