Tuesday, July 25, 2006

the cat is out of the bag

I've been holding something very close to my chest lately. Although it's a truly vulnerable feeling to go public, I'm finally ready to divulge...

I have just completed my first two lines of scrapbook paper along with coordinating acrylic stamps under my label

GP_logo_4in_colour

The lines are called Aoteoroa and On the Road and I can't wait until they debut at Crafting Connection in Wellington on the weekend of 11 August.
I will be using the papers a lot in Being Kiwi (well, Being a little bit Kiwi, in my case), which is one of my classes at CC. Very exciting!

Previews coming soon...

Monday, July 24, 2006

good news

It's a gorgeous day.

The pair of wood pigeons is back in the manuka tree after spending the last several months in someone else's yard.

And...

The dogs and I were just accompanied from York Bay to Mahina Bay by a fur seal swimming along the shoreline. We were going at the same pace and everything. It was just so cool. I didn't notice him until a guy, who was pulled over in his work van, pointed him out to me.

It's the little things.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

documentaries galore...

because it's Wellington Film Festival time. There are always so many great things on offer, especially in the doco category. Often the directors are there with a post-show Q&A. Good stuff. I look forward to it each year and scour the thick catalogue trying to narrow down my choices.

It brings me back to scheduling classes at University and reading the course catalogue cover to cover. Repeatedly. Every class had appeal. I am a bit all over the place with my interests so had to make hard choices then too. Man, this is showing my age, but Maria and I would have so much fun planning our schedules and using graph paper and highlighters for color coding to plot it all out. (Yes, I'm a nerd. Don't even get me started on school supplies.)

Anyway this year, Stefanie shared my Film Fest enthusiasm. Jeremy loves it too but he just trusted our judgement. We somehow decided on 3 movies. They were all showing this weekend. Even though I had a lot of work to get done, it was a really nice break. Plus it was good to go to town with Stef.

On to the movies... By the way, I would strongly recommend all three.

Black Gold is a fair trade doco that focuses on the coffee trade.

From the site...As westerners revel in designer lattes and cappuccinos, impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers suffer the bitter taste of injustice. In this eye-opening expose of the multi-billion dollar coffee industry, Black Gold traces one man's fight for fair trade.

The filmmaker was there to answer questions afterwards and that was really helpful. It is such a complicated issue but one of the basic messages I left with was that Africa needs and wants fair trade rather than aid. And as a consumer it was good to be reminded of the need to be more aware of what I buy, whether it's coffee, bananas, or scrapbook supplies.

An Inconvenient Truth is an Al Gore doco about global warming. Scary stuff. Great quotation highlighted in the movie:


"It is difficult to get a man to understand something
when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
-Upton Sinclair

A Lion in the House is a PBS doco that follows five children for six years as they battle cancer at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The film also shows the traumatic, lifelong affect it has on the families. A serious tear jerker--I haven't cried like that for a long time. It was nice to see some glimpses of my hometown, even if it was masked in sadness. Again the filmmakers were there but we unfortunately had to skip out on the Q&A because I needed to get back to work.

There was a great song during the credits, "When it Don't Come Easy" by Patty Griffin. I'll have to check that out.

I want to keep a list of all the great movies I've seen in the last 6 years at the Film Fest. I sense a layout coming on!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

stella's got her groove back

After a bit of a scrapbooking drought (apart from work-related stuff), I'm back in the groove. I've created six pages since yesterday. Wohoo!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

i finally went back

About 2 months ago Kai and I had a very traumatic experience at the Hutt River walk, which was always one of my favorite places to take the dogs. They have so much room to run there and people are always friendly and non-judgemental toward over-excited, barking dogs (i.e. our dogs). But in a matter of moments on a beautiful autumn day, it became tainted.

The following is taken from an email I wrote when I got home that day...

