Author: Nic Howard

I have an issue.  It’s an ERR 99 and it plagues the living heckout of my camera.  I have a 3.5yr old Canon 300D.  Just to be original.  Currently it is about as unreliable as an unreliable thing that is really really unreliable.  I’m one of those people often ridiculed for it, but it doesn’t change me, that only shoots on auto.   Currently it only takes a picture about once every 4 or 5 times I press the shutter release.  Every other time ends up in an ERR 99 that ultimately means I have to curse, turn the camera off, turn it back on again, curse again, smile sweetly and ask the subjects to re-pose that amazing candid shot I was trying to take in the first place.  I don’t like smiling sweetly whilst contemplating the demise of my camera and eyeing up the nearest highest place to throw it from merely for the satisfaction of seeing it smash on the concrete.  It just doesn’t seem right to smile at those moments.

However such a nasty demise may stop me from getting the picture I wanted the 1 out of 4 or 5 times it was actually taking the photo.  As you can see, the relationship between my camera and I is rocky right now. (yes, I’ve bought a new CF card, fully charged the battery, I’ve cleaned the contacts in the camera as well as in the lens, I’ve placed the camera at the top of the highest possible mountain and prayed for it’s healing – nothing is helping.)

And today I get this EOS 20th anniversary special brochure in the mail from HArvey Normans.  The 400D for around 2/3 what it normally costs.  I’m so torn on what to do.  I can’t really afford the new one, yet I can’t afford to continually live whislt muttering curse words under my breath because my camera, which I use every day, has failed me. 

It’s driving me crazy.  But thank you for letting me vent on here.  Anyone with similar experiences with the dreaded ERR99 or with the repair bill from the dreaded ERR 99, please feel free to speak up – knowing what it possibly might cost to fix might push me one more step closer to Harvey Normans.

Good news though.  Kiwi’s ROCK the scrapscene overseas right now.  That’s kind of a pun, I’m referring to the Scrap Scene contest, in which they had a few hundred entries.  Check out the winners here, I did have to contain a yelp of excitment when I saw Ilka’s name as a runner-up.  Then as I scroll down I see Louise William’s name as well!  Take a good look at her blog, she has amazing technqiue that I just love and I’d love to try playing with some of the looks she acheives.  Watch this space I guess. I disovered her blog a few weeks back and have been checking back hoping she posts more layouts.
Then if that wasn’t enough – as I’m scrolling down I see that Beverley Warwick made honourable mention.  It just kept getting better seeing Danielle Q and Rebecca Cameron’s name as well.  Awesome work, ladies!  Totally proud to be part of the NZ/Aus scrapping scene right now!

Scenic Route just released a  new mini line – Liberty.  Very 4th of July but the papers are way cool, I can see some wicked boy pages with these, check out the whole line on Layle’s blog. She usually has giveaways too – has she a giveaway?  Yea she has – leave a comment on layle’s blog to sign up for the freebie draw.

Tarisota gallery is up and it is HUGE and full of alsorts of stuff, the design team was clearly on some extra strength energy kind of something this month! but not me because I’ve been nearly 2 weeks without diet coke and I’m just running on my own kinda happiness right now.  Except when I get the dreaded ERR 99 that is.

Here is a layout from me though – look at that, I found the blue in the collection, how ’bout that. :o)

Laters.

oh wait – one more thing – I’d blog more often but I’ve been too busy reading other people’s blogs.  (and Scrapping) but have you checked out Cathy Z’s blog lately?  She cracks me up.  Which is nice when one is living with such a high ratio of ERR 99 in one’s day.

I think the drought has broken.  I went to bed last night with the sound of rain on the roof and dreamt all night of flood and ruin.  I woke this morning, happy that there was no flood or ruin, and checked the Pukekohe Weather Station to find we had 2.3 inches of rain yesterday.  Yes.  I think we can say the drought has broken.  The farmers are grinning.

