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It's the time of year again, the time we see giveaways and events all over the world to celebrate this fabulous hobby we are involved in.  Be sure to take time this weekend to browse the extra events throughout the scrapbooking world, and while you are surfing the 'net, why not join us in a Prima Blog hop… look what is up for grabs! 

 
If you don't know what I'm talking about, go on over to the Prima blog for the first post!  If you've come here from the Prima blog, you'll know about it already… and you'll be looking for a secret word in this post to help complete a sentence… keep reading!

I wanted to celebrate International Scrapbook Day by sharing a little Prima love myself… here's a little snippet of a layout that has just been released in Scrapbook Creations in Australia.  There is a whole Prima feature in the magazine, so be sure to pick up copy for layouts from six Prima scrapbookers including Ingvild, Janine, Liana, Sharon, Karola and myself…

And the secret word you need before moving on?  The Prima secret word you need from my blog is 'AND'.
Write the word down and hop on over to Alyssa's blog for the next word and a whole lot more Prima goodness.  Thanks for stopping by!  Good luck with the blog hop!

Oh!  Before I go – my super popular Big Picture Scrapbooking workshop, Color! Or is it Colour? is running again, starting at the end of June!  Join me for this six week workshop, I'll post more detail in weeks to come!

laters!

I vividly remember Diana's wedding about 30 years ago.  An 8 year old girl, glued to the TV, watching the walk down the aisle.  I wrote a letter to my penpal as I watched the ceremony, writing down each important little detail as I saw it.  I remember my Mum telling me not to write a commentary of what was happening because it was likely Michelle would have watched it as well.  Funny the things we remember.

I'm not a big royal family fan but the TV will be on tonight.  I figure I owe it to Abby somewhat, she is the same age now as I was during the last big royal wedding.   I've tried to act interested by asking her what she thinks the dress will look like, how will Kate wear her hair, does she think it's cool that there will likely be horses and carriages?  It's the stuff fairytales are made of.  I want her to remember seeing it on TV.  Although to be honest, we'll be flicking between the Breakers game and the wedding.  Good old kiwi spirit dictates that I need to support the boys in dealing to the Cairns Taipans, so it'll be back and forward between the two programs.  I wonder how many other people will be doing the same.

This week I have studied harder than I have since the days of sleeping during Commercial Law and Operations management lectures.  Except this time I'm awake, I'm listening, I'm understanding so much – it's amazing.  It renews my excitment to become a supreme althlete – note the sarcasm.  The excitment is there, the supreme althlete, not so much.

I've also been developing SENZ classes.  I'll have sneaks for those out in a few weeks.  I'm busy creating a plethora of pages for a publication as well as Big Picture Classes.

While I've been creating I've been thinking about my blog.  As I give up more of the DT type experiences, I lose material to show on my blog.  I am a teacher more than anything else now.  Material I create is paid for and not shown.  I'll have to think of a way to share more though, as I want to maintain readership.  It makes sense to have a blog, it's how I share news of where/how I'm teaching next.  Besides.  I love to talk and it's nice when I'm listened to.  You may note that sarcasm also.  This time directed at the painted on ears of my near teenage son.

With classes being created it's also time to retire some.  The Summer Double, or it's more updated "Prima-licious" has to be my most favourite class I have EVER taught.  It has been to South Africa, Australia, Autumn Escape and Timaru!  I've taught it in excess of 1000 times and it has always had amazing results.  If you have a layout from this class posted on your blog at some point, I'd love it if you shared the link here.  Goodbye Summer Double/Prima-licious.  It's been awesome sharing your fun around the world. Laters

It's school holidays here and the kids and I have spent a week so far doing fun stuff.  Building zoos on Zoo Tycoon.  The kids have spent a lot of time on their bikes.  Hubby has been away for nearly a week so I let Jacob make our evening meals.  It's been fun.

On Friday they got a little ratty though.  As they do.  I piled all three kids into the car, ignored their protests of how much they hate each other and being in the same space as one another, and I drove.

