Wedding Anniversay

Just a quick blog tonight and will catch up over the next couple of days.

Greg & I have been married 15 years today and what a journey it has been. He left at 7.00 this morning and got home at 7.30 tonight. Happy Anniversary darling and maybe we can catch up sometime soon. I think we are going to celebrate our birthdays (28th nov & 10th Dec) and our anniversary in July when we are not so busy.

Love you and thankyou for your support.

Michelle

Feeling Cranky and bemused

Well I am cranky for a couple of reasons.

I don't like it when I can't get proper service. That is all I will say.

The other is the Aussie scrapbook critic blog. What a mess. I did not read the comment that was eventually deleted but apparently some nice people that I have never met have been hurt by what was said. I don't like the idea that you are anonymous, if you have something to say put your name to it. I put a comment in the section relating to "Internet stores". I put my name and store trying to give myself a plug as they were bagging out some of the other online stores and my comment was deleted. Why? I didn't offend anyone! I was giving myself and store a plug. Is that not allowed. I have found some good comments on there relating to online stores and what people like, customer service and design teams but the rest I think I will just not read.

But I think what has happened recently has denigrated into a bitchy cat fight and name calling that is not warranted anywhere. There is enough negativity going on in the world that why do we need to do it in Scrapbooking. Tall poppy syndrome I think. There is no need to start name calling and involving families in what was suppose to be constructive comments. Apparently from reading other blogs the people concerned have shut off their blogs because they are feeling hurt. Isn't that letting them beat you. soldier on I say and don't take it to heart. I know that is easy for me to say and I know that I would be devastated if someone said something about me and my family like that but you cannot let the Ms anons of this world beat you.

If you read Ngaire Bartlam's blog she has yesterday vented her anger at the treatment of her friends and there is a link there to a story that she has written about the BLOT. You should read it.

I am a bit bemused though as to why there are a few known scrapbookers deciding to take a back seat and not doing what they love. Is it because they have taken on too much and now find it too hard to juggle family and scrapbooking commitments. So don't get so caught up in the competitions, TD, magazine submissions, books etc and over commit yourself. Enjoy the craft/art of scrapbooking. I know I wish I had more time to scrap. Set goals and priorities for yourself (LOL I am the most disorganised person I know) and then don't overcommit.

I know it all gets too hard sometime but we cannot give up on our passions. We need to concentrate on the positives and praise someone about their work and why we love their work. And as everyone has been saying "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all", and treat people the way you wish yourself to be treated.

I have just read on one of the messageboards that the person that has made some of the comments has openly apologised. But I suppose the damage is done know. But if she had kept her negative thoughts to herself none of this would have transpired. but there are going to be those that say free speech. Yes I know but not when it hurts other people and their families.

On the home front, Taylah is finally back at school from the chicken pox but I still feel that she is not 100%. She lost her first top tooth on Sunday and the tooth fairy not only nearly forgot but nearly also got sprung. It was only that she woke up at 1.30am on monday morning that I remembered. Maddison had her last day at orientation for young starters next year. She is so looking forward to starting school and I am sure, I mean hoping that I don't have the same problems that I had with anxiety separation as I did with Taylah.

anyway I will do another post as to what is happening at the Diva's shop hopefully tomorrow.

Paper Crafts Festival and What is happening at the Divas Shop

Hi there

Well last week was eventful to say the least. On Tuesday I went to the dentist and had my wisdom tooth out in the chair, a few needles later and the dentist pulling and tugging out it came. Then on Wednesday I had just gotten home from taking Taylah to school and Maddison to daycare when the mobile rang and it was the school. Hi Michelle, This is Jane here. Just wanted to let you know that there are no groups today. Great I thought. She then proceeded to ask me to come and get Taylah as they suspected she had chickenpox. But she has been immunised. So I went and got her and took her to the GP and sure enough she had 3 spots. And she is still off school and it is now Wednesday. She only has 3 spots but cannot go to school until the scabs have come off.

So I panicked that I would not be able to go to Sydney on Friday as I was going on the Thursday night and did not have anyone to babysit her. (what a slack mother I am). So she had to go with her Dad and be a courier for the day. She hasn't been sick with it but is not that crash hot tonight so we are back off to the doctors tomorrow.

