Madcow Scrapbooking

The Green Man

2007-06-01T04:20:00.000-07:00

"The Green Man was my "Times Age" pub this trip. When Jools was busy working at 'Schoc' I would go for a wander around town, take some photo's, do a bit of shopping and then buy a copy of the Wairarapa Times Age and go the Green Man. A nice cosy little bar to order a chardy, settle down on the couch by the fire and read the paper until she finished work.

(Don't know who these people are but they were sitting on MY couch when I need a photo one night so there you are!)

The Green Man (or outside on the street!) was the scene for my memorable rant at Steve King - he'd offered me a lift from Wellington and as the trip proceeded I realised how drunk he was. Not amused.

Also has the best pate! So good that I commented to the waitress after dinner one night with Jools & Blaire that I hadn't had pate taste so ood in years. Five minutes later she arrived back out of the kitchen with a parcel wrapped in tinfoil, compliments of the chef, of a huge slab of pate. She said "chef says if an Auckland girl is impressed with my cooking then she deserves some more to take home!"

The Valley Garden

2007-04-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

Journalling reads:

"Mornings in the Mangatarere are usually pyjama affairs. Jools and I drink our coffee, start talking and then somehow there we are - taking a walk in our best flannelette and gumboots down into the valley garden with Louie the dog along for company. Pick a bit of watercress from behind the old water wheel house, inspect the flowers and talk a bit more. Not a bad way to start the day." Mangatarere May 2003

Norma's Garden

2006-06-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

The Girls page 1

2006-06-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

Page 2

2006-06-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

The Girls

2006-06-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

This one started with one of my favourite photos. Jillane laughing. Jools & I laughing on the next page is not quite as glamorous!! Still we're there too - that's the point of scrapbooking isn't it. Not just to record the "studio" type shots but to show us as we are. These were taken at Whangamona Beach when Jools, Jillane, Jeanette & I went for a wee to-too on the quad bike.
Journalling (from an email someone sent me) reads:
"Live well, love much & laugh often - Be happy
Be mindful that happiness isn't based on
possessions, power, or prestige,
but on relationships with people we love and respect.
Remember that while money talks, CHOCOLATE SINGS!"

Leave your camera at home...

2006-05-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

Another "Simple" layout. Journalling reads

"Jane’s in laws were visiting with her when Jules & I arrived at Te Horo and we all headed down to the beach for a walk. Now it’s a tricky thing, this camera. I get a lot of joy from taking photos but I also know that for me it’s quite a convenient “mask” when I’m finding it hard to stay present. The tricky part is working out when that’s an okay thing to do and when it’s going to give me more pleasure to just live the moment. For some reason I left the camera behind and it was definitely one of those times that just “being” was worth more than any photo or scrapbook page.
The beach itself is stunning – long, windswept and out to sea, Kapiti Island. In some ways it’s almost a little naff – everyone paints it and it’s as recognizable as the view to Rangitoto is to Aucklanders but who cares. It’s a view I know & comforts me.
Almost as predictable is the way people behave on the beach and the five of us on cue fell into our beach roles. The in-laws in their very “Wellington-Green” way, strode along the sand with purpose filling their plastic bag with rubbish. (Do you think they always carry a spare bag in their pockets for such beach recovery emergencies?) Jules zigzagged back and forth between the sand & surf searching for sea glass & treasures, poking bravely at the piles of kelp and, (she will kill me for saying this), with the look of a spaniel finally let off the leash and in sensory overload. As always I dawdled along with my usual sense of vigilance in a new place, ready to alert everyone to the possibility of tsunami or other natural calamity and keeping a close eye on the others trying to work out what it is that “normal” people do when they are on a walk.
Jane meanwhile sailed down the beach bemused. This was her beach, we were her family & she the indulgent matriarch, pointing out the best places to dig, quietly gathering driftwood to take home for later and calling us back every now and then to show us some tiny miracle she thought would either amaze or amuse us.
One of those moments she placed this tiny shell in my hand – brilliant blue and smaller than my littlest fingernail - telling me the colour would fade eventually “but isn’t it precious now”.
Yes it is Jane. It is still sitting on my desk, still blue, and every time I look at it I am back walking down the beach. Some days you just need to leave your camera at home."

A "Clean & Simple" Experiment

2006-04-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

I have to stop phaffing around and get more pages done so I got out my copy of Cathy Zielske's "Clean & Simple Scrapbooking" the other night. I wanted these shots in the album just because I like looking at them and it certainly got them on the page but I'm not sure...need to work on this more. Still, a good concept (hers I mean) and I did like the whole graphics tutorial on fonts, colour wheels etc.
The quote is off a sundial I think:

"The kiss of the Sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth
You are nearer God’s heart in the garden
Than anywhere else on earth."

Afternoons with Horace ... just for Jules!

2006-04-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

I told you I was going to do a cat one!! Afternoons with Horace as in "Tuesdays with Morrie". (Horace always likes to come join in any conversation out on the deck!)
If I was more patient I would scan & stitch with more care but rest assured it IS actually all straight & lined up in real life!

Janes House

2006-04-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

A bit of a "filler" for the album but it will do. And as usual my scanning is a little askew!

Jane - the other half

2006-04-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

I only intended doing a one page LO with the pics of Jane but this next one kind of worked with the first. It's complimentary anyway if not a real 2 page LO. More of the BG Blitzen & also some of the Vagabond & Skate Shoppe. Journalling (which I stuffed up a little but have since fixed):
"We don't see eachother as frequently as we'd like now with being spread through the island, but it only takes a good meal, a bottle of wine and we're back t what we do best ... talking! And always it seems gravitating to our two favourite spots - the deck or the kitchen table!"

Jane

2006-04-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

My favourite photos of my friend Jane. This LO is part of an album on my trips down south to the Wairarapa - although Jane lives over on the coast these were taken during a trip Jools & I made from the farm. I'm just loving the BG Blitzen papers - for a range that is supposedly a Christmas theme they have such a Pasifica feel. My other new favourite Pasifica thing are the range of stamps from Kiwi-Impressions in Nelson - this time I used Pacifica Petal & embossed it. That has really been one of the great things about being on holiday. I've been able to play with all my toys at leisure & try out things like stamping etc which I've always been a bit nervous about.
Journalling reads:
"Jane, Jools & I met over 20 years ago and have been together through some of the best & worst times of our lives. Over the years everything has changed & nothing has. Still friends. Still the same! Te Horo 2005"

Lots of finishing up & cleaning up

2006-04-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

getting done this weekend. I finally finished another little 6x6 "Granny's Brag Book" for a friend - this time for a boy and in blues & yellow. There are 18 pages in all - here are the title page & a couple of others.

Also got the March LO done - the photo of Anne & Ken didn't download so well but still it marks the place until perhaps I can get a better copy. The quote underneath it reads:
"Be my heart's prop.
In the waste places be a shade-giving tree.
Be good to me!
The night is long, the dawn is far away.
Be a small light, be a sudden joy,
Be my daily bread." - Rachel

Right Side

2006-04-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

Left Side

2006-04-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

The Smocked Dress LO

2006-04-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

This is about all the smocked dresses Les made for me when I was little. I used Basic Grey "Lucky" pp, bazzill, the amazing Technique Tuesday stamp Patty sent me (for some not too amazing stamping - must work harder), and foam stamps & prima's that were my birthday pressie from Eva. Yes, a spoilt girl indeed! I scanned mum's old dressmaking patterns & stitch books. There was a bit of a disaster when I stuffed up the journalling boxes and then discovered I had no pp left. As a quick fix I scanned in one of the pieces from the Lucky Matchbook Kit and then tinkered with it in HP Creative Scrapbook Assistant to produce the journalling boxes which I was quite pleased with.
The journalling reads:
"It’s a funny thing but I don’t actually remember Les being permanently attached to the sewing machine or her knitting needles while we were growing up and yet there are very few photos of us in the family album wearing anything that was “store bought”. At the time they were just the clothes we wore, but now looking back I can appreciate the skill and the hours she must have spent. I feel a little sad too when I look at all the girly-girl dresses she made for me in what I suspect was the hope she would create the perfect feminine woman … all to no avail. What did she end up with? A trouser wearing, no frills, borderline goth!

My best dresses were all smocked by hand. Les told me last night how she used to babysit for the Beetham’s who lived next door when she was a teenager, and along with looking after the children she would be expected to sit and pull up their smocking dots for them! (Nothing like the well-to-do squeezing every last penny out of the pittance they paid her huh!) After a while of this she decided if she was going to do all this work she may as well teach herself the next step and taught herself to smock from books like these.

I think the last things she would have smocked were little romper suits for Joe when he was a baby. (She maintained if it was good enough for Prince William & Prince Harry to wear them, they were good enough for HER little prince!) Now her eyesight cannot cope with such fine work and with my eyes heading down the same path I’m sorry that I may have left it too late for her to teach me. Just incase, I’ve kept all the patterns & booklets tucked up with the things she made for Joe in the memory box so perhaps there will be a third generation to wear a “Les Original”.

February in review - right side

2006-03-12T02:38:00.000-08:00

February in review - left side

2006-03-12T02:26:00.000-08:00

The right hand LO

2006-03-05T04:38:00.000-08:00

and yes, it scanned a bit on the crooked side. Like so much of my life!

Way behind on the challenges - sorry Jules!

2006-03-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

The second one was "On the street where I live....take some shots of your home and of the room or area that is the most special to you. Journal your thoughts about this room, how you have decorated it and why and what this says about you. Or this page could be about your neighborhood, your connection to it, the best places and things about it."

The journalling (inside the folder) reads
"I love my bedroom! It’s probably the tidiest room in the flat (and that’s not saying a lot!) I read in some article on Feng Shui that to encourage rest & sleep you shouldn’t have anything “work” related in your bedroom or your mind will stay busy long after you should be dreaming sweet dreams. So “my room” is the place where some of my favourite things live – the things that remind me of those I love and in a way, the things that remind me of the “other” me. To the outside world I’m sure I appear a little brittle & sharp. My clothes are usually clean lines with no fuss or frills & that is probably the way I communicate too. Yet here in the nest is where the girly-girl is safe enough to come out and play So when the world is harsh and I want to hide this is where I go. "
"The walls, curtains & most of the bedding is navy blue and it is my dark little nest which is not entirely out of character given my love of dark colours, but it is also full of the gentle things in my life. There are Ted One & Ted Two from Kathy & Leonie, Wolfie from Anne & Monkey from Claire. The dresser & the reclining diva remind me always of Lisa who gave me both and who I miss every day. Then of course there are the bags. Did I tell you I love bags? From my grandfathers old leather suitcases to the girly-girls from Easta, Rosaline & Janet, I love them all and yes, the y are only a few of the collection.! Even the old retro tv which I stole off Joe holds a special place – there are better ones in the flat but it just makes me laugh whenever I look at it. The dolls in the dolls pram? Mmm, well even I have to admit that’s just a bit sick!
Still this is my room warts & all so, welcome to my haven!"

The folder pattern is courtesy of Mirkwood Designs - where would we be without them?

I found it!

2006-03-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

The link for Simply Impressed here in NZ that is! My mind, however, is not so easily found.

I love this stuff and Kelley & the girls are the only NZ retailers for this line. I saw their product at the SENZ expo here in Manukau last year and fell in love with it. They had a great stand there and were so patient with "dummies" like me!

They really do give the best customer service - I've never been disappointed and they are just so helpful. If there is ever any kind of delay with your order they tell you about it! How rare is that these days! (An ongoing gripe with me - the way some companies seem to think once they have your credit card number they never need communicate with you again! But enough of that before I go off on a completely different tangent!)

So, top marks for Kelley & Simply Impressions. It's well worth a visit with them!

I should be scrappping not blogging ...

2006-03-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

but just had to share this new link for the Gaucho Girl site where there are some rather gorgeous freebies to download. Although many are designed for digital scrapping they can still be printed out and used traditionally. My favourite at the moment is the "Diva mini-kit" which I'm hoping to use today on a little girls birthday card.

I have a few things on the go over at the scrapdesk this week but a lack of planning on my part has meant I've come a little "unstuck". Why oh why did I stick everything down and THEN remember there was nowhere for the journalling?? Duh!

I finally got my embossing templates out too this week and have been having fun playing with them. There are some girls in Tauranga who deal in the "Lasting Impressions" templates - must find out if they have a website up and running yet and I will include a link.

But for now, back to the desk I go! Later!

January in review - left side

2006-02-20T01:42:00.000-08:00

This had the added challenge of using "brights" - not something I usually work with which is hardly surprising given my usual wardrobe of black, black and some more black.

January in review - Left side

2006-02-20T01:26:00.000-08:00

Second page of Year of the Madcow Layout

2006-02-20T01:10:00.000-08:00

The envelopes were made using some handmade paper I had and no, they're not the perfect folds/shapes but I'm fine with that.

The Year of the Madcow

2006-02-20T00:21:00.000-08:00

(Journalling: People born in the Year of the Madcow know that every occasion is the right occasion to wear a tiara. They tend to treat life as a rather good party and don't let silly things like work or money get in the way of having a good time. But beware, if you dare to irritate them you will be rewarded with a swat from their tail or be stomped on by one of their exquisitely manicured hooves. They are especially compatible with people who were born in the Years of the Winebar, the Long Lunch and the Wasted Weekend.)

The first of Jules challenges for the year was to "Write out 3 sb resolutions for this coming year and 3 personal resolutions. Create an envelope for each and make a layout with the title "With Great Resolve" or anything like that. Place the resolutions in the envelopes, seal them (creatively of course) and use the envelopes as if they were photos. "

I decided to wander off on a tangent using the Chinese New Year as theme and decided on four rather than six resolutions - lets face it I'll be lucky to keep one. The thought of six just makes me want to lie down.

Yvonne kindly helped me out with the translation of the title and I downloaded the other chinese symbols from the HP Activity/Scrapbooking site. (Heaps of assorted downloads available there!) .The title is courtesy of dear Eva and her ever ready QK.

I also decided to use this as the start of a personal album. (Desert) Rose had sent me three of the DCWV Scrapbook Kits in a Stack, which I'd been wanting to use on a special project just for me. The local bookstore had Carven 8x8 albums on sale at about the same time Jules posted her challenge so it all just made sense to me.

I want the album to be a mixture of "It's all about me" layouts along with monthly reviews. I also want to see if I can mainly limit my choices of cardstock etc to what is in the stacks. Hopefully this will be the incentive to think outside the square a little.

Welcome to the light side!!

2006-02-20T00:15:00.000-08:00

This is somewhere to store all things scrapbooking. Layouts, photos, ideas.

As always I welcome ideas, criticism and of course those who choose to praise may just find themselves at the top of the Christmas pressie list!