WOYWW 217

I try and take my Wednesday desk shot around midday on the Tuesday and this was what greeted me.  It was rather apt because after a very busy and interesting weekend, my head was as empty as my desk looks.

Sarah and I had a crafty sleepover on the Friday night and we had such a laugh when we found ourselves stroking papers with glazed eyes!  We followed this up with a crop with Artful Angels on the Saturday.  I went straight from there to a hotel for a night out with some old school friends and I was reminded that I am nearly 40 and not 18 any more.  I love to get dressed up and and go dancing but I can do without sticky dance floors overcrowded with lecherous drunks and all the other problems associated with drinking, such as a nasty fog for about 2 days afterwards!  The fog was such that I had forgotten about all my goodies from the shop at the crop!

Once I had had a cup of tea I decided to unpack my bag and coo over my new papers... stash diet?  What stash diet?  I received my current DT assignment which is the lovely Perfect Summer by Echo Park that you can see along the front there along with a pile of suitable ribbons and washi tapes.  The beautiful floral at the back is a full...ahem... pile... of Crate Paper's The Pier and just to the left of that is a few of the Hipster papers and stickers from Basic Grey.

I also treated myself to a new stamp set by Hero Arts.  Its a bit of an investment but you get loads of stamps in the one set and it will be great for divided pages and also some art journalling, which I am supposed to do regularly anyway!  I've now put them in my pile of things to take down to Wales and see if I can get some rhythm going there for journalling.  I get more inspired there to write and create than anywhere else.  I feel such peace and clarity there.  Heck, maybe I might even get some work done on my book!  (For those who remember my Open University Creative Writing course, I passed with a Grade 2!!!)

Not much peace and clarity here at the moment as we have a four legged house guest who is causing much excitement but is doing a great job of getting us out walking every day.  We are less than a week into the summer holidays and we are pooped already!

So I've shown you mine, now you can show us yours - whether it is a room, a desk, a chair, the floor, a trolley or your lap or whatever, we've seen it all, messy or not, well equipped or not, but its good to share.  Link up with Julia over at Stamping Ground for the regular desk hop around the world.

I think I might need another cuppa...

Bye for now
xx

Last few for NSD!

I promise this is it for NSD a few days!  I will go back to being a struggling writer and SAHM for the next few days until I go to a crop on Saturday.  I'm really pleased to have put more layouts in my album over this last week, especially those that were half finished or almost there.  It looks like I have done loads but obviously a fair number of them were completed with thanks to the challenge and not started from scratch - I DO have a life that tends to get in the way of my craft you know ;-)

This page is for the challenge to "scraplift yourself".  Its a design that I use a fair amount because it is quick but can look very different depending on colours and how much above and below the photos etc.  I probably lifted it from Shimelle at some point in the past though.  

This is the right page (yet to start the left) about arriving at Aller Farm and having to use wheelbarrows to carry all our stuff to the tent because we are not allowed to have cars on site.  Any time we had to collect stuff from the shop or take back ice-packs and rubbish etc then we had to use the barrows.  The children loved pushing them almost as much as riding in them!

All of the papers are from October Afternoon but from various collections.  I love how you can mix and match with then like that.  The turquoise paper is from Ducks In A Row which a collection I would never have bought for myself.  Its a really old collection and the bits I have from it came in a Santa Sack where you get random bits and pieces from over the years at a big reduction.  Its really great to be able to use up some of these papers by putting them together with ones that I love like the stripe and the yellow floral.

Back to something a little more current with the papers but much older with the photos.  I have no idea why Louis was wearing a red nose because I don't think they ever did foam ones for Red Nose Day did they?  Anyway, he seemed to like it!  

The papers here are Echo Park's About A Boy with matching chipboard and this layout was for the challenge to scrap using square photos.  They were originally 4x6 but I cropped them to square to get rid of extraneous details.  

Phew!  Right time to visit a few blogs and then it is back to my assignment before I get into trouble.  Only 2 pieces of writing to do and then I am done till September, woop woop!

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 205 - NSD challenge

This is what happens when you try and do too many things at one time...  What a mess?!  That little gap to the right of the pink mat is only there because I just literally picked up the camera from that spot.

