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Two stunning layouts by Anke
A classic and very cool page by Jana:
Loved how Julie used Worn Edges here:
And this by Linda, using Ripped and Stitched templates, is just wonderful:
And Steph used "Raspberry Sundae" for this gorgeous page about her sleepy puppy:
There's loads more inspiration and ideas for scrapbooking layouts in the Designer Digitals ideas gallery.
A new digital scrapbooking kit in summery, ice-cream colours at Designer Digitals:
Charity Kit to raise money for Red Cross work in Japan in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami.
100% of the profits of this megakit, called "For Humanity" and containing papers and elements from all the Designer Digitals designers, will go to the American Red Cross.
1. I think we have had the last sea swim of the season. It has been absurdly hot for the past few weeks, more like mid-summer than autumn. So last weekend, after lunch with the neighbours, we jumped in the car and went to Thorne Bay. By then it was late afternoon and not really summery at all, but we braved the waves because you HAVE to have that last swim. Otherwise the swim you had weeks ago was the last swim but you didn't realise it at the time, and didn't appreciate it enough. It's all about drawing a line under summer and moving on.
(You may still end up having another swim but that is a BONUS swim and not to be confused with the official last swim at all).
The official last swim ended quite abruptly when we were having what Daughter-Two calls a "watery romance" ( a group hug while jumping up and down in the sea). The Husband said "oh, there's a jellyfish" and Daughter-Two charged out of the water and onto the beach with great determination.
She's been reading "Odious Oceans" and knows more than she should about poisonous sea creatures.
2. I wished we COULD have had a bonus swim on Wednesday when we went out to Motuihe island on a school trip.
It seemed cruel to be out there on a beautiful and warm day, but banned from the beach and instead repotting seedlings and planting trees. Which was still fun, though, in a very grubby sort of way.
Here's Daughter-Two walking back to the ferry. You can see the city in the distance:
3. The highlight of the trip for most of them was the ride back to school on the top deck of a double-decker bus. Even the teacher and other parent helpers had never done it (since double deckers are a novelty here). The children had a great time trying to collect waves off everyone we passed and looking down at the top of other cars and buses
Unfortunately for someone, one of the things they spotted was a purse lying on the roof of a sporty little red car as it passed us by ..........
4. I have finally finished the album of Daughter-One aged 12 months to two years old. Just at the end I decided to experiment with taking stills from the home video of that year, since we used to take more video than photographs back then. (Now it is completely the reverse).
I simply used Gadwin screen print capture which I already have on my PC. The quality is not great but I loved the images I captured,which I used for these two pages:
(Bookworm brush and word art by Anna Aspnes - ExLibris add-on brushset)
It was also fascinating to watch the video again. I called Daughter-One in to watch a segment of her trying to splash The Husband with muddy water, with a gleam in her eye as she giggled "Get Daddy!". She ended up watching the whole video, more than a little amazed at the things she came out with at such a tender age. I ended up making another page all about the things she said as a toddler.
5. Something very sweet and summery coming to the store this weekend. Here's a sneak peek:
This will be short and sweet - I just got back from a trip to an island in the harbour which involved a bus ride, a ferry trip, planting of numerous trees, another ferry trip and a final bus ride all in the company of 120 nine and ten year olds.
Enough said.
Here's some inspiration from the ideas gallery at Designer Digitals .......
Julie used the new Rocket to Mars kit, and I love the result:
Jen made this adorable page with "Gran's Garden" kit:
Jess used "Walk This Way" for this fun layout:
And Kathleen used "In Distress No.03" paper plus goodies from "Delighted" for this very pretty page:
If you are looking for not-quite-plain background papers, then this is a really useful pack:
Everything available at Designer Digitals.
New in store at Designer Digitals: a retro spaceman digital scrapbooking kit (complete with determined little astronaut) plus new date buttons:
digital scrapbooking space kit, digital scrapbooking astronaut, digital scrapbooking retro boy kit
1. The Husband and daughter-two went camping on the weekend. This required the purchase of:
- a tent
- two blow up beds
- gluten free sausages
- marshmallows
After organising the packing of all this plus the sleeping bags, insect repellant, sunblock, camping lantern, clothes plus the back-up camera (charged and ready to go), I waved them off. They returned 24 hours later tired and very happy but without a single photo being taken! "Excuse me, what is this family's ethos?" I asked The Husband but he just shrugged apologetically. So I shall have to take his word for it that they had a wonderful time toasting marshmallows on a bonfire on the beach, chatting to retirees and swimming. I KNOW they had fun on the jumping pillow at the campsite because I rang the very gruff camp manager to see if they had arrived safely (The Husband having failed to ring as promised because his phone was out of range). "It's a very tall guy and a very bouncy little girl" I said, before he gave up being gruff and burst out laughing and said "I know just who you mean! She IS bouncy isn't she? And so happy! And she is having agreat time bouncing on the pillow right now".