I asked them to pretend we were moving away from Pukekohe and suggested we take the camera and take pics of their favourite places they wouldn't want to forget.  They took the challenge and ran with it.. the first place?  The pukekohe train station.  So proud of my kids – I'm a train spotter – seems I've bred it into my children!

Next we went to the Pioneer Cottage .. place of large climbing trees, playground and the Pioneer Cottage I went to on a school trip with Abby.  She was so proud of my involvement so this was the place she chose as something pretty special.
While we were here we discovered there is a time capsule here… placed 2002 and due to be uncovered in 2052.  I had no idea it was there. 

Our next place was McDonalds.  Which surprised me because the kids must get it only once every month or two… but yep, MCds was next, and it came in handy for a Chocolate sundae.

Then the ideas rolled in from the kids… from the Pukekohe town square and fountain, to the top of Pukekohe Hill, to the park Jacob walks each day home from school, the kids were full of enthusiasm.  WE also visited the town hall and Library and arts centre where Abby and Braden used to play a game on the white pavers while waiting for JAcob to finish Kumon.

At the town hall we discovered a new art piece that we didn' realise was there.  This pic is of Braden reading all the words that run down it's edge.  It reflects the community spirit of our home town.  It's very cool.

All in all we spent nearly 3 hours travelling Pukekohe on a quiet Good Friday.  WE took pics of important stuff and I have great photos for a very meaningful layout now. 

This town hall is where we will be tomorrow morning at dawn for the ANZAC day dawn parade.  My grandad wears his suit and medals and marches every year to honour those that can't be there.  It's an honour to be there to support him.  It's a very emotional time.

Talking of emotions – I've been missing the journaling touches on my layouts lately.  I've spent a lot of time playing with gorgeous products but not leaving enough room for the stories.  This is the reason that I have resigned from the Prima design team.  I didn't reapply.  It's a fabulous team but it's time to move on. 

back to cuddles with my family, it's nice to be together again after spending time very seperately, with either Paul or I being away for the past 3 weeks.  Tag teaming parenting is no fun, it's fabulous to be a family of 5 again.

laters.

Autumn Escape – this blog post can be the official I-haven't-recovered-enough-to-think-clearly-through-what-I-want-to-write-but-I-just-gotta-post-to-say-how-amazing-it-was post.

You know how it is.  Large event. A year in the planning.  I'm exhausted.  (That and I've been studying, first assignment on analysing fitness components and presciption of a training programme to meet personal goals is due Friday…) Wake up.  It's not that scary really.  Once you get over all the big words.

Anyway.

Autumn Escape came and went again.  It was our third year and once again I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere.  I especially love seeing the friends that use Autumn Escape once a year to catch up.  How cool is that.  Many met at AE on the first year and have formed solid friendships.  That's somethin special right there.

Becky Fleck was awesome.  (Seeing her barrell down a hill at the Zorb in Rotorua was awesome), the venue was awesome, Rachel and Lianne were fabulous as always ..but my highlight had to be the Scrapbook Outlet Taupo400.  Hamilton had their own 400 race this past weekend, we weren't going to be out-done!  We gave 20 ladies a challenge pack each and gave them 400 seconds to create a card.  There was paper flying everywhere!  Mexican waves flying around the crowd, cheers and support crews yelling their encouragement. 

THEN

Then we got some of the hotel staff to join in.  Best fun in a long time. 

I'll leave you with some pics of the event, I will have more in days to come, but for now, this is a taste.  Thanks Lesley Cooper and Rachel Tucker for sharing your photos with me. 

And biggest question yet?  Will there be an Autumn Escape 2012?  We are already booked in to the Wairakei venue.  We just need a little time to formulate tutors and classes and make sure we have everything covered before we open registration.  The planning never ends…

 
The boxes of stuff before the retreat… this wasn't all of them.  Look at that superb labelling system… oh yea.. organisation PLUS!

 
One side of the centrepieces… the planner for the weekend.  All of the flowers were handmade by some of our amazing team in the weeks leading up to the event.  Just some of the many goodies we handmade for the ladies that came along.

 
The candy bar… this was halfway through the night when it was already depleted.  You can't see it very well but there is a big basket of letters for the ladies to make words.  They say "I want" right now…but the words changed throughout the weekend…

 
 
The Autumn Escape team… Rae Scrapmatrix, Ange from Scrapware, Lucy, Becky, Lynda-the-awesome-shop-lady, Lianne-mixed-media-canvas tutor, and don't-trust-me-with-your-room-key Kate Booth.
Tana-the-best-TA-ever, Kate S the-2nd-best-TA-ever, Rachel Tucker, Nic and Ruth-the-other-awesome-shop-lady.

 
This was halfway through the Saturday.  Noone noticed me having a little nap did they?  It was Ok to do so…this was during Becky's class… I wasn't teaching!

Thanks to everyone that came along – it truly was awesome.  Leave me a link/comment if you see photos elsewhere on the web, I'd love to see.

laters 🙂

Two cars and a haulage trailer packed.  Becky slept about 13 hours last night.  We are ready to hit the road.  Taupo.  Autumn Escape attendees.. I hope you are ready. 

I'm proud of what I have acheived over the last week.  After a fairly stressful few weeks it is falling into place.  True Scrap was a massive success.  (I'll post some of the feedback below … if you are interested in buying the 'recordings' package, it's still for sale on the True Scrap website…).

Because I'm in a good mood, I'll extend my offer of a little packet of happiness to anyone that signs up through my links and sends me their receipt via email.  It's a selection of gorgeous little embellishments and bits and bobs, perfect to inspire a little scrapping.  Anyway.  Places to go.  People to see.  Autumn Escape has been a year in the planning and we are ready to hit the road!  (Feedback from True Scrap below – so proud to have been part of this one, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with everyone, so glad I did!). 

<<… I haven't been able to view all the presentations yet, but the ones I did see (Ali, Nic, Shimelle and Noell) were simply outstanding.  I got so much out of them and I can't wait to try the techniques and ideas >> (Susan)

<<Have been watching the videos and absolutely LOVE EVERYTHING …well done and thank you for organising this >> Wendy

<< thank you also for putting together such an incredible event!  The presentations are awesome and so is all the work that has gone into this!>>  Tara

<< this entire thing is so awesome!  I'm SO impressed!  Looks fantastic!>>

<<Roll on True SCrap 2>

Me too!  Looking forward to doing this over – it was an outstanding event.. hoping to be involved in True Scrap 2!

Laters!

Friday night and it's the end of another super busy week – just the way I like them obviously because I keep taking on the work.  A lot of creative people thrive under pressure, and whilst I argued for a long, long time that I wasn't very creative, all I have to do is look around my office and see what I have surrounding me and I can give myself permision to say "Yep, I think I'm a creative type.".  And loading myself with enough work to set a slightly stressful edge to my day obviously encourages that.  I don't think I'm alone in that.

So here I am, as I said, end of a busy week.  Autumn Escape is nearly fully ready to go.  I have 18thousand post-it notes on my desk telling me otherwise but I was never one to be afraid of post-it notes so I'm going to say I'm quietly confident that we are under control.  Yes.  We. Are. Under. Control.  The last newsletter goes out either tonight or tomorrow.  Watch for it!

Prima.  Ahhh sweet flowery Prima.  Prima are looking for a new Design Team.  See the info here and if the thought of being on their Design team excites you, then enter.   I'll probably be applying again as well.  It's not an automatic roll-over, as Prima likes to renew their design ladies regularly.

SENZ – SENZ isn't far away and I'm going to have a bumper amount of classes.  Email me and let me know what you want to see.  I love teaching, ever since the early early years of teaching for Crafting Connection, it's been something I get a real kick out of. Perhaps that little bit of stress I thrive on again?  But anyway, email me, let me know what you want to see!

Tim Holtz.  Even in my busiest of days I find time to check in quickly and see what Tim has been up to.  I've been watching with a sentimental eye this past week as Tim travels the exact same trip I travelled throughout South Africa last year.  I see photos and recognise the places and the people.  I was there not so long ago.  Glenda's South African event is one of a kind, amazingly organised and so incredibly popular.  Ahhh sweet memories.  What I would have given to be attending at the same time as Tim Holtz.  I'm guessing there'd be a lot of us thinking that exact same thing.

Finally.  The Color Room.  This website is so beautifully presented and so full of inspiration.    I was honoured to be a guest designer this week (thanks ladies!).  I found the colour palette a little intimidating and I admit, I struggled with it.  But then I found the teal.  I can find the teal possibilities in anything.  I enjoyed working with a sketch that was outside my norm, as well as a colour palette I found tricky.  All the details are on the Color Room website if you want to join in. 
Here's my layout, created with Misty's beautiful little girl Skye again. 

Time to clear some post-it notes.
laters.

I'm an earlybird.  I'm out of the house by 5.20am every weekday.  It's a different world at that time of the morning.  The streets are full of people walking, running, exercising the dog.  It's pitch dark, the reflective clothing lights up on the footpaths as I drive past.  I wonder sometimes agenda these people have.  Why are they out so early? What does their day hold that means they have to be out when it's so dark?

Most people won't realise what driving dangers exist before 5.30am.  The 'cone fairies' come out in the cover of darkness and shift roadworks cones around the town.  What once was a round-about closed for roadworks suddenly becomes fine to drive through, not really, without cones there to close it, it's a gamble if one should be driving there… with the cones mysteriously shifted 50m down the road where they lie across the road for no reason.  Seriously.  I play cone dodgems on the way to the gym every morning.  it's a scary situation for someone that is barely awake, never mind having to figure out whether the cones are guiding me where they are meant to. 

By the time I return home the cones have somehow shuffled back to where they should be, traffic is heavier, people are out and about, and noone is any the wiser to the cone-moving that has gone on during the night.

I might do a layout about the mysterious shuffling road cones.  Note to self.  Get photo.

I'm scrapping today.  I have assignments to do and I've been doing everything but create layouts.  I have sorted a humungous amount of product, class supplies, prizes, giveaways and other random stuff for Autumn Escape.  I've read a little more about the study I'll start next month.  I've paid the bills.  I've come to the conclusion that procrastination really is an essential part of the creative process.

While I was not creating anything I was also updating facebook and blog-hopping.  While reading Tracie Hudson's blog I was inspired by a few things.  Firstly, all the layouts – that lady is a scrapping machine.  But secondly, the way she includes a summary of her day within the post.  I'm inspired. 

The Thursday that showed us Autumn is here:

listening – a playlist my SIL created on my iPod before she went home to London.
feeling – anxious about allowing Jacob to bike to school.
creating – nothing.  I'm still in procrastination stages.
wanting – to finish two assignments today.
needing – to finish two assignments today.
thinking – I need to go buy slippers.
enjoying – the small patch of sun next to my desk.
wondering – whether I'll be awake enough in the morning to take pics of the mysteriously shuffled road cones.

Procrastination over.  Time to create.  I'm in the mood to tap my inner Karola and create something soft and detailed.  Kinda like this layout I created for Prima for CHA.
laters

If I was hanging out for a weekend of full-on inspiration, 12 amazing teachers, 12 classes and virtual make n takes, but I couldn't get to any events, TRUE SCRAP might be the event I'd choose.   You don't have to leave home, heck you could even stay in your jammies if you want.  Tune in for the classes and be inspired right.where.you.are.  Those of us that are clever will be stocking on food and refreshments and not even getting out of our seats.  OK so maybe once or twice. 

I'm here to give you the details of my involvement and how you can get yourself a little package of happiness – enought little bits and pieces to get you started in my class!  Every single person that clicks my link, browses, registers for True Scrap and sends me their receipt, will be sent this little package of bits and pieces. 

The thing is that human nature makes us put things off.  How many of you clicked the link and thought "That looks cool, I might register for that" and then you forget and when you've heard it's started, you'll kick yourself?  Hmm yea I do that too.  No more procrastinating!  Although I do feel that procrastination is key to the creative process.  NO more!  Register and send me the receipt and I'll send you a cute little gift.  No matter where you are in the world.  It's on me.  Because I think we should all be inspired, and sometimes a little encouragement is all it needs.

And what can you expect from me?  "Touch me" – a lesson in texture.  A superspeedy everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know about the texture I pack into my pages.  Visit True Scrap to find out more.

