Back from Melbourne

I had a WONDERFUL four and a bit days in Melbourne last week.  This year’s Stampin’ Up! convention was held there.  The last time I was in that wonderful town was back in ’98.  I know!! That is SUCH a long time ago!!  Funny part was that for a time, I was in the same part of town because it was for a work thing that had us attending the convention or expo or whatever it was at the convention centre.

This time was a whole lot more fun – (although the first two days of the previous statement don’t qualify as THEY were fun being spent with my good girlfriend, Claire, who was living there at the time and they were definitely awesome times!!).  This time I was part of our Stampin Up team that was staying in a fabulous apartment right in behind the convention centre… and DFO.  Stampin and shopping – in Melbourne… simply BLISS!!

I tried taking a photo from our 29th floor looking over the fab nightscape we had each night.  It was through the window as well, the weather was slightly more akin to Invercargill that Ayers Rock if you know what I mean…. (sorry Mrs Frizz!!!) and I wasn’t going to venture out on to our balcony.

On the first morning it was a bit gloomy – but I had a wonderful experience of noticing a hot air balloon rising from that space by the shortest high rise slightly to the right of centre…. and then noticing it wasn’t alone – at least two others were a bit higher in the sky and about to disappear from our view as we looked right.  I didn’t grab my camera as it was one of those moments you wanted to see rather than miss while you grabbed the camera!  Amazing though!

Now I did take a PILE and a half of photos but I can’t share them here… a lot involved upcoming products and sneak peeks that we demos simply aren’t allowed to share before certain dates.  But I can tell you I am totally excited about what we have coming up.  And the clever people doing the presenting and showing us how to use stuff – impressive talent. And that would be a massive understatement.

With it being my birthday weekend (a certain milestone may have been reached…..) I was pleased to have some great company to share the weekend with.

And to finish off, we had the awards dinner where we all got glammed up.

L-R: Judith, Sharlene, Me, Emma (NZ Country Manager), Liz, and Broni.  The lovely Laura was also staying in our apartment but stepped out for this pic…. Laura is an aussie from Adelaide and was sooo much fun.

I also came home with a lot of items from momento mall (the “shop” of convention souvenirs…. which is pretty fun) but the best thing….. FIVE pairs of shoes none of which was full price thanks to DFO.  Heaven much??!  Somehow, I managed to get enough stuff into my Trelise Cooper countdown bag to take on board and had EXACTLY 23kg to check-in.

All in all…?  It was definitely a Happy Birthday to me.  Think Hubby will definitely insist on a party rather than a convention weekend next time

Spoiled Rotten

Ok, so I’ve been 38 for a whole week now. Kept that one quiet didn’t I??! So different from last year but hey, you have to have change. It’s only been quiet out here in blogland though. On the day, I was truly spoiled by friends and family and it made me realise just how lucky I am to have the friends (and family!) I have.

All the birthday cards I received have been handmade – including one from a neighbour and friend who doesn’t consider herself a cardmaker at all, but knows how much I love them. Awesome. Her son E (who happens to be one of Mr 8′s besties) knocked on my door a little after dinner time and was standing on the doorstep with a little cupcake soap box. He’d brought it just for me from the $2 shop…. which I thought was just about the nicest thing. Of course he was completely grossed out by the fact I kissed and hugged him by way of thanks!!

Earlier in the day I set out for an unknown destination thanks to *The Girls* – Beverley, Janine, and Sarah. By way of some instructions that had been sent to me I was a little wary that I might be getting into some sort of Amazing Race!! A bonus was that I discovered a parking place in town that was pretty darn cheap and I’ll certainly be keeping that in mind for the future. Our first destination was Martha’s Pantry where a High tea had been organised.

This place is truly amazing – very cute, and inspirational. The tea is served in real teacups, the food is in lady-like bite sized morsels but Oh-So-Tasty-And-Goooooood. And to add to the overall ambience, the place was filled with modern handmade crafts.

Thanks to Beverley and her great camera….. I realised just as I was leaving home that mine had still-flat batteries. I reckon Bev’s photos would have been better than mine anyway so I think it might be a good thing I hadn’t charged mine!!

