Monday 31 March 2008

New For Old Sale at Cyberscraps!

NEW FOR OLD SALE

SUNDAY 13 APRIL 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Do you have half-used packets of chipboard in your stash that contain only the wrong letters?

• Do you have paper that you loved once upon a time and now can't stand?

• Did you buy a magic gadget and you've used it twice?

Bring it to the CyberScraps' New for Old Sale – get rid of the stuff you don't need and stock up on new goodies for just the registration fee!

How it works:

• Register with us by Saturday 5 April and pay a $5.00 registration fee.

• Make a list of your items – keep a copy for yourself and give a copy to us (see the required format below – we will be using this list to charge customers for your items and to issue your credit at the end of the sale, so you must follow this format). You can download a .pdf version of the inventory form here so that you can print it out, or as a Word document here. If you complete the inventory form by hand, please use a dark-coloured pen (not pencil) and write very legibly.

• Mark your items with your initials followed by a number for each item – for example, if you're Jane Smith the first item you're selling would be marked JS1, the second item JS2, etc.

• If you have multiples of the same item (for example, three sheets of the same paper which you're selling separately) each one must have a separate number and must be listed separately.

• Mark your items with the price .

• Deliver your items to us between 4.30pm Saturday 12 April and 8.00am Sunday 13 April.

• At the end of the day we will total the amount your items brought, and issue you with a store credit for that amount – depending on the popularity of the sale, we may not be able to finish totalling sales until Monday.

Tips:

• Use pencil to mark your initials, the number and price on the cut-off strip of double-sided paper – mark single-sided papers on the back.

• Stickers are great for pre-packaged items (chipboard, tools, etc) and can be bought from OfficeWorks or larger newsagents.

• You can package together multiple items (for example, several sheets of paper) but people are more likely to buy individual items.

Not in Brisbane?

If you can send us your stash, marked as above, with the completed inventory by Thursday, 10 April we'll happily sell it on your behalf and you'll receive an online credit voucher. However, you MUST think about what you'll do with unsold items – if we post them back to you, the cost of postage will be deducted from your sales credit. Download the inventory form as a .pdf file here, or as a Word document by clicking here – fill it in, keep a copy for yourself and send us a copy with your stash.

Coming to buy some goodies?

We'll accept payment for items by cash, VisaCard, MasterCard or EFTPOS - the transaction minimum for cards is $10.00.

Questions?

Call us on 07 3274 5522 during business hours or email Cath if you'd like more information.

Bonus for non-scrappers:

The Cystic Fibrosis bookshop (supported by the Lord Mayor's Community Trust) nextdoor is having a 50% off sale that weekend - someplace to send your non-scrapping companions!

Example of list format for Jane Smith:
Item name
Description
Price

JS1  Chatterbox paper  $0.20

JS2  Chatterbox paper  $0.20

JS3  Sizzix machine  $50.00

JS4  Sizzix die  $70.00




Now that I've finally finished sorting through my desk and my entire stash it sounds like a good idea to me!!!

I haven't really been up to much else...... okay well that's a fib.....I've been having a few new things going on in the background that I can't really say too much about just yet...I've spent a small fortune that I didn't really have to spend on a mail-out for my typing business (but you know what they say - you've gotta spend money to make money) and countless hours doing up letters, resumes, envelopes, yadda yadda.  I've had to take a four day temp job this week because the mail out stretched an already thin budget but I have to say it has paid off already with my first new client starting with me next week and wanting to refer a colleague as well so it's a good start.  The kids only have three days of school left until a week of holidays which is also really handy because Doug will be at home too and I need the car on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do pick up and drop off for this new client.  

Poor James is standing next to me asking why I type so fast!!! lol  I told him it was my job and he asked "why can't you just type slower?".  Lol I don't make any money that way!

