Saturday, 22 May 2010

It's All About Me Blog Train

Today is the day. It's all about me. Me. Me. Me.


Hopefully you have found your way over from Amy's blog, so welcome to my part of the blog hop.


This is a project that I've been working on the last few days, and will be working on for the next few I feel! (Procrastination is my middle name after all...). You can find all the details on it here at Mel's blog, along with all the other participants if the train gets derailed somewhere along the way.


I'm pretty much digital all the way now, although I don't seem to be able to get rid of any of my traditional scrapbook supplies. Perhaps I'm a hoarder (shock... horror... not good!). Pretty much most of my supplies are from Songbird Avenue's De-Lovely kit, which you can find here.


As I've already hinted at my project isn't complete. So far I've managed to draft out what I want to include, have produced a few digital pages for a few of the prompts, but I am also missing some photos for which I'm waiting on my camera battery to recharge before I can take them. I plan to get them printed via Photobox into a small stylebook so each page is set up for printing at a size of 7" x 5.5". I will upload all the other pages as I finish the project over the weekend.


Prompt 1
What's your favourite indulgence (treat, dessert, beverage)?



Prompt 2
If you had one free afternoon to do anything you wanted, what would it be?



Prompt 3
What is something you use every single day, something that you could live without - but wouldn't want to?


This one is easy. It would have to be my iPhone. I use it for everything. I use it for my Couch to 5k training running programme. I play games on it. I listen to music. I pretty much use it for everything bar making phonecalls or sending texts! LOL. I'm just not much of a mobile phone person. Don't get me wrong I do use it as a phone, just not as much as I use it for everything else!


Prompt 4
What is something you buy in bulk, just to make sure you don't run out?


Toilet roll. 'Nuff said...


Prompt 5
Where in your home do you love to be?


In bed. I love my bed. I love my bedroom. I love the furniture, the colours, the quiet space that's just mine and Richard's. (I want to be there now but I'm typing this up in preparation for it going out at 7am!).


Prompt 6
What in nature most inspires you?


The sea. The smell of the salty air, the sound of the seagulls. It all takes me back to my home town. And I particularly love the beach in the winter when the sea is wild and there is hardly anyone there. It's a great place to just sit and be.


Prompt 7
What store wouldn't you want to live without?


This was a hard one as I'm really not much of a shopper (who knew...?). So I would probably have to say Sainsbury's as without grocery shopping, well, we'd all starve! LOL.


Prompt 8
What is a little thing you do, to spread cheer to those you love?


This has become a bit of 'thing' in our house now. I love to make my family's boring sandwich lunches special. I always cut their sandwiches into little triangles. I usually then make 'mountains' out of them by standing them up vertically, crust sides down on the plates. And then I add 'specials' - Noah particularly likes 'specials'. They really are only little extras, like Babybel cheeses, a couple of cocktails sausages or small egg/bacon bites. Richard just cuts the sandwiches in to 2 rectangles, straight in half, right down the middle and I expect they taste just as good... but I love to present them nicely to them - and I know it does make them happy because when I prepare packed lunches there are always cheers!


Prompt 9
What is your happiest colour?


This varies but for the last while it's been turquoise closely followed by pink (but NOT Barbie pink - yuck).


Prompt 10
What book has given you a new perspective on life?


The bible - obviously. Lots of tips on how to live your life in there.


Prompt 11
What is your favourite season?


Winter. It never used to be, not until we lived in Canada. I love the white crisp look of snow. It's magical. And, particularly in Canada, when you mix that with bright blue, clear skies I'm happy, happy, happy. I also would rather be cold than hot. If you're cold you can always add on more layers. When you're hot, well, there is only so much you can take off!!!


Prompt 12
What symbol, character, motif or design do you love?


Prompt 13
Do you have a collection?


In a word. No. I'm not much of a collector, although I'm still debating whether my traditional paper scrapbooking supplies could be classed as a collection. I collect the stuff, don't use it and won't get rid of it. So what do you think? A collection or not?


Prompt 14
What is something you are really good at?


Now this is where I show my insecurity as I can't really think of anything I'm really good at. I've thought about writing about my work (I'm pretty good at that), or digital scrapbooking (but am I really good or just so-so?), or what about cupcakes? I was never good at cookery in school but in the last couple of years have discovered a love baking. To be exact a love of baking cupcakes. I have some nice photos of some of my cupcakes so I think I'm going to say I'm really good at making cupcakes.


Prompt 15
List three words that describe you?


Mother, wife, runner (had to include running in this project somewhere, didn't I?). I plan on using 3 photos, one of Richard, one of the children and one of my smelly running shoes.


OK, that's all for now, but I promise I will update with the completed project in the next few days.


Time now to pop on over to Cheri's blog to see how she's interpreted the project, I know I will be.


Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Blog Train & Fun Video

Just a heads up to watch this space as I am taking part in a scrapbooking project blog train this Saturday. It should be fun and interesting so pop on by and take a look.

And I'll leave you with this fun video I saw on Facebook the other morning. It was on my home page to greet me first thing on Sunday morning and made me smile so hopefully it will you:



Mommy Rhapsody from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Broken Bones & Running

No, the above are not related but they are what I will be blogging about today.

Broken Bones
A couple of weeks ago Rich came home with a football injury which I found a little odd as he doesn't actually do much - just stand around in the general area of the goal and not catch any balls! (This is the conclusion I've reached when each week when he returns home from playing and I ask how it went he invariably tells me that his team lost and he let in more goals than they did!) Anyway, his little finger did look very black and very frozen so I put some ice on it and went to bed (I'm such a loving wife).
Over the weekend I began to feel that it just wasn't looking quite right and advised him to go to the hospital and get it checked out. He, being a man, decided he didn't. His reply? "But I can move my fingers, see?".
He didn't play football the next week. His finger hurt...
Ten days after the initial injury he is finally convinced that maybe he should get to the hospital and get it check out. And the verdict? Fractured and dislocated. So badly broken & dislocated that A & E can't fix it and is referred to the Fracture clinic. And their verdict? An operation and a screw to pull it all together...
"But I can move my fingers, see?" Yes, darling, I can see...

Running
I am running. I am running 25 minutes straight with no walking breaks.
Remember this post? Turns out that the 20 minute run wasn't too bad. We managed it. It was a joyous moment. We hugged. We high-fived. We danced. Yes, we danced. In the middle of the park, uninhibited, we danced. It was a beautiful moment.
Since then I've temporarily lost my running partner. For some strange reason she decided that it would be much nicer to go to Venice with her husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary than to stay in England and run... go figure!
I miss her. It's been hard. The first couple of days Rich came with me but it wasn't the same and then he had to go and discover a broken finger...
But I've kept going. I'm amazed at my determination. I think it's become a habit. And who would have thought that 6 weeks ago the woman who struggled to run 4 x 60 second runs would be running for 25 minutes straight? Not me, that's for sure.
Am I finding it easy? Ermmm... no... but then again it's not beyond me... I can do it. Over the next 3 weeks I will be building up to 30 minute runs and then starts the serious 5k training. Currently I run 3.2k in 25 minutes. Based on that it should therefore take me 40 minutes to run 5k. Not too shabby probably but I would like to do it quicker. Watch this space.