Yes it's been a while for me too ... ... ... ...

Had a great day yesterday at the "Timaru Christmas Crop" where a few of us were discussing how bad we were at updating our blogs - the worst probably being ME! So when Google reader told me Diane Today for tomorrow had bet me to it, it was time for action. Debbie have you done yours?
I think why I havent gotten into the swing of blogging is I dont know who is reading it? Cyber space is a bit weird dont you think, you could quite easily become a hermit and never see anyone. NOT LIKELY for me, I get lonely after a morning by myself.
Speaking of being sociable, everybody seemed to love the new seating arrangements at yesterdays crop. Of course I didnt take a camera so if you weren't there you will just have to come another day to see what we did. Probably helps that I had never seen the usual layout and was really just making it up as I went along, however scrappers do love to chat and it allowed for plenty of that. Rebecca and I chatted all the way home about how we could pull it off for Raincliff Autumn Retreat.

Wednesday night sessions are going well here at the "shop" as my kids like to call it. Heres my take on the Kaiser Advent Calender. I used a combination of papers from Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Delight range and  Fancy Pants Traditions range. I like it's originality, and the kids of course love it.

By the way did you all know (whoever is out there reading this) that my friend Kirsten and I went to the U2 concert in Auckland last week! It was truly wonderful, and being labled and the most spectacular stage show NZ has ever seen. The best part was I wasn't even the oldest there! even if I did only know one JZ song and my ears hurt when he was "singing".

 Back to the scrap booking heres one of the last pages I did using Senic Route Metropolis range, which I sourced for all you parents of boys like me!  It is a Kraft coloured card with cool geometric shapes including spots, stars and arrows. Very cool and easy to scrap simple and effective.

Thats it for me, husband is home and wondering why he has no dinner waiting.
I promise to update more, maybe even a New Years Resolution might be involved.
Happy silly season everyone and I hope you enjoyed reading... ... ...

It's been a good week... ... ...

You know that movie "Stella got her Grove back"? Well that's been my week, bit rocky on Monday/Tuesday but all good from there. I think the catalyst was actually sitting down on Wednesday morning (yes it should have been a work day) and doing some actual scrapbooking - well blatant scraplifting actually. Then last night some of the local ladies and I christened the scrap shed (yes there was some bubbles involved) and I finished the first scrapping I've even attempted since Raincliffe. And I am very please with how it turned out.
 
Obviously not everyones taste, but very liberating for me. Reminded me why I am doing all this. I love the riot of colours and textures and the little details like the butterfly on the edge of the fountain, and the water I invented looks soooooo cool! Well I think it does anyway... ... ...
On the business front things are getting organised sloooooowly. Ordered from four different companies this week and had two deliveries already TO RACHELS HOUSE!!!!! Does life need to be this hard I say?
One of my orders is having a wee holiday in customs and I have come to the realisation that I should have ordered twice as much! First of many lessons to learn..
Better fly Rosies at a birthday party this afternoon and needs to be transferred to another for the rest of the night, Oh to have a social life like a seven year old.

Finally, touchwood, the computer is fixed!

Well a nice local man spent half his weekend fiddling around with it, and I am happy to say that all is well in computer land. Not quite true actually - the problem ended up being the modem and router???? so while the home computer is whizzy fast, the laptop now won't actually connect to the internet because it thinks it already has??? I SAID ENOUGH! Go home nice man, and see your family, we will attend to that another day.

Now as far as my new business goes, I am starting to finally make some headway. Baby steps but at least they are going forward. You know how when babies learn to crawl they often go backwards first - well that was me definately. I have ordered new stuff from 2 companies and am going to do some more today. Still haven't done any actual scrapbooking (seems criminal when I have a whole roomful of stuff to play with) but Rebecca (local police woman) is coming over today to play. Speaking of roomfull, this is how it looks... ... ...

Looks like a lot to fit into a trailer but we managed.
First Crop event in Timaru went well - other than my nerves. About 25 came along and I learnt lots of new names and some I have met before but seemed to forget - eh Deirdre? may have been that little bottle of wine consumed on Sat night at Raincliffe...
But back to the crop. All went according to plan other than the unscheduled fuel stop at the Pareora Truck stop in the pitch black. Gwenda (Oamaru) was the page of the day winner and recieved in the mail the following week, her scissors (left behind on Rebeccas table) and the lovely Glimmermist - Home for the Holidays Kit.
Next crop coming up 30 Oct in Oamaru - I'm even putting on lunch to make up for my lack of knowledge in other areas! Speaking of food - Raincliffe is all booked and I thought we might have a bit of a BBQ on the Saturday night... ... ... sound good? Think about it, I certainly will be!
Thats all for now, back to my Bazzill and Kaiser orders before my kids wake up... ... yes this is my new life tapping away on the computer in the wee small hours... ... ... ...

Final Post :-)

Well the time has come for me to hand over this blog to Tania who on Friday purchased Embellish It and has fantastic energy and can see a fantastic path forward for the business!

This was us after we had packed the trailer - for me for the last time and for the first time for Tania, I was pushing it out and Tania was keen to pull!

It was blowing something wicked on Friday which made for interesting pack up - lucky there wasn't papers flying all the way to Invercargill!
So Saturday morning saw us trying to pack the scrap room down with all my *stuff* in it - lol  Saturday afternoon saw Beck over and she helped me sort - thanks so much Beck - seriously she got me in the "throw it out" mode!
Nigel thinks that Tania forgot most of the stock and is threatening me that he is going to have a garage sale - got news for him!!!!!!!!!!
The lounge still looks like a bomb hit it, but this morning we re-painted the scrap room and I have my bed in it, Jamie got shifted into our bedroom, and Abby into his - all this for about a month or so while we get new windows put in their bedrooms and our old bedroom gets turned into a new bathroom and toilet!  YAY!
Anyway enough about that!  I will head back to my old blog which i hope to be able to blog on every now and then :-)
I want to thank everyone for their lovely comments that have come through my e-mail, and if anyone would like to keep in touch my personal e-mail will keep you in touch with me!
Have a fantastic week everyone, and I will see you all at the crop on the 2nd of October at Highfield School - I will be the one scrappin :-)


Until then - take care :-)

*hugs*
Rachel

Raffle Results

A HUGE thank you to all of you that supported Abby in her ambition to raise $600 for the Leukemia & Blood Foundation - she made that goal and tomorrow will head of to give her bag of coins to the Cancer foundation to go to the Leukemia & Blood division.

A BIG thanks to all our friends - family and scrappin - who willingly took raffle books and sold them for Abby - without your help it would not have been possible.
And to our sponsors: Pope Print, Bennys Again Restaurant, Barkers Fruit Processors, Soul Surf & Skate, Noel Leemings, Watties, The Fontrunner, Embellish It Scrapbooking, Toyworld, Green thistle House Jewellery.


And here are the winners as drawn by the Timaru Police Station

Here was the list of Prizes


1st $50 Benny's again voucher and Barkers Gift Basket    - ME!!!!!!!!!!  not rigged I promise!
2nd $150 scrapbooking Products                                      - Jimmy Wallace
3rd Woman's hoodie and Man's T Shirt                             - Jo Flannery
4th Electric Salt & Pepper Mills, watties gift box                - Tracey Agnew
5th 2 Soccer balls, Domino games, Schotty Star Trek action Figure      - Robbi Bell
6th Soccer ball & Necklace                                               -  Alister Hunt
7th 2 Soccer balls                                                              - Jacob Caithness


Abby told the Police woman that mum won first prize - she laughed and said people will think it was rigged but HONEST I brought 2 books of tickets and I NEVER win anything!

Anyway thanks again to you all :-)

Have a great week!

Cheers

Rachel

What A Week!

Well wasn't the last week a hectic crazy one?  My heart goes out to all those effected in the Canterbury Earthquake - it was scary enough here I sure wouldn't want to be 160kms closer!
I have two brothers (many friends and clients also in Canterbury).  One of my brothers house is fine but Andrew (my big big bro) looks like his may not be and might have to be pulled down - that on top of all the aftershocks just makes me feel sick for him his wife and three children, and the many many more that are in the same situation.
On top of all of that we have had mum back in ICU for 4 days and 2 on the ward - she is home now and until Christchurch cardiac unit opens up and starts to take people from outside the region we are just waiting.
On top of that we are trying to decide on plans for the house - so it has been all go!

Anyway a couple of more photos from Raincliff.

Beck's make this lovely card for me and everyone signed it.  It is made from calico and prima paper, prima flowers all my favourite things  - how did she know lol!
She is so clever take a look:

the flowers were also from the girls.

I am so humbled at all the kind words on the card and will cherish it forever.

Thank you to you all for a wonderful ride - and hopefully next week I will have some exciting news to share with you all!

Until then - HUG your family very tight and have a fantastic week!

*hugs*

Rachel

Where has this week gone?

Wow i can't believe it that this time last week we were just starting camp!
Anyway I have some more pictures to share with you here are some of the tables being very busy:

This one is of the very clever "bed Buddie" that Ngaio made for Evelyn.  Evelyn is a bad snorer and her "bunk mate" had to leave on Saturday night due to illness and she hates to sleep alone so when she went to her bunk room this was what was waiting for her in her bed so she didn't feel alone:

Ngaio did a wonderful job - although i am told that when she went to bed her nighty had knots in the sleeves now I wonder how could have done that?

We also did a make n take of sorts - we gave everyone a package with a chocolate bar, Dusty Attic tree, flowers, brads, a piece of bazzill of their choice and a Prima paintables.  We set out the distress inks and the water colour pencils and left the ladies to it to see what they could come up with.  MAN they were ALL fantastic here are some pictures:

I know you have to turn your head to see these two - but it is round the right way on my computer for some reason it won't upload here the right way!
There are SO many amazing layouts - the winner drawn from names that played along won $80.00 of Dusty Attic - a hugh thanks to Dusy Attic for sponsoring us that prize!

Anyway I think that is enough photos for one post :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

*hugs*

Rachel

What a blast!

Well Raincliff camp is over and it was the last camp with me at the helm, some of you are not aware but Embellish It is for sale, I have finally after about 18 months of procrastinating decided to "hang my apron up" but lets hope that it is not the last as we all had a blast!

Friday saw us arrive at camp and be all set up within an hour - amazing.
A big thank you goes out to all the ladies that turned up to lend a hand (and a huge thanks to Bronwyn who came Friday and Sunday just to help as Bo was not able to make camp itself and was missed HEAPS) - that meant that those ladies all started scrapp'n about 4.30pm on Friday so there was a power of work - and laughter done just on Friday.

Here are a couple of photos taken on Saturday - which we could have forgotten it was "winter camp" as the sun was out and boy was it hot!

 One has me in it and the other has Dad, I will get it photoshopped so we are all in it but I couldn't get the timer to work on the camera lol.
Saturday saw a few shenanigans happening and I am sure we could have guessed that this lady would be involved:

Gwenda saved the life of one of our scrap ladies by preforming CPR and keeping her alive until the ambulance and then helicopter could take our dear Lynn (missed you at camp Lynn) to Hospital only a fortnight ago so we thought it fitting that she become the camp ANGEL and made her wear her wings for the day - she was a good sport!
Then Gwenda had her apple all "blinged" up by the girls at this table- they look like trouble don't they lol:

The sad face on the apple is because someone "stole" the apple and left clues as to it's where abouts and so the game of "cludo" began.  Gwenda even got a note take a look at this

I guess you had to be there but it was seriously funny and this lot made the "you don't have to spend a lot on toys to amuse the kids" SO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
Lucky we had a policewoman (off duty lol) that helped Gwenda get her beloved "Blinged apple" back - unharmed I might add!
Yet again we had some YUMMY food available to us and a huge thanks goes out to my Mum, Dad and Aunty Cicley also to Michael who came in on Saturday to help us out - mum was meant to be doing NOTHING but that was a laugh -  talk about naughty!  But the food was delicious take a look - so hard to decide!

These girls have updated there blogs and there are more photos and stories so go and check out Beck, Trace, Diane and Kathrine's blogs.

I will be back with some more photos of the fun!

Just before i go, a BIG thank you to you all - without you we wouldn't have a camp and it is such a great way to get things done, form new friendships and have a blast while we are at it - fingers crossed it won't be the last one and maybe at the next camp it will be ME going to bed at 4am :-)

Catch you all soon

*hugs*

Rachel

This time next week?