Last Wednesday I mentioned that I was working on an assignment for my writing course.  I'm still doing that because something exciting came up on Thursday morning to throw my plans out a bit.  You may have seen this post where I had the amazing opportunity to be a guest artist on Shimelle's blog for her National Scrapbooking Day celebrations.  We were talking about techniques for scrapping at pace and I have certainly been harnessing those techniques to get some of the challenges completed!

My course books and computer are piled in among half finished layouts and paper crafting products and this is not a good mix because things are getting lost and creased.  I'm still working on making the single from last week into a double but I DID find the off cuts from the original and there is plenty enough to make another page - huzzah!   I've got several more challenge layouts in the pipeline but there are classes to go to, family to feed, washing to do, this penultimate assignment to get completed and another blog hop with Jennifer to prepare for in amongst it all too.

One of the layouts I have completed this week actually fits 2 challenges.  This one at Shimelle's blog is to highlight your favourite papers and this one at S J Crafts which was to use just one manufacturer.  I don't think it will surprise anyone that I chose Echo Park!

I adore these papers from About A Boy and they were on my desk when I grabbed the photo and just went with it.  I flicked through my pile of Pinterest print outs and literally chose the first one that I came to that had the right number and orientation of photos, otherwise I could spend all day deliberating over this one or that one...  You can find the original from Debbie Hodges via my pin.

Those big rocks in the Northern Territory in Australia are so darn crazy right?  Just like that crazy rainbow chevron paper that I want to use on every single layout right now.

I'll be catching up with everyone's blogs in the next couple of days so make sure you put the kettle on :-)  And if you want to join in the desk sharing fun for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday then head on over to Julia's blog to find out more.

Bye for now
xx

Pick your precious - Trainers

This post is brought to you by Story Telling Sunday with Sian from High in the Sky.

Its been a frantic but wonderful bank holiday weekend here.  I've just realised that it is Monday and not Sunday so I am a day late with this post, THAT'S how lovely this weekend has been.  The sun was shining which always makes me happy and we had our first BBQ of the year.  We put our sun shade up for the season and even purchased some new garden furniture that we have been discussing for about 4 years now. There was a little bit of time for crafting, a day out at a country fair, a brief visit to Beaulieu to see Management at work, and I still managed to find time to put my trainers on.  These are my "precious" for this Sunday (Monday!)

Now many of you might think, well I know she is mad, but trainers?  Really?  Has she totally lost the plot?  Well yes, I am crackers and I make no apologies for that and I shall be honest and say that the last 2 weeks have been some of the lowest ever in my life but thanks to my trainers, I am pulling myself out of it again.

I am mid assignment for my writing course and my story is all about things that happen at the gym.  It was while working on that that I realised just how much my trainers have come to mean to me.  I bought them in September 2011 when I first considered needing some proper running shoes but they still look fantastic because I train on a treadmill.  Ordinarily I hate spending more than about £15-20 on shoes but these were £95!!!  I went to a specialist running shop for gait analysis and I was videoed running in different trainers to find the best support possible.  Knowing how much they cost means I don't wear them to walk to school or to go to the shops etc.  When I put these on, I mean business.  I know that when I wear these, I am doing something really good for myself.  As a bare minimum, we should all be doing 3x30mins per week for general health but yet it still feels a bit frivolous to spend that time on myself but it's becoming much more of a habit for me now.  Aside from the weight loss (I've lost a stone so far this year), the benefits to my mental health are better than any pill or therapy I have ever tried.  When I put my trainers on it's like taking a happy pill because I know that the endorphins are just there waiting for me to let them out.

I have a couple of set routines during the week and then I fit in other things around those.  On Wednesdays I do Combat training which is a mixed martial arts inspired cardio work out.  It feels like I am literally kicking and punching my demons away.  I'm working on my technique to get more out of the class but oh boy do I get sweaty or do I get sweaty?!  On Sunday afternoons I go to the gym to use the treadmill.  I do a combination of running and walking and I am working up to doing more and more of my time as running but it is hard on my shins.  I've got dodgy knees which is why I run on the treadmill rather than outside on hard pavements.  We live in an area with lots of slopes and I'm fine on the uphill but my knees just can't take the down.  I hope to rectify this as I get fitter and my legs get stronger but for now I am content with brisk walking in the local area.