So after I went to the Pukekohe weather station to check out yesterday’s data, yes I am a secret weather freak, I went to Etsy.  So many people link Etsy on their blogs and talk about cool stuff and I’ve refused to really go there.  I’ve never been one of the cool kids, I didn’t want to fall into the cool link-etsy-on-my-blog trend.  But this morning I accidently went to Etsy.  As ya do.  And found this seller amusing.  She makes bags and hats and other stuff out of used grocery bags.  Incredibly economical and even better, incredibly eco-friendly.  I love what she named her bags.  The "Might as well buy one more thing bag" bag.  The Big ole bag bag and ‘Feeling blue and loving it bag bag’.I nearly wanted one.  Then I reminded myself.  You are on Etsy.  You are going to want one of everything.  Put the wallet down. And I did.

Tarisota has a mother’s day competition, go to the Tarisota blog for details, but it has to be today/tomorrow because the competition closes soon.  You answer 3 simple questions, and you are in the draw to win some beautiful Tarisota goodies.  You also need to name who sent you to the blog so that they can also be in the draw.  No need to name me, just name your bestest scrapping friend.  You have to be in to win, so go here!  Scrapping is so full of giveaways ain’t it?  Love scrapbooking. lol.

Those of you that commented about Becky Fleck’s Sketch book – yes!  I did know that Becky had done a layout about Paul & I – but NO I hadn’t remembered that this was the publication it was going in!  Even more reason for me to get it. lol.

Hey – the ad guy from the last post.  David downs from ‘Away Laughing" comedian in the Jon Bridges type era.  DANG the relief when I was told that was HUGE! He’s also been on Shortland street.

Ok another layout that was in Memory Makers Magazine recently.  "The Maiden" journaling reads:
Yea Cute.
I can still get mad at cute though.
Like every day when  you come home from school and drop your jersey in the middle of the floor.
"WHAT IS THIS?" I’ll ask.
Your answer:?  "Oh that’s for the maiden to pick up."
The Maiden?
At some point I was promoted from Maid to Maiden.  Nice.

Oh – I was going to leave it there but I have one more thing – Leah Fung and Johanna Peterson and their video blogs.  LOVE THEM.  Make time to watch them if you can.  Number 19 that is up there now is particularly funny, and I laughed outloud at their out-takes at the end because they remind me of myself so much.  Funny girls :o)

Laters

It’s the 2nd of May and I think I can officially say it’s blankie time.  We have no heating in this house and quite a remarkable number of holes in the walls and ceilings that somewhat hinder the preservation of heat at night.  I’ve reverted back to blankies over the knees.  The lack of warmth actually stops me from taking the huge trek down the hallway to my computer at night, so if I don’t answer your email it’s not because I don’t want to, it’s because I’m cold.  I know all of you used to the snow and real cold are laughing at me right now.  I know.  I’m seriously sad!

I think I’ve asked this before but I’m going to ask again because it’s driving me nuts.  There is a road safety ad on T.V. right now that talks about "that’s the same cop that pulled us over for speeding eariler, Dad" with a Dad and his sons going to soccer training -WHO is the Dad in that advert?  It’s here under the link "same cop".  It drives me crazy everytime I see the ad.  I know he is an actor from years ago and it might have even been a kids programme, but I can’t place him.  And I saw him at Butterfly Creek recently with his family and I couldn’t place him there either. I hate it when something drives me crazy like that!

Scrapping stuff – For those of you that contributed to the Southern Cross Kids Camps 6×6 layouts tally – the camps are done!  they are DUSTED!  And here is the wrap up post from Julie!  It shows pics of some of those amazing albums we all helped the kids create – be sure to visit her blog and see what you call had a hand in :o)

Fiskars ANZ are having a full day of fun and inspiration May 3rd to celebrate National Scrapbook Day.   There is a blog hop around their ambassadors blogs to win some yummy Fiskars goodies, Trina McClune is taking a workshop and there is plenty of inspiration for the up-coming Mother’s Day.

A cool giveaway for anyone in the USA or Canada.   I could do with a 1900 Epson printer thingie.  I could clearly also do with a phoney USA address so I can enter these things :o)

New website – mycreativity.com it’s a whole new community, lots of messageboards, galleries etc for more than just scrapbooking.  The scrapbooking message board includes alsorts of links from Memory makers, including this interview with Becky Fleck.   I just bought Becky’s Book on Amazon .  I’ve been thinking about it for a while but I actually went looking for it today.  I saw you get a deck of sketch cards with the book.  I’m sold. I also bought this book on Asperger Syndrome.  Nothing to do with Scrapping. lol.  Happy Mother’s Day to me.

Leaving you with a layout on this dreary Friday afternoon.  THis is one of the layouts that went missing but was published in Memory Makers Magazine not long ago.  It’s about one of my quirks  – I’m a sock shoe sock shoe kinda girl – what are you? 

Laters

Supplies List:

All Patterned paper: BasicGrey
Alphas: Heidi Swapp
Transparency Swirl: Hambly
Feet: Mine

Just a quick post tonight.  I’ve been busy with school holidays and other stuff but I have to post a quick Happy Birthday to Grumpr.  Happy 60th Grumpr, I hope all your wishes come true.

Cold Turkey.   That is me.  I had my last Coke Zero on Saturday.  I’ve always been aware that the 1-2 cans of Coke Zero I was drinking daily contained nothing in the way of nutritional value, and if I looked at the ingredients they comprised of artificial colour, artificial flavour, preservative, artificial sweetner and nothing else to enhance my life in any way.  Except, of course, the caffeine.  Which was the reason I was drinking it.  And probably the reason I feel like I’ve gone without 48 hours sleep, I’m dropping things and I’ve developed a tired stutter.  The headache is minor, in the scheme of things.  I’m on to day 3.  It can only get better.  Surely. 

So what do Flashing Jim Beam icecubes and remote control tarantulas have to do with cold turkey?  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  Nothing at all with Cold Turkey and everything to do with Grumpr’s 60th Birthday on Thursday.  Just what do you get a man that has it all?  And if he doesn’t have it all he takes out another mortgage and buys one?  I’m going to go with the theory that if I turn up with the three kids on Thursday and remind him how incredibly blessed he is to have such a beautiful family, he won’t need pressies.  Ya think it’ll work?  It’s all my caffeine deprived self can think of right now.  He should be thankful I’m thinking at all :o)

I got some good mail yesterday.  I recieved a copy of "Show It Off" .  It’s a book about using scrapbooking and turning it into fun scrapbooking projects to show off around your home.  I completed 5 projects for this.  They ranged from a large wooden framed photo montage to an altered dressform (credited to Wendy Redshaw-Bruhns for the original idea in the book) to an acrylic album and then two large canvases.  It’s a great book with lots of wicked cool projects. 

Unfortunately due to noone’s fault except those at the UPS parcel service all these projects, plus 4 layouts that were recently featured in the Memory Makers magazine were recently lost in the post.  In the 6 years and hundreds of parcels I’ve sent overseas, this is the first one with artwork I’ve had gone missing.  Trust it to be this huge one with so much in it!  The art aquisitions editor at Memory makers is devastated, I’m disappointed, but mostly because 2 of the projects in there were gifts.  I’ll be trying to recreate at least one of them.  When I have time. 

Oh – a competition! I nearly forgot.  Go to the Tarisota Blog post to see this in more detail and to enter.
The extremely clever and talented Jo Kneller took pics of the tarisota designers and made them into gorgeous ATCs.  Guess who is who and be in to win.  A clue.  I’m the cute one :o)

laters

I haven’t mentioned much about our house extensions on my blog but it’s been most of the reason I’ve been missing in action lately.  It’s hard to work in a house that looks like this.

 

Yes, we still live here and actually the roof got ripped back a lot further and we have been living under tarps for 2 weeks.  But today the roof goes on.  Not before we raised the flag though.  It’s a tradition in New Zealand to put a flag on the roof to indicate 3 things.  FIrstly, that the house is ready for the roof to go on.  Secondly, that the owner of said house has to put on a ‘roof shout’.  And thirdly, to keep the witches out of the roof space.  We don’t want witches trapped in the roof space.  Really we don’t.

