On new lush stamps, a LO and a new job

Have you seen Banana Frog ? If you haven't you should! It's a new British store that has been opened by the lovely Bev Fletcher and she has designed and produced some lush, lush stamps. They are gorgeous. Of course I need them all. But it's not only stamps she produces, she has some really unusual papers too. Some I've not seen in the UK before, actually not in Canada either! I particularly like this one by Sugar Lily.

Did another LO over the weekend. It was slow to finish as I realised that I didn't have any brown cotton for the sewing machine so had to nip out and get some. One good thing though is that I used the sewing machine I bought in Canada, plugged it in to a transformer and it worked. Result. The bad thing was the tension is all over the shop and you should see the back of the layout!

And finally, for this post anyway, Richard starts his new job today. I'm having mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it will be great to get back to some normalcy, some routine and structure to the day but on the other hand I will miss him. I've used to having him at home. It's been six months. And yes, he was working from home but I could just pop my head around the door and ask if he'd like a coffee or he'd make one for me or we'd just chat for a little bit. I'll miss that. I won't miss not being able to blast out the music while I'm doing the housework or knowing that if I don't do anything all day and just sit on the sofa I can't say to him "I've been so busy today, darling, I haven't stopped" because he knows I haven't! LOL!

This also feels like our final bit of the jigsaw in settling back in the UK. That link with work in Canada and Bermuda was still sort of holding us there, especially as he was expected to work Canadian hours some days. But it is the right thing to do, it's right for me and the children and right for Richard too. So good luck darling.

Bank holiday weekend

Blah, I spent ages typing up a whole blog entry and then something went wrong with my browser and I lost the whole lot. Grrrrr, don't you just hate when that happens?

So, I am not going to repeat myself. I will just give a little summary:

• Weather. Just beautiful. In fact we've noticed how little rain there has been since we've been back in England. Apart from the small blip whilst my mother-in-law was here which unfortunately meant she couldn't get out and about so much.



• We've been in the garden nearly all day today.



• No, not sitting and relaxing but erecting our "spaceship".



• Said "spaceship" is in fact a cedar wood play set which we bought just before we left Canada.



• It wouldn't have looked out of place in our 3 acres there but is looking "slightly" too large in our cute little english garden.



• Noah will love it though. It has a slide, 2 swings, a hanging thingy, monkey bars, a rope ladder, a sand pit and a rock climbing wall. Oh, and a picnic table underneath. Impressive, eh? The deck area is big enough for all 3 children to sit comfortably.



• You can tell we've all been in the garden, evidence of it has been
  traipsed all through the conservatory, dining room and hallway!



• Robins. Awwww! We've seen so many of these in our garden this year. I have to say they are much nicer looking than their North American counterparts which are huge. We think we have a pair nesting in the ivy on our garden wall.



• Snapped this, complete with wiggling worm, about an hour or so ago (where I also got to use my fab telescopic lens), click on it for a larger view:
  

Working on that mojo

I'm sure it's just burnout, it happens to everyone, it happened to me when I first arrived in Canada, it will, I'm sure, happen again. I think sometimes I get fixated on trying to constantly produce "wow!" layouts and that is wrong. I'm always telling others that not everyone layout has to have that wow factor. In fact I think if you had an album where each page knocked your socks off, then it would be sensory overload. I, personally, think an album flows much better if you have mostly good pages with the odd spectacular layout thrown in every now and then. By spectacular I don't mean that it has to be so artistic, or so different but more that you have spent just that little bit longer thinking about it, that you finally got out those coveted chipboard alphabets, that you just seem to want to hold on to, and actually use them. And then there is also the fact that we don't always have the wow pictures to produce the wow layout. I want my albums to record our 'real' lives not just the beautiful studio portraits (of which I'm definitely going to get myself) but what happens in the everyday, the playing with the Rescue Heroes action figures, messing around in the garden. And let's face it, not all those candid shots are good shots but I do want them in my albums.

Anyway, I digress, thanks to Bev I have decided that I should just go back to basics in an effort to rediscover my scrapping mojo. So I think I need to plod my way through it and in the mean time get out the sketches.