Any time I am walking or running I use an app on my phone called Zombies, Run!  It's basically a story that plays clips in between your chosen running songs, all about the zombie apocalypse.  You are a runner helping to rescue people, retrieve medical supplies and technological equipment, find information about a vaccine etc to help build a base and rebuild a healthy population.  It uses GPS / pedometer to track your progress and rewards you with materials and unlocking extra missions.  If you are really crazy then you can enable the zombies to chase you and you have to speed up by 10% for one minute or risk being caught and you can hear them coughing and groaning and getting closer by the second.  Seriously, I've never been into zombies or anything but I can't wait to get my trainers on and find out what the next part of the story is - it has totally transformed my training.  They have just released Season 2 and have included missions written by a fan who had written some fan fiction about the characters in the story.  If ever there was a reason to praise fan fiction, this is it!  Can you imagine getting that call from the game you love asking for you to write some stuff for them?!

I'm really enjoying getting fit and even loving the ache in my muscles the next day (or two or three!) because I know it is because I am doing something really good for myself.  I have to continue to make time for this because the hard work reaps so many benefits.  I am looking forward to putting my trainers on again very soon.  And of course, at the end of the day, I am worth it :-)

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 204

Is there a sight more wondrous in my world (other than my family with big smiley faces obviously!)?  A studio in mid craft mode and a full cup of tea.  It makes me smile.  I've been working on my Devon album a lot recently but today I just needed to choose some random photos and random papers.  I chose a few sets of photos that might go with the Echo Park About a Boy collection which I have been dying to use and so this led my not so random paper and photo choice!

I quite fancied using the little pile with the balls  but something nagged at the back of my mind that I might have used similar pics before.  I delved into my newly organised albums and voila, there was a layout there.  I really liked the un-scrapped photos so I wondered if I could try and match up the papers to make the original layout into a double pager.  I am in the process of trying to find off cuts from my scraps and I've found the red spotty one but there can't be much of the large spots left so even if I find it I will have to be creative with it!  The album is carefully concealing my course books which is what I should be doing instead but I needed to step away from my story for a bit.  Its all about the comedy moments I seem to have at the gym and once it has been marked and returned  I will be able to share it here so that more people can have a laugh at my expense!  

This post is brought to you by What's On Your Workspace Wednesday, the weekly public display of crafters workdesks that anyone and everyone can join in with.  Check out Julia's blog for more details.

Bye for now

xx

That's How He Rolls (Scoot)

While we were away I had a great opportunity to play with the new Echo Park Papers collection called Scoot which is available at S J Crafts.  It is aimed primarily at little boys but I ended up with a variety of projects which I'll be sharing over the next week (or you can see more of them sooner at the S J Crafts blog).

This first one uses both sides of the same paper which I mounted on a piece of cardstock that I didn't need (awful colour / damaged / whatever).  It gives everything stability and still maintains the 12x12 size.

I was really lucky to catch Louis's first roll over just before 4 months because I was trying to take a picture of him wearing a fireman's outfit, hence the fire engines in the papers being perfect here.  You can see how much more generic some of the B sides are with this ruled lines paper.

I used stickers from the collection with a few on pop dots for dimension and then added a few bits from my stash here and there.

This little guy is currently busy designing his own Lego world and eating us out of house and home.  I can hardly believe it's the same little chap in these photos.  At the time we had a 3 storey house and the only computer was in the top room so I used to lay him on the floor up there with a few toys while I tried to get 20 minutes of chat with my Open University friends.  Now of course I have a lap top and I am on it for long stretches at a time while I study / write / catch up with friends / blog / blog hop / scan Pinterest / make pretty things on my Silhouette / crop photos / check out Slimming World recipes / etc.  I wonder how I could cope now if I could only spend 2 x 20 minute bursts on the computer at the top of the house!

Tomorrow I'll be sharing something I created on black so please do come back and have a look at the rest of the projects over the next few days.

Bye for now
xx

Moo Cows

I'm patiently (not really) awaiting the results of my third OU assignment but there's no chance to twiddle my thumbs  oh no, because I'm busy getting ready for my weekend away next week too.  I've been printing off lots of ideas from Pinterest to take with me and I make my page kits accordingly.  This does seem to work well for me and means I get maximum time actually scrapping while I'm away.  

