Notes from the side of a volcano

In Distress: Spring Fever (and more...)

new in store at Designer Digitals:

Here's some layouts with the new papers and the new template:

 

Five on a Friday

1. It's autumn here on the edge of the world and there is a definite chill in the air. But on Easter Saturday I was taking the dog for his morning walk and the sun was shining and it was positively warm and I thought to myself, "I think it is the day for a bonus swim".

So we ditched our work plans for the day and threw some water and snacks and towels and swimming gear into a bag and caught the ferry to Waiheke Island.

We had to run to catch it, and it was pretty packed with people going to the jazz festival and, to judge by the attire and presents they carried, a couple of weddings as well. When it docked we couldn't face the thought of a packed bus so we opted to follow the signs through the forest and walk to Oneroa village instead.

Once there we bought some books for Daughters-One and Two (50c each) at a church book fair, then some fish and chips, then carried on over the headland to Little Oneroa beach more than ready for a swim which was lucky because it looks like this:

After a quick lunch shared with the seagulls we all swam. After the recent cold weather, the water was absolutely freezing but it was the best kind of bonus swim. In fact, the extreme cold seemed to redirect all our body heat to our core (no doubt an attempt by our bodies to protect our vital organs) so there was a pleasant warm and toasty sensation there accompanied by a numbness in the extremities which added a delightful near-death-experience frisson to the whole affair. (Not to mention an excuse for lots of shrieking and splashing and laughs with the few other brave people taking a dip).

2. Daughter-Two was pretty tired by the time we walked back to the village so we caught the bus back to the dock and were among the first back on board the ferry. With all the seats free, we chose a long table by the windows on the upper deck.

And then we acquired a bonus Chinese grandma. She had followed us on board, then followed us to the table where, despite all the other seats being empty, she snuggled up next to Daughter-Two and they happily spent the trip home like that. Daughter-Two wrote in her notebook and Grandma looked at brochures and smiled at Daughter-Two and I tried to desperately avoid catching The Husband's eye because whenever I did I couldn't suppress a fit of giggles.

 

3. Today is the last day of the school holidays. They are back to school on Monday. It was a very quiet couple of weeks, thanks to me having a deadline and the weather being so wet and miserable (apart from bonus swim day). Daughter-One even managed to talk Daughter-two into watching a DVD with her (a Japanese animated film). Daughter-two just doesn't do unfamiliar movies (she prefers science documentaries or short cartoons like Thomas the Tank Engine on video -but NOT DVD!). She reserved the right to leave the room but curiosity made her give it a go and she did enjoy it and watched till the end - though it ended in tears. Daughter-One, on the other hand, can't understand why Daughter-two loves watching documentaries about the end of the universe and doesn't find THEM upsetting.

4. I took today off to spend with a friend visiting from Australia and we talked about oil dependency (past and the future ), which made an interesting change from scrapbooking and parenting. I miss that, living in my work at home bubble. Must make more of an effort to catch up with old friends and at least act the part of an intelligent, well-informed grown up now and then.

5. Yesterday afternoon I quickly scrapped an Easter layout with my "Sugar rabbit" kit bunnies and some new papers that are coming to the store this weekend - and today I got the lovely surprise of seeing it here.

digital scrapbooking NZ, digital scrapbooking New Zealand

 

 

Digital scrapbooking inspiration from the Designer Digitals gallery

Debbie and Anke made great use of the new "Fred the Fox" kit:

Linda made this wonderful outing layout using Scrap Express 102:

I love this layout by Mel of Daisy plus bear in Portugal, using the epoxy from Beach Huts mini-kit :

And this by Debbie, creatively using lots of vintage youngsters from kits and also the "Vintage Youngster" sticker packs!

digital scrapbooking elements, digital scrapbooking new zealand

 

Fred the Fox

New this week at Designer Digitals:

Digital scrapbooking fox, digital scrapbooking nursery, digital scrapbook boy kits

 

Five on a Friday

1. "Advances in computer technology will herald a new age of leisure"

That's what they always used to say. Funny we don't hear it anymore.

This is what Good Friday looks like in our house:

The headphones are to block out the sound of my streaming BBC radio. I can't work without it now - it keeps the verbal side of my brain occupied so the visual side can work undisturbed. But, while I deal in pictures, he deals in words. But Mon to Fri this is my office so he has to accomodate me today, even though we are both on deadline. (Although a game of Monopoly with Daughter-Two is promised too).

2. It was her birthday the other day, and she also had another celebration at my parent's place. She was very spoilt.

 

3. While there, I looked through lots of old photos with my Dad of his side of the family. We still do not know when or where his mother was born, but we did find a relative called "Thomas Thomas" which to me shows an almost startling lack of imagination. Surprisingly, in the 1891 UK census there were over 300 "Thomas Thomas"s - nearly all of them in Wales.