2.I had never heard of Clay Marzo until a facebook friend posted this video. (Don't be put off by the sub-title, its irony is clear at the end). I love Tony Attwood, he says it so perfectly.
3. Someone who definitely doesn't say things perfectly is former politican turned shock jock Michael Laws (now there's a CV to envy) , who this week was putting the boot into a young Christchurch man with Asperger's who has a fixation with light fittings which in the past he has been given permission to remove from buildings awaiting demolition. Unfortunately in the crazy couple of days in the wake of the earthquake he was caught by police in a wrecked building (which is apparently earmarked for demolition) looking for light fittings for his collection and was, understandably, arrested for looting. While in police custody he suffered a black eye.
Laws wrote a nasty little piece, calling the young man (who clearly has fairly major difficulties) a rodent, the people who spoke out for him "liberal bleaters" and finishing by saying "justice has been done, blackened eye and all". It appears it is not just for the sake of earning a crust through sensationalism either, judging from his responses to people remonstrating with him. (love that she included the special little man's email address). His response to someone else I know was that "Asperger's is not an excuse". Clearly he hasn't grasped the difference between an excuse and an explanation.
It is often said that people with Asperger's can display an apparent lack of empathy and disregard for social mores. I wonder what Mr Laws' "excuse" is?
4. Today I watched the Christchurch Earthquake Memorial. In the light of what has happened this week, I found it particularly saddening to see the names of so many young Japanese students on the list of the dead and missing, and to see some of their family members in the audience. It is unimaginable what people in Northern Japan have gone through, and it was frequently mentioned throughout the service. At the end of the official part of the service, during which both Hayley Westenra and Dave Dobbyn performed, Prince William moved among the families talking with them. Hayley, apparently unrehearsed, was back on stage singing "Pokarekare Ana". Then Dave Dobbyn came back, and over the footage of the Prince on 'walkabout', could be heard singing the wonderful "Welcome Home" .. with the lyrics
"out here on the edge
the empire is fading by the day
and the world is so weary in war
maybe we'll find that new way"
Awkward.
But honest.
We were so struck by the images from Japan, coming so soon after Christchurch, that we almost reconsidered our plan to move to Wellington (aka "quake city") in a few years.
I went so far as to research local earthquake risks, and came across an interesting website that discussed how to track the huge faultline in the urban landscape. I was happily reading it, when I saw the name of the street I used to live on. Which was apparently built right on the fault, not long after the massive 1855 quake (in the days before knowledge of plate techtonics when it was thought to be just a random "act of God")
(That's my house, clutching the side of the hill like an upside down right-angle triangle. I had the ground floor - three little rooms in a row that were so shallow The Husband could lie on the floor and touch the back wall of the house with his hands and the front with his feet. And the slugs crawled in at night from the slope. But I loved it, because the place I lived before that was a REAL slum).
Anyway, we do still plan to return to Wellington.
But not to that street!
5. Coming this week:
Love what Jana and Anke did with the new "Gran's Garden" kit:
and what Jess and Amber did with the "Smallest Airman" kit!
Christina used the "Late Summer" mini-kit:
And check out this gorgeous page from Heidi using the "Bisbee" kit:
retro style digital scrapbooking kits
New in store this weekend:
Here's how it's been used by me and the team:
(layouts by me, Patricia, Merrilee and Jana).
1. The word of the month here is "munted". For some reason it is the first word to everyone's lips as they try to describe the state of buildings in Christchurch following the earthquake. Never heard it on the national news before, but hear it a couple of times a night now. Meanwhile, in typical kiwi fashion, people remaining in the city and forced to come up with makeshift bathroom facilities are - instead of moaning about it - posting their creations on the Show Us Your Longdrop website.
2. I have finished (apart from the cover) my Dcoumenting a Decade album, covering 2000 - 2010 using templates from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. I highly recommend this project and I know the album will be a favourite of the two Daughters in years to come. I am very tempted to take on the 1990s at some point ...
3. We have acquired a temporary "son" - a second cousin of The Husband's who is working on a film set up here and needed a place to sleep. Daughter-two is very pleased with this, saying how pleased she is to "have a new member of the family".
4. After months of peering at books and holding them at arms length, and realising that I needed to remove my glasses in order to read the fine print on bottles and packets etc, I finally went to get my eyes tested. Two hours later I stumbled out, having chosen TWO new pairs of glasses (one pair with "progressive" lenses as we no longer utter the word "bifocals" and another pair specifically for using the computer and reading). The nice young guy helping me decide kept referring to the first pair as my "main pair" of glasses - until I pointed out I'd be at the computer or reading at least 9 hours a day so really the reading glasses should qualify for that title.
5. Here's what I have been ruining my eyesight for! ;-)
A new kit coming this weekend to Designer Digitals:
