Kept off the streets

The reason I have been quiet lately and not blogged as I have been fairly busy with Collections work and been a bit naughty not keeping up blogging. I know I check plenty of blogs hoping to see updates and pics and when there is nothing I am disappointed, so here are some pics of some classes that I did recently. The pic above is of some art boxes that included many techniques, ageing and distressing and using various mediums like wire and fabric, metal tape to name a few. It was a fairly complex class and should take 3 - 3.5 hours to complete or longer depending on the student and conditions, like the more students in the class the longer it may take. There are also a few other variables as well like the level and skill of the students and we do get this when we are teaching, something that we accept when we take on the task of creating and designing a class. It's fun to design a class but then comes the time to put together kits! LOL!
Here is another little project that I taught recently, a small plaque for your studio/craft room to hang. Inspired by Audrey Underwood's amazing creation. Speaking of the little birds nest (small hint here), you'll notice that I have a shop on the right hand side of my blog. Well stay tuned there will be some product coming soon that you will be able to purchase right off the little shop! Sorry not telling whats coming, please be patient, I have a fixation at the moment with soap and my cosmetic stuff!!! (no I won't be selling that stuff in the shop!)

On another note:
I have been playing around with some oils and little serum bottles I bought recently and come up with a nice concoction to put on my ageing face after cleansing at night.
Here is what I have in the little bottle....

20 - 30ml jojoba - great for skin
10ml olive squalane - similar to natural sebum of human skin
4 drops vitamin E - always fantastic for the skin
few drops of east indian sandalwood EO - great for mature dry aging skin like mine!

It really smooths on nice and even though it feels like a really light oil, it doesn't take long to sink into your face and smooth out those lines and of course smells absolutely fantastic. I guess nothing is going to stop the lines but hey nothing wrong with slowing it down.

I also made some delicious fresh West Indian Lime and May Chang Lime Essential oil soap with a hint of oatmeal for light exfoliation for some of my citrus obsessed friends. I also have been carried away with diffusers as well. Mmm some of the metal tape thought the cuttle bug, distressed and wrapped neatly around the diffuser bottle looks very sweet. Hey its funny how my paper craft stuff gets mixed up in the soapy stuff! I guess you take the skills you learn everyday and incorporate it in everything else you do. Right now the twins are using their skills of sewing (they taught themselves to sew!) making saddle covers from micro fleece and jewellery to sell at a horse show to raise funds for a horsey camp. Now they have asked me to make pamper packs for the girls that are going like, lip balm, face masks, soap of course and some body lotion. I might even throw in some bug of balm for when they are riding but I would imagine that they probably accept flies and bugs as they don't mind getting their hands dirty and hanging out in weather and conditions that I couldn't. My idea of a nice time is by the pool in Bali sipping a nice coconut drink contemplating my next reflexology and massage!

Eeek! is that the time, oh well off to do some work now and get out the orders that are pending! Have a great day and I hope to post again soon than later, and thanks for looking! Julie

Cute Ponies

When the twins were small, they loved ponies, especially My Little Ponies. I found myself hunting them down on trips to the US to bring back ponies that weren't available here in Australia. I guess this video is a bit of fun - revenge of the ponies. I believe the girls still have a few hundred of them somewhere in the attic!

Hey girls better check on them they may be breeding in those boxes. You need to raise funds for your trip to New Zealand or your horse camp! (hint hint). Mum xxxx

Wow it’s been ages!

It has been a whirlwind month for me. Just busy busy! Getting orders filled for the Perth Trade and SIA have kept me off the streets for about 5 weeks now! That’s a good thing as I am happy about being busy and keeping things going here at Collections. Speaking of Collections I have a make and take demo night at Scrapbooks from the Heart in Canning Vale. I have made a sweet little wreath for you to display or perhaps give to your mum on mother’s day if you haven’t already got something nice to give to her. We will be using some new paper, chipboard circles, chipboard floral bouquet and some transparency. We will embellish with a small bird from the nesting bird range. I hope you can join me and fellow scrappers at Janae’s store tomorrow night. Give them a call on 9456 4515 and see if there are any spaces left. I will be taking some inspirational samples for you to see.

