The sale is still on at Designer Digitals, and there are more new products in store right now.
Here are my latest:
I haven't had a chance to create with the Jolie kit yet, but some of the team have:
I have had fun with the new templates, however:
And the new Worn Edges (with retro photo effects) are fun too. This photo of Daughter-Two in Hawaii was just crying out for the retro look:
It's all on sale NOW at Designer Digitals.
Every regular item in the store is marked down 30%! No special coupons are need to receive the discount. There are 47 brand new items also marked down as well. This is the last store wide sale here at DesignerDigitals for 2009 so don't miss out!
The sale ends on Tuesday, November 10th at 6am EST.
Also, we will be having chats all day on Saturday with freebies every hour as well. You can join me at 6pm EST on Saturday (that's Sunday at 12 noon here in New Zealand!).
Lots of new products in store as well:
(And more coming on SUNDAY).
Sixteen years ago yesterday I had a gorgeous baby girl.
Here she is (on the right in the first pic) with her lovely friends, still as sweet as can be:
Indeed.
Actually, the piercings and the black and the spikes I can deal with. If she was a girly girl, constantly giggling on the phone about lip gloss, boys and shopping THEN I'd be at a loss for how to handle her.
She's been swotting all week and sitting her GCSEs - and ENJOYING them. Not the swotting of course but the actual exams.
I've been tutoring and trying to fight off a stomach bug courtesy of Daughter-Two. She began complaining of a sore tummy the other day, on top of the heavy cold she already had. "Nothing to worry about" I said, as I packed her off to bed. Before walking up myself in the middle of the night feeling like I was in the early stages of labour. The pain kept waking me up in the middle of vivid dreams. The only one I can remember in detail is one in which I was Mark Sainsbury (a large, mustachioed news presenter) interviewing top-less professional dogwalkers in California. Which was disturbing on many, many levels (sorry Mark).
The next day I felt absolutely dreadful. Not only like I was about to suffer some sort of "Alien" like stomach exploding scenario, but also with a splitting headache from lack of sleep. Fortunately both daughters were out so I decided to try the new relaxation CD I just bought. Sadly it turned out to rather naff. There I was wandering through the "secret garden where no-one expects anything of you", listening to the water gushing from a fountain .. when the Geotech engineer banged loudly on the door to tell me he had come to drill holes in my hillside.
Clearly it seems that, in this dimension or any other dimension, there is nowhere I can go where "no-one expects anything of me".
Plus I kept getting flashbacks to the dog walker scenario.
Hoping this week is better. Although The Husband has picked up Daughter-Two's cold so it's not looking too good so far. And that face paint on Daughter-One was actually food colouring which doesn't wash off ...
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Here are this week's new products at Designer Digitals:
And the layouts:
I have discovered a new version of hell. You take two people with raging PMS and force one to tutor the other in trigonometry. A great way to induce insanity. I hated Maths enough while I was at school, wthout having to force feed it to a reluctant daughter. But Daughter-One has her Maths final in a few days and she really wants to pass.
My only break from it this week was when I went to Daughter-two's sports day. It brought back memories of the brief few years when I was the athletics star at my small country school. I had forgotten all about that, and how every new person arriving at the school would be made to run against me to see if they could beat me. I never did better than third at the county championships though. It was a short-lived thing; when I shifted schools at ten my brilliant career was over. I was too shy to want to stand out and it was easier just to jog along with the rest of the PE-hating girls.
The focus is much less on winning these days it seems. At the long jump some of the kids seemed to barely grasp the concept and were just running into the sand - but they all had to get applauded. At least they all seemed to have fun. And in the age sprints there was some real competition, and a few tears when people didn't win.
Daughter-Two threw herself into it with gusto:
Deafened by the cheers, screams and applause I wandered home to tackle simultaneous equations with the other Daughter.
By Thursday I was desperate for a change and the arthouse cinema down the road was showing a film I wanted to see ("An Education"). Trouble was, Thursday is supermarket shopping night and the cupboards were bare. But we managed to get around the supermarket, home to unpack it and off to the movies in record time. (There was some collatoral damage - I was racing down the aisles grabbing things from my list and throwing them in the trolley while The Husband followed behind picking up the things I knocked off the shelves as I went).
The movie was great. Highly recommended (and convinced us both that the planned trip around the world after we sell this house in five years time should include a few months living in Paris).
Unforunately I didn't get any rest that night as the dog had eaten something that disagreed with him. I suspect the collar that he devoured several days previously. (The day I came back to find him sitting in the sun looking mighty pleased with himself and only an inch of collar left attached to his chain).
