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A mother's day treat at TADA. Select a piece of Frippery with your $6.50 order. Details below.

Gift can be chosen from any item only in the Frippery Category - click here.

Please DO NOT add to your cart, your selection will be sent to you. 

Allow a little time to get you personal selection as I will be off on Mother's Day enjoying time with my family. 

If you order $13 or more (after discounts) select a second piece (limit two per customer - up to $9 bonus value).

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. We are on a strictly budget driven 'no gifts' kick so I am getting some things I really value, time with my family, some gardening time and I have already put in my breakfast order so I better get to bed so I wake up in time to eat it! (it is veryyyyyyy late here). Oh and a little card if you are still organising Mother's Day for your mum/mom. Card is in jpg format on 8.5 x 11 but will also go on A4 Card. Simply download and print on some cardstock and cut out. It is 4 x 6 folded card and will fit an A6 or C6 (Aussie) Envelope. 

Download Mother's Day Card Here

Tracy

Mother's Day

I find Mother's day a little difficult. Even though I have been a mother for 12 years now to me it was always more about my mum than me. This year will be my second mother's day without her and it is still difficult but then I look at my daughter and I am so grateful to have her and wonder how I got so lucky to be her mum.  I know my husband and daughter will go all out to make it special.  Maybe my hubby will even make up a little for ignoring the mother's day when I was seven months pregnant!!!!  I felt I was well on my way to being a mum but he said I had to wait until our baby arrived.  Do you think in 12 years I can let him forget that? Not on your life :)  

I have a couple of new products out in time for mother's day, including word art in two versions and a page kit.  So whether you say mum or mom I hope you enjoy a wonderful mother's day.

Visit the store here and check out the inspiration the TADAgirls have been whipping up. 

 

Of all days

I broke the store! Of all the days to do something silly I did it and caused a major glitch in the store that has taken nearly all day to fix!  But finally the sale is up ..many of the new things are up. 

The May Lucky Dip will not make it until next week no bundles of new products for International Scrapbooking Day. 

First up the store is 40% off.  Free gift for $15 plus orders (dont add it to your cart, the gift will be sent out)  and a free Alphabet in store for today only. 

Visit TADA now

This kit free with $15 orders (after discount), what a way to make your dollar go even further.

This Alphabet - pick it up in the store

Look what is new.

More in the store!

Happy NSD... scrap some memories!!

Tracy

Catch up

Well the wheels kind of fell off over here.  I have been designing all week but also taking some time out to get some family things done. 

I have so much new stuff to bundle up and some fun new things for NSD next Saturday,

My daughter is heading off to camp on Monday and it is sooooooooooooo cold here. They were supposed to have a summer camp this year but the bushfires put at end to that. But now an icy blast is hitting us here so I am not sure how they will go. 

I am still brightsiding or at least trying :) I guess I am focussing more on the 'life is too short' message. My brother who passed away nearly 3 weeks ago was only 54 so yes life really is too short. Time to stop making plans to live and actually live a little more :)   

One of the things we have been talking a lot about here is how the memories are what is important not the other 'stuff' that fills our homes. I have been scribbling down some of my memories that havent made it into my scrapbooks yet and now I am putting them into a notebook so that I can turn them into pages as I go. This was something I did when I first started scrapbooking but I let it go over recent years.  

So we have also been getting rid of stuff. I have been trying to do this over the last few years but this last couple of weeks it has really been a lot easier to let stuff go as I realise it is only just stuff.   Here is a link to the story of stuff  that is worth watching - http://www.storyofstuff.com/

My daughter is the least materialistic girl you will find so she doesnt really have a lot of stuff besides her huge collection of books and her stuffed toys.   Her birthday and Christmas lists for years has listed books first then usually a note about lots of hugs and then she might add a note about a treat for the cats and the bunnies.  I can recall her coming home in year five I think it was asking me 'what is a Wii?' and why does everyone want them for Christmas?" LOL   I explained what it was and she still didnt get why people wanted them. She doesnt get 'stuff' unless it is linked to making music or books. 

Right now she is yearning for a new guitar and I think that is the first time she has ever yearned for anything besides a kitten or a book.  She has been teaching herself fingerstyle guitar for 8 or so months and she is actually quite good I think. That is my observation as someone who has no musical ability at all but when she goes into stores to try guitars out people look pretty amazed :) Last week a woman who was shopping gave me a card and invited her to come 'jam' at a restaurant where they play. She plays all old 60's or 70's music.  It is fun because she hates to shop for anything except books so I am delighted to just have her in a shop. All those dreams of having a daughter to go shopping with went out the window years ago. 

She has played the cello for years and plays very well so I guess it was a natural progression. If we can ever figure out how to get tapes from our very old video camera onto the you tube I would love to share one of her playing. 

So the guitar she has been using is one of those starter guitars that is too small for her. She is brainstorming how she can earn money for a new guitar but never once does she ask for one. Far out of our budget for now anyway. She wants to go busking LOL.. not sure about that and a catch 22 because she would need the guitar to do it.   So she has won a little money first in a music prize for her cello playing  and then in a writing competition so she is scouring info for writing competitions now she knows some have small prizes.  But I think she is finding that the inspiration doesn't always come easily when you are driven with a purpose other than the pleasure of just doing.  She thought about a fundraiser but I have explained fund raisers aren't really for that purpose.  I think her next best option is to get a wealthy family to adopt her.   So her focus on the guitar has been a welcome distraction and distractions are very welcome right now.   

She does write some beautiful poetry, if only there was a demand for poetry out there she would be ok. This is one I can share with her permission. She wrote this one several years ago when she was 10 and I may have put it her before but if not here it is.  This poem was shortlisted in a poetry contest.

The Black Opal

The hammer beats on the cold charcoal rock,
The cave of many colours discovered
The miner’s safety vest darkened,
As into the cave he strays.

Atop a pillar of ebony black,
A stone in which colour had no lack
An amethyst dragon,
A saffron cloaked king,
Sapphire seas, a scarlet fire,
Ivory clouds, emerald plains
Danced in the miner’s eyes.

His dull, sooty hands reach out,
Brushing the colours of the stone
A fiery haze of orange
Licked at his fingers,
A patch of crystal colour twinkled
As his hand slid across it.

Honoured he felt to have seen
The long lost treasure,
The gift of time,
But dare not he take it,
Should its beauty be destroyed

And time lost forever. 

All her writing is about nature and the environment.  It must be a scary time for kids growing up right now in an uncertain world. Anyway it is the words she writes and the laughs we have and the games we share that mean something to me rather than 'stuff' we have.  

Talking of stuff. I gave myself permission to just design this week and I had the best time just letting myself go with no purpose in mind and come up with some things I wanted to use and some easy to use stuff. I think that is my thing lately to just make it easy to get back to scrapbooking the stories. Don't get me wrong I love the art side of it but I also want to balance that with getting the memories recorded and I am seeing first hand how important that is. 

This week I am packing it all up for NSD (and some a little earlier).  I am a little behind with the plans but it will all work out this week with my daughter away.

This weekend I have over 60 products up for $1 and many will go. I need to put more in the the clearance section and really declutter more from the store, something I have been trying to get done for months. 

Oh my goodness I wrote a book! I guess I am making up for missing this whole week. Please stop by the shop.   If you have an bright ideas to suggest to my child let me know!  

Keep on looking on the brightside! Keep safe.

Tracy

OK I wasn't going to tell you this .. but you really do need this blinkie.  I cant tell you why YOU need it so you will just have to trust me... you will need it.   Believe me.. ok?

Take one.... it doesn't matter which one. One says TADA one says Tracy Ann.. both are me. I think I will make a new one too that says TADA it is Tracy Ann! One and the same!!!

Do not forget to link it back to the shop :) www.tracyanndigitalart.com 

Good things may happen to you if you are caught wearing it but if you are caught not wearing it?  Well that will not be good so don't be caught without it!!!!

This week

Well I did take a little break that turned into a little longer than I had first thought.   My fifty days has shrunk away a bit but I hope to be back posting my countdown regularly next week. My lesson after recent events also comes from my mother who, though not an overly religious person, had a plaque with this Serenity prayer above her desk and would often recite it aloud "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference." In twelve days we had three family bereavements.  So a lot of things happening that I have no control over so I am reminding myself that I can control my reactions, thoughts and feelings but shhh don't tell anyone I have been failing miserably. 

Shaking things off a bit today to get some new products in the store so hopefully we can eat next week so I have some great specials :). Everything new and recent releases at 20% off.  

PLUS A bonus for TADA Club Members - 30% discount this weekend.  If you are not a member you can find out more here. It really is a great way to save and you will need to grab your membership now if you want to use it on NSD. 

So some fun brand new things in store and a few more I am packaging up that will go up in the next few days.