On another note, I spent last weekend in lovely chilly Melbourne - no offence it’s always freezing when I go over and I have to wait until I get home to thaw out! Okay I haven’t been over in full summer! Anyway I had a wonderful time at Scraptacular teaching 5 classes back to back (I did get one nights sleep in between). Julie Marshall and her team were so lovely and I was loving all the beautiful samples in the store, which have so much inspiration. When I get some time and Julie please send me the photos, I will post some here on Nirvana. Thanks to all the lovely girls who attended and you were all a pleasure to teach. Hey it was great to catch up with some friends as well at the same time. I did have a few hours on the Sunday before flying back to visit the Victoria Markets. I think I have been to Melbourne at least 20 times and never have had time to go on a Sunday as I have always worked Paperific and that is always on a Sunday. Well I loved the markets, didn’t do the retail merchandise but did the food hall. It was amazing! Loved all the stalls with mega rib eye steaks and those flavoured sausages, not to mention the seafood and my very favourite, French lamb chops trimmed down to bone and meat – no fat. You people in Melbourne are spoiled for meat and vege selection and really cheap prices! What have we got here?, well we had Peters icecream factory outlet now that is closing and you have that as well, so more good reasons to go back to Melbourne! There is not a lot to report only my hard drive failed last week and I lost a lot of photos and almost all of the last 6 months of designs. Luckily I did back up the latest designs (I completely forgot I did that!) and I was really happy to find that disk I burned. My IT guy said to me “you only have to back up once”! Well I will buy a terabyte portable drive and back up the LOT in one hit.

I did manage to squeeze in an hour of soap making on Sunday last. I made a delicious batch of Rosemary and Peppermint Essential oil cold pressed soap with lots of wonderful shea butter, olive and rice bran oils which create soft creamy lather. I am waiting on an order from Sydney to fulfil my need to make a really wonderful leave-in conditioner, which I happen to think are brilliant for your hair, especially if you have dry hair. I did get a chance earlier in the week to make some of those aroma diffusers – ones that you like to smell.. like rose for the bathroom and I made a lemongrass and west Indian lime essential oil one for the WC. Thanks Jen Jones for parting with some of those reeds, now all we need is some decorative bottles.

Thanks for looking.....Julie

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone. I hope you get your share of eggs! I spent this lovely warm easter morning at the Darling Range Pony Club, where my daughter Lauren, her amazing horse "Condor" were competing in the unofficial hack division. It was so wonderful to see her ride as she was nervous and Condor was a bit fidgety. It was all very exciting and nail biting as I am listening to all the comments and comentary from all the girls! Congratulations Lauren! oh and Condor as well!
Danielle did the makeup on the horse, they get darker legs and shades of black around the eyes. They also have a major shampoo and tail plait and come up all shiny!

She competed in 5 events and placed one first and also three third places, so she was one happy camper! Here she is with her first place ribbon.

Lauren was with her good friends, Jackie, Anna, Rachael and sister Danielle who do several shows a month and they all go and support each other.

Have a great easter break!

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(='.'=)

(")_(")
Julie

Give Away

Maxine Hazebroek made this amazing sample for SIA last week. (I pinched the photo from her blog! thanks Max). I can't tell you how intricate and how beautiful it looks in the flesh. Using the new chipboard Floral Bouquet, Max had put them to good use and created another stunning piece! Anyhooo there is a giveaway on Max's blog, check it out you could win it all by just commenting. How easy is that to get some of the Collections product for free! Now go on head on over!