He woke up three times in the night whining, whimpering and panting and needing to be taken outside. Oddly enough I was the only one in the house who woke whenever he did it. Clearly, once you are a mother you never lose the knack even for an annoying member of another species.
Despite all this, I did get some work done! These are in store this weekend at Designer Digitals:
Well, it’s official. Spring is here. I know this to be true because I have finally shaved my legs. It should become a recognised day. Instead of picking the arbitrary date of September 1st (here in New Zealand), it would be much more accurate to take it from the date I finally decide there is a remote possibility that at some point soon I may be seen in a skirt and bare legs. And, after letting out the bathwater, am left with a strange hybrid creation that is half-bath, half-shag pile rug.
So no more jibes from Husband about gorilla legs.
I am now calling him “Husband” because after a week of death threats from message board crazies I would prefer not to make it too easy for people to connect that he is most hated journalist in
He laughs off the death threats, which may be a bit rash since, if anyone is going to come after you with a gun it’s an irate farmer. The worst an
This week he has turned his attention to the Prime Minister.I think he is fairly safe on that front.
Of course, for consistency I really should call him “Husband-One”. But that would imply I was planning at some point to upgrade to another husband, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Really, one has been more than enough.
To further celebrate Spring I’ve decided to take a few hours out each week to get out of the office. Yesterday it was sunny for the first time in a week, so I took myself off to Onehunga. Ten minutes down the road – and a world away.
Hmm.. must look up the definition of “gourmet”. It must have changed in recent years …
I felt justified in taking the time off since I had a productive week. A new full kit (plus a revamped oldie) coming out soon and in the meantime, these are new in the store at Designer Digitals this week:
I was an angry woman the other day.
A couple of weeks ago I had a blood test done, and the doctor emailed this week to say he had the results. (It takes that long now the District Health Board has given the contract to Australian company Labtests in order to save money and, according to my doctor, get everyone in
I made an appointment to see him the next day and spent the intervening hours unproductively fuming. It’s been 25 years since pizza, creamy pasta, or cream cake have passed my lips. I have never eaten a Big Mac or a hotdog (and to be honest I don’t feel shortchanged). I vaguely remember the delights of donuts and my mother’s apple pie with cream or custard. But I would no more think of eating them than I would of taking up sky-diving. I now stick to a strictly gluten free, dairy free diet as the specialists stipulate for the sake of my gut. Not even chocolate anymore. So I stomped into the doctor’s office and said “I’m angry and this is why”. And I proceeded to tell him everything I eat, from the hot water and lemon at breakfast to the banana and nuts that make up my measly snacks. “A teaspoon of peanut butter on a rice cake” I screeched (to be honest, in retrospect, I may have been losing it at that point and he was scooting backwards a bit on his chair). “That’s about as bad as it gets. Are you telling me I can’t even have a teaspoon of peanut butter on a rice cake once a day?”.
Thankfully (for his sake) he put up his hands and said it must be genetic and, no, I really couldn’t eat any less than I already was, and I had a very low fat diet and it was indeed VERY UNFAIR.
And the cholesterol wasn’t even THAT high anyway.
And then he suggested maybe I should leave the daughters with Bernard and have a break. I have NO idea why he said that …..!
But it’s back to business as usual next week – for one week only though unfortunately. After that Daughter-One is on study leave and then off school until the end of January/start of February next year.
Daughter-Two has been a sweetie of course all the holidays, never complaining of boredom and happy just doing her crafts and, in the breaks between rain, bouncing on the trampoline in her PJs.
And I am not angry anymore, because the sun has come out and we had a great day at the Diwali Festival and, yes, I even ate half a deep-fried spinach and chick pea flour snack which was no doubt chock full of cholesterol. So sue me.
The Festival was down at the harbour. We played which boat shall we pretend it ours. Actually, I am not a great fan of these huge ones. They all look like they should be called "Up Yours" instead of "Regal Flyer" or "Aurora" etc.
I like this one though:
I managed to get some new Worn Edges done for the store at Designer Digitals, as well as some templates.
Speaking of templates, don’t forget to check out the store this weekend for the templates by our latest designer ………. The fabulous Cathy Zielske.
I’d like to say I fell off my chair with surprise and delight when I heard she was joining us – but I sort of had an inkling when I realised she had been shopping the store. But I WAS definitely delighted with the brilliant news. It is going to be great to have her with us.