This time next week we will be on scrap camp!
Wow that came around real quick, we have a full house for camp and a few tricks up our sleeves to make the last camp (well hopefully with me at the helm and not the last - last camp) a bit of fun!

Tomorrow is my mum's (or camp mum's) birthday so last night I set to in the scrap room and made this card for her, the image is one of Elisabeth Bell's digital images called "i love you this much" and really this is so fitting for mum as when my kids were little my kids used to say "Nana i love you this much, plus this much, plus this much" and they used there arms to indicate how much - so when I saw this image I knew we just had to have it lol.

I coloured the image in with Tim Holtz Distress inks, used the spellbinders tags and label images, the leaves punch is Martha Stewart, the flowers used are in stock 10 in a packet for $2.70.  Paper is Prima and Kaiser and the card stock is Bazzill.
Hope you are all having a relaxing weekend :-)

Cheers

Rachel

Fundraising for Leukemia Foundation

This is a can you help us post? Would you like to win some great prizes?  For $2 a ticket you could win any of these:

$150.00 of scrapbook or stamping products by - you guessed it Embellish It :-)
$50.00 Benny's Again voucher and a Barkers gift Basket
Woman's Hoddie and a mans T-shirt
Electric salt and pepper mills, Watties gift box
2 soccer Balls, Domino Game, scotty Star Trek action figure
1 Soccer Ball and one Necklace
2 Soccer Balls

Abby is doing a project for school and she chose Event Management, so she decided to organise a raffle.
Now for a 12 oops now just 13 year old she has done really well.
Abby wrote a letter requesting people to donate a prize and then followed up with a phone call two weeks later, so she has sourced the prizes by her self (apart from one that I asked Katherynn for) she then liaised with Brenda from Pope Print and got the tickets printed by them via sponsorship.

She was sponsored by Pope Print, Benny's again restaurant, Barkers Fruit Processors, Soul Surf and Skate, Noel Leemings, Watties, The frontrunner, Embellish It, Toyworld, and Green Thistle House.

Now for the hard bit - to sell them.  She has 300 tickets at $2.00 each with an aim to fundraise $600 for the Leukemia Foundation, so if anyone out there wants to purchase a ticket for a chance to win a great prize please e-mail me - or if any of the local ladies can help out by selling some books of tickets for her it would be much appreciated. 
I fully understand that most of us with children have to fund raise for our schools and I usually just buy the book and be done with it because I HATE asking other people to help, but since Abby has put so much time and effort into this to raise funds for a great cause I am happy to help out and get word out there.

Now if it is one of our "girls" that wins the Scrapbook goodies - they can come and choose the product that they would like :-)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this post - I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Hugs

Rachel

Is it bed time yet?

I hope everyone has had a great weekend, mine has been VERY, VERY busy!
Friday saw me finishing off this new project from Kaiser that we have in stock - a large desk organiser:

 I used the new papers in stock from Bo Bunny and i am really happy with how this turned out!  Love these papers can suit all ages and genders.
I was also making this - talk about multi tasking although I did finish icing it on Saturday morning:

I think you can see she is pretty happy with it - even if I did go wonky with the stings of the guitar do you know how hard it is to try and ice it straight my hand was shaking like you wouldn't believe!
Then at 4pm on Saturday we had 6 - 12 or 13 year old girls invade our home for a "slumber party".
Seriously I feel sorry for the neighbours at three o'clock this morning I finally got up and told them to whisper!
Man were they LOUD!!  Then about 4am they fell asleep, here are a few photos:

This last photo was taken as they were trying to eat chocolate out of flour!  Apparently a cool game to play and I will admit to it being quite funny.
All and all the girls were really well behaved and made up games and amused themselves really - but I am still happy it only happens once a year!
At least I could just skip into my scrap room to escape poor ole Nigel was going to get a motel and escape but he was a good dad and refilled the carrots, lollies etc and make sure they were all happy :-)
So with that being said IS IT TIME FOR BED YET!!!
Well yes actually - I know its only 7.30pm but I got NO sleep last night so an early night is called for.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Cheers

Rachel