New Products

New in store now are 2 new 6 x 6 papers from Collections - Baroque (Left) and Shabby Chic (right). Both ranges do match the previous papers Vintage and French. (Click on image to view a larger one). We had a lot of fun creating with these colours and I hope you will too. I think Baroque will be a lovely for the cooler months and they are rich and have a great contrast. Both were well received at SIA and we did the make and take with the Baroque.
The latest four designs for transparencies, fun to cut up and use, a style for everyone, Ornamental, Vintage, Flourishes and one for travel, Europe. (Click on image to view a larger one). We hope you like these A4 sheets with a rich solid black and on heavy plastic strong enough for pages in mini books. Speaking of mini books we will post more on them as we have a new set of 5 mini books that are so tiny but so cute. Well back to packing! Have a great day and don't forget to pop over to Max's blog as she has got some give away going on there!

We are back from Sydney

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the last post! Audrey and I got back this arvo from Sydney. I have been working since I got off the plane and packing orders etc. So if ya can pop over to Audrey's blog she has some photos of SIA and some really nice things to say! Max also is showing some really cool inspiration with the new product. Sorry I am pooped and I will hopefully post something worthwile soon. I really want to say THANKS AUDREY AND MAX for making it a really successful show, your samples KNOCKED EM' DEAD!!! and we had a blast! Thanks must go to all my customers who supported Collections and made it very special for us! gotta get some sleep! zzzzz

Sneak Peek #3

Collections are proud to announce these diminutive and amazing "Art Boxes". They will be the cutest items at the SIA Trade in Sydney on Tuesday 31st March. Everything the fiddley artist will love. If you love tiny, small, petite, these little art boxes are right up your alley. If you like the small nature of "paper tiles", you will love the "Art Boxes". They come six to a pack, three of each of the two sizes. If you are going to SIA, and are taking my class, this is what you will be making. I am not sure what you will complete in the hour given, but you will get the full six boxes to finish later. They allow you to mix and match different configurations, and are incredibly 3D. Gang up the same shapes to make a set of nine, and create an amazing visual piece of art. You will be running around looking for tiny objects to pop inside, or if you like put in your latest photographs or tiny anything really. They are so easy to put together, cover and paint. I have been busting to show you these, as we are very excited to bring you a very cool - "Make it your own" product. The best part about the "Art Boxes", they will retail for around RRP$7.95! Being released soon are TWO sets of gorgeous 6 x 6 papers to put on these, tons of chipboard and lots of new transparencies! We hope that all the new products will be in stores around the first 2 weeks of April, not long now. Thanks for looking Julie.

PS I am out of the office on Monday but will be back in Perth on Thursday after 1pm.

Sneak Peek #2

It's getting closer to SIA in Sydney, it's also getting busier organizing new product, packing and making samples to inspire you all. Here is the latest sneak peek. I know it's not much but it will all be revealed soon. Now with over 40 new products, things are hotting up here at Collections. I am busting to show you some of the new chipboard items, some will be extra special for making 3D objects and plenty off the page projects. Please stay tuned for more, I will endeavour to post more over the next coming days, it's all very exciting! The preview above is one of the classes I will be teaching at Scraptacular next month. If you are interested in the 5 classes that are available please contact the store.

Update at 4pm... This sneak by Maxine Hazebroek, very lovely, very sweet. Thanks for sending Maxine, I have seen the full image and you have outdone yourself! Some new flowers and birds!Max is going to have a special RAK soon, so keep checking her blog for it. I am donating some new, new, new product for the RAK (c'mon Max get it up!)

Well back to work for me.... day and night......thanks for looking! Julie

1st Sneak Peek!

It's getting close to SIA, trade show in Sydney end of this month, and I have been really busy putting together a pretty large release for the show. Above the first sneak peak, a layout of my daughter Lauren. As you can see some hint of the colour, but it is a teeny peek of what there is available. Thanks for being patient, there will be more to come, I promise. There will be some really inspirational colours, ideas and plenty of new, new, new! Audrey Underwood & Maxine Hazebroek have been busy helping me with samples, their input and incredible enthusiasm. (thanks girls!!!)