I had to sit a typing test yesterday with the recruitment company who were offering the temp job.  I haven't sat a formal typing speed test in years and a small part of me got snarky and wondered why I had to prove myself because I've been doing this for so long now but I know that lots of people aren't quite so genuine about their experience and figure they'll make up something good and then learn as they go.  So I sat the copy test - which is really different to dictaphone typing which I do - and I had to look at a sheet of typed material next to me and type as much as I could of that within five minutes.  The focus was on accuracy but mine suffered a bit because I'm used to just looking at the screen and typing what I hear which means I can fix mistakes as I see myself making them, not trying to switch between looking at the screen and looking at a piece of paper.  I could feel myself making the odd mistake but it was too time consuming to go back and fix them because then it impacted on your speed result.  In the end I scored a shocking 91% accuracy ( for most typing jobs you need to have preferably 98%) but a lightning quick (for me anyway) 97 words per minute!!!  I was blown away by the speed because I thought I was slower than normal because I was trying to look at the screen and at the paper as well.  If I had known how fast I was going I would have slowed down a bit to focus more on the accuracy which normally is much better for me in my usual typing environment.  It doesn't matter, I was offered the job and now I can say I have a documented speed test as well but I might put the brakes on a bit and say that I'm 90 words per minute and better accuracy which is more like my real speed.  See?  I went from a quick little post to a big one just typing as fast as I think - yep I talk that fast too....lol.

I did a HUGE clean up on the weekend.  I woke up Saturday full of beans and motivation ( so hard to find most days) and set about just tidying up the kitchen and then went the whole hog and cleaned the oven, emptied the pantry, wiped down all the shelves and reorganised all the stuff in there.  I just went from room to room and I can't tell you how much stuff I ended up purging.  I have been trying to teach my kids that they don't need to hang onto every single toy they ever owned.  I put the spin on it that there are kids who don't have many toys and that if they don't love or play with a toy then they should do something really nice for other kids and give it to a charity so that someone else can love that toy.  It seemed to click with them so FIVE GARBAGE BAGS later....!!!!  The same thing happened on Sunday and I fell into bed on Sunday night completely exhausted but feeling very satisfied!

Scrapwise I haven't done much at all.  I did a REV IT UP album for Doug a couple of weeks ago using the KaiserCraft tabbed albums which was all about our day at the V8's Queensland round at Queensland Raceway at Willowbank last year.  He was so chuffed with it he took it to work and showed it off and took it to his racing mates to show them too.  It was so nice to see how much he liked it as normally I don't make things for him iykwim?  So that's in the shop right now if anyone is planning on going in - it's sitting on the pile of KaiserCraft albums on the left.  I did do a layout of Lily on Friday night at crop but I'll put that up another time.  Apart from that I haven't done much at all even though I know I have much to do.  My scrapping has really lacked motivation lately and I just look at my stash and feel like it's another chore to do.  Maybe I should be the one reminding myself to play?!?!?!  I'm sure the mojo won't be gone long.....

Hope everyone is having a good week.  Hopefully I'll check back in later in the week!

Chat soon, love Lu

Sunday 16 March 2008

Quick layout share


I did this layout a couple of weeks ago for my two lovely friends Peta and Kylie.  I had one of those "play" urges so I just did whatever I felt like doing on the page and I'm loving how it turned out.  I really need to remind myself to play sometimes because scrapping shouldn't be hard work, or a chore, or something I have to do because I have a deadline to work to.

Quiet weekend here really.  Not much going on.  Remember to play!

Love, Lu

Monday 10 March 2008

I've been OUTED!!!! lol





I guess I can let the cat out of the bag (a little bit anyway) and announce that I'm the DT leader for a new Aussie based chipboard manufacturer! YAY!!! This is something that has been in the works for a little while now and there's still work to be done but the biggest excitement for me is that I'll be designing my own line of products - things like MDF and acrylic albums and chipboard shapes etc. The chance to design my own products is something I never thought I'd have and I'm very grateful to Alana for giving me such a HUGE opportunity! Because things are still in the works I'm not going to be mentioning names just yet but keep an eye on the blog because it's coming very soon now.
I've been getting some layouts done which is always nice. My fave is the last one "Secret Smile". And yep, I realised I spelled pajamas wrong in Jamie's layout. That cool one (and the one of Caeligh called Adore) was done using the Prima Paintables papers - CyberScraps has them for a tiny $1.22!!!!! I forgot how relaxing it can be to just sit and colour in pretty pictures.
Well I had a scrapbooking DISASTER this morning. Our air conditioner in our room leaked and my scrap trolley with papers, cardstock and some layouts in a ziploc bag where right underneath. I was gutted to find that 10 layouts (all sealed in ziploc bags mind you) had somehow gotten wet and were now ruined. I could have cried! So I had to move my trolley away from the air conditioner and started taking things out to see if there were any more casualities. Then I started to tidy up a bit and before I knew it I had taken apart my whole room, boxes of scrap supplies, rearranged all the furniture and had a serious purge of rubbish, old stuff I didn't need (watch out kindy!) and stuff that just didn't need to be in the bedroom. I'm now totally knackered!!! lol But in a good way, you know, how you feel after you've done a hard day of work that you wanted to do. So I'm guessing I'll have an early bed tonight!
Doug got his video camera today. It was a freebie when he rented his TV. He's all excited...child. I think I'm too tired to be excited for him but I'll have a play with it tomorrow when he goes to work! lol The kids are all excited too - Jamie is a total show pony so all the footage he has shot so far is Jamie's big fat grinning head in front of the camera and nobody else has had much of a look in so far! lol He also fancies himself a film-maker as well as junior photographer but Doug isn't (quite reasonably too) prepared to hand over the video camera to the 7 year old just yet. Maybe under very close supervision on the weekend when there are two adults present and watching like a hawk!
The typing is starting to pick up after I did a mass email to some transcription companies a couple of weeks ago. I've cut my hours down at CyberScraps to accommodate working from home again as the cost of living is just going up and up and up, and sadly we can't afford to survive without me working as well so there was nothing else for it. I'm really very lucky that I have a specialised job and that I think I'm very good at what I do. Other people have thought so too luckily and so I have a few new jobs on the go. I haven't approached specialists yet to see if I can recruit some of my own personal clients as well as the money is better working directly for the doctors but right now I need any kind of income so that can all come later after I let things even out and I can see just how much work I will have regularly and how much extra I can handle on top of that. I did think I'd have more time to scrap but so far it hasn't eventuated!!! All I've done so far is clean the house! I guess when I'm gone all day I'm tired and don't notice the mess so much cos we're trying to get dinner organised, kids bathed, in bed etc, but being here all day I have no choice but to notice the mess and it is really bugging me!!!! lol I'm not good at being tidy and it's very hard for me to get back into the routine of doing my quick tidy up each day that makes the house look mostly presentable but I will get used to it again because I like being able to sit down in a clean loungeroom and don't feel like I can relax unless I've done that tidy up. I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. Right now I'm exhausted from moving furniture but I can almost hear the kitchen calling me!!!! lol
What else is going on? Oh yep the Papter Arts Festival is on at the Brisbane EKKA grounds this weekend and Cass and I are going to do our level best to find a couple of hours to go. It's the best place to stock up on things like inks and pens. I have a serious aqualip pen obsession and not many shops stock them that I can find so I'm hoping the stamping shops have it covered and I'll be able to indulge the pen fetish!!! lol And Cass and I are both definites for Outback Scrap at Hughenden in North Queensland in August this year. It will be so cool for me as I haven't been to north Queensland ever, only as far as Hervey Bay and that's it. And even better, it looks like we'll be going by plane which is one of my big goals for this year cos I've never been on a plane before - yep I know, I seriously need to get out more!!! lol There's some magazine work in the pipeline, articles, projects for features, etc but I'm still in the process of trying to sort it all out because being at home for the last week has really brought home to me just how much I have to do and I'm going to have to sit and start writing things on a calendar so I don't get confused. Far out I wish I wasn't so scatterbrained sometimes!!!!
Well now I'm going to mosey off to bed after I get the kids settled. Early night definitely required. Hopefully I will have typing to do tomorrow so that's always good for the budget. Thanks for stopping by for a read. Love, Lu

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