Kim Archer | Mindful Living

NEW! NEW! NEW!

               ***NEW WORKSHOPS!!**

Well, some of you have already found the few new workshops *just* opened this afternoon over at the @Home site. THANK YOU FOR BOOKING IN!!! It's great to have you on board!

Sooo, what have we just launched...

Firstly we have the BEHIND THE SCENES workshop which contains not one or two BUT THREE scrapbook layout projects.

One of my fave things is to create pages with interactive bits..like hidden journaling and flippy, flappy pieces that can lift up or open out to reveal lots of stuff underneath!! I know..not so practical when slotted into an album as you have to pull the entire layout out to check it all out. BUT I LIKE THAT IDEA!! I like exploring pages with lots of hidden things and this class is all about hidden journaling!!

There's TWO step by step layouts in the classroom, all uploaded and ready to go! PLUS as an added bonus I am thrilled to be able to offer you the project in PDF format from my recent face to face class for Scrap Direct here in Newcastle, Australia. You may remember the sneak peeks from the other week here. And theres loads of samples to share from the Support Team girls too.

**BOOK IN HERE**

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The next workshop ready to go is another in our series of SHORTS WORKSHOPS. It's a quick & easy scrapbook layout class called KIDS @PLAY and again, this was a recent workshop I taught face to face for Scrap Direct. We had some requests again, to offer this one to our @Home customers and I am pleased to announce I have done just that.

It's another instant class so everything is all there, at your finger tips and ready to go once you book in and your payment is received. There's a full step by step layout PLUS another bonus quick and easy PDF download project which was designed to utilise your offcuts and supplies you already have on hand.

ONLY DIFFERENCE with this class is because this class was originally designed for Scrap Direct, my Support Team girls didn't create any additional samples. BUT if they do end up creating samples I will upload them to the classroom asap!

**BOOK IN HERE**

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And I am VERY EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT HELEN HAS DESIGNED ANOTHER FRESH VINTAGE CLASS FOR US!!!! She has been working very hard and has already finished designing the class and her sample is a beauty!! I can't wait to share.

We have had tremendous support for Helen's first class and it received a fantastic response with so many people embracing the FRESH VINTAGE STYLE!!!

I will upload and open this class as soon as I can but we have a couple of support samples to get finished first to go with Helen's class!!

Here's a teeny, tiny sneak peek!!

To book into Helen's very popular first FRESH VINTAGE WORKSHOP, click here.

 

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And as June is drawing to a close, there's only a few more days to take advantage of our FREE CELEBRATION BANNER WORKSHOP. Book into ANY of our workshops and receive the Banner class for free!!!!!! Check out the details here.

**Thank you also for such lovely comments about my last post and to Angie who thoughtfully sent me some teeny glass bottles in the mail for the seed beads I was able to salvage from my smashed bottle:) So thoughtful and very appreciated. Thanks!!!!!

Morpeth, Blue Seed Beads and my Nana

Today we visited Morpeth for the afternoon.

Jamison complained bitterly about wasting his Sunday having to go to Morpeth. In fact he was down right horrible and we had quite an argument before we even left to go! BUT once we arrived and our first port of call was the old lolly shop and we did some ginger beer tasting and honey sampling and he got to stroll through the aisles of gourmet food and cooking utensils (his favourite thing!!), then he decided that Morpeth wasn't too bad after all.

Here's some photos from today.

 

Feeling a little fragile today.

It's the anniversary today of my mum's mum - our Nana and she is often in my thoughts, but more so today. I have very few things left from her these days but I do have a pair of teeny tiny glass bottles filled with blue (my favourite colour as a kid) seed beads. She gave them to me for my 12th birthday. Tucked amongst my other presents. She always had the knack of buying thoughtful presents, carefully chosen for each grandchild. Never anything expensive but always thoughtful and meaningful.

And the seed bead bottles were an instant success for a craft loving 12 year like myself! And they became quite a treasured possession. They have travelled with me on all my moves around the place and I am very particular about them - not letting Capri touch or play with them!!

So tonight I was on the computer and Capri was telling me some big long story and she absently picked up one of the bottles off my bookcase, fumbled with it, as only Capri can do, and accidently dropped it. It smashed into a million pieces on our wooden floor. Blue seed beads everywhere.

I looked in horror and promptly burst into tears. She looked in horror back at me and promptly burst into tears as well.

I know they are only seed beads and that I have another bottle still but I was very fond of  my PAIR of bottles. They sat together side by side for so many years, through so many moves and in so many houses!

And now I have one lonely bottle left.

Once I settled myself down I explained that I didn't have many things left to remind me of my Nana and that it's important not to touch other people's stuff!! And her eyes filled up with tears and she said, "I'm sorry about your Nana and I would want to keep my white teddy from my Nan forever too."

and it was all ok again...

Just lousy timing really. Being my Nana's anniversary as well as the news of Jane Mcgrath's death which we got half way through our lunch at Morpeth. We had been expecting the news for several days as my cousin knows the family so we knew Jane was not good all week as we had been getting regular updates. I couldn't stop thinking about her and her lovely family all week. So sad.

Anyway, thanks for reading..just wanted to get all this down on my blog..

KIMx

Catching up @Home

I guess it's time for a catchup so that Sharon can have something to read in her lunch break ;o)))))

On the home front: not that much to report. Same old. Same old. School, kids stuff, sport, dancing etc. I'm LOVING Australia's Next Top Model..sad about Caris going though. So DON'T want Demelza to win.

Have had a mammoth few weeks pulling together the What's in the Box class. It went incredibly well and THANK YOU for the lovely emails, comments and feedback on the workshop. You can still book in..all of the info is all there..just waiting for you:)

New stock in the @Home shop too. Let's go shopping...

• MORE STOCK IN - packaging products including Boston Bottles, acrylic baubles, glass gift tubes, muslin bags and round tins.
• Fresh Vintage kits - almost sold out. HURRY! PLUS some new Vintage Book Paper sets.
• new CARD COMBOS and gorgeous fabric covered buttons will be added tomorrow plus some other scrapbooking products.
• VERY EXCITING..NEW!! FRESH!! As seen in some of our What's in the Box workshop projects...Direct from the US it's Elle's Studio journaling products. I love them!! So versatile. Check it out here.

And here's a little layout showcasing some of Elle's products - here I have featured the DATE AND PLACE STRIPS plus the CHIC NOTE CIRCLE TAG.

And a quick tag using the CHIC JOURNALING TAGS.

And I think that's about all for now..

SCRAP DIRECT!!

Ok, running late with the sample for Kim Wood's class again.

Workshop is Saturday 21 June - yeah I know..another short notice class!! If you are in the Newcastle area we would love to see you next Saturday from 1pm. Read a little bit more about the class here on my website..

Give Kim W a call or email her through the Scrap Direct website...

It's been a mammoth week on the @Home site. THANK YOU for such an excellent response!! Will recap later today..but right now..we are heading out for the day!! Yay!!

@Home shop!!

Lots happening.

The What's in the Box workshop is in full swing now. Loads to share. Lots to see and do. And a great selection of projects and cards. A lovely group of Guest Designers and a friendly group of participants!! There's been lots of chatting in the chat room and show and tell in the classroom.

Not too late to book in. Come and join us!! We would love to meet you.

BOOK IN HERE.

 

The @Home shop has had a little facelift.

Some new categories added. And I spent the afternoon uploading new product. I can't work out how to list items in multiple categories..sounds simple enough but it was driving me mad today trying to work it out!!! I still haven't worked it out - i need a block of time without any distractions!

Anyway, the stock was selling from underneath me! I would no sooner add in some new things and it was sold out. It was amazing!! And a bit stressful to start with!!! Within about 15 minutes the shop was cleared out and I hadn't even announced the new stock at that point! It was literally selling in front of my eyes and I couldn't keep up with everything!!