Max has put together a beautiful sample below, a wonderful card with colour texture and amazing design, thanks Max!I can't wait to show you some more peeks over the next couple of weeks, so please stay tuned for more exciting products and ways to use them! If you are going to SIA I still have 4 spaces left in my class, so if you want to try out what is new from Collections, please book in as soon a possible. Thanks for looking, Julie

Chilli Fest Perth

On Sunday Tad & I headed up to the Chilli Fest at Araluen about 45 mins from the city to join in with thousands of people at the Botanical Gardens to taste chillies, wine and beer.

We had a fab day looking at chilli plants and everything you can make with chillies like oil infusions, dukkah, jams, sausages, olives, relishes, wine and beer (yes you can get chilli beer).

The ambiance and live bands were fantastic and over 58 stalls to test out food and cool products. We had this awesome dish for lunch which included a jar of Malaysian Sambal, my favourite thing there. For $15 we got a big tray of chilli mussels, 2 prawn satays (eaten before I took this photo) and some wonderful tender squid, a drink as well. Most of all it was so delicious!
After testing several relishes and getting my mouth burnt a few times we headed off to cool down near a little babbling brook near the souvenir shop. There were tons of people at the fest but it was not pushy to get to sample all of the wares they had. Tad enjoyed the Black Opal Beer!, the smoked sausage and olive tapenade!

Later we decided to head off to Canning Dam as is was just up the road. The other side of the dam holds Perth's drinking water and there is not going to be a run off at the dam anytime soon. We have had some pretty dry weather lately.
The day ended with fish and chips by the sea at dusk with some friends and then a lovely white hot chocolate to finish up a perfect day in Perth!

The sunset was stunning!

PS I haven't forgotten the sneak preview for the new products, stay tuned they will be coming soon!

Curing Curing ...........

Mmmm some lovely soaps curing on my rack. I have some Peppermint & Rosemary Essential Oil Soap nearly ready. It's proving to be a really popular one so I made 3.5kg batch. I also knocked up a lovely soft scented English Rose Soap that lathers soft and lots of bubbles. One of my most favourite essential oil soap is Lemon Scented Gum Eucalyptus, and I put some calendula petals on for decoration. Another favourite is HOney & Oatmeal, with oatmeal exfoliations, it has the most divine scent and I only have about 24 bars ready at the moment.

As with all my soaps they contain cocoa & shea butters or both, teamed with lovely oils like olive, rice bran coconut and palm oils so they will not dry the skin. Soon I will be offering a lovely Rose Geranium scented goat milk bar (available 17th March) that is fully packed with both cocoa & shea butters and super fatted at 8% so it is a luxury bar. This bar is light and creamy and will benefit anyone with eczema or psoriasis skin conditions. It's costing $4 a bar but is still good value as other bars on the market sell for $7. Goats milk is close to the natural PH of our skin and my soap contains the natural vegetable glycerine that won't dry out your skin. Once you use cold pressed soap (that's the process I use to make it!) you won't want to go back to store bought soap. My bars generally sell for $3, so if you are interested, you can contact me via collections@westnet.com.au anytime.
On another note: I am preparing new items for SIA at the moment and some of the products are being manufactured right now and I have some wonderful new items to show and some very cool ideas on how to use them. In due course I will post a few sneak previews here on my blog, so stay tuned....it's all very exciting!
Thanks for looking and have a great day....Julie xx

"Talk to the Crab"

He's so big he can wear my sunglasses!

It's been really hot here in Perth for the last several weeks, or maybe it's because we live in a really hot shack - no aircon, except in the lounge room. So this afternoon I spent it with my daughter Danielle and Tad on the Swan River in Perth, right with the city in the background. We were after a "BIG" crab, well out prayers were answered with the biggest crab I have ever seen in the river. So we avoided the 40C heat and cooled down on a boat trip near the Narrows Bridge on the Swan, it was so lurverly....