After our morning tea that did for lunch and afternoon tea as well (…..we did linger you know!), the rest of the late morning was spent wandering the wonderful upper Cuba Street where we found Minerva – simply the best bookshop dedicated to all things related to textile crafts, and Madame Fancy Pants – another store just stcked with all things good and handmade. Bliss!! And just to rund out the day, we finally headed over to Karori where Inky Pinky is located as is Piece by Piece (a fantastic little quilt shop). It is safe to say our minds were just stuffed full of inspiration and I think we all came home thinking of the next project we had in mind!

After school on thursdays I looked after Donna’s son, C, (another of Mr 8′s besties too as it happens). Well, he came home with my Mr’s with a wee package that looks worse for wear in this pic simply because I had to open it. Clever Donna has worked out how to reuse a pull-tabbed can. Apparently she opened the can from the bottom with one of those magnetic openers, washed the can after emptying its contents, refilled with goodies and sealed it back up again before decorating it. Man, that just had me stumped and I was worried about using the pull-tab… but you’ll see that lasted for all of a few seconds!!

At dinner time I was presented with the gifts from teh family… Hubby brought home a lovely sparkly Pandora Bead having taken heed of my desire for colour to be added:

And the boys gave me a Soda-Stream! Now, I need to tell you that it was something that I had suggested to Hubby as a gift from the Mr’s as I knew they would love it too and it was coming up for a good discount on the Farmers Cardholders Day. We have had a lot of fun making the drinks over the past week – and you just know the Mr’s love the ….errr…”Buzzing” sound!

And to cap it off, Hubby and I went with Donna and B to watch the latest Star Trek movie on Friday. I can tell you that choice raised a few eyebrows among the mums at school…. But let me assure you all that it was indeed my choice – I love sci-fi books and movies and having seen the shorts for this movie, it was one that I really wanted to see.




Make N Take Parade

Yesterday as I was putting in the photos from the weekend, I realised that I hadn’t actually taken individual photos of the Make N Takes that we organised for the Waikanae Convention…. So here they are.

A gorgeous little gift box and card in one from Donna with the most adorable owl on the front. The owl is made with various SU punches and I think he comes up pretty well.

The front flops down to reveal the inside panel where you can include a sentiment. And the box is just a perfect size for a small gift.

Next, Vicky demonstrated a cute handbag card that she was inspired to recreate based on a card that she had been given for her birthday. It was really very simple and I think you’ll agree, packs a “wow!” factor.

I added a little extra embellishment by way of a crimper – love the effect it gave to leaves.

And lastly, I had to come up with a Make n Take on the fly. While getting ready, I hadn’t really decided what it was I was going to do and certainly hadn’t organised kits like Donna and Vicky had. Then a light bulb went off and I decided to demonstrate this: a card portfolio. I’d seen this somewhere in one of my many recent blog hopping exercises and thought at the time how simple it seemed. I didn’t however take note of who it was that had demonstrated it or any measurements for it! So, this is my take on it – and thoroughly made up on the fly as I was working out what seemed like good measurements as we went along!! LOL

I think it makes a perfect gift for  Mother’s Day or maybe a birthday. The idea is to present some co-ordinated cards and envies inside and the recipient is good to go.

A peek in the inside. It holds I’d say three cards and envies in each pocket.

While I demonstrated just the actual cover and let the girls choose how to further embellish the front, I wanted to have a little more detail on it. So I decided on a bit of Styled HodgePodge that I have had sitting around since I took part in a product share. I’m loving the look and think I may just have to get some more!!

Well that wraps up what we got up to on the organised front. We all continued to work on our own things and I’d just like to point you in the direction of Donna. It has to be said – she is a whizz with punches!! Take a look at her lovely Mother’s Day cards – beautiful little potted flower cards – and lots of detail with that scalloped punch. I reckon if you leave her a comment and asking for details, she might be kind enough to share the details…..