Soooo I have decided to offer PRE ORDER on some of the more popular lines. And even the PRE ORDERS have sold out once and I have added more quantity! Amazing!!!

So, when you get a chance head on over to the site and check out our new stuff. Most of it we have used in the What's in the Box workshop. Eventually, when I work out the shop stuff I will list anything new in the WHAT'S NEW category too but for now most of the stock can be found in the PACKAGING IDEAS category!

Here's a glimpse at some of the new things..

Paper & Stuff

Just uploading on behalf of Miss Cath at Paper & Stuff..

What's in the Box - unwrapping tomorrow

What's in the Box?

Well, actually, there's lots of gift boxes to unwrap..so the class should be called What's in the Boxes?

And haven't we been busy!!!

I have been receiving the most glorious cards and mini projects from the Support Team girls as well as our talented guest designers. It's been a visual feast of beautifull-ness!!! I can't wait to start unwrapping the gift boxes to share what's inside with those booked into the class!! Lots of mini projects.

PLUS a fantastic selection of greeting cards! All so different. Loads of ideas.

And then there's our final project to 'wrap up' our What's in the Box week - a step by step scrapbooking layout with a Celebrate theme.

Jam packed with projects!! Workshop officially kicks off tomorrow and runs until the weekend. All info/projects etc will remain accessible for sometime yet so there's plenty of time to enjoy the class at a time convenient for you.

BOOK IN HERE.

PS. book into ANY of our workshops(except the free Just Because workshop) during the month of June and you gain FREE access to this workshop:)

Last night I went to a special screening of the Sex and the City movie with Margaret.

Very exciting. (yeah, another thumping big cold sore..very attractive..but usually my signal that I am not eating properly and I am run down!!)

Margaret rang me a few weeks ago and invited me along. She's a HUGE fan and has watched each episode countless times over. So she jumped at the chance for the two of us to go along to the red carpet gala event at the Tower Cinemas in Newcastle last night.

Actually, it's probably not even called the Towers anymore but for us it will always be called the Towers, just like Stockland will always be called Jesmond and Westfield Kotara will be always be called Garden City. Andonly Newcastle people will know what I am going on about in that paragraph!!

But I digress...

So, the Towers..we couldn't find a park and had to walk 50 miles so we arrived with not much time to spare. The special screening was a charity fundraiser for women's cancer and our entry fee included our movie ticket, champagne, a gourmet goodie box, some raffle tickets and some discount vouchers..

...I had flashbacks to my teenage years as soon as we stepped into the theatre. I'm sure the carpet hasn't been updated since 1983 and the seats were the same!!! We don't go to that theatre much anymore but it was GREAT to be back...I loved it. So nostalgic and the perfect setting for 697 women and 3 men to enjoy the movie!!

Apparently the organisers who decided to run the event were hoping to get 200 people booked in. They put an ad in the paper which is where Margaret read about it and they had 400 people respond initially. 400 people meant they could book out the entire cinema. And then this number grew and grew and suddenly they had 700 people attending!!!!

It was jam packed!!

We picked up our raffle tickets and voucher envelope, headed up the stairs, lined up behind dozens of women and were handed a gourmet goodie box each. I whinged to Margaret as we walked away that she got popcorn and I didn't but then decided that perhaps there were a few different varieties of gourmet goody boxes and proceeded in to find out seats without checking it out.

No allocated seats.

It was every woman (and three men) for themselves. And we ended up squished down the front and to the left, right near the wall. But that was ok. So then we went through the little gourmet goodie boxes while waiting for the raffles to be drawn and then the movie to start.