Down South

Just got back from a lovely getaway down south of Western Australia, so I thought I would do a quick post of some of the photographs that I took. Click on the image to see the amazing detail of the "plant matter".

1. Yallingup Caves - Jewel Box
2. Yallingup - Eagle Bay
3. Cape Naturaliste - Lighthouse
4. Margaret River - Voyager Estate
5. Dwellingup - Plant matter
6. Yallingup - Sunset on the beach

Had the most fantastic time, weather perfect, destinations fabulous. Tad & I visited, Dwellingup, Busselton, Yallingup, Augusta, Margaret River, Dunsborough, Cape Leeuwin, and many more smaller towns.

We saw dolphins, stingrays (that you could touch, that swam almost onto the beach) the most adorable Blue Wrens, Wedgetail Eagles. Caught crabs in Mandurah (got bit by one on the foot!) caught tiny prawns, a dog shark (actually I reeled it in only!) Visited wineries, beautiful caves, walked the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere and ate amazing food.

Thanks for looking and will post some more photos when I get some more free time!

Thank You to the ladies of Newman! Wow what a fantastic experience Newman was. A huge thank you to Rhonda & Tenaha & families (Rtlicious) for hosting me and giving me the opportunity to see an amazing part of Australia. The retreat ran over 3 days in lovely Mia Mia boutique hotel (house in the desert), which was very nice and great meals! It was very special to meet the "girls of Newman" and I worked them so hard with hours and hours of "Collections" elements and techniques. They completed a complex journal and several pages which encompassed 2 days. Very easy group to teach and a very poised group of ladies! Thank you for your interest in my soap making! Rhonda is bringing up some in the next week or two! I will pack a box of goodies and some lip balms etc. Those who wanted the recipe for liquid laundry detergent, please email me at collections@westnet.com.au

Picture above taken of the huge haulpac truck!

Rhonda and Tenaha and her daughter at the Newman airport.

Girls busy at work creating!

Rhonda with the view from Radio Hill of Newman town.

I would like to thank the girls for a fantastic tour of Newman, a visit to the top of Radio Hill which gave an excellent view of the town, 8,000 residents and another 2,000 transient residents (fly in, fly out) that live in quite distinct accommodation. From the hill you can get a little bit of a view of the largest open cut iron ore mine, called whale back in the world. What spun me out was the temperature, the hottest place on the planet that I have been. Whilst I was out touring with Rhonda it recorded a temperature outside of 47c (116F) and believe it or not that was at 6.20pm in the evening! The last 2 weeks in Newman the max temp was over 40c with an average of 42.3 for the month!

It's true when we were out looking around it was actually 47c, it felt like being in a toaster oven!

I was totally fascinated with the heat! The girls didn't even notice it at all, they said they we used to the heat!

The group outside (yes in the 40c degree heat!) at Mia Mia

Newman January 2009

Steak order at Mia Mia, er it should have said on the menu "Steaks"!

Newman airport, get there on a 717 fleaburner!
Thanks for looking, Julie
PS have a great Australia Day!
Aussie, Aussie Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy, !

RTlicious Weekend Retreat

As promised a tiny sneek preview of my class at RTlicious Weekend Retreat on the 24th & 25th of January (next weekend). We will be using a multitude of Collections elements to inspire you and get your creative juices flowing. I am so looking forward to meeting everyone and sharing my ideas and techniques with you all!
Just a reminder to bring these items below

Equipment List for Class
Please bring these items to class as they will be essential to complete the project.
PVA Glue or Helmar, with a fine tip bottle if you have it
double-sided tape
Scissors
Cutting knife & mat
Sander
Awl - pokey tool
small paint brush
ruler

Optional Items (please bring if you have it)
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Frayed Burlap)
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Old Paper) **actually I just checked, its Antique Linen, sorry I had the wrong lid on my inks!
If you don't have these specific colours that's okay, but we will not be substituting with other colours.
The Big Bite hole punch or cropadile punch.