Here are the new products for this week:
And the layouts:
It’s the school holidays AGAIN here. Seriously, it feels like the daughters are at home more than they are at school. Actually, I think they have been the past few months, what with study leave and winter bugs.
It’s been so wet and miserable there is little point in even getting dressed. Admittedly Daughter-Two has got out of the house every day at least once, to the library or the park. But before noon there is so little point in getting out of pyjamas that often we don’t. So we were mooching about in our PJs when Bernard rang up the other morning saying a tsunami was coming our way. Well, not OUR way since we are perched on the side of a volcano. At worst we would turn into an island and then I’d have to change the name of the blog to “Notes from the side of an island”. But Daughter-One was staying with a friend in the Eastern Suburbs, where it was apparently due to hit in a couple of hours - and Bernard’s office is right by the beach downtown.
We rang the mother of Daughter-One's friend to make sure they weren’t planning to take a walk down the beach and she said they had been up till 3am so weren’t expected to emerge until after the tsunami had been and gone. Then we just settled down to work as usual, checking the news now and then. Bernard rang me again to say the alert was called off, but no-one else seemed to know as the radio was still broadcasting civil defence warnings and all along the coast poor people were sitting on hilltops for three hours having evacuated their homes and offices.
However, it was no false alarm in
Daughter-Two was, I think, a little disappointed that there was not a tsunami raging up our street. She is thoroughly enjoying her holidays, especially daily creative time. Every time before the holidays I try to be positive and think of how nice it will be to spend more time with them home .... and every time I end up tearing out my hair within a few days. Bernard is supposed to be freeing me up on Saturdays so I can work uninterrupted but if anything it is worse with someone else at home, listening to the rugby (ack!). I am thinking of hiring some local schoolchildren or maybe just a band of midgets to descend on his office with scissors, glue, collage paper, stickers and CDs of loud industrial rock to gather around his desk and ask him to help cut things out, for raisins, money for the bus, what’s for lunch, to read a story ………
Actually, he is not Mr Popularity today since he managed to lock Daughter-Two in the car and walk all the way up the steps and into the house before realising he was missing something. She was not happy. Neither is he because she will never let him forget it. Forgetting is something he is good at, but not Daughter-Two.
Before the holidays I did finish a kit (and paperpacks), and it is in store at Designer Digitals now:
I love the page that Patricia from our CT made with it:
And I've got some scrapping done too:
Yes, the scrapping supplies aren't the only things that are a little worn here this week. But at least the decision about what work to do on the house has been taken out of our hands, as I went through the finances and realised we can't afford more than the essentials anyway (ie replacing the retaining walls and crumbling 90 year old paths, and adding stairs to the basement).
Last week we were still deciding whether it was worth the expense and disruption of getting an off street parking place cut, so I asked an agent to come and appraise the place and give us his thoughts on the value of adding parking.
What WAS I thinking, inviting a real estate agent into my home? It's like inviting a snake inside. He was seriously charming and no doubt knew what he was talking about but his agenda was very clear. With nobody selling because of the recent market freefall (ahem .. allegedly fuelled by Bernard's frequent rants about property investors and the overpriced nature of New Zealand housing) he has no listings. He just wanted me to list with him now. But with at least four or five years before Daughter-One moves out and we hopefully move to Wellington, there is no point selling. We would have to pay a fortune in rent or else increase our mortgage considerably to be able to afford to stay in this part of town and close to Daughter-Two's school.
Then came the supremely awkward moment when he produced a printed out valuation sheet on the house, with clearly showed Bernard and I as the owners. So I said "oh, you DO know who my husband is then?" and laughed - but he said "well, the name seems familiar". Ooops. Clearly not one of the real estate agents who ring up radio talkshows to rant about Bernard's "talking down" of the market and "fear mongering". So he kept asking "I know I should know who he is, tell me" but I just said "you'll just have to google him" . Could it be more awkward? He came round again yesterday to drop off some more info which I thought was brave of him in the circumstances.
Daughters One and Two have finished school for the term and are home for two weeks.I took Daughter-Two to the local library for an early evening storytime with a super-hero/dress-up theme. There was some serious one-up-manship with the costumes, but I really don't think poor robot boy enjoyed the storytime.
Daughter-Two, well known at the library for recent visits with the writer's extension class from school, posed with her favourite librarian.
I'm no superhero, but I did manage to find some time for designing which surely equates to having superpowers given my week.
Here's what's new this week at Designer Digitals:
