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So today I played barbies. My Barbie’s name was apparantly “Mummy” and Abby’s Barbie was apparantly named “Abby”. There was a Prince, his name was.. wait for it…”Prince”. Somehow Abby was allowed to hang out with the prince and I wasn’t. Apparantly the Mummy-knows-best rules do not apply in Barbie games. I’m Ok with that. But tomorrow I’m taking control of prince earlier in the game. ;o)

Canada’s Scrapbookign Crop for Kids is creeping up really really fast. It’s about 10 weeks before I leave for my whirlwind tour. I’ve created 2 new classes that I’m teaching over there.
This is a sneak peek for those of you that happen to be local to London (the canadian one :o) or Toronto.
This is the Canadian version of Passport to fun.

Ok congrats KirstyP, I’ll be sending you that mag.
Laters.

As I opened the curtains this morning I noticed how much lighter it is getting. That was a good start to the day. I don’t do cold well and to see the days becoming longer is always a natural high. I was, however, reminded that it is still winter by the barking cough from Jacob as he got out of bed. I told him to go back to bed, he needed to stay home. And actually it was probably out of pure guilt because he really should have stayed home yesterday, and I sent him, and looked so sick when he came home. So anyway, if I was one of those people that did the random things to be thankful for today, increasing sunlight hours and someone to play barbie with Abby would have been top of my list. I’m so bad at playing Barbie. I used to love it when I was little so when exactly did I lose that ability? And actually Jacob plays barbie pretty well. For a bloke ;o)

Ok so scrapping. I’m still finalising product and samples for CC07. At the moment it is the ‘constant Reminders’ class that I’m favouring most. This will change several times before the event, but at the moment it is clearly (like that?? Clearly?? That’s a pun ;o) it is clearly Constant Reminders I’m loving.

I got a second copy of Memory Makers July issue today. Yep, second issue. Someone in memory makers land was feeling incredibly generous. Anyone want it? Say so in comments and if there is more than one person I’ll draw a name over the next day or so and send it over… across… down,… where ever you may be :o)
Memory Makers went through a wee rough patch around nov/Dec this year but it truly is a fav magazine again now. Worth a lookie.

Talking of Memory Makers, the masters comp closes tomorrow. Good Luck to anyone that entered – it’s nearly been 3 years but I still remember the nerves. I actually won it on my 3rd year of trying to actually I remember the 3 years of nerves. lol.

Ok here is the final layout I created for the BasicGrey booth at CHA. This was with the ‘Mellow’ line. Yes it is Abby with the same poncho on again but she’ll have grown out of it by next winter so you’ll all just have to cope because I love the colours. And I have a layout on my desk with it again. lol.
Ok so BasicGrey Mellow. I was so spoilt to be able to use these papers, I think they were my fav.

laters

What a mixed bag this last few days has been. Thanks for your comments on the last post, I’m still not over it!

What has taken up a lot of time in the last few days for me? Read the whole long story here . Nutshell for those that don’t want to click the link is that the whole of the Queen & Co Dt artwork went missing at CHA. Not fun. Annoying and frustrating actually.

Mum and Dad are back!! YAY!! You didn’t know they were away? No, that is because I didn’t mention it, but they were away for a month and Abby and I spent a lot of time together :o) Love the girl. But she loves having Nannie to play with too :o)

Shark boy had his tooth out the other day. It was a quick fix, he braved the injections like a trooper, left the tooth out for the tooth fairy, she left him $1 and no glitter and he woke in the morning, didnt say a word, just put the $1 in his money box. Kids can be so different!

Ok so I have a few more BG layouts to share. This one is of Aden, my nephew. It is done with the new Recess papers from BasicGrey and this layout was on display at CHA. This is one of the favourites out of the layouts I did for them, I think.

I have another to share with the Mellow line I think. I can’t find the jpeg right now. It’s filed somewhere safe.

Laters

Is it just me or does the world move too quickly? Just 6 months ago it was the Summer holidays and I had an extra ‘son’ almost permanently in my home. He was a neighbour, 12 years old, and he came with all sorts of tricks and games. As the youngest in the family by quite a while he enjoyed being the big kid. He taught my boys how to play some amazing games. Instead of just playing with the b.d.man, he pulled them apart and set up a b.d.man warehouse and he taught them an imaginery game to win them back, piece by piece. He played yu-gi-oh cards. He wrestled, he taught them touch rugby, he even taught nearly-3-year old Abby a few things.
Mostly though, he taught my boys respect. For each other and for their toys. How to count the balls in the b.d.man so that they knew to find them all at the end of the game. How to count the yu-gi-oh or Pokemon cards and locate them at the end of the day so the deck was always full.
He showed the boys how to save up to buy something. His pride being a ‘drift’ remote control car. He loved that thing.
Tamagotchis. Those boys were obsessed. All 3 of them.