***
From: Christina
To: Lisa
Subject: i was very fortunate today
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 09:36:23 +0000

This afternoon we took a walk along the Hutt River. Never been a problem. Everything was fine until I got distracted talking to the girls (who arrived from the States this morning) and we had stopped walking. Meaning the dogs got bored. I looked up and saw them side-by-side at the top of the hill right next to the 6-lane motorway. (We had gone further than I normally do. Where I usually walk there is a barrier of trees and bushes at the top. Plus a guard rail. So I hadn't even thought about it being wide open up there.) I shouted "FOOD" and "TREAT" (our emergency recall commands) and Berkley bolted down the hill. However, the white of Kai's tail vanished. I ran up the muddy hill as quickly as possible. When I got to the top, Kai had just reached the other side of the road. I don't know how she did it. She just started walking on the footpath along the guard rail which was exactly her height to fit under. Traffic on my side was flying past but fortunately there was a red light at Melling Link so there was no traffic on her side. There were about five or six cars coming on my side though. Probably over 100km/hr. All lanes and staggerd. I nearly jumped out but I would have been dead. Unfortunately she saw me and as I shouted, "WAIT," I could see that she was gonna run. She bolted across the motorway toward me. I was screaming and hyperventilating. It was so unbelievably awful. I was so helpless. Somehow she managed to dodge two cars going full speed in the far lanes. But this white sedan was in the lane right next to me, and I knew the timing was just awful. I saw it flash in front of my eyes a million times in that split second. But I think he saw me flailing around because he couldn't have seen her. He swerved right in front of me so very slightly but just enough to miss her. I can't imagine a nearer miss. And it would have happened just three feet from me if he hadn't jerked the wheel. I can't get it out of my head. It would have been all my fault. I would have killed our dog. In one split second. How would I have told Jeremy?
***

full of beans 2006_02_14_Kai1

It has taken me this long to take them back there. My heart was beating pretty fast the whole time. I stayed on the river side and avoided the motorway side of the walk, but still it was scary.

Moral: life-changing things happen in an instant so look after yourself and your loved ones.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

blog slacker

I think I can officially add "blog slacker" to my list of qualities. I started off so strong and now my posts have become few and far between. I've always struggled with keeing a journal, but I still have hope that the blog thing is going to work for me.

***

Some exciting things have been happening in my world, some I can share and some I cannot yet.
  1. We had such a fantastic time when my sister and her family visited in May/June. We got to share in the everyday (something I really miss living so far away) as well as enjoy some of the many NZ touristy things. We made so many memories in that month. I'll never forget it. Eventually I'll get around to posting some of the 2,711 photos (seriously) that the seven of us took during the visit. It was a very tearful good bye.
  2. I can't believe how much I am enjoying Stefanie's 10-week stay with us. Of course, I was really looking forward to it, but you never know how having another person living in your house will work out. You have your routine and you grow set in your ways, so I think it's natural to have a few reservations. In this case, those were definitely not necessary. It's so comfortable. For all of us. Dogs included. The laughter and singing (seriously) just doesn't stop. And I don't think it would be possible for us to drink any more tea. Jeremy is enjoying having her smiling face around too. We'll be sad to see her go at the end of August.
  3. I am well-entrenched in Crafting Connection 2006. I am so honored to be teaching alongside Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and Donna Downey. (Some scrapbooking big-wigs, for those not in the know. :) It all happens in about a month. I am busy getting my official samples made, directions written, and presentations created. Fun fun, but lots of work. Thousands of kits were packed, quite a few Hell's Pizzas were consumed, and lots of laughs were shared at KiwiScraps over the last few weeks. And get this, there are 400kgs of goods shipping to Aussie!
  4. I OFFICIALLY HAVE A COMPANY! My name is Greener Pastures Design Limited. I got my first mail addressed to Greener Pastures. Okay, so it was only a letter from a bank to try to get me to open up an account with them. Exciting nonetheless.

So there you have it. A bit of an update.