Here is hubby putting up the flag on Monday.  (Yep that’s a steinlager box, lol)

A ‘Roof shout’ this might take some defining for those that aren’t familiar with NZ slang.  The term “shout” is used in the Southern Hemisphere to refer to the altruistic act of purchasing intoxicating beverages for consumption by other persons. (“Hey, I bought the last round, mate, it’s your shout now.”) When used outside the context of a pub, the term can be used for anything really – I’ll tell the kids I’ll shout them a trip to the movies for example.  Although that has happened.. um… never. lol..I guess I’d better put on a roof shout sometime soon.

The kids were quite intrigued by the whole "keeping the witches out of the ceiling" thing.  Raising the flag to keep the witches out isn’t always done these days, but I’m a superstitious kind of girl.  That flag goes up on every house we build for ourselves.

So anyway.  Scrapping stuff.
I’m having an acrylic stamp crisis.  Storage is driving me nuts.  I think it’s no longer acceptable to call ‘placing set of acrylic stamps in container and sitting on said container to make it close" effective acrylic stamp storage anymore.  I’ve been posting on 2peas and searching the internet for an answer.  I saw that this acrylic stamp company in the U.K. – Banana Frog – sells their stamps in wallets, with pull out tabs to indicate what set they are, that you then put in a magazine file type thing.  How clever.  How can this help me now? I’m not sure.  I’m dwelling on it.  Whilst dwelling on whether I need more new stamps. lol.  I kinda like this set.  And this set.

I don’t think I shared this butterfly box I made for Abby.  I made it with the last Tarisota kit, and it is full of the photos from Abby’s last birthday and our trip to Butterfly Creek.

Speaking of that gorgeous wee girl of mine – I have done more on her album, will share a page at a time for now – because you ladies are speeding ahead and I haven’t done that much !  This is the page with her best smile.  I used my favourite paper ever right now for this week, hey Sugar by Cosmo Cricket.
I also used that favourite new punch you’ll see on every project i do for the next 6 months, the Fiskars Threading Water punch, and some Heidi Swapp bling and Stampin’ Up! Stamps.  I have discovered the benefits of owning some proper markers for using with stamps and look.  I even look like I know what I’m doing.  (NOte to stampers – you should have let me in on the markers thing ages ago).

that leaf is from the All Natural set. 

And here is the page.

The flower in the middle is from the Cosmo Cricket paper. 

I’ve added 10 more pages to the "All about me kiddies album" photo album in the sidebar – be sure to look for the icon to see more – there is more than one page of them there. Thanks ladies for sending them through – there are lots of people makign these kids albums, keep the pages coming, everyone loved to be inspired by them, especially me!

Wow ,who knew I had so much to say – I should blog more often. ;o)

Laters

Abby’s little gems keep on coming and I don’t think I have enough time to scrap the hilarious things she keeps coming out with.  This morning we dropped the boys off at school in drizzly kinda foggy weather and continued on around to the post box to post those 20th of month cheques.  I get out, post the letters and jump back in the car.  Abby says "Wow Mum!  I didn’t see you.. must be that blog out there…do you know what a blog is?"

At which point I had thoughts of how kids are growing up far too fast these days.. the girl is 4 years old for goodness sakes, who’s told her about blogs… all this runs through my mind in the split second before I open my mouth to answer her but she beats me to it…

"You know Mum! When it’s all white out there.  It’s all around us and white.  It’s called BLOG.
Or could that be fog. Fog is white and all around us.  I can smile and relax that she is still 4 and will stay my little girl for a wee while yet.

I’ve been working on layouts for Sherry Steveson’s new book called "The Scrapbooker’s Embellishment Handbook" I have 6 layouts to do – I’m loving working on them, I can use any supplies I like – wooohoooooo!  anyway I picked up a piece of Cosmo Cricket paper and across the bottom it had written: Acid free, Lignin free, Fat free, Sugar free and high in Fiber.  I LOVE IT!  Love the sense of humour at Cosmo Cricket!

My playlist is getting a little boring whilst creating said layouts so I went blog surfing (truth be known I was procrastinating which is my second favourite thing behind scrapping) and I found Kylie Tout’s blog.  not only does she have a great rundown of the SIA event from last weekend but I love her soundtrack too.  Poor kylie is going to wonder why I have spent 8 hours reading her blog – I’m listening to your sounds, luv!  I especially love the very touching song by Martina McBride called Concrete Angel.  Actually I hadn’t seen the you-tube video until now and hadn’t quite understood what it was really all about.  Wow powerful song.  Moving on to Lee Woodside’s blog for some more upbeat stuff! 