Convention Waikanae

What a beautiful weekend we had weatherwise here in Wellington. And it was just as lovely a little further north along the Kapiti coast and specifically in Waikanae. Just right for a convention.

You see, the wee plot we had going was to bring Convention to our Stampin’ Up friend, Keryn. Having set the date for our girly weekend away, and then finding out that Keryn had decided not to attend the Australian convention which just happened to be on the same dates as our weekend, Donna came up with the idea to bring convention to Keryn. Vicky and I thought it was a brilliant idea and between the three of us, we concocted plans to ensure the things that conventions are known for were very much part of Convention Waikanae.

Namely, the goodie bag:

Sewn and stamped by Vicky and myself, with all sorts of goodies to be found inside. Things like this cute wee shoe from Donna

Donna's Shoe

and bath salts, gift boxes with chocolates, a mini-album etc. All good things to find.

The result was brilliant: Keryn was almost speechless. For those that know Keryn, you’ll agree this is quite an achievement

During the course of the weekend, we all took turns at presenting our Make’N'Takes – just like convention classes. ETA: The individual images aren’t on my camera so watch for these to be added later – they are really cool!

A friend of Donna’s, Sally, who wasn’t even attending but thought it was a great idea and sent along a little challenge pack. Included was a bunch of sketches and I used one to inspire me to do a quick card for my mum.

Local girl, Jackie, was also able to pop in as a day-attendee and brought with her lots of sunshine in the form of bunches of Yellow Chrysanthemums. Plus we also had a convention dinner organised – the ritual visit to Cobb & Co in Paraparaumu. Fantastic!

There was also plenty of time for free time and we were all very productive. This is the end result of our combined efforts.

One thing I didn’t get to bring home was a wee card I’d made for Keryn as it is her birthday today. Keryn isn’t really a girly-girl – all pink and frilly. But I had a lot of fun making this card for her – right in front of her! – while she had no idea she was the intended recipient. It was handed over at the end of the weekend and she was thrilled to get it. Sometimes even the most non-girly-girls deserve pink frills and flowers!

Why don’t you pop over to the birthday girl’s blog and wish her a Happy Birthday too.

Celebrating {Inter}National Scrapbooking Day

You know how America has a myriad of “holidays” – almost one for every day of the year it seems? Well, Saturday May 2 is no exception. That is their National Scrapbooking Day. And being a dedicated (ignore the fact I haven’t done so much this year!) scrapper myself, I’ll be joining in for sure.

Not by actual planning though. No, that is not how this girl operates! Such things are purely coincidental in my case!!

Last October myself and three other crafty girlfriends put our diaries together to ensure there was a weekend free that none of us were allowed to cancel out from. Looking through the diaries, this weekend was the first date that could be set in concrete. I am so NOT the only busy bee in town.

So, tonight, a winged car leaves from Tawa and the blue Oma-mobile leaves from the Hutt, each carrying two occupants and the best part of a scrap/cardmaking shop between us. The cars and their occupants will meet in Waikanae where we will be enjoying a bottle of wine, lots of laughter, chat, fun and games and best of all great company – for two fantastic nights. Oh yeah, there should be a bit of crafting going on as well. We’ve been counting down the sleeps and my share of the “shop lot” is spread out in order to determine what to take. Actually, it’ll all be packed and taken because it really is that hard for me to decide what to leave behind!!

If you hear lots of laughter and general mayhem as you drive through the Kapiti coast this weekend, you’ll know it is four friends having a whale of a time. Especially as there’s something afoot………

Oh, and for those of you not coming to Waikanae, you can still join in the {Inter}National Day by checking out Scrappin’ Patch as they have plans too.

…and that’s a wrap for 2008

So hard to believe that we are at the very end of another year. I was thinking this morning how this time of year is always spent reflecting. Lists come up for everything – what was good, bad, ugly, hot, not, coming up, going down, Top 10 of this, that and the other. I haven’t even glanced at the TV listings, but I’m sure there will be the usual retrospectives on too, leading into the countdown.

