Author: Nic Howard

That tune. You know the one. The girl is in the fruit aisle in the supermarket and she starts doing that dance in front of that guy? Boom chica wow wooooow. Those of you not watching NZ TV may not have any idea what I’m talking about… It’s a Lynx advertisment and damned if it will not get out of my head! The answer to any random question in this house lately is “Boom Chica wow wooow”.

“Hey Brady, have you brushed your teeth?”
“Boom Chicka wow wooow”.
Hmmm yea nice – the boy has the moves too. LOL

The tune constantly lives in my mind and apparently those of my children by the singing that was going on outside when I took these pics yesterday.
Boom chica wow WOW. (I have no idea what Abby was doing with that spade but she didnt come inside with it jammed on her arm so it must have been OK…)

Another months’ Tarisota pizza box is here, I created with that today. (In the Tarisota gallery on the 8th of October of course…) .. Loving this one. Used my Stampin’ up! punch again. I hope I’m not the only one that goes on fads of using the same thing over and over – hmm it’s the spiral punch phase right now, should be good for at least another month cos I’m loving this sucker!

As per comments left the other day – my other fav Stampin’ Up! Supplies right now are the Snail adhesive – the permanent one is perfect for ribbon because it is seriously the stickiest tape runner I have found. Stickier than a sticky thing that is really sticky.

My other favs are these:

and this (it’s a little window punch)

And I don’t even know if it is still available, I’ve had it for a while. I’d have to check with my friendly Stampin up rep. lol.

So anyway – I’ve been talking to Janine (talking of friendly Stampin’ Up! Reps) and I need to remind you about the promotion she has running – not just good for this stampin up stuff but anything you need to reorder or stock up on or whatever, if you want to enquire about having a party, (they do scrapbooking stuff too) – email her janine.rutherford@xtra.co.nz and she will answer any questions.
Details of the free Stampin’ Up! stuff in the below post anyway.

Ok. Head down tomorrow. In pizza box . With no pizza. (awwwwww sad face) but full of scrapping stuff (yea! Happy face!)

Ok this is getting silly. I’m tired.
Laters

I think today was the day I truly felt for the first time that summer is on it’s way. I had all the doors wide open and the sun streaming in, it was glorious. I had extra company today as Braden was off school sick. He crashed out on the couch for most the day but I kicked him out in the sunshine to get some fresh air in the afternoon and he had an incredibly creative time.
This creation is called “Pine and stick”.

This one is called “Nut Spa”

Love spontaneous creativity.

Remember a few weeks ago I posted that I had bought myself a new toy in the way of a spiral punch? It looked like this.

Anyway I had a few comments on the post asking who makes it and just over the past few days I’ve had a few emails as well.

So here ya go. Here is the info.
The punch is one by Stampin’ Up! I got mine from one of NZ’s independant demonstrators for Stampin Up!, Janine Rutherford. I emailed Janine to ask if it was Ok to put her email address on my blog post and she mentioned she will even run a little promotion. Woohooooo! We like free stuff, so it goes like this…

Anyone that orders any Stampin’ Up from Janine over the next week (so by 9pm next Monday night) and mentions they found Janine via my blog will go into the draw to win a Stampin’ Up! Craft Kit. Everyone that purchases will also earn a $5.00 voucher to use on any future purchases over $50.00. You can reach Janine on janine.rutherford@xtra.co.nz – Phew I think I got that right!

Now along with those comments asking where to get the punch were a few asking to see how it is used. I use it as a border punch mainly and I can’t show you the full layouts, as these are assignments, but I can show you the closeups.

I’ll share the full layouts in a few weeks time.

I have more Stampin’ Up! products that I have been converted to as well, including an awesome adhesive for ribbon, but I won’t fill a post with them. Let me know if you want to see images of my fav stamps and some other punches.

Anyhoooooooo enough talkin about exciting new toys and free stuff! I’m off to scrap some more – after I finish the GST. ugh.

laters.

Raise hands those that have come across New Zealand’s own “Flight of the Conchords” before? Oh. My. Goodness. These guys are my own personal pick-me-up when I feel the grumpies coming on. I go to youtube and type in the search for “Flight of the conchords” and watching a few of the clips there calm any grumpies. My fav is one called Business time. (VJ, make sure you watch this). Anyway – point of this rambling? I see their show is on Prime TV at 10pm on Mondays. Mark it in the diary now. (And if you watch the youtube, let me know if you get a laugh!).

OK one of those cool times of year – Memory Trends, a small trade show but it means new releases from some of the manufacturers including one of my fav – Scenic Route.
They are releasing this line called Salem which is designed as a Halloween line but I’ll be using it for everything but halloween. Since we don’t celebrate it and all.

Layle Koncar is one of the key figures at Scenic Route Paper Co and she has a giveaway on her blog at the moment – leave a comment and perhaps win one of the 13 packs. Wow there is a serious amount of comments but you have to be in to win and I watch her blog anyway – love the sneak peeks etc that she posts. I also noticed in the latest Scenic Route newsletter that Janine Kaye has won another of the contests they run. Congrats Janine!

An index to more MT sneak Peeks from various manufacturers.

A random link to the rain radars over New Zealand – so you NZ girls can know whether or not to hang out your washing. And those of you not in NZ will know whether or not I should hang out my washing. Random useless piece of information. but one I am quite obsessed with.

2 weeks until the ScrapPink event in Pukekohe – our event is full, but it’ll be cool to know we are cropping the day away along with a lot of the scrapbooking community the world over.
I’m looking for some cool crop games to play. I’ve done bingo, I’ve done a few different things at crops before, does anyone know any different exciting games? Let’s chat, leave me a comment :o)

Lastly – Another project from the Tarisota kit this month. This is a little WeRMemoryKeepers 3×3 album – I added the swirl etc, and it even has little 3×3 page protectors!

Go click the flight of the conchords link :o)
laters

It’s one of those days – one of those days where just for a second most of us stop and think WOW this time 6 years ago I was… For us it was asleep – it was 3am and our bags were packed and by the front door ready to board a flight to the USA. A 3am phone call to tell me they had bombed the Pentagon. OK I said – I’ll look at the TV in the morning. I went back to bed. Paul asked who the phone call was. I said something about a bomb. We went back to sleep.
If I had been at all awake I would have realised just what the person on the end of the phone was meaning.

So we woke a few hours later – it’s Paul’s birthday, and it all became so real.

We didn’t go the USA that year. The flights were cancelled. They were rebooked by the airlines but we turned them down. Instead we chose to stay home with the kids. Still in shock I think, at how things world-wide could change in such a short time.

I think as scrapbookers we are often naturally sentimental. We see the little things around us that matter. We look ahead and envision what impression people will have of us via our writings and our photos from the past. We record special stuff. It’s what we do.

Sept 11th (or 12th as it is here) always brings me back to basics though. Thoughts of the big stuff people lost that day. All those lives. All those friends and families.

And so we remember. As we cut Paul’s birthday cake 6 years on and 3 gorgeous little voices sing him happy birthday and add the bit about you look like a monkey and you smell like one too, we remember those that are missing the birthdays of loved ones.

Humbling isn’t it? Sept 11th is always a day to look around and really aprpeciate what we have. Like drawings of little people in alsorts of crazy colours. Apparently Paul is the big one and I’m the medium orange one. There are 3 little yellow kiddie ones and then a big bunch of hearts. This picture is sellotaped to my scraproom door. It’ll be there for a while.

laters.

4 weeks until I leave for Canada. It was quite timely that a parcel turned up in my mailbox today with a Canadian cellphone in it. It was a pressie from my brother – his old cellphone from his time in Canada, he has now moved on to London England, so he doesn’t need it anymore. I was glad to see the phone (a phone number would have been handy, lol) but sad too. Miss you VJ!

I have to offer some more info about the layout I posted a few nights ago. The layout called “Soon I will be five” is about Abby – currently 3 years old. lol. The journaling reads as follows:
Three years old means I stay home with Mummy.
Four years old means I can start swimming.
I can also go to Kindy like Jessie because she is a big girl.
Five years old means I can go to school. Like the boys do.

So Abby is only 3 years old and very much Mummy’s helper all day every day – except when she is Grumpr’s helper all day everyday. The journaling outlines how she sees herself at the moment. She wishes she was nearly five. lol.

Another layout share. Again this is the current Tarisota kit.
This is Abby and my Grandad. Whom I saved from the torrential rain this morning after dropping the kiddos at school. One minute it was glorious sun and Abby was complaining of being hot in the car and the next minute I’m plucking my nan and grandad off the street from the pouring rain. Love spring.

laters

I never was extremely on time for anything – the Saturday draw for the RAk turned into a Monday one. I drew two winners – Tenny 6.17am and Nathalie 3.08pm – actually I got Paul to pick random numbers between 1 & 67 – easier than printing out comments.
Anyhow – those 2 ladies need to email me their addresses! Queen & Co goodies will be flying to Canada and ..um…somewhere else… soon.

It was hard to do anything this past weekend, the Warriors lost, resulting in Paul walking around with a case of bear-with-a-sore-head-itis. He had the biggest blackest prickliest aura I have ever seen. This meant anyone that wanted to go within 5 feet of him had to cut the atmosphere with a machete, Indiana jones style, to even talk to him. Thank goodness they get another chance at play-offs this weekend and if I don’t blog again it’ll be because they lost and the aura took over the house.
But we shouldn’t think like that. They will win. Please let them win.

Well hot on the heals of the binding punch I showed in an earlier post has come the scallop scissors and squeezable round and round punch, both by fiskars.

Both fav new tools and they are for assignment so I can’t show what I’ve been playing with – but will show some examples when I can. The round and round punch in the photo is the XL but I played with the L at the weekend and it fits perfectly around the 7 gypsies stamps. Anyone know where you can get those circle punches in NZ? Ruth? any idea? Actually i think SBO has them. The 2nd one down is the one that fits the 7 gypsies stamps, please dont buy them all before I get a chance LOL.

Tarisota gallery is up – here is one of my layouts called “Soon I will be five”.

Send up some positive thoughts for the Warriors if you remember. Last weekend wasn’t so fun.
Laters

When it rains it pours, it’s been a full-on day and it hasn’t stopped. There is a fully fledged B.daman battle going on right behind me, the TV is blaring some random Nickelodeon programme beside me and I’m a bundle of nerves as the Warriors play in an hour. Concentrating on a blog post is a tricky feat right now.

The RAk is still open – leave me a comment on the post below and I’ll draw a couple of names tomorrow sometime.

Talking of giveaways – a week or so back I told you about the Memory Makers Books Blog and a giveaway there. You guys doubled the amount of comments on the giveaway post and a NZer one – yea. Great feeling :o)
Well there is another giveaway on there now – but it closes Friday US time so quick, hurry while they are still sleeping and leave a comment on the post about my book. It’s up to about 50 comments and actually they are good reading,so jump over, leave a comment and win a copy of my book. (Scroll down to the Tuesday post with the pic of my book).

I did a heap of scrapping stuff today – I finished up the Tarisota for next month, including the Inklination which is a limited edition they bring out every month – stamps and inks etc to match the kit. Lucky me! Fontwerks stamps and Colorbox inks! I did some cool projects – it has it’s own gallery, which isn’t complete yet but have a look over the next few days. Anyhow, here is the stamps etc for the September Inklination.

Ok and I saved best til last – I’ve been talking to Maria at Scrapboxx. Most of you know that Scrapboxx is a large Aussie online store, but they also have a huge messageboard community. Maria rang me one day and told me she really enjoyed my book and wanted to bring me on board to participate in a 7 month long challenge and monthly competition designed around the content of my book. HECK YEA I’m thinking – the content in my book is all stuff I believe in strongly so I can’t wait to work along with a community of people to see some fun pages getting done! So anyway – the competition is underway, details are here.
If it sounds like you – come join.

OK Nerves are building. Go warriors.
Laters.

Electricity. Love the stuff, usually. Unfortunately it killed another computer for me a few weeks back – my poor old computer has been so-so since the 5 second power cut – it kinda worked fine after the inital 2 hours it took me to unlock it, as long as it was never turned off. IN which case when it was turned back on it would get stuck on a damaged part of the hard drive. Corrupt. Hmmm very. The old dinosaur was relegated to a new job of boat anchor and I got a new one this week. Noone else is happy about it. The kids beleived the whole “but mince and 2minute noodles really do taste nice the more nights in a row you eat them…” for a little while. It’s wearing off now ;o)
Paul of course insists that since he got a new boat anchor for Father’s Day (broken computers make great anchors) that this somehow entitles him to a boat. For goodness sakes. Some guys just want it all.

So. Scrapbooking. The Aussie Scrap Source Blog has some very cool stuff right now. We have been showing our scrap spaces on there – it’s really interesting to see how we all store our things. I seem to be the most simple kinda girl with my -put-it-in-a-shoe-box-and-put-it-on-my-desk kinda method. Scroll down for a Queen & Co post with layouts and scroll even further for my layouts and scrap space including this layout.
(Journaling tells of how we are outgrowing our home and how Paul automatically assumes we will need a house with 5 bedrooms so that we have room for scrapbooking stuff hehehehe)

AND in celebration of the fact that the new Queen & Co product starts shipping from the USA next week, I’m going to give away a bunch of the older stuff. You want it? Leave me a comment and I’ll do a drawing – hmmm at the weekend. Saturday. Spread the word that I have some stuff to give away, I might even give a couple of lots away. Wasn’t it international RAK day on Friday last week?

Ok back to my Taristoa pizza box, gallery goes up in 3 days.

laters.

I treated myself this week. Kind of a “Happy Spring” gift to myself. I emailed Mel at eMpTy Bags and asked her to make me a bag. I’m a messenger bag kinda girl and that is exactly what Mel has made me. It’s somewhere inbetween here and … well, whereever Mel lives… I remember Julia from Pride Publishing telling me once that she buys herself a big bunch of flowers every Sept 1st as a celebration of making it through winter. I’ve always fancied that idea but as Sept 1st drew closer I realised a bag would make me just as happy :o)

Actually I treated myself twice last week – I also bought this punch…

Pretty cool huh? It has a lining-up guide so you can punch a hole row of them too. I have heard people use the punch to add pages to a binding but I just wanted it for a different edging on my papers. you know, since I layer so many of them some of them need to look a little different. lol.

What’s on this week? Tarisota mainly. New sneaks are up on site for this month. I have a few other assignments as well but it is mainly Tarisota on my desk.

(I’ve just realised it’s been a week since I updated! – I swear the closer I get to a teaching trip, the quicker the weeks go!)

Right. Off to punch something. Like paper punch. Whilst looking out for my new bag from the courier. Exciting times.

Laters

Never in my life have I known my kids so keen to eat Weetbix for breakfast. I mean we’ve always been a Weetbix kinda family – but something has found it’s way out of the Weetbix packet and possessed my children. We need to buy boxes and boxes of it apparently.
Yes – my kids have been bitten by the ‘All Blacks Stats Cards’ bug. We don’t even watch the rugby in this house (well Ok, yea, the World cup we will, but we are a Rugby League family) but this doesn’t seem to stop my 2 boys needing more of those cards.
Sadly Jacob got keen before Braden and started madly collecting them, and now Braden has become quite the sad little monkey as he has just clicked on to the craze.

So if any of you have families that eat Weetbix but don’t want the cards and don’t know anyone that wants the cards, please consider sending them my way? Actually I have heard you can sell them on Trademe, so I might be pushing my luck. lol. I was going to take a photo of Braden doing his best puppy dog eyes please pose.. but I forgot. And I gave him Claratyne for an earache. And now he sleeps like a sleepy thing that is really really sleepy. lol.

I don’t think I shared this layout when I did it. It is Abby watching Paul cut a tree down a few months back. Of course in true 3 year old fashion, she totally knows better than him how to cut the tree down, and the pics are of her waving her hands around directing him in the fine art of tree-trimming.

A few quick things to finish off – Liz (with baby Oliver) – I’ve been trying to get hold of you! Email me! nic.paul (at) xtra.co.nz . And if I don’t answer you, that would be because of the xtra-email-system-from-hell. Half of NZ email users are nodding their heads in agreement with me right now.

And a quick linkety link link – Fab Ms Lee Longmire told me about a new challenge blog starting up. It is international and launches at that link on Sept 1st. I’ll be checking.

laters