I guess I got used to having him around.

So he started high school this year and I knew it would happen, things started changing. He tried to sell my boys his Tamagotchi’s in March, I said no – secretly hoping he would realise in time he doesn’t have to go along with the high-school-cool thing. He turned 13 in April.

Tonight he rang and asked the boys to go over. My boys were in their pajamas at 6pm but trotted over, so cute. They both came back with boxes of toys.
They tipped them out and squealed with delight as all their favourite toys fell over the floor. The b.dman that the neighbour boy had bought with his Christmas money. The decks of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. The McDs Pokemon toys he begged us to grab when we were taking the kids there for dinner one day. My mouth dropped open as I saw his drift car.
And there at the bottom of the pile were 2 dead tamagotchis.

My boys were in heaven. So many toys. they couldn’t wait to put new batteries in the Tamagotchis. I really don’t know if they realise what it really signifies. I sit here with dinosaurs, b.dman, pokemon stuff all over the floor and can’t help but feel incredibly sad.

laters

Well we’ve done it. We hit the negative outside temperatures this morning. The sun is just coming up and I expect there is some wicked frosts forming as I type. Should make for great photos. Should make for a cold walk to school. One son will love it. He will revel in the cold. He will jump in the ice and laugh at his foggy breath. The other will whine and moan all the way how cold it is. I will secretly agree in my mind but pretend to be brave. Abby will be so rugged up in the stroller she will have no idea it’s even cold.

I didn’t share much from the last box of Tarisota I worked with. It was the “Life is beautiful” Collection and here is one of the layouts I created.

That’s an old pic taken down in Wellington years ago. That is still my favourite jersey. How sad is that?

I have the August Collection of Tarisota with me now. It’s more my colours and I’m excited to play. Sneak peeks are on Tarisota website already.

My big mission this week? Finalising classes for Canada.
Also pulling together my products and finalising details etc for Crafting Connection Nov 2007.
If you are thinking of going to this, register as soon as you can. At this point the classes are normally evaluated and some are made bigger, some are made smaller, swapped around within the venue etc it all makes a difference to what product I decide to grab in for the classes.
I have been asked personally what my fav of my three classes are. With Freestyle I had a definite favourite. This Crafting Connection I am thrilled with all three classes and seriously couldn’t pick a favourite. I also think I’m more excited about this event than I have been with the other Crafting Connections. The way it is structured, the time left available to socialise, how flipping confident I am in my amazing classes. lol. It all helps.

Happy crunchy frosty morning to you. Do I light the fire now while the kids are home and they freeze their bu tts off more when they go to outside? Or do we all sit in this freezing home and bear it until the kids have gone to school and I can light the fire. Ahhhhh dilemmas.

laters

Yes. I found the glitter. I used my best non-detectable tooth fairy skills to create a masterpiece on the note. I spread a little glitter around his bedside table and on the floor. And then once again I hid the glitter in a very safe place. And I washed my hands of the evidence. Again I felt like some sort of glitter criminal. The night’s work was done.
This was Monday night. TUesday morning was greeted with smiles from Jacob.

On Wednesday morning I was standing in the kitchen making the school lunches and I turned around and there was Jacob standing there, with tears rolling down his face and his hands on his hips. –frightened the heck out me -“THere is NO tooth fairy!!! YOU are the tooth fairy!”
Immediate thoughts of how I could have failed tooth-fairy-glittering-101 went thorugh my mind – I was so thorough.
“I put a tooth under my pillow last night and didn’t tell you and there is no money or glitter because the tooth fairy is YOU!!!”

What is a mother to say?
To say nothing of the fact that this is the teeth he wouldn’t leave out because he didn’t want the tooth fairy to take them away. If there was a referee watching this match I’d have called unfair on that one – I was totally set up.

So I used my best telling-fibs-mother-skills and told him perhaps it was because she had already paid for those teeth – or it wasn’t on the note – or whatever?~! *shrug*

So again, last night, we had the tooth fairy note out. And again last night I glittered and took teeth. And prayed to the God Of good tooth fairies that I got it right.

And this morning was met with smiles from Jacob. *phew*

Now i do need to add a little disclaimer here. Jacob is my perfectionist boy – I cringe addressing any of his extra-needs on this blog so I don’t often do it. He has Asp ergers Syndrome and obsessing about such things is his speciality. When he was 5 yo he was so obsessed with the tooth fairy and the possibility that she could come into his room at night he was having nightmares. After battling his fears for weeks I told him at 5 yo that she wasn’t real and his anxieties settled.

Come time when his first tooth fell out 18 months later, he remembered that Mummy had told him the tooth fairy wasn’t real and he came to me and asked “Mummy, did you just say that to make me feel better?” To which I answered that I did and that she was a real fairy. His answer at this point was that he thinks the fairy is in fact kind and gentle and pretty and leaves glitter around the room, and this makes him feel OK about leaving his tooth out. The whoooole tooth fairy problem grew from there.
As I said. Anyone with a child on the autistic spectrum will understand the obsession, and the need to have anything – including the process the tooth fairy has to go through – perfect.

Ok so let’s hope the story ends there for a while – I’m sure you all prefer to see layouts etc?!!

But it won’t. Because I have another son, Braden. Currently we call him “shark boy”. You know how sharks have two sets of teeth, like one set and then just inside they have another?
yep. Like this.

Those front teeth aren’t even wiggly. So today we made an appointment at the dental nurse because he needs a few of the front baby ones pulled out to make room for that adult one to move forward. We hope. Injections and all. Poor kid.
The good news is that he is a no-fuss kid. He’ll leave the tooth beside his bed and be happy there is a $1 coin waiting there in the morning.
The tooth fairy thanks him.

laters

Nothing like the pressure of being a fabulous mother, but this tooth fairy thing is harder than I thought. Jacob is on tooth number 6. The very first tooth he lost he left a note. I didn’t answer the questions on the note, I just left a lot of glitter around the place. This is where the pressure starts. Jacob is a child detective. If he even sees glitter in my scraproom that mildly resembles the tooth fairy glitter, he will click. So I hide the glitter.

I remember where glitter is hidden for tooth number 2. I hide it again afterwards, I feel like some sort of criminal sneaking around spreading tooth fairy glitter around the place.

Tooth number 3. Jacob wants to keep tooth. He doesn’t leave it for the fairy.
I am let off.

Tooth number 4. Repeat of tooth number 3.

Tooth number 5 he looses yesterday. He decides to leave all 3 teeth out for the tooth fairy but leaves a note for her only to take 2 of them. He still wants the money.
I am tired last night and get it wrong. I couldn’t find the glitter but at least I remembered to leave the money.
He wakes and starts to cry because obviously she did not leave glitter because she is trying to tell him she doesn’t care anymore. Really she was too freakin tired to go looking for said glitter.

Tooth number 6 is lost today and I suspect he is having tooth fairy hangover and that poor tooth was ripped out before it was really ready.
And so follows the note left beside the bed:

Dear God. May I find the tooth fairy glitter tonight. May I draw a heart in the space set aside for my name without somehow giving away that the heart looks like one that Mummy might draw. I pray that you let me get the glitter spread and put away without leaving any tell-tale signs around the place. May I do so quickly and quietly and without being busted by the year old child tooth detective. Amen.

laters.

Back to your regular schedule blogging.. I’ve been missing in action – stating the obvious there but in true teenage style, I’ll follow it up with good reasons. I’ll also promise to do better – well actually seriously, now that school is going back on Monday, I might get ownsership of my own computer back :o) (Will miss the kiddos though!)

CHA mainly – and some other work, but mainly work for CHA.
BasicGrey have 5 new lines and I was thrilled to be able to work with them , creating layouts for the CHA booth. These are just 3 of my layouts – there are more.
Periphery – greens, blues, grey-greens, vintage. Very cool. I found this one super easy to play with.

Then there is this one from Obscure. Now that I have finished working with Obscure it keeps calling my name. There is some really different papers in there. I’m fairly busy doing other assignments that I’m already assigned products for, and yet I’m itching tog et back and play with these papers. To me, they are something really different, some of them are challenging, I like that.

And Infuse. A fav. Easy peesy to create something beautiful.

Scenic Route – Layle has been keeping us up to date with lots of samples etc of the new lines coming out. They are all on her blog. I’m excited at the thought of new Scenic Route rubons, new chipboard embellihments etc. More diecuts arrows etc. You can also see them all by clicking on the new products part here.

Ok and Queen & Co have released their CHA products – over 16 new designs of felt – and self adhesive. An array of colours in 16 designs. Plus the seperate felt flowers and new brads and other embellishments. AND my fav – acrylic stamps.

I see Heidi Swapp has a tonne of new stuff coming out, I have been watching this blog here for details. (Just scroll down for images).

Ok so my next class kit is up at Aussie Ss – it is a double layout and looks terrible on the site – in the class I use acetate shapes etc from Heidi Swapp and you can’t see them on the scan. Here is a pic of the class – but even here it doesn’t look too good. Looks way better sitting on my scrap desk – that isn’t much help though ;o)

Ok so enough scrapping. Home stuff. I’m looking after my nephew for the night. 6 months old. My brother didn’t even have the courtesy to drop him off during good daylight-photo-taking hours. lol. Anyway. I forgot how cute 6 month old babies can be. I also forgot what a lot of work they could be. Bathing 4 kids and getting them ready for bed etc? I take my hat off to anyone that does it. I did not scrap tonight for the first night in ages, thanks to bubba. I did however wear a nice covering of pumpkin and potato on my jersey thanks to my obvious inability to realise how much damage failing grabbing arms can do when one is feeding a 6 month old baby. Ahhh all is forgiven, he is cute. For now. lol.

laters.