This set of Birthday and month discs is also FREE with a $8 order (after discounts). Place your order and the discs will be sent out to you.  Also fabulous for cards.

Thank you all for your support. If you are waiting for a response to an email I will be getting to them all over the weekend or early next week.   

Have a great day and treasure those moments and don't forget to SCRAP them!

The templates

Here are the three sets of templates now in the store (20% off until Monday). As usual heaps of added value... one set has seven felt fripperies and the other word art. 

Also up is a new Rainbow Alphabet with added value of two unique elements to match. 

Be back soon

Due to family commitments  I will not be around much until early next week. Please use the contact me at the site to email me any urgent requests and I will be checking in to respond to urgent requests..   Please forgive me any late responses to your emails.

There is some products going live today and tomorrow including fabulous template sets. Most new products will be 20% off over the weekend A new scrap for hire section is now up and I will be updating next week. This is just to make it easier to find products quickly you can use in your business.  It is not complete at this time.

Day 2 - living in the moment

In the afternoon when my daughter comes home from her school day we normally take 30 or so minutes and sit by the window and over several games of backgammon she will tell me about her day.  I love this time and how important it has become to our day but I have to admit I am not always totally there. 

More often these days I catch myself half listening while I think about what I need to do to get dinner done, the order I need to reset or the bill that needs to be paid. Sometimes I am thinking about some important life lesson I want to teach her or the dirty washing she left on the bathroom floor and how I need to remind her to pick it up. All unimportant in that moment. 

My mum used to say to me 'wherever you are, be there'.  I was thinking about it today and how I don't want to waste this precious time we have together so today my lesson was about 'living in the moment'. Being present and attentive so I get the full experience of this fun time we share together. I have to say the laughter came more easily, the time we had flew by and the day seemed a lot brighter. Of course I need to get over being beaten at backgammon once again!!! How did that girl get so good?

Over at TADA

Still some time to get over and look at the 100 items I have reduced for a $1. There is some really fun stuff in there. 

Brightsiding will be available until Sunday for $3

And here is a gift for you - a layered template and the theme is 'living in the moment'. 

Download here

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Day 1 on my 50 day Journey.

This is day one of a journey for me to what is looking like a very daunting milestone for me (but more about that later).  Fifty days to shake off the negativity in the world today and try a little brightsiding! I came across brightsiding a few weeks ago and it really struck a chord with me.  It is purely about looking one the bright side of things. Something I know that has been hard for many of us to do lately. I took a look at the happy people around me and realised that they were ALWAYS optimistic. Now I have to admit over the last few years I seem to find the negativity in a situation more than I find the positivity.   So I thought I would record my journey here and use my business to help distract me and keep me moving forward. I have plans! 

Day one - Well it started with me waking my daughter with an April Fools Day Prank. She came in hook, line and sinker yet it didn't phase her at all.  It did put a smile on both of our faces. 

To not have unexpected events phase me is my ultimate goal. To roll with the punches a little more ;) So that was lesson number one.  The rest of the day unravelled a lot with a family event that saw me in and out all day and not cooking dinner until 9:00 pm and really testing my resolve to roll with the punches! Oh my goodness.  But I already felt a little better just thinking about looking on the bright side that I muddled through the day ok. :-)

Day two roll on!

I am also going to tie in my 50 day journey to my business and bring around some changes to TADA. I have a list of goals I wrote out at the beginning of the year that I am going to really start to work on a lot harder. 

I am starting with 100 products - $1 each promotion. I have added Brightsiding to the store for less than half price.

I am also giving $50 to one lucky shopper today.  The first of over 50 prizes I will giving out over the next 50 days. 

Much more to come! 

Check out the store and come back and visit my blog tomorrow for a little 'brightsiding' gift!

The post below lists the brightsiding blog winners!

 

April Fools Day

Well my day become more about family emergencies than foolish pranks though I did trick my daughter early this morning before my day unravelled.  

I am so sorry my April fools day sale is late but it is coming. That is the joys of running a solo business and family comes first. 

The bright side is that it will still be on and will run until  the end of the 2nd of April  (US time) starting about 1 hour and two minutes from now!!!

YES I AM SERIOUS! 

Bright siding will be available at less than half price - just $3 for the set along with 100 other products on sale.

Brightsiding winners from the posts are roselily and laser!  The DST winners are posted on the store thread. Please use the store and send me a note and I will send you out your kit. (Please give me a little time I am a little pushed right now but you will get it!)