This layout was one such project from our last retreat and was inspired by many of the bannered projects around including this one from my board.  B must have been about 18 months here and we met up with my niece and her staffy at a local country park.  Both B and Harvey Dog were fascinated by the cows and it was so cute and funny watching them both.  I love these pictures of her because they captured her wispy hair and chubby toddler arms.

I've still got bits of this gorgeous collection left, its going on forever!  "This and That, Graceful" was the first one of these Echo Park collection kits that I had and I have loved virtually every one of them since.

I flicked up some of the ends of the banners for dimension and added lots of chipboard and stickers from the collection and a few other bits and bobs for lots of texture.

Alongside my printer churning away is my Silhouette Cameo which is also busy busy getting ready for next weekend producing some lovely die-cut backgrounds which I can't wait to share.  Kelly at Envisages has shared a heart background with me and I'm looking forward to using that one too.  See her layout here.

Bye for now
xx

Inspired by Winter

I'm really pleased to be joining Sarah at S J Crafts for another term on her design team.  She has been running a series on being Inspired by Winter and this included getting to know the Design Team a bit more.  Pop over to the blog and see how we all answered the questions.

Here's what I made using some goodies from My Minds Eye and Studio Calico.  

I was inspired by the wintery colours of icey turquoise and grey with a splash of sunny yellow.  That's certainly the kind of wintery days we've had here - its been fffrrreeezing! 

I used a doily as a mask and then another one actually on the layout because they always make me think of the delicate patterns of snow flakes.  I also love the intricate designs and the sparkles that come with the frosts and so I added some bling in the form of gems and some snowflake patterned vellum.

The photograph is of me and my Mum at my graduation which happened in the summer but represented years of studying during the Winter months.  I'm right back there now, highlighter and cup of tea in hand.  Its much harder with children and I have been forced to make a few changes, albeit temporarily I hope.  I have decided to take a bit of a blog break both in writing and reading / commenting although I hope to get around many of you and see how you are etc.  I need to get my head straight as I have really struggled recently and it has not been good for those around me.  I need to get some writing done and focus on the bigger things until I can catch my breath a bit but I really hope to be back soon.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful festive holiday period, however you celebrate!  Blessings of the Season to you all!

Bye for now
xx

Carta Bella Traditions - Layouts

I'm looking at these pumpkins  in the photos and thinking that Autumn feels like a long while ago now!  Some people in the UK have had a smattering of snow today I believe.  I am tucked up in my craft room doing my writing coursework and generally feeling a lot more positive about things after my relaxing weekend but more on that another time.  I have a couple of layouts to share using the Carta Bella Traditions collection featured in the previous post.  (This collection is currently reduced in the huge winter sale on at S J Crafts!)

I love the Autumn colours in this collection and the pops of blue.  I distressed all the edges and added punched leaves to fit with the story of a trip to Wisley Gardens with a friend.

I'm using pop dots for stickers more and more as it makes them easier to move around and gives a wonderful dimension.

This double layout is the first of millions many from our holiday on Aller Farm with Featherdown Farms.  This particular one is about Powderham Castle so I chose the more traditional colours and prints.  It was the Jubilee week too and so this collection gives a bit of a nod to red, white and blue without being in your face with Union Jacks and the like.

Some of the flowers are fussy cut from the papers and others are punched or die cut and some are slightly shaped to add dimension.

Ordinarily I would post several pictures of close ups and the double pages on an individual basis but I had to fiddle and faff around to even get these pictures to post.  I have taken off many many pictures from my blog and it still won't let me post a new one unless I shrink it down a lot but then of course I lose quality.  Hey ho, I will find a way around it eventually even if it means paying for the privilege! 

I have one more DT post to go live shortly which involves a beautiful collection from My Mind's Eye that I'm looking forward to sharing.  Don't forget to tell me what goodies you bought in the sale but do hurry as Sarah is selling fast!

Bye for now

xx

Frosty Festivities Blog Hop

I absolutely love Christmas!  I love all the preparations and the excitement building and all the rushing around, shopping, baking and wrapping.  I love the sights, the sounds, the smells and yes the tastes too, so when Jennifer asked if I would like to join in with her Frosty Festivities blog hop of course I said yes!  Like Jennifer's previous blog hop, there is a wonderful prize to enter for (details at the end) and there are lots of challenges and giveaways and fun frosty posts throughout the whole weekend.

So how are your Christmas preparations coming along?  Are you one of those who plans all year or are you a leave it all to the last minute kinda person? I'm a planner... I've almost completed all of my Christmas shopping, I've got the wrapping paper and tags, I've got LOTS of beads that need to be made into presents, the house smells amazing with the first of many Christmas cakes in the oven and Management is being sent up into the loft this weekend to retrieve the Advent envelopes which we fill with festive activities as part of our Christmas countdown.  

The other preparations that I normally make (but won't be this year because of my writing course) is for Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas project.  I've done it a couple of times in the past and preparation definitely helps.  I'm still working on last year's album in bits and pieces but I thought I would share some ideas from some of the finished pages from 2011 and a few of the things I did to help me along the way.  

I've used a variety of sizes and shapes in my Christmas albums in the past but this 8.5x11 was my favourite to work with.  I used standard A4 plastic pockets and cardstock which helped to reduce the costs considerably.  I also cut some patterned papers to A4 and varied between a cardstock or a paper background.

In the run up to December I pre-made all my date / number tags in a sort of production line affair.  I used a selection of different papers from a My Mind's Eye Collection and layered up a star shaped nesting die, then an E K Success label punch, a flower nesting die which was embossed with swiss dots, a Martha Stewart pinked circle punch and then smaller punches in a Christmas tree, snow flake and heart shape.  I ended up not putting the number on many of them because I found I wanted to move them around to fit my own story better.  Each tag was slightly different with the different papers used and then a button or a gem added to finish them off.

The date tags help the album to flow and give a sense of cohesion, as does using only a select few products for the whole project.  I kept to the same collection for the papers and chose one border punch to use throughout.  I pre-made some pockets and tags and I embellished them using that border punch, even using the punch waste for minimal effort and  to really stretch my stash.

I also prepared a few pages that I knew would be coming up such as using vellum on this page to make a pocket for a couple of important cards.  Its nice to see vellum becoming "on trend" again (although I have always loved it and used it!)

Here is another tag that I made prior to December by layering a snowflake punch over the negative.  The cardstock in this layout is actually the reverse side of some photographic paper from the pound shop!  It makes a great base and saves those all important pennies again.

As well as the papers and the preprepared tags and embellishments, I picked out a handful of alphabets in coordinating colours in several different sizes so that I didn't have to go through my entire stash every time.  I have this particular alphabet in the red and the green and it is very pretty but there are no "W"s!

Working with A4 can mean that it is tricky to use more than one 6x4 photo so I made a flap for this layout.  I always keep  the tear off bits from the calendars to use on my layouts and I love the effect it gives for important dates.

The 2 slightly hidden photos are not great but they are still part of the story so they need to be in the album.  This is an ideal placement for including a concertina book for 3 or more photos.

So are you doing any kind of December project this year?  How about some yummy new stash to help you on your way?  If you comment on all the blogs in the hop, finishing at Jennifer to let her know that you've been all the way around, then you'll be in with a chance to win a spectacular seasonal prize of Basic Grey Aspen Frost and Carta Bella Winter Fun items, worth over £25! All entries must be received by Monday the 19th of November at 10.59pm GMT. Your next stop along the hop is Lizzie.

Here's a list of all the blogs in the hop, in the correct order in case you get lost.  

Abi

Daphne

Jacky

Jemma

Jenny

Jo B

Jo S

Julie

Kirsty

Lisa-Jane <====== That's me!

Lizzie

Louise

Mel

Rinda

Sarah

Sian

Jennifer

I hope you have fun with all your preparations and taking part in the blog hop.  I can smell burning so I think I'd better go and check my cake!

Bye for now

xx

Shopping with me

Last week I submitted my first assignment for my Creative Writing course.  I got a good score and some great feedback which has given me some wonderful encouragement, especially after a rather difficult week.  We had to do a prompted free-write (basically a steam of consciousness), a passage of prose based on something from the free-write and then a commentary.   Now that it has been marked I can share the passage with you.  

It’s always the same.  I park as close to the shop as possible, go and find a trolley, realise I have only bought my credit cards with me and that I don’t have the required pound coin, go back to the car, hunt around in the ashtray for change, scrabble about on the floor, accidentally beep the horn as I hoike my chubby frame out of the passenger foot well, swear, bang my head getting out of the car, swear again, look around at the other customers going in in case I see a friend I can ask, give up and go and get a basket knowing full well that by the time I get to the deli counter I will have to push it along with my foot because it is too heavy.

I sigh.  It’s not as if it’s the first time I have been shopping.  I’ve been an adult for a long time now and I pretty much go to the supermarket every week.    We tried the on-line shopping thing of course but we got rather bored of the bizarre substitutions.  No orange juice?  No problem, we can just send you 16 tangerines instead.  I sigh again.

I feel around in my pocket for the tiny page I ripped from one of the children’s notebooks.  Nothing.  I try the other pocket.  Then the back two pockets.  I open up my phone; maybe it is tucked into the credit card flap?  But no.  I sigh again.  I’m starting to sound like an old woman with all this sighing.  How long will it be before I start wearing cardigans that smell of wee?  I sigh loudly this time, just because.

I half think about what it was I came in for but my brain has already been hijacked by the Special Offer stand just inside the cavernous doors.  Today we have plastic cartons of chocolate rice crispy cakes and I can feel another sigh brewing before you can say ‘why not just paint the lard on my thighs’.  I struggle past them, abstinence intact, telling myself that keeping chocolate covered items just inside the door where those over dramatic heaters blow everyone’s hair about, is probably a breeding ground for germs anyway.  I have a little ‘chat’ to myself.  Or rather the id and the ego on opposite shoulders start their bickering about why ‘she should be able to eat what she wants’ or why ‘she shouldn’t even be thinking about it’, as if I’m not even there at all.

My id shouts ‘CONFECTIONERY AISLE’ in a tempting sing song voice but my ego sternly reminds me ‘YOU CAME IN FOR SALAD, STICK TO THE PLAN’.  ‘But she WANTS chocolate!’ then ‘But she WANTS to be a size 10 and NOT have an apron of baby fat hanging over her knickers!’  I sigh, take a deep breath and head listlessly for the prepared salads.  I am suddenly struck by the true meaning of the word listless.  I am without list, I am devoid of list, I am list-less.  I spy tomatoes.  We always need tomatoes.  The children eat them like sweets.  I stare at the lettuce, do we need lettuce?  Every person on a healthy eating plan (can’t call it a diet, too negative) eats lettuce don’t they?  I make a grab for a something that looks at least partly exciting. 

‘NO!’ ego takes me by surprise. 

‘Oh but yes!’ id grins solicitously ‘it has croutons and parmesan and creamy sauce, oh my!’ 

Darn it.  I put it back.  I double check the next bag I pick up.  Nothing but leaves in this one, pretty colours I admit, but just leaves.  

I pick up some random fruit from the next aisle: Apples and pears because they are cheap, blueberries for my muesli, strawberries because they are as much of a treat as I am allowed.  Round the end of the aisle I head towards the brassicas where it smells of farts.  I do love cauliflower cheese but of course cheese, flour, and butter are all evil so it’s just cauliflower for me, no cheese.  Especially no cheese.  Cheese is especially evil. 

It is, of course, most dangerous when it has been grated.  More so when it has been grated for someone else’s consumption.  I struggle not to think about grated cheese and try to find a cauliflower that actually has a decent amount of the edible part, not just a nugget of white surrounded by a trillion leaves disguising itself as a considerably sized vegetable. 

And then I start to feel it.  The heavy basket cutting into my hands.  Three.  Aisles.  In.  I scooch it to the checkout with my foot and tuck a small bar of chocolate in a gap at the side.  Id snorts and raises his eyes in delight.  Ego pulls his hat down over his eyes and pretends to be asleep.

Bye for now 

xx

Some summing up

Its been a pretty crazy couple of months around here.  The children went on school holidays and a couple of weeks later we had a new little boy in the family.  Baby T is my Great Nephew and he is now 5 weeks old.  He and his Mum and Dad moved the week he was born and they are now sadly nearly 3 hours away so the poor little sausage gets the life squeezed out of him when he visits as we take turns to hold him.

He has been down visiting this week and so we helped out by having Harvey, their lovely Staffordshire Bull Terrier for a doggy sleepover.

Between baby-watching and doggy sitting, we've not achieved much this week I can tell you!  We just about managed to fit in a quick snuggle with my other Great Nephew, Baby E who arrived in the world last week (you might remember from this post.)  He is now a whopping 4lbs and 10oz!  Even Management managed to get a snuggle of this one!

Two babies in a week is almost more than Miss Bella can handle.  Throw Harvey the dog into the mix and we have been a little... erm... overexcited to say the least.

She has found the slightly longer days at preschool really hard to adjust to with all this extra excitement going on.  At the end of the week it was all too much for her... bless!

I was really glad to get back to a routine again and part of that routine is the monthly Artful Angels crop.  This month we were visited by Handmade Treasures with her lovely displays of ribbons and buttons that looked like a lovely sweetshop.  I admit, I broke my stash diet here but only a little bit.  I used some of the stuff on Thursday when my friend came over for a scrappy play date and I managed to catch up on a few projects.

So we are now 2 weeks into the school term and I have no plans to visit or be visited by any babies or dogs this week, or to go to or host any crops.  I've also decided that as I didn't get off to a very good start with all this going on, I am not going to try to catch up or continue with LSNED this year.  I have too much to keep me occupied to be going backwards.  I can start exercising again this week and my new course starts in about 10 days time so I need to get as much done as I can before then.  Look at all these lovely books!

My routine will be a little different from now on that it was before the summer holidays but I really hope it will take me forward as I have really stalled in the last year or so with all the goings on and I can really feel the difference in my mood.  I thought if I shared my resolutions here then I might be more accountable to actually continuing with them.  So:

I want to get back to my running and hopefully start to attend the regular Park Runs held locally.
I want to make real progress with my weight loss and head towards losing another 2 stone.
I want to engage more with the children in the precious times that we have together now.
I want to get back to enjoying cooking by planning ahead and researching my Slimming World recipe books.
I want to stay in control of the house in terms of the housework, the de-cluttering and the decorating.
I want to make positive progress with my shoulder injury.
I want to keep on track with my coursework and start to look for outlets for my work.
I want to make progress on my unfinished projects and keep adding to my haul of finished layouts.
I want to make progress with my photo workflow.
I want to be calm and happy and feeling like I am moving forward.

Feel free to nag me, if you got this far you deserve it! ;-)

Bye for now
xx

Story Telling Sunday - The Constant Learner

"Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." ~William Yeats


I left school at 16 without a full bucket or even a fire lit.  And yet.  And yet.  There simply must have been a spark there somewhere.  I had intentions of university but I left college only 3 weeks into my A levels.  Boy trouble.  I come from a very working class family so any qualifications were not really expected of me anyway.

Several years later, a chance comment by a fellow chalet-mate on a ski-ing trip, turned my life around entirely. I don't know how it came up but we got chatting about dropping oranges on Brighton sea front and researching who would help her to pick them up.  I remembered her fondly when I found myself doing similar research on Brighton sea front a couple of years later.  She'd been at a summer school as part of her psychology degree with the Open University and I was eager to know more about it.  Within hours of arriving home from the holiday, I was signed up for my first course.  Over the next 8 years, Management and I got married, moved house, we took a year out to go backpacking and then both changed jobs when we returned.  During that time I studied for approximately 14 hours a week, in my lounge, on the beach, in our spare room, in Wales, in Northamptonshire, in Hampshire and in France, on trains, on planes, on buses, in the garden, even in the loo.  At times it made me tear my hair out.  At times I was bored beyond belief.  Sometimes I was inspired and excited.  I lost sleep through stress and I lost sleep through thinking about things I had learned.  At the end of every module I felt relief.  Within a week I was itching to get a new set of course materials through the post.  I discovered a thirst for knowledge and a desire to write again that looks like it's never going to go away.  I met so many inspirational people and I am lucky enough to have found some great friends through my studies too.  Without meeting the people I did, I would never have made it past 24 hours of breastfeeding, let alone over 5 years in total.  I would never have had a home birth.  I wouldn't have had the support through my first miscarriage and the many years of depression.  Of course I met some very unpleasant people too or just plain weird but mostly they are my kind of weird.  

Getting the books out and setting myself up for an evening of study after a full day at work was mighty hard at times.  I hated spending hours at the word processor while other people were sunbathing in the garden or shopping for new shoes.  Some people were clubbing all night while I was revising into the early hours.  So many times I wanted to give up.  But I didn't.  After 8 long years, I passed my final module and gained a Bsc Hons in Psychology.  At last I was going to wear that gown and actually graduate.  But there was still one more hurdle to overcome.
We had decided to really make a celebration of my graduation, no bubbly though, I was 4 months pregnant by then.  Unlike with a bricks and mortar uni, you can choose your venue for your ceremony.  We chose The Barbican and we were all really looking forward to it - my Mum and Dad, my step-dad and step-mum, my Mother and Father in law.  My Father in law being there was important to me, he had never thought me worthy of his son and I had wanted to show him I was.  Of course it was nothing to do with my education, or lack of, but it brought us closer together and I have a lot to thank him for.  

8 days before the graduation, Management and I went for a routine scan and our whole world collapsed.  Our precious baby girl's heart had stopped.  I gave "birth", had several operations for retained placenta and I was, of course, a mess.  I didn't know if I was physically up to the graduation, let alone mentally.  With special dispensation though, I was able to sit near an exit, near the front, so I could escape if I needed to.  I managed that walk across the stage, wobbly legged and feeling sick, with my family cheering, my scan pictures tucked up my sleeve, one step at a time.  In the whole 8 years, those final few steps were by far the hardest.  But I did it.  I was a graduate.

Since then, I have continued to study with the OU just for fun.  I love to learn new things and get new books through the post.  I want to inspire my children to want to learn too.  I've taken classes in scrapbooking, writing, photography, nutrition, child care, anything and everything, I want to learn about it all.  My next OU course starts this month so expect more creative writing here very soon.  I can't wait.  

That chance conversation about oranges lit my educational fire.  And I'm so glad it did.

This post is brought to you by Sian's Story Telling Sunday over at High In the Sky.

Bye for now
xx

Ready for September

Well that was August.  Over in a flurry of showers and the occasional sunny moment.  September will bring a few changes here at Castle Johnson with Bella at preschool for 3 days and me going back to studying with the Open University.  I will also be going back to the gym to test the progress on my shoulder (or not) and I'm hopeful that by the end of the month, I will be the lightest that I have been for many years and dipping under the next stone mark at Slimming World.

Of course I will be recording this journey with Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday.  You don't have to be a scrapbooker or a crafter of any sort to join in with this particular class because this is about the lessons we learn everyday and recording them in whichever way suits us individually.

I've mentioned before about my album, saved from last year, so here it is.  This is a bare chipboard album covered with Pink Paisley "Old School" papers and random bits from my stash.

This is the inside cover and I've cut all my pages to size and hole punched them ready to go.  I plan to do a lot of journalling this year.

This morning I finally finished my owls.  These will be the date markers with a little white number on their smart tummies, and I think I will add them to a label shape for the journalling.

Louis would like to show you his book that he made too.  We used the papers that come with Scrapbook Magazine (which I dislike intensely but are perfect for the children) and glued them back to back.  Then we cut them to size (6x4 so we can easily add photos where needed) and he rounded all the corners.  Then he cut the title element and wrote it out (several times as he wasn't happy with it) and made his own owl and a little flag.  He got very excited about we put it all together and almost combusted when I showed him how to insert the pin into the foam tape of the title!

He's got lots of different papers in his book and the spare bits are in a bag.  He has punched some shapes ready to decorate his pages and made a little pocket for these and his gems that he wants to use.  I tell you this kid is a chip off the old block!

September also sees a return of the Artful Angels crops and I am so excited because I get to take my new bag.  Look at this beauty!!!

The fabulous Lunch Lady Jan made it for me especially to fit my trimmer which won't fit in my rolling tote.  It is exactly what I wanted - pockets on the outside for my keys and purse and long straps to make it easier on my shoulder.

She chose the fabrics herself and I think she knows me well enough that she got it spot on, literally!  Pink polka dots and a pink and aqua tea cup fabric!  (She knows I love tea!)  She also made it extra sturdy by using a special backing.  I love it!

Louis took some photos of me "wearing" it but I looked awful so I ended up just holding it out so you can see all its gorgeousness.  I am very lucky to have such a talented and wonderful friend and I am planning a little something to say thank you in return.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a cup of tea to drink.

Bye for now

xx