So anyway inbetween scrapping and listening to music on other people’s blogs (and cooking, cleaning, doing Mum stuff and watching *ahem* the builders at work here) I’ve been cleaning out this scraproom of mine.  I’m moving soon into a new office – sharing with my hubby – yay – and I’ve been looking for little containers.  they have to be square – you know how I am, clean lines and square is good – I want them to sit in drawers so I can pull out a few at a time depending on what I’m working on and (surprise surprise) put them away afterwards.  I’ve searched trademe upside down, I’ve looked through shops and stores and the only really perfect container I can find are Ferrero Roche boxes.

SO I’m not sure if this is good or bad.  I know it’s a flippin expensive way of buying containers.  But I get a free 24 chocies with every container!

I guess I need to get real about it and ask if somehow, somewhere, someone has access to dozens of these containers?  No?  Setting my hopes too high here?  Someone in the www has to owrk at the ferrero Roche container factory.  O.K. I may be pushing it – but please keep me in mind if you see these containers going to waste OR if you can tell me where I can get some similar.  They have to be clear.  And rectangle/square. 

Hugs going out to the Oregon girls today.  Just because.

Laters

I sit here on my laptop catching up on the overflowing inbox that calls me even when I’m in the deepest sleep, with the thunder and lightening around and the rain pelting down.  Thank goodness the laptop can run on battery, too many good computers have been lost because of power surges; two of them being mine.

Huge renovations going on at the Howard house right now – all good but taking up a lot of time and a lot of my head-space.  My blog, my scrapping and my scrapping commitments have all taken a step back for a bit.  I’m working on catching up this week.  I want to get more done on Abby’s kids album!!  Please leave a comment or email me and let me know if you are firing ahead – has anyone finished?  I’d love to keep everyone updated – I’m adding pages to the sidebar gallery daily – so keep checking back for inspiration.  I promise to add more of Abby’s pages soon.

Here is a link to get free green tea.  Kind of a random link I’m throwing in there but hey, I know someone will appreciate it.  If you don’t drink tea, feel free to put my address in there – my hubby drinks it – personally I’m more of a Milo girl ;o)

I have a new class for sale at Aussie Scrap Source.  It’s a double page layout designed to hold a whole heap of pics from one outing.  It includes instructions for photo montages and it’ll suit any ‘event’ as there is a whole alpha in there.  Contact Embellish It if your own retialer doesn’t get these in – I’m sure the girls there would get you one.  Alternatively you can get it from Tarisota as one of their Limited editions, check back here as it will be uploaded as soon as available.

I’ll leave you with another layout – this one is a little different for me.  I did it with the last Tarisota Kit.  But there is something special about this layout and it’s all in the journaling.  Which you can’t see. Because it’s not really something I need to put out there on the whole world wide web .  Jacob & I go through a lot – he has medical conditions which make him vulnerable to alsorts of thought processes that 9 year olds shouldn’t go through.  I’ve had to promise him many times that I would always always be there to guide him through the tough times and that I would never leave him.  Which is a nice thought but fate scares me – what if for some reason I’m not there anymore – how betrayed would he feel.  So I spill it all in this layout.  And you ladies are my insurance.  If ever I cease to be around for this little man.  THIS is the layout he needs to find and read- ok?

laters.

"If I could be anything, I’d be a Flamingo".  I love that.  Abby was amazed at the flamingoes at her first zoo visit about this time last year, and has continued to count on them as the number one cutest animal (ok not technically..but…) in the world.  When we left the zoo that day we treated the kids to something small at the zoo shop and Abby chose a small soft toy flamingo, who was appropriately named "Pink".  "Pink" sleeps with her at night and has remained a constant companion ever since.  Alongside a small pink beanie baby pony that was sent to her from Canada, who was named ce-ce-mo-ic pony for some reason – noone knows why.

Anyway, while going through the questions for Abby’s "About me" album, she told me if she could be anything, she’d be a flamingo.  I took a photo of Abby with one foot down, and one up, looking remarkably like the cutest pink flamingo there is, and I’ll be scrapping that page soon for her little album.

Here are the latest pages I have done for her album, they didn’t photograph well.  Again, nothing flash, no great exciting technique or anything here.  I’ll put them in the sidebar gallery for closer looks.

Thanks to those allowing me to upload their pages to the ‘All About Me’ photo album in the left sidebar.  It’s filling up fast.  Many of the pages are not in the order I’m doing them and people are putting their own spin on things – awesome!  Really!  It’s the way to do things.  Go with the flow! 

I see that ScrapScene have a contest – open to all countries – on their site at the moment.  You just have to create something, layout, altered piece, anything, that uses a few of the most recent trends as pinpointed by ScrapScene lately.  The prize is massive.  Click here for details.  I love when this type of competition is open to NZ/Aussie – even Quebec!  So I hope some of us take the time to enter.  The prize is well worth it!

Anyone have a run-down on the SIA convention in Aussie this past week?  I’d love to read.  I hear it was a success and a true credit to those who orgnaised it, but I need details! lol.  Lonk me to blog posts if you have them!

Ok.  The puke (That’s pook-e!) girls are cropping today, I’m home as Paul is working and the kiddos need feeding.  Despite the temptation to lock them in a room with a bag of cornflakes and case of coca-cola , a stack of DVD’s and take off for the day, my common sense got the best of me.  They have the best mum.

laters.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Buckaroo Blue, Bazzill White.
Font: 2Peas hot Chocolate
Patterned Paper: BasicGrey 2 Scoops.
Flower Stamps: Stampin’ Up "Looks like Spring",
Rows of dots: Stampin’ Up! "All in a Row"
Ink: Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip.
Ink: Stazon Black.
Sticker: Stampin’ Up
Circle Punches: Fiskars.

Two hours.  That’s officially my limit whilst sitting in a Chipmunks playland.  We ‘owed’ Jacob a trip somewhere special for his birthday, which was back in February, but he pretty much has to share a birthday with Abby so she had her choice of destinations on the actual weekend.  Jacob had to wait.  Then he fractured his wrist and has been in plaster.  So an April birthday treat, it was.  So yes, two hours was the complete upper limit.  It was the most I could take of screaming, squealing, running, and quite often crying kids, all in one go.  It was a welcome break to be able to leave and go have a picnic at a local park with a few favourite friends.  Finally the kids could run and play and the adults could talk.  Pair that with an impromptu daylight-savings-is-ending-so all-the-neighbours-should-get-together-for-a-drink-in-the-middle-of-the-culdesac-and-stay-there-til-it’s-too-dark-to-find-the-kids-anymore party last night, then the Warriors playing today, and the weekend was over.  Really, it went far too fast.  Goodbye daylight savings.

I didn’t scrap today, but did yesterday.  I finished up my Tarisota kit for April.  Tamar was quick off the mark this month and has loaded the Tarisota gallery early.  Erica L, if you don’t want to see your CJ entry, then don’t look! 

Here’s one of my favourite layouts, I’ll put it in the sidebar gallery too.

 

(Layout removed)

No Evana has not moved to Africa, yes she oppsidently hit Jacob in the head but more to the point, what is a guts tree?
I still don’t know.  But apparently you don’t stand underneath one because guts will fall on your head.  Really.  I have no clue where she was going with that.  I can only imagine that Abby has changed one word for another or she has been watching some pretty scarey TV that I was unaware of.

Missions for this week?  3 layouts for the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  They won’t go up straight away but won’t be too far away.  I’ll also be creating a new class kit for Aussie Scrap Source.  I need to get more pages done for the All about me album that we are all doing together – we are all doing the album together, aren’t we?  I’ll be posting more of those pages this week.  I think that’ll do me through til Friday, I hope your weekend was a good one!

Laters

Page supplies list: (April Kit from Tarisota).
Paper: Making Memories. 
Cardstock: Bazzill
Letters: American Crafts
ATC Transparencies: 7gypsies
Brads: Making Memories
Markers: Stampin’ Up! and American Crafts