What I like about sketches is that they really do help you kick start your creativity. You start out with the intention of just going the sketch as is and by the time you finish you can often end up with something completely different. Sketches give you the option of being more creative, or not, if you so please. I'm particularly loving Becky Fleck's (of Memory Creators) at the moment. There is a good variety of sketches, for multi photos, single photos, and large photo formats (very popular in the Gauger household lately due to the recent Photobox special offer of 10 10"x8" photos for the fantastic sum of £1).

Thanks also to those of you who have set me challenges, see also Chrissie's blog for details of the challenge she has set, I love a challenge or two.

I didn't get around to doing much during the recent UKScrappers cyber crop but did sit down yesterday and complete Pam's flower class, below left, and was impressed by how simple and easy it was to create flowers. Definitely something I will use in the future. I also did a very quick layout inspired by one of Becky Fleck's sketches. So 2 pages in one day. Woohoo, I'm on a roll...

      

Still searching

For my scrapping mojo!

I thought the UKScrappers cyber crop would have helped kick start it but alas, I really just didn't get in to it much. We have had a visitor, Richard's mum, staying this last week and I just felt too guilty (why?) to spend the whole weekend closeted away in my scrap room and so only did one layout from the crop all weekend. Shame on me as there were some fabulous classes. This is my take on a great class taught by Theresly. I'm loving it. Loving the colours, the crispness, the snow (I miss the snow!).

I think part of the loss of scrapbook mojo is that I'm just so tired. The stress of the last few months has caught up with me. I keep telling myself to go back to the basics. Do some sketch inspired LO's, scraplift (something I just can't seem to bring myself to do, weird eh?) but every time I sit down to do so I just spend my time shuffling papers around and doing pretty much, well, pretty much nothing!

Any suggestions? Perhaps I should be going to Florida with some of my other scrapbooking pals? I'm sure that would get me back in the scrapbooking mode, LOL!

Oh, Kat's birthday party was a great success. We saw Ice Age 2, not as good as the original in my opinion, and then wandered over to Pizza Hut for supper. The 4 girls she invited along are so cool, a great bunch of girls. They were making me laugh with all their 'silly' girly chatter. Particularly the following quote (from a movie, I think?) that they were practising and planning on saying to all the boys at school: "Girls with butts like ours do not talk to boys with faces like yours!". I want that printed on a t-shirt!!!

Here is a little photo montage (a la Ali Edwards) of the evening.

My baby girl is 10

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. Katarina is 10 today.

It only seems like yesterday. That tiny (6½ pounds) little baby girl who was so quiet and slept all the time, we didn't know we had her. That chubby, moon faced little toddler with the cheeky grin, it's only looking back that we noticed how moon faced she was! The stubborn pre-schooler who refused to learn any of her letters because "mummy, I'll do THAT when I get to big school". And before we knew it you were at school and growing up even quicker than ever before.

10. A whole decade. And we have loved (almost) every minute of those years. She is such a lovely girl, I know, I'm biased, but she is. Such great company. A budding scrapbooker. A ballroom dancer. A girly girl. A joy.

Happy 10th birthday darling daughter!

To bring it back down to reality, and to stop this being too schmaltzy, Richard and I only realised this morning that we've just made it through the easy 10 years. It's the next 10 that will be the challenge

Not much to say, only A Million Little Things!

Yes, my parcel from A Million Little Things arrived, this morning, safe and sound. And here it is in all it's yummyness:

And, for the enquiring (notice I did not say nosy) amongst you, a list:

• Foof-a-la Rub-ons - Scribbles by Rhonna Farrer Enchanted



• Foof-a-la Rub-ons - Scribbles by Rhonna Farrer Graffiti



• Rhonna Farrer Papers from the Enchanted and Graffiti ranges



• Imagination Project Papers - Center City - East & West Village ranges (these are even yummier in real life)



• Basic Grey Papers - Urban Couture and Hang 10 ranges

The only slightly worrying thing is I don't remember ordering this much paper. I've made a conscious decision not to order any more paper. I have more than enough already and do not need any more. Hmmmm, obviously when I enter any scