Category: Uncategorized

Well it’s not entirely new, we ran this class last year – it was so popular that Big Picture Classes are running it again. I love the "Back by popular demand!” badge on the website – awesome!    I loved preparing this class, loved hanging out with May whilst teaching it and love that we get a second go!

Here’s the info!

Double Take – Are you ready for 4 full-on weeks with double page layouts? I’m pairing up with May Flaum to bring you 4 whole weeks of sketches, double page layouts and an overdose of fun!

Yep – You get two teachers which means not only are we creating double pages, but you will have double the sketches, twice the amount of layout examples, inspiration overload! Both May & I love a good interactive workshop, so no doubt there will be an awesome atmosphere in the gallery and message boards.. this is something we are both really looking forward to!

Class runs from May 10th and registration is open NOW – May & I are both really excited that we are getting the opportunity to run this class, we are hoping to get a whole lot of you join us!

Click here to read more and register to join us! (There’s even a video or two to watch – kinda funny in itself, really?!! – I wish I’d got them to retake the pics of May & I back to back though – I was days out of hospital when they took that pic – and you can tell! EEEk!!! Sorry about the scary pic!)

Yep, crazy times in the Howard home.  Lots going on.  Everything from the craziness a new puppy brings, to the day by day busy of three children and their after school activities, to a family reunion, a visitor from out of town, Autumn Escape coming up, a whole lot of magazine assignments (yay!), some guest spots with manufacturers AND THREE massive online workshops coming up… (Double Take, Dimensional Details AND True Scrap) I can see the sun outside, I just can’t touch it!

I do have a quick minute to share a layout I did recently though…
This one for Fancy Pants Designs… teal of course.  Why not?

Laters

We, as people, always have things other people can’t tell by looking at us. You can’t tell by looking at me that I was bought up a Northland girl, that I have always loved listening to Ace of Base or that my brothers and I used to spend hours every weekend making dams in the ditches over the back of our farm as a child. We all have our inner personalities that don’t always outwardly show. They are the hidden traits that make us who we are.

I’ve always wants to wear a little bit of that on the outside. I got my first tattoo about 20 years ago. It was a small flower, an iris, the significance of which is huge to me, but one of those things that not everyone needs to know. About 3 years ago I had it added to. More significance added. That tattoo was worked on on three separate occasions.

Recently I got the urge to wear more of my story on the outside. I worked with a tattoo artist for about 5 weeks, going back and forth with artwork that reflected what I wanted to say. We finally came to something I was happy with. It has the original flower, the kids initials and cherry blossom, all of which is special to me in its own way. It brings the story to the outside but it’s still personal.

Ever wonder what a fairly large tattoo looks like in the making?

Kinda looks like a big ham there, huh?  I lay on my side like this for 4.5 hours while Michelle from Body Modz worked her magic.  Looking at this now I shudder as I mentally visualise that tattoos are done with needles.  I cry at the thought of going to the dentist.  3 needles puncturing my skin over and over for hours?  Eh.  Not so hard.  Exact thing I was telling myself over and over…actually it was hard. If I were to be truthful.

Just about done.  Tattoos always look scary as they are being done.  Swelling, ink and all that stuff.  I took this in the mirror on the one occasion I insisted on a break – the tattoo lady had amazing staying power.  Seriously.  4.5 hours and that lady was still going strong.  Me?  Not so much.  I insisted at this point I needed to get down and walk around.  Just for a minute.  Yea those are my undies.  No worse than you see at the beach.  Dad. Calm down.

And this.  This is the semi finished version.  Again, Dad, calm down.  No worse than you see at the beach, remember?   Still swollen.  The iris in the middle is un-coloured as yet.  The cherry blossoms will fade to a lighter pink.  There is still shading to be done throughout.

I still have about an hour and a half work to be done in a few weeks time.

So there it is.  My story.  Or a chapter of it.  Outwardly there, but still hidden if I want it to be. Just the way I wanted it to be.

laters

Let it be said that I have been corrected many times whilst cooking the dinner.   Tomatoes are not a vegetable, tomatoes are a fruit. 

That they are.  The definition being that they come from a flowering plant and have seeds.  So I am told.  Kids these days are so clever.

And so day 2 of the March Photo-a-day is a photo of some of the amazing tomatoes currently growing in my garden.  Hold on little tomatoes, we have the storm of the year lining up to hit tonight.  I've flipped the trampoline, I've stacked the deck chairs, let's hope the tomatoes make it.

Laters

Join me…. join us April 20-21, 2012 ONLINE for two days of fun, inspiration, and community. Enjoy 15 live classes from a-list instructors, five virtual make-and-takes, goody bags, prizes, and more… True Scrap 3.. click here to find out more…  all super easy,  be there live all weekend PLUS all the recorded classes for one cost.

My class?  Floral frenzy – I'll tell you more about it later but for now get a really quick overall look at ALL the classes… Video sneak peek is here…  (and the cool thing is that I'm doing a kit for my class this year!  yesss!)

(Cool video, Lain, it made me excited for the weekend!!)

Laters

Autumn arrived today.  How do I know this?  Not just because it was March 1st, but because I could barely walk to the mailbox without being blown away and I debated making Penny walk herself.  Actually I made the kids walk her.  Mean Mum.

It's been a long day, I'm a tired Mum as well as a mean one, I was awake all night listening to the heavy rain knowing my baby was trying to sleep in 3 person tent on school camp.  I picked her up today and was able to ring the water out of her pillow.  She was soaked.  She's asleep already. 

March 1st has also bought the start of the photo a day challenge and I know a lot of people are doing this along with me. 

Today's prompt was 'up'.

I could have done a pile of different things today.
* The time on the clock when I got up this morning.
* The amount of umbrellas up as the kids walked to school this morning.
* The price of fuel (seriously, the most I've ever paid, or perhaps the car was extra empty lol)
* The sky
* The cicada up in the tree trying to pretend it was still summer.
* Penny (growing up so fast).

I chose to wait til the rain stopped and lie under the tree and take a pic.  Some of you might argue this leaf looks questionable and I might have chosen it for my 'up' prompt because it looks suspiciously like it may get me high.  Um no.  It's a maple.  It's in my backyard and I lay under it and took a pic. 

Not the best pic but I'm not a photographer and I had nil idea on how to take a photo with a glary sky behind.  Doesn't matter.  That's not what it's about, right?

How'd you go?
Laters

So there was this post a while back where I declared my undying love and extreme gratefulness for the abyss of knowledge that is Pinterest.  Now it's okay, it's not taking over, but it is finding it's way into my day in small doses.  haha something funny – I just bought the window up to get the pinterest link, got lost and totally forgot I was blogging.  Seriously.  Now where was I?

So I'm doing my usual cruise and I come across some really cool t-shirt restyling.  And I go searching, start clicking blog links and find this tutorial showing me how to make an old t-shirt into something new and fun.  So I decided I had a spare 10 minutes in my day, which is a lie actually because it's 6pm and there is no dinner made, in fact nothing even thought of, I never have 10 minutes spare in the day, but actually I made 10 minutes become spare because I was so freakin excited about this idea.  So watch this.  How cool is this. 

Firstly, the old t-shirt.  I got an old one I have worn til it's faded and it's been in the bottom of my drawer forever, or at least since I lost a lot of weight a few years back. Secondly, you need scissors.  Like not the scissors you use to cut up cereal boxes for the kid's projects but the great scissors you stash so noone can find them, like these.  My favs.

Then cut.  Cut the sleeves off, and then straight across, just below the neck/collar.

And then fold the top inch over on the front and back and sew across to create a place to thread your strap.  Yes.  I got the sewing machine out.  I didn't change the thread though. I had nothing to match so figured white would do. 

Then I got the old neck-band from the t-shirt, cut it once to make a long strip and I threaded it through the front and back of the -tshirt, using a skewer, pencil or knitting needle. 
And then.  Then you realise magic has happened.  You have this.  Oh yes.  Lovin' it.

At which point my hubby walks past, stops, and says "Pinterest, right?" haha oh yes.

A few tips, firstly, don't use your super tight t-shirts.  Baggy is better.  I think also next time I do this, probably in about 5 minutes despite the lack of dinner, still,  I'll look for a t-shirt to do this with, I'll try and find one with a logo down as low as I can, because as you can see I ended up with the 'Wisconsin' word around my neck – a lower logo would have been better.
EDIT And yes, I have black straps showing and I have been flaaaaamed for it more than once in the 100,000 times this has been repinned – forgive me I was in a hurry.

Look at the possibilities.  Like using strips of material taken from the sleeves and plaiting the neck cord.  Tying bows at the shoulders.  Cheap dollar plain coloured t-shirts that all of a sudden become freakin amazing.

Oh yes.  Pinterest.  I think I love you.
Laters.

I'm a very routine orientated person.  My alarm goes off at 5.09 every morning.  I am out of bed and out the door to the gym by 5.20 each morning.  The theory being that if I'm still asleep as I step in the gym, it'll be too late to leave.  I leave the gym at 6.25 each morning and I drive past a bakery on the way home.  Every.Single.Morning I decide how jealous I am of the streams of people coming out of that bakery with little brown paper bags of pies and cakes.  Food envy by 6.25am.  That can't be healthy.

Anyway.  I thought for the eight thousandth time this morning how I wish I had the freedom to buy a freakin pie for breakfast like all those other people.   I quickly tell myself how awesomeley healthy I probably am compared to them – clearly I still want the pie, it's just a way of dealing with my food envy.  THEN it occured to me how I have this same thought process every morning and how incredibly routine orientated I am.

All this within the 4 minute drive home. 

Then, still thinking, I decided that I haven't done enough telling of stories through my photos lately.  Considering the layout below was in 2008, and still is now, my most favourite ever, I should be doing more of this type of scrapbooking.  I love this for the simple way it tells the story, it was a candid pic, not set up, just taken as I walked past one day. 

And so today I put something to you.  I've searched out a photo-a-day challenge for March. 
It's one photo taken a day, no deep and meaningful thinking or setting up of photography equipment.  I plan on using my phone and not overthinking the prompts. 

Does anyone want to join me?  Take a look at the prompts below. 

I'll post the pics here.  I'll create a layout at the end.  It'll be a fun change in inspiration.

It's a week away though, so for now I'll find a few other things to take pics of.  Like these shoes.  I'm clearly in need of new ones.  Don't laugh at the way I wear my shoes out through the top.  These shoes have gone a whole lot of miles.  They've seen me through many walks thorugh the gym door at 5.25 each morning.  They deserve a layout, no?  Perhaps I could even add the journaling about my daily battle with the bakery. 

Laters.

Puppys are so much fun.  All cute and waggy tails and all.  Puppy dog eyes and floppy ears.  Irresistable.  I keep telling myself, convincing myself, of this every day as I struggle to tell Penny for the 8000th time that the bone stays outside.  My toes are not chew toys.  No I do not want to play a game of "Around the lounge without touching the floor".

Ahhhh the fun times… I love her really, we all do.  We look forward to the days when she's less play and more companion though. We were prepared to work hard, and work hard we are.  She's a feisty type and it's taking some strict rules to try and keep her in line while she is learning.

Here is a layout done with some LilyBee Designs products – notice there is not one scrap of teal on this anywhere.  Go me.  It's a little different to my usual, but it was fun to tap into my more graphic side.   Actually it was hard to find, but it was fun all the same.

Supplies:
Patterned paper by LilyBee Designs.
Kraft Cardstock sprayed by Studio Calico Mr Huey's Mists in white.

Chipboard Letters – American Crafts
Washi Tape (black stripe with green paper through the middle) Queen & Co
Small letter stickers – LilyBee designs.
Punches – Martha Stewart
Little Doilie – a free gift from Scottie Crafts when I ordered something recently (Cool!)
Baker's Twine – The Twinery
Brown swirl transparency – an old 7gypsies one.

Just a note -  my layout was inspired by a layout I saw online and I can't tell you where or who created it, but the photo positioning with the circle embellishments were inspired by one I saw online.  I drew a sketch when I saw it and didn't note down who it belonged to.  Apologies for the lack of linking to the original!

If only you could all see what is going on in this office right now.  Seriously. I type a few words, lean down and say "Penny, no bite!"  "Penny, leave the electrical cords!", Penny NO! and on it goes….

Puppys are fun.  Really.  They are.

Laters

Along with an amazing kid turning 13, we also celebrated Abby's 8th birthday over the weekend.  Since I'm a newly addicted convert to Pinterest, I figured that I'd try something I had seen on there. 

So I bought a few boxes of Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake mix.

And don't get me wrong.  I'm an OK cook.  I can bake a cake from scratch.  I'm down with the eggs and the flour and stuff.  But this cake saved me a whole lot of time and besides, it's super yummy.

So I mixed up a couple of boxes of this stuff and I seperated the mix into 6 different bowls.  Then I got colouring.  That was the fun part.  The kids were out, I put the music up loud and mixed to my heart's content.  I made purples and blues, greens, yellow, pinks and reds.   I wondered at the time if the mixing may have been better if I'd played Doodlebops or High Five, but I think I did well.

And then I baked.  The cakes were way thinner than a whole cake, so I cut the cooking time right down.  Then I let the cakes cool.  Then (and this is my favourite part) I made mock cream for inbetween the cake layers. 

Yum. Yum.  500gms butter to 1kg icing sugar and mix.  Yes that is a lot of butter, but we know we'll all get over it once we take the first bite. 

I trimmed the round parts off each layer.  And I layered.  I added cream and layered more.

And then I added more icing sugar to the mock cream mix to make it a harder frosting mix.  And I covered the whole thing.  And this… this is what happened….

It was possibly the most yummiest cake ever.  Worthy of the two amazing kids that blew out the candles.  Jacob turning 13 and Abby turning 8. ( Abby was born on Jacob's very first ever day of school …talk about a big day for this Mummy!)

Leaving you with a pic of the cutest 8 year old ever, taken soon after finishing the yummiest cake ever.  I'm off to the most addictive yet informative website ever.  Perhaps I'll find an idea for next years' birthday cake…

laters