Funny too, how ringing in the New Year with a party, drinks and lots of singing seems to hearald in the NEW. A new beginning for most everything. The new year brings in the chance to draw a line under whatever else has just happened, turn a new page, start with a clean slate.

And while I am unlikely to actually be anywhere but the land of nod come the magic hour, I’m still drawn to reflect upon the year me and mine have had. And this year, I feel it’s been by and large a good one. Lots of room for improvement, yes certainly (….those decluttering plans are yet to be effected for one!), but lots of things that we’ve been able to celebrate at the time, and again upon reflection.

This afternoon, while I was mucking around in my photo albums on the computer, I was trying to identify the few photos I want to print for the December page I’ve got ready thanks to the SBO comp. These photos really need to be the essence to just capture what our December was like this year, because they will all be about 1″ square. And as I was going through them, I was having a hard time trying to figure out each picture to represent the day I’m filling in on the layout.

I’ve selected the ones I’ll use on the page, but I also pulled a little something together as I was playing around in Picassa.

This one doesn’t feature other faces as I haven’t permission to pop them here, but it gives you the flavour of our December I think.

It covers days 1-25 in our month, and features:

• our advent calendar
• decorating the tree
• waiting in the forever queue to see Santa at Kirkaldies
• a christmas recital
• getting the real feel of christmas at the Eastborne Community carols night
• one of the “Fiiiiiiiiive Golden Cats” from the end of school assembly
• lillies, kind of like the Christmas lillies my mum used to always have in the house at this time of year
• decorating gingerbread men on christmas eve with friends here
• and Christmas Day itself.

I love how Picassa collages let you do stuff like this. And I’m going to print a very similar one for another December page. Maybe that’s how I’m spending my New Year’s Eve: scrapbooking!!

And that really brings my blog to a close for 2008. I wish a very Happy New Year to you all, hoping 2009 brings you lots of goodness and happiness.

See you round the place on the same bat-channel in 2009

I’m on holiday already

…. or my brain is at least! I keep writing these fantastic, funny blog posts in my head. And then promptly forget to actually come and type them up. Something to do with the weather I am sure of it… it’s simply too much like holiday weather to be getting things done.

I’m almost done with the christmas card making. I’ve started writing in them. I’ve finished the newsletter – and have started to print them as needed. One teacher’s gift has been made and given. I’ve thought about the baking I was planning on doing. Might still do some – gingerbread men I think.

The best thing so far is that I am really looking forward to Christmas this year. I feel really excited about the Mr’s ripping open their gifts (far too many of them because I have gone a weeeeee bit overboard this year!) This is such a far cry from where I was at mentally and emotionally last year. When mentioning this among friends last week, one was kind enough to point out that I’ve done a bunch of work to make it so. But while that may well be the case, I also think it helps that I’m taking pressure away by not worrying about what I should be doing….. taking the time to enjoy what I am doing.

Like the Christmas in the Park in Avalon over the weekend. Totally fun for the kids – and great to see it making a comeback (it’s been a few years between drinks). Left my camera at home though… so hoping that some of Hubby’s cellphone pics will do the job.

Like lunching with Beverley, Sarah and Janine last week. Then going to a crop in Otari the next day. Spending time on Friday night with other girlfriends, having enjoyed a family night of dancing and sausage sizzle.

In amongst all of that, I have been creating. Mainly Chrissy cards. In one of two designs. This second design is pinched from Sarah….

So very, very simple to do. Yet so very effective, don’t you think? Sarah, the wonderful girl, even lent me the stamps and inks to recreate the look myself at home.

And while I’m showing some of the creativity going on around here, take a look at these little goodie bags….

Little 3″ totes, just perfect for holding some notecards, or little gifts of appreciation. Plus ultra quick and easy to do – just what you need at this time of year! Take a look at this tutorial if you would like to see how easy it is to make one for yourself.

Fun and Games

Last night saw my girlfriend and I launch our craft group at the local community centre. It’s something that has been talked about for a while and finally fitting in our plans with the community centre’s co-ordinator and all our schedules, we finally got it all done and dusted.