For the folks not from WA, Newman is right up north. I am so looking forward to seeing some of the north as I haven't been past Geraldton, ever! Thanks for looking, Julie

Calendars for 2009

Just to let you know that Collections Calendars Small have both 2008 & 2009 dates included with the product and any large calendars shipping as of January 2009 we are including additional {2009} so you have the full 12 months of the year 2009 to complete the year. You'll also have 24 x 2008 as well. For the sample shown above,I've used the small calendar in white (comes in cream and kraft as well) and used a clear cover, then bound it with my Zutter machine. It's a great quick and easy project to kick start the year. Oh and by the way, I am now designing new products for the SIA release and I have some lovely new chipboard and paper products that I know you will love. The great thing about "Collections" being manufactured in Australia is that all product lines will be available to purchase immediately at time of release, absolutely no waiting! Well back to the drawing board! Hope you are having a great day, Julie

Duck Savers of the World!

I had almost forgotten about this photo, but I was going through my files the other day and I remembered this one would be good to post. Tad & I were on my way home from a party in Mindarie when a mother duck was going spazz on the roadway around this grate. There were two other girls that had stopped trying to open the grate. The little ducklings had fallen through on their evening travels leaving mum in a frantic mess. Luckily Tad with his strong hand managed to lift up the grate and I jumped in and pulled out the little ones, who ran straight away to their mother. If we hadn't come along mum may have been squashed from passing traffic and the little ones would have perished!

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to all my family and friends, here and around the world. I hope your day is special and a safe one for the festive season. I would like to thank you for your ongoing support throughout the past year. Collections will not be closing over the holidays so if you need anything please email or call my office. Well, heading off to have breakfast at the beach! Have a great day and thanks for looking.......Julie xxxxxxx

This time last year

It was roughly about this time last year that I had the opportunity to do something I have wanted to do all my life, climb Bluff Knoll. I have always had a fear of heights and I think I always will, but I wanted to see if I could try to get over that fear for a little while to climb the highest peak in the south west of Western Australia. Bluff Knoll is situated in the Stirling Ranges about three and half hours drive south of Perth where I live. The knoll is approximately 1,096 meters high, about a 1 kilometer climb, however the climb up is over 3.2km. As you can see by the pictures it is in the clouds and they do look fantastic with them rolling off. The top is at the very highest point you can see and the views are spectacular.

Looking down from the peak it's 1km drop, so I could hardly look for too long, as it really killed me! In winter they sometimes get snow on the peak. The day Tad & I climbed the knoll it was in summer, not the best choice but as you can see by the photo below we had a clear sky. We decided to climb it at 6am as it is about 2.5 hours to make it to the top for us old folks! We slept in and didn't start until about 10am. As we made the ascent many people we coming down and were very disappointed the peak was in cloud and was very cold. Fortunately leaving it a bit later in the day we had full views for hundreds of kilometers!

I can tell you it was not a walk in the park, 3 hours to get down and I had sore legs for days after. I was quite hot going up as well being in summertime. I am so glad I did it an now looking back a year later at the photos, I am thinking yeah, I could climb it again .....one day!
This is the awesome view of the knoll the evening before the climb from the Stirling Ranges Caravan Park. I love the way the sunset light changes the colour of the peak rock!

Cheeky Girl

My cheeky little girl Lauren sent me this pic yesterday. She got her licence! Yay, I am so proud of her. She looks very happy here in her car with her sister Danielle in the passengers seat. Being mums you always worry when your little doves go out in the world driving. Lauren turned 21 in October so she has been practising for quite some time to get her licence. It's a bit more difficult to get your licence now here in WA. Years ago when I got my licence (I was 26!) you only needed to have a few lessons, I had 7 and then you could do your test. Nowadays you need to have 25 hours actual driving (with another driver) after you pass your test (second phase) and then you can drive alone. Hey does everyone remember driving in a car alone for the first time? I still remember that freaky moment! LOL!