MMMMMMM. Seems that the box I was handed DID have the popcorn missing. But what was worse was that it looked like someone had had a pick of everything in there and then put it back on the table!!!!!! So, no popcorn, only one wrapped spring roll thingy instead of six and the worst bit..a half eaten fancy nancy chocolate that someone had BITTEN AND THROWN BACK INTO THE BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eeewwwwww

So that was SO disapointing.

But it had taken us so long to get to our seat I wasn't going anywhere to complain so I didn't take it back. And Margaret kindly offered me her popcorn!!

Anyway, all that aside..the movie was FAB-ULOUS!! I loved it. There was something quite fun about sharing the movie with all these other women and listening to their collective cheering, sighing, laughing, silence as we each became involved and immersed in the storyline.

And then I admitted to Margaret that I have not in fact ever watched an episode of Sex and the City in its entirety. To which she was horrified. And then thanked me profusely for coming with her. BUT I have seen bits and pieces over the years and read the hype about the movie so I wasn't going there completely oblivious to the storyline and characters etc.

In fact there was more storyline than I expected. I got swept up in the story more than I expected. I even teared up in a couple of bits that I didn't expect to and all in all..it was GREAT!!!! And I would love to see it again!

So..that was my big night out on the town.

Brandt enjoyed his own big night out last night too. All of his friends are starting to turn eighteen so there's been a run of parties and celebrations over the last few months. Last night Brandt went off to a friends mediaeval fancy dress party.

Nothing like leaving it to the last minute to organise a costume! Brandt and two mates ripped apart some boxes and made helmets and 'suits of armour' which they spray painted silver. They were due to leave at 6pm and at 5pm they were still painting!!!!!!

 

And here's one of the helmets.

They even made themselves a silver spray painted cardboard sword each

Brandt and his mates drove to the party and parked around the corner to then change into their 'costumes' and I asked him to make sure someone got a photo of them all dressed up. But no one did. So disapointing.

Apparently Brandt didn't allow for the cardboard armour legs to have a bend in them for his knees so consequently he said he could hardly walk and had to walk with VERY straight legs. Which would have been quite a vision:)

And then today.

We spent the day with Lyn, her sister Janice and Nicki. They're up from Canberra for the weekend as Ellie has been chosen for the division 1 under 13's ACT basketball team. She's playing all weekend at Broadmeadow!! Very excited and we're very proud of her.

So all of us, even Brandt who doesn't come out on many family things these days, spent the day watching Ellie play, enjoying Scratchley's fish and chips on the Foreshore for lunch and then we had a scenic tour of Newcastle.

We didn't get home until quite late this afternoon and we were all tired out!!

I took some other photos today but need to resize them and will share tomorrow..

Another long post..thank you if you have read this far:)))

KIMx

Family catchup..

A catch up for the family. And another long post..read on if you can be bothered:)

It's raining here in Newcastle. Heavy rain. And with the first anniversary of the June long weekend flood THIS weekend, I am feeling a little edgy. The roads are covered in water but thankfully, although heavy, the rain is no where near as bad as it was this time last year.

Thanks for the emails asking how Lyn was doing. She's going ok. As well as to be expected and taking it one day at a time. We're very excited as she's coming up this weekend with the girls and it will be lovely to see them.

other news...in point form

• I took this random, candid photo of the kids on Saturday afternoon as I can't believe how TALL Jamison is getting...he's almost as tall as me and not far off overtaking his big brother. And this photo is a typical family scene that I wanted to capture.