I was a little nervous about how many people we would get (or not get!) so roped in a couple of loyal friends as part of our rent a crowd. We needn’t have worried too much though: despite the torrential rain in the evening, we got 12 bodies along.

Not bad! Hopefully the support will continue and may even grow as the group will start properly in the new year.

We had four demonstrations /make and takes planned – and I think they went down pretty well. It took a little longer than I thought it might have – but that was largely due to the fact we hadn’t told people to bring their own supplies. We figured that people wanting to give it a go probably wouldn’t have things like trimmers etc hanging around their place.

One of the items I demonstrated was a little hanging treat box. It’s perfect for decorating the tree with instead of (or as well as!) candy canes, teacher’s gifts, or just as a little thing to brighten someone’s day.

Details: Stampin Up! stamps, wintergreen DSP, soft sage ink and cardstock, tag and word window punches, ribbon plus half a velcro spot as closure.

Inside is a Cadbury Magic Elf chocolate bar….yum!! You could easily put another kind of bar around the same size as a Freddo Frog bar. Note too that while I used a punch to create the inside opening, you could easily do this with a craft knife if you don’t have the punch.

If you like the looks of this, check out the tutorial from Angie Kennedy Juda right here.

Plus…. having made this after SBO’s week 4′s challenge announcement to make a christmas ornament or other decoration… I’m thrilled that I will be able to say I’ve completed the challenge for this week too. I’ve made about 6 now!

Donna demonstrated a great mini-pizzabox which makes an awesome little gift box, plus a cute little angel made from 3 punches. Go take a look here to see pics of those – plus if you like the looks of them, I’m sure Donna will send you instructions if you leave her a comment

The world keeps spinning

…and the days keep passing. I am ALWAYS amazed at how quickly time can pass. Especially when you have 101 things you want to get on and do and somehow not enough hours in the day to achieve it all. So, it’s been a busy week around here. Mostly just recovering from those exams. I’ve been surprised at how tired I’ve felt in the week to 10 days since they were done. Apparently I was running on adrenaline for a good month or so before hand and now that has all left, drained was what was left.

Instead of leaping into all the planned projects I had in mind, they’ve been started in a more piecemeal fashion. Which is OK, because I get to enjoy doing things slowly. And enjoy the fun of being in the moment a little more too.

Moments like creating stuff for Beverley who has a birthday coming up – AND a scrapping retreat in Aus. How cool is THAT??! I’ve given her the bits and pieces already, so I’m going to share here:

I know Beverley likes her birds, so I just had to use the Always birdie – and I really l like him in the Sage Shadow colour! The sentiments are Verve – I’m totally in love with their sentiments. Very much not overly mushy but still lovely. They have a release party coming up next week – and I think a little birdie may have shown me some of the new sets….. totally lovely!!

First use of Silver bells Glimmermist. Such an easy way to pop a bit of shimmer and glitz on a project. The ribbon was certainly celery – and in my mind’s eye it was not quite working with the colours. So I sponged a hint of sage shadow on it and it worked. But you know what?? Certainly celery and Sage Shadow DO work very  nicely together – check out the wintergreen paper collection in the Stampin Up catelogue!

I’d purchased a few charm squares of cupcake fabric for my gift (another of Beverley’s loves!). I had popped out to Sawmiller’s Quiltery in Upper Hutt (that is a whole other post in itself… the yummy fabric, the amazing quilts…..!) and the bag was perfect as the gift bag. So I added a few touches and there it was.

Having done a spot of crafting in order to prepare, I was looking forward to getting together with the girls at the James Cook. Sarah and I took the car in – so easy to get to as it is right off the motorway. So hard to get out from – for four hours it cost us $34!!!! Daylight robbery. Had I known that, I would have organised to take the train – or even park in a completely different place. But because we were doing the High Tea there, it made sense to park there as well. Not again!!

A sample of the High Tea – and it was delicious!!

The birthday girl – arranging the composition of her photo. This is why I’m a snapshotter rather than a photographer!!

After enjoying a good old catch up and chat and food and endless cups of tea and coffee, we walked a few of the calories off by wandering around the Kirk’s christmas shop. Birds are everywhere this year!! I bought a couple of gorgeous red, feathery fellows for my tree.

The following day was the 31st – Halloween. This isn’t something that I’ve really got into before, but after the party our neighbours had last year, the Mr’s were totally looking forward to it again this year. L wasn’t up for organising a huge bash again as she had a new baby. However, it wasn’t going to get overlooked and we did a much smaller scale thing. Pizza and beer (yum!) for dinner, a couple of mates dressing up and a spot of doorknocking. The kids loved it – and got an amazing haul. The neighbours were very generous – and some got into the spirit of it all by dressing up, or making hte kids do something.

The first time they were asked what was their trick, they were stumped. then Mr 7 decided he had the perfect trick. Ear farts.

Yes, really.

The kids all thought that was fantastic so he got to perform the trick over and over. And over again.

Is that a genetic thing? Boys and fart noises from any part of their bodies??? !

The H’s.

Trick or treat! Mr 7 was a vet, Mr 4 was a sparkly wizard. See Mr 7′s pet carrier? He managed to persuade people not only to pop items in his trick or treat bag, but also into his pet carrier for Rusty pup. Hmmmmmm.

Baby L was also dressed up in her pram as a fairy – totally cute as a three month old. I was a sparkly witch with a sparkly purple hat, and not to be left out was Angus, the pirate dog!

This just in from SENZ…..

So I was at SENZ yesterday and today – and will be again tomorrow. Yesterday was the busiest day, I had two classes. One was distressing and dimension with Donna Meuli from SBO, the other a Family Heritage on through Create. Loved both of them. Will be posting layout pics later – cos I haven’t got time now! Plus a couple need a few finishing touches. Only had an hour to look around the stands yesterday.

Now, there’s my bugbear. I shall just say it once cos I just have to get it out there. The stands were appallingly lacking. I mean, it just seem like there wasn’t that many there and one in particular rubbed me up the wrong way with their attitude. (Like, expecting people from out of town and with no transport to travel in order to see what the store really stocked). There didn’t seem to be that many (I mean, around in an hour and I was more or less done!) Plus, there were no means of getting cash to spend at the stores (and there were a few) that didn’t have EftPos. And then there was the lack of make n takes. You know, the fun of just having a go. I just didn’t get it. My only other experience was SENZ at Palmy and it was totally buzzing by comparison.

OK, so having got that part off my chest, the rest was GREAT!! The classes: totally fun and do-able. Meeting people: having people come up to me, having recognised me from forum avatars and greet me with “Hi, Scrappy!” – totally weird, but really fun! The Sketchbook dinner last night…  girls at Cobb & Co. So fun to catch up with the forum girls and meet some more. Just AWESOME!

So, I went back on a fantastically gorgeous day and completed my last class, which was beading with Trina. Loved it. Got a very cool Fiskars apron: I have a scrapping uniform now!! Then I scoped out a few more things I was hoping to get. I also spotted a set of Nestabilities that I have just been craving since, well,  forever! I caved and got them this morning… Stamp Zone had the full sets at $127 which wasn’t that much more than I could have got in from Australia.

Of course, I’m going to have to wait about 10 days before I get to play. *Insert the biggest groaning moan with eye rolling here!*

The last thing for the weekend I need to do is go back tomorrow and help at Keryn’s class. Looking forward to it. And from what I heard around the place, it’s a goodie.

And just because I haven’t had a photo for a while, here’s one now:

Scrappy Stash

And to finish a great day…. my little bro (the 31 year old, yeah… real little!) called while I was in the middle of my shopping. He got engaged last night!! Woooohoooooo!!

Now, this is really funny, because as Sarah and I were chatting on the way home after dinner last night, I made mention of my little bro and how he had this wonderful girlfriend and I hoped that one day they would get married. And I swear, within 2 minutes of that statement, my phone rang. It went unanswered because it was in the back and I was driving. But it was G…. calling to let me know he and E were engaged! How fun-spooky is that??!