Giveaway closes April 1st 2011.  True Scrap must be purchased through linking from this blog.  Receipt sent to me by email is required. 

 
Another week comes to an end.  We had a fun working bee over the weekend, my house was full of music, laughter, scrapbooking products, glimmermisting, cutting, creating and the occasional empty wine bottle.  As much as I enjoy the whole amazing atmosphere of the Autumn Escape weekend, I also love the weeks leading up to it.  My house was positively overflowing with inspiration yesterday. It was one of those yesssssssss moments that doesn't happen very often! 

So Autumn Escape registration is being wrapped up about now.  Last days for registrations. Yes, we still have space!  (If you have been thinking about coming along, please do so!  It was previously sold out, then we had a few cancellations, it'd make my day to have it sold out again and we are SO CLOSE!)

For those of you that had no idea I had gone all techo, Autumn Escape finally has a home on the web.  Info about the event hadn't always been readily available to those of you that weren't registered, but with the new website, it's there all the time.  It's easier now to see what goes on – well you see the official stuff anyway.  You don't see the unofficial-behind-the-scenes-weekend-working-bee-fun stuff, but that's probably lucky in some regard.

The rest of the week in a Sunday summary…

* The new Prima BAP is out – it's the March sketch with room for 3 photos and plenty of embellishing.  My version is below.  See the sketch here, create your own version, send it in and be in to winfree stuff with Prima.  Prima and free stuff in one sentence.  Love it.

* My new website is live – it's a home for Autumn Escape.  About time, really!

* I've just had a new 4 week workshop approved for Big Picture.  YAY!  I'll be creating that through my winter.

* I've also just finished a 'Project Now' instant download class at Big Picture – I'll let you know when it's gone live!

* I'm gearing up for TRUE SCRAP.  My class is called "Touch me!"  That still cracks me up.

Anyway – have you seen my floor?  Me neither.  It's buried. In boxes.  And flowers.  And other stuff that makes my kids stop and yell questions at me from the other side of the room because they can't walk through it.  Fun fun fun!

Enjoy your week – I'll be updating again in a few days with an incentive to join in on True Scrap!

Leaving you with my March BAP – this was my Chrsitmas card pic this year.  Abby has less of a smile on because she didn't want to be beside Jacob in the photo. Apparently big brothers are stinky.  I knew that already.

laters

A little while ago I got an email from Lain Ehmann.  For those of you that aren't familiar with Lain, she is a former editor at Simple Scrapbooks magazine, one of the 4Experts at Big Picture Classes, and she runs challenges on her website Layoutaday.com .  So I get this email addressed to me directly and I think hmmmm does she have the right Nic Howard?  And I mean, there is a famous landscaper in the UK called Nic Howard and a famous videographer in the USA called Nic Howard but I don't think either are scrapbookers so I guess it was me she wanted… so anyway, it was an invite to participate in True Scrap.

True Scrap is a massive online scrapbooking weekend.  April 7th, 8th, 9th.  It involves 12 different teachers teaching 12 different classes, steaming live to you, right to your computer.  Teachers from Shimelle Laine, to Kelli Crowe, to Jennifer McQuire, and a keynote welcome from Ali Edwards.   Class topics covering alsorts of stuff from photography, embellishing, using your stash and a whole lot more.
I'll be there teaching a class on acheiving a little dimension in your pages – something I love – so that's very cool!

There are also virtual make n takes as well – it's a whole lot of scrapbooking!

Which is cool because although we have a lot of cool events around the world we could travel to, it's not always easy or accessible to everyone.  To have all these teachers in one place with an option to access the recordings later – it's got to be a good thing.

So there ya go!  This is the link to find out more – take a little time to read the teacher bios and class descriptions, have a little listen to Lain's video  – see if True Scrap is something you might be interested in. 

And something else cool – Lain has said she will donate $1 from every ticket sold to the Christchurch Earthquake fundraising efforts.  That just blows my mind.  Support from the scrapbooking community in the USA.  It makes me feel incredibly humble and super proud to be involved with such a great group of ladies 🙂

Hoping you can join me!

Laters