• And Brandt was away most of last week on his year 12 retreat. Having so many kids in year 12 they were split into smaller groups and sent in all different directions and he wasn't with any of his main friends. BUT he is a social kid that one and it didn't really bother him!
• He scored Dungog as his location which is not that far from here and he wasn't that impressed as he was hoping to get Forster. Th venue. MMMMMM. They ran out of food. Ran out of the staples such as bread, milk, teabags and cereal after day one! The owner/caretaker did nothing to fix the situation and the teachers travelled into town and spent their own money to buy the kids food plus frozen pizzas for the last night they were there. And no phone coverage. Shock horror. This was what Brandt said was the worst. They were very isolated where they were and he didn't cope well with not being able to use his mobile - which is his lifeline!!
• The cabins they stayed in were old and run down and there were gaps in the floor which Brandt said meant the cold air came up through the floorboards. They slept on hessian mattresses which he said were terrible. He said other than bushwalking there weren't any activities and he said there were leeches and ticks. One poor girl ended up with three leeches and a tick on her! So he came home tired, cold, hungry and OVER it but he said that he made some new friends and got to know people he generally doesn't mix with at school and he said that part was fun. He came home to the news that some of the kids enjoyed motel style accommodation (with televisions in their rooms:), meals served in the restaurant and activities like canoeing etc at some of the other locations...
• Other news..Jamison won his footy on the weekend and is the new goal kicker for the team which he is suitably excited about. He's also finished his first lot of exams and has done exceptionally well so far with his results - especially English.
• And he's been eagerly cooking. Now this kid has long held an interest in cooking and I may have even mentioned it here before. He's loving the cooking lessons at school now he's in high school! Anyway, the other night he decided to tackle some mixed berry chocolate souffles...here's the result..he did a great job! He also baked some giant pretzels using some recipe off the internet!

• Capri's netball - well we are having a bit of a hit and miss season. Last year we had a terrible season due to coach problems which I have mentioned here, or maybe not? before. She wasn't going to go back to netball this year as she's not that 'into' it but her little friend Bridie begged her and so she signed up. 
• And her coach is beautiful. She's only young but so good with the kids and the whole atmosphere of netball is so much better this time around. Although they haven't won a game and are graded too high up which is disheartening but the parents and everyone are so encouraging and the girls in the team are all lovely. BUT, there's not a HUGE lot of enthusiasm from Capri with the netball. And I hold my breath each time she throws or catches the ball hoping she can do it. Sometimes it looks like the game is clicking and she is great. Other times she's in her own little world and looking like she wished it was full time already!!! Especially when she's stuck down at Goal Keeper with no action at her end of the court. She always has a chat with the opposition though so she makes use of her idle time waiting for the ball.
• So Saturday...we arrived to find out they had only 5 players. Now our team gets beaten by BIG margins every week when they have a full team so we felt very sorry for our little team of five. BUT only having five players meant that the pressure was on and everyone was needed and so it forced Capri to concentrate on the game!!! They were all exhausted at full time.
• They lost 33-1.
• And guess who scored that ONE GOAL!!!!!!!!
• Yes. It was Capri. I was in shock!!! Capri was in shock! Her team was in shock. Her coach was in shock. The ball had barely made it to our end the entire game and then with one minute to go suddenlly Capri had the ball, was under the ring, took a step in and shot the thing on one foot! And it went in. The sidelines erupted..from BOTH sides as our girls had tried so hard all game and were beaten so badly and to get one goal was marvellous and everyone was very exicted for them - even the opposition!!
• So that was eventful. I had NO ONE to share the excitement with as Marie my friend with Bridie wasn't there, and Ken was at footy with Jamison and my mum, of all Saturdays didn't come along this time!! So I had a little proud tear in my eye by myself!!

And lastly, just a few family photos..a RARE one of the three of them together..actually sitting next to each other and smiling...and not arguing and bickering and picking on each other..

And someone needs a haircut! Mojo is growing fast. He's huge. And fluffy. And certainly let's us know he's there. He needs a desperate cut and style!!!

That's all for now...

KIMx

Fresh Vintage kits have hit the @Home shop

Phew. I have finally finished sorting, packing, photographing and uploading some Fresh Vintage kits to the @Home Shop.

Check them out here. The perfect partner for Helen's Fresh Vintage Workshop. Here's a few photos...

New goodies are being uploaded over the new few days!! So when you get a chance head on over and check out our new look shop...only the kits have been uploaded so far so stay tuned for more new things to appear soon.