Monday, November 30, 2009

My First Award


Can I just state for the record that I am TOTALLY STOKED at receiving an award for my blog, particularly as at times it seems so like the ramblings of a mad-woman. (If you think this is mad you should see my OTHER blog).

I digress...

This evening when I checked the comments on my blog I was more than pleasantly surprised to find a comment letting me know that I had received an award from Julie of Engine3.

Now that I have stopped grinning (thank you so much Julie for finishing my week on such a high) it is my turn to pass on the Award to some blogs that I think are totally amazing and inspire me.

Now onward to the rules of this award:

- put the lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.

- nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.

- link the nominees within your post.

- let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

- share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.


I think this is a fabulous Award particularly for those of us who are relatively new to the whole blogging game. I for one have followed back up the chain of the awards and looked at some of those who have gone before me and found some amazing blogs to follow... but for now I take great pleasure in gifting these blogs my award for GREAT ATTITUDE or GRATITUDE.

  1. Carrie at Caz Dezign who inspires me online, in business, at workshops, at Scrap Camp, as a wife and mother and who is known as much for her drapes as her net curtains when it comes to creative scrapbooking;
  2. Glenna at Vegebuckets (and also your Niuean Princess blog) who has always been an amazing friend to me, keeps me sane, keeps me poor and who always blames me when we are late back to Scrap Camp after our shopping expeditions and who I love to bits despite this and who has inspired me to get my hands dirty in the garden;
  3. Tania (or Queen Tania as she likes to be called) at Queen Tania who is a wonderful friend to me, knows how to always make me laugh and who has the most amazing sense of humour and infectious laugh and who keeps me up until all hours scrapbooking and gossiping at Scrap Camp;
  4. Wendy at Miss Wendys who is one of the most amazing and creative women and new mother who's positive attitude always makes me feel fabulous and who is one of the most inspirational cooks I know;
  5. Gypsy at She.Share.Remember another of those quiet, unassuming and totally amazing creative goddesses who I am so grateful to have surrounded myself with and who I would love to spend more time with just to see her creative genius at work;
  6. The Creative Team at Delicious Scraps who's digital creations are so amazing and I just can't get enough of and who I continue to sing their praises about as much as I possibly can;
  7. Paula at Paula's Creations who creates more amazing digitial scrapping items that I can't get enough of;
  8. Becky at Page Maps who has inspired not only me but thousands of others with her page maps for scrappers and whos blog I need to read a bit more frequently to keep up with her amazing creations;
  9. Sark at Sark Journal because I am a Succulent Wild Woman who likes to eat Mangoes Naked;
  10. Ikea Goddess because I love this lady's style.
It was really tough to come up with a list of 10 blogs mainly because there are so many amazing blogs out there to look at. In the end I narrowed it down to the ones I look at the most frequently because I can't wait to see what you have shared with me recently.

Thank you for inspiring me and countless others.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Christmas Craft Challenge

It's now mid-way through November, Christmas is just around the corner and will soon be knocking on our door singing "I'm here, tough if you're not organised!!!"

This year it seems I have a lot more free time on my hands (though where it goes I am yet to work out), given I am yet to find any work. (Dear Santa for Christmas I would love a high paying job, full-time, close to home, interesting work, great atmosphere, lovely colleagues and not too much stress.) 

Sorry about the digression there... as I was saying, more time on hands, more time to fill and I definitely need to find something to do to get into the Christmas Spirit given it is probably going to be a very lean year!!


So this year I have decided to set my a Christmas Craft Challenge and I would love people (anyone actually) to join in on the challenge. Now I understand that you may want to know a bit more about it before you commit your valuable time and craft supplies so here is the gist of it...


From 1st December to 24th December every day (or every second day - whatever you think you can commit to) create a unique Christmas ornament or object for your tree, display or table and post a picture to my blog or a link to where we can see the finished product. You can do this alone or get the kids to join in and get creative with you. There are no limits to quantity, quality, materials, products or anything else other than that it must be Christmasy and everything must be unique.


Now for some ideas to get you thinking...
  • Christmas Crackers - make your own complete with Christmas snap, party hat, silly joke and gift inside.
  • Beaded Icicle decoration for your tree
  • Decorated Candle for on the Dining Table on Christmas Day
You don't have to go out and buy new products (unless you want to and can afford to); you can be like me and just try to use items from your craft stash.


As a starter in the next day of two I will post on this blog my Christmas Cracker Recipe. I have been using it for so many years I can just about do it blind-folded. It's very simple and the crackers look fantastic as part of the table setting. And let's be honest although no-one likes wearing the silly hat, but we all still do wear them and we all love fighting over who has the best joke, but most of all its the "BANG" when you pull your crackers apart that thrills kids of all ages.


Please leave a message if you are keen to join in, as well as a note as to how many ornaments or objects you will be doing.


I can't wait to see the finished items. Don't forget to take a photo and post either it or a link to the blog.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Bob the Builder & Tim the Toolman Taylor meet Paula the Perfectionist

I haven't exactly been creating pages as such over the past couple of days though technically I have been creative. And I did take pictures of the process so that I can scrap them!!!


My scrapbook studio is the double garage underneath the top story of our home. (We have a second garage which is why I have the luxury of having the whole garage to myself... well I have to share with the laundry but that doesn't take up much room.)

The problem with the garage is a distinctinve lack of space particularly given the amount of scrapbooking and now jewellery making stuff I have.

So the Warehouse has some storage cupboards on sale so I went and bought two more to go with the two that I already have. I have spent the past two days, building and decorating the cupboards and then rearranging the garage so they could fit. (Ok that bit is still a work in progress)

Here they are, well at least the top halves, so you can read the sayings on them.

I have to say (well the perfectionist in me does), that unfortunately the quality of the paint job / coating on the new cupboards was a little disappointing. When I pulled the backing paper off having rubbed on the rub-ons, in a couple of places some of the coating tore off. Bummer, I need to find a solution, but they don't look too bad.
All I need to do now is resort the entire studio... any volunteers??

Monday, November 9, 2009

Christmas Presents

This year I am trying to be surprisingly organised for Christmas. It does help having extra time on my hands at the moment due to not working though to be honest I seem to have less time and more to do at the moment.

Anyway have finished my mother's Christmas present. I bought her a glass pendant at the Pirongia markets a month or so ago and now I have finished a bracelet to go with it. The colour is not a perfect match, but you shouldn't be able to tell give their proximity.



















Here is the finished item.(And updated picture)

















Now so long as my mother doesn't come and look at this... it should still be a surprise on Christmas Day!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

More Creative Cleaning

It's finally Friday - at last!!! Have spent much of this week sorting and cleaning. Here are pics of the last couple of tasks completed. 

Have re-done all my ribbons. Now multiple ribbons per bag so less bags used, but still looks the same in terms of volume. Over 450 different ribbons... I have a problem lol.



 And my beads are now all sorted by colour in various boxes.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

I'm so Spoilt!!

I have been downloading and snaffling one or two digital "freebies" so that I can get back into my digital scrapping. I say this as I lost everything I had when my darling husband accidentally downloaded an email with a virus which "ate" all my emails and C Drive.

Along the way I have found some absolutely amazing sites and some incredible designers who I have become a huge fan of. One of these is a lovely lady by the name of Paula (great name). We have emailed a couple of times about digital scrapping and stuff... and I was so totally overwhelmed and overjoyed to receive back a special gift from the charming and delightful Paula... which I have attached below. 

If you want to take a look at some her freebies for your own digital work, you can find Paula at "Paula's Creations" - http://paulasglitters.blogspot.com/

I'm sure you will love her creations as much as I do.





Creative of Sorts

In the broad sense of creativity, including the pre-planning and organisation that goes into being creative, I have been very creative over the past couple of days. That is to say I have been very busy sorting and organising all my flowers so that my future creative processes and endeavours should in theory flow a little easier.

My existing flower storage facility was over flowing to the point where I had quite a pile of flowers looking for a home. I had three 5-drawer mini storage sets that housed all my flowers by colour but it was full to the brim. 

I recently bought 2 sets of 6 glass mini storage jars - like mini versions of those cookie jars that have a extra flat surface so they can sit on an angle which makes it easier to get the cookies out. I picked up each set of 6 jars for $6.oo from one of the Asian variety stores here in Papakura. I would have bought more, but that was all they had (Sorry to everyone hoping they might get a set as the storage option of our Christmas Challenge).

So the past two days have been spent sporting and re-arranging all my flowers. I now have my flowers sorted still by colour, but split between large flowers - now exclusively in the drawers; and small flowers - now in the storage jars.

I think they look premo and very decorative and I may have to find somewhere to store them outside of their current location in the cupboard. Maybe those mini shelves by the studio front door which once housed nails and screws and other manly things that usually reside in a garage.

Anyway here they are... no I'm not going to count how many flowers I have, suffice it to say... LOTS!!!


Large Flowers - L to R & Top to Bottom
Blue, blue, teal, green, purple
Pink, pink, orange, yellow/orange, yellow
White, cream, brown, black, red



Small Flowers - L to R by row

Orange, red, pink, pink, purple, blue, teal/grey
Yellow, white, green, brown

Cream, black

Monday, November 2, 2009

I Have Actually Been Busy...

I know it has been a few days (ok weeks) since my last blog, but I have been busy and I have been creative, though perhaps not as busy being creative as I would have liked still I do have evidence to share with you of said creative endeavours...

Hopefully some semblence of chronological order...


Nappy Cake created for Hannah's Baby Shower. Hannah is Jayden's sister and Sonia-Marie's Auntie.

This was my second attempt at a nappy cake... the first being the one I created for Lavinia before Sonia-Marie was born. (Step-daughter, mother of Granddaughter). This was slightly bigger but this is what it looked like...
 


I've also been working on some off-the-page scrapping. A good friend of mine and I swap CD's and files and the like on a semi-regular basis. I had mine sitting in CD cases, kind of strewn about the place and I decided that I wanted to keep them all together, so I found some boxes at Spotlight, painted and then decorated them. Inside I put some CD sleeves, that we can slide in any new CD's or DVD's are they are received. The two are coordinated (cos I'm like that) and believe it or not the papers on the lids are from the same patterned piece of paper...




 Top - Box Lids side by side



Second - Inside Left box




Third - Inside right box



Bottom - Outside Left box




Last but not least for this blog... has made my Christmas Cards for this year... and I had them finished before 1st November (assuming I have made enough).

They are the same except I have three variations of the Christmas Tree - Black, Silver and White Glitter.

 Promise not too leave it so long until my next blog - honest!!!