4. Another layout for the USA album is done:

5. Something different coming to the store at Designer Digitals this weekend. Here's a sneak peek:

digital scrapbooking New Zealand, digital scrapbook NZ

 

Digital scrapbooking inspiration from the Designer Digitals gallery

Christina from Haiti is doing a wonderful job with her 365 album, and using Scrap Express 96:

... and Scrap Express 95:

Linda used the new Scrap Express 102 template:

And look at this very special page by Myra, using "Totally Trashed and Pale" paper:

New double page templates and wordart

This week at Designer Digitals, I have two new templates and a wordart set in store:

Here's how I used the new templates:

digital scrapbooking New Zealand, digiscrapping NZ, digital layouts New Zealand, double-page templates

Five on a Friday

1. Daughter-two is turning 9 in a few days (how did that happen??). But we decided to have her party last week since it is always a problem  with her birthday landing slap in the middle of the school holidays. She only invited 5 people (which meant a lot of classmates she would otherwise have invited couldn't make the list). But she really wanted another Clip and Climb indoor climbing party and six kids to keep an eye on and run from one to another to safely clip up their climbing harnesses was about as much as The Husband and I could deal with. I was dreading it, but it went really well. The children were all lovely, they were all old hands at the climbing and the weather was fine enough for us to have cake and sing "Happy Birthday" in the park on the corner afterwards.

2. When we first arrived, Daughter-two was a bit nervous about climbing and seemed a bit overwhelmed by everything. She had only attempted one climb before the instructors called for the birthday children. One of the bonuses of a Clip and Climb party is that the birthday child gets a free go on either the vertical slide or the Leap of Faith. They nearly always chose the vertical slide and whenever anyone tries the Leap of Faith the whole place stops as everyone stares upwards to see if they will do it. I have only seen teenagers try it, and have never yet seen any of them actually make it. So I was a bit nervous at Daughter's-Two's stated aim to make the Leap.

First she climbed the pole at super speed ("Never seen anyone just go straight up like that" said the instructor).

Then she reached the top and grabbed the rope.

But she was shaking and lost her balance and fell. Everyone watching went "awwww". But to our surprise she hauled herself back up with the rope and got back onto the end of the pole.

And made the Leap for the trapeze bar:

Everyone watching clapped and cheered and whistled. And when she came down there was a real change in her. She was so proud, and proceeded to power up every climb she could. She asked for a go on the vertical slide as well, and hung on right to the very top before flying down, getting more claps and cheers.

The instructor said they run a special session early on Sundays for children on the autistic spectrum and that she should come. Some of the children apparently become very skilled climbers, since they are only competing against themselves and have great determination.

3. As well as the sort of determination I have never seen before, Daughter-two also has an amazing talent .. for creating a mess in her room. Actually, "mess" is the wrong word. She is just so busy and creative all the time, and the by-products of that are everywhere. Yesterday I set about organising and cleaning up .. three hours later it was finally done. No longer was every surface and nook and cranny covered with little lego creations, half-written stories, little "film sets" for her Sylvanian families and Littlest Pet Shoptoys etc etc. She actually likes it when I do this, since it is a clean slate for her to start again. Right now I can here her busily talking to herself in there with the unmistakable clatter of lego. Which is good? Right? Hmm .. I foresee another marathon tidying up session at the end of the school holidays which started today.

4. The Husband recently bought a fancy ipod docking station/alarm clock thingie. He hid it behind the sofa and when I found it he tried to pretend it was a birthday present for me, which would have been a good ploy had it not been a month after my birthday. Still, it was nice to listen to music in the bedroom while reading before bed. Until the night he did something to the settings and the radio alarm clock came on at 2am, with a very serious news broadcast. I mumbled and groaned and pushed The Husband and he stumbled out of bed and turned it off.

Next night at 2am .. another news broadcast. Again he turned it off while I mumbed "not again" and fluffed my pillow in obvious anger.

But, come 2am the THIRD night, off it went again. This time I sat up in bed and said "have you fixed the **%$# thing this time?" and he said "yes, I HAVE" and I said "Good! About time". And in the morning we joked about the possible consequences had it woken me up again.

He was lucky it was only joking, because at 2am the FOURTH night off it went again. "I thought you said you had fixed it!" I moaned and he said "I did! Well, I thought I did, but I have now for sure, it won't do it again".

But what happened at 2am the FIFTH night? (Last night?). Not a news broadcast - because he had somehow switched it from radio to ipod ... which was set on Daughter-Two's playlist ... so we were woken by a rendition of "Incy Wincy Spider". I got up and pulled the plug very forcefully from the socket.

Let's hope it doesn't have battery back-up.

5. There are two templates and a word art pack coming to the store this weekend.

Here's a sneak peek of a layout with one of the templates:

Digital scrapbooking inspiration from the Designer Digitals gallery

Some lovely pages in the ideas gallery this week, including this gem by Jana using the new "Sugar Rabbit" kit:

Both Debbie and Linda used "Hey Sunshine" kit:

Angie used "Delighted" kit for this very sweet page:

Love this layout by Jen using "Totally Trashed and Pale" paper:

And Terri rustled up a wonderful, creative Valentines kit using "Forever Mine" mini-kit:

digital scraapbooking inspiration layouts, digital scrapbooking New Zealand, digital scrapbooking NZ

Scraplifting on a Saturday

Every week at Designer Digitals we chose an inspirational layout from the ideas gallery and use it as a springboard for our own scraplifted layouts in the "Saturday Scraplift" challenge.

It's always fascinating to see all the different takes on the page. (Which is, of course, the beauty of scraplifting - you start at the same place but nearly always end up somewhere quite different).

This week we lifted a very cool page by LauraBean, and this was my take on it (plus co-ordinating page for Daughter-Two's album):

 

(My own "Totally Trashed and Pale" background and Funky Dates 2 date stamp, alpha and little banner from Katie Pertiet's "Harmony Grove" kit, brushes from Ex-Libris Add-on by Anna Aspnes, buttons from Anna's Artplay Palette Wordplay)

You can see the original page, plus the other lifts inspired by it, on the Designer Digitals blog.