So on Thursday night I went to Sydney to go to the Papercrafts Festival at Penrith with my friend Kim and we stayed at the Formula 1 motel cheapy at Wentworthville and then drove to Penrith on Friday. My first class was with the delightful Elsie Flanagan at 8.30 am for 4 hours. What a treat it was. I sat with friends Kim, Cindy and Donna.

Elsie is just a beautiful and sweet girl and so young. She was here by herself in a strange country and was hoping to go site seeing on Monday before she flew back to the States on Tuesday.

Check out my double chins in the photo.
Her class was called "A Year In Photos" and we completed a mini album of our favourite photos. I did it on Maddison's year in 2004. We also made a felt bag to put the album in. Not used felt since I was at school. Elsie was very obliging and we had photos taken with her. She also signed my books and doodled on a page of Maddison which is below as well. She was fantastic and is apparently going to be coming back to Australia for KiwiScraps next year. I think I will be saving my pennies for that. I felt sorry for Elsie as the organisation just wasn't there. She didn't get her class handouts till 10 minutes before we finished and she ordered doughnuts for morning tea and they never turned up. I heard a few other stories during the day that would not have made her happy. I just hoped they got their act together on the other days. I also felt sorry for her as the whole time she was talking we had a woman sitting behind us that did not stop talking the whole time Elsie was trying to give her class and even when she was just talking about herself. She did not stop. It was so annoying and I wanted to get up and hit the woman. But of course she was bigger than me. Elsie also gave us some photo tips which I will post in a separate post.



Then we were off to the fabulous Zina Wright's class the "Fast & Furious". We were to complete 4 layouts in this class, but it was too overwhelming and fast for me so I only got to complete one layout. This is it. This is the first layout I have ever done of myself. I just don't like the photo much.


I was a bit disappointed in that I thought I might learn something new as the layouts looked fantastic on her blog. But it was mainly stickers and cutting out flowers but they still looked effective and gave me some food for thought. She also did some flowers out of ribbons and do you think I could do even one. No way. but I will keep trying and I hope to finish off the other layouts. 2 hours was not sufficient for this class and again organisation fell down. We were located in the main pavillon where all the shopping was being done. It was sooooooooooo noisy and I am sure the girls doing their classes their would have had no voices on Friday night and still had to do classes on the weekend.

I will post my photos of my layout and Elsie project in another post soon.

Next we went and had a look around the actual shopping part of the festival and saw what all the retail stores had to offer. You could have spent hundreds. I met Wes from the USA who has made the movie "Scrapped" if anyone has heard about it. find the links here http://www.scrappedmovie.com/ and http://www.scrappedmovie.blogspot.com/. He was great and I thought I might get a couple of copies and have a movie night.

Then later that afternoon Kim and I went to the trade show part of the event and met some of the people that we deal with in our business. We met lots of new people and looked at some new products and got home at 12.30 am on Saturday morning. A long day had by all.



In the DIVAS shop, I am still trying to rectify the messageboard problems and I apologise for that.

I am having a 20-50% off sale on selected items and they can be found here.

I have also received some great new products such as Heidi Swapp roller stamps, Clear stamps from cherryArte and Provocraft, lots of chipboard from Collections and Basic Grey, the new Basic Grey range of papers called Dasher and some stickers and monograms from the Fruitcake range also. All the NEW products can be found here.

I have also had some restock of My Minds Eye, We R Memory Keepers Boho Chic Range, Collections Chipboard, Heidi Swapp Florals.

I am hoping to receive next week some new of the Scalloped Edge Bazzill paper as well. It looks fantastic plus the most significant find of the weekend as far as retailing goes was the stockist for UNIBALL SIGNO GEL PENS for writing on your photos and doodling. I will have them in stock in black and white next week.

So make sure you come by and take a look and say hi.

Have a good rest of the week.

Cheers

Michelle

Off To Sydney

Just a quick post to say I am off to Sydney tonight to do the Elsie Flanagan and Zina Wright classes and to visit the Paper Crafts Festival and also the trade show. Will be busy but exciting. See you when I get back.

Michelle