As 9pm Sunday closes in and the draw for the book giveaway there are a few thoughts going through my mind.
1. I never dreamt I’d get so many comments and wish I had more copies to give away.
2. I didn’t think I’d ever cruise so many blogs in one evening. Thanks to those of you that pumped the book on your blogs. Lots of extra names in the draw!
and 3. I wish it was still Saturday. lol. That Monday morning alarm comes all too quickly. ;o)

So I have a thousand names in the draw – ok so not quite a thousand. Ok so nowhere near it, but dramatics are allowed in blogland and since everyone else had their share of kiddie-he-took-my-toy and i-was-there-first type dramas today and I had to stay all sensible and adult-like, I just felt like letting it all loose and over exagerating a little there.
I digress.
Anyhow – it’s past 9pm now, well past now actually and hubby chose the name out the hat – which was actually a tupperware freezermates container and the winner is Pearl Maple (Mandy Collins), 1.46pm – so come on up pearl! Email me nic.paul(at) xtra.co.nz and I’ll send you a book!!!!

Loved a random quote I saw on one of the blogs somewhere – “I drink coffee so I can do stupid things faster and with more energy”. lol love that. I perhaps needed such energy to cruise all those blogs. lol.

Soooooooooooooo Sunday has been good – you get some nice days in July! *sarcasm* Today was one of those -I’m-sick-of-winter-I’m-so-glad-we-have-a-day-warm-enough-to-open-all-the-windows-and-air-this-place-out days. Love love loved it.
The kids played outside a lot of the day – I did insist Abby put boots on to go outside – gotta keep those little feet warm. I caught her outside without the boots on and asked where they were… her answer “They missapeared!”. I’ve not heard that one before. *noting it down!*

So it’s been a busy week – I haven’t blogged because I’ve been leaving the other post at the top but I’ve been a busy bee. I have been working on CHA booth layouts and finishing up the July tarisota kit “Life is Beautiful” The gallery went up today.
I tried to declare July “Scary bug month” at Tarisota but it seems I was the only one that obliged with the scary ladybird. lol.

I did a little extra with the ‘inklination’ limited edition this month. I used some cool inks and the bam bop stamps with my collection.
I made up this little wall hanging and I actually used the clear packaging from an acrylic stamp to put it on. hey. It was right there in front of me, ya know? Anyhow. Cute kid. Evana took the pic when Abby was just about 2 or 3 days old. Here are some images. Love the doodle frame stamps – you get 2 with the inklination limited edition this month. They reminded me of Zina Wright. Random useless piece of information there lol.

Anyway. Congrats Pearl. Email me.
Thanks so much everyone for playing the game.
laters

July 4th, this was the official release date of my book. I’m enjoying hearing from those that read it, I’m getting the occasional pic of my book being read come in my email too. Nice of you to send one Hera, I know that the smile on your face was really cos you won the America’s Cup… not because you were holding my book, lol – next time we won’t play at the finish line, we’ll get the next one….

So anyhow – today is the big ol’ wooooooohoooooooooooooooooo day!! YEA! Kind of the last milestone with the book. So I reckon we need to give one away. I have a brand spankin new copy of That’s Life right here beside me and it could have your name on it. All you have to do is leave me a comment and you are in the draw. AND if I happen to stop by your blog and see you mentioned the book and this draw, then I’ll add your name again. YES that is totally a marketing strategy – I’m not shy – and I’ll be honest there ain’t much chance I’ll be cruising many blogs in the next few days, lol. Unless of course I choose to read blogs over breakfast in the morning instead of the usual NZ Herald website because I’m sick of reading the reasons we lost the America’s Cup. So that is entirely possible.
Ahhh free stuff is good – leave me a comment (this post). I’ll close the draw Sunday 9pm, my time. (hmmm that’s about Sat midnight for the USA). let’s make this worldwide. Bring. It. On.

Edited to add: I see Blue Bazaar has my book now!! YEA!! Click here to go to the BB books page…
Ok so enough shameless self promotion. For today.

OK so I see that Aussie Scrap Source has the new 4×4 post up. We were all given the same 4 products and told to create something. This was the Crate Babybee, HS bird mask, BG oh baby ribbon and some dipsticks by WeRMemory Keepers. I created a layout about the zoo. The real zoo. Not what my house looks like at 5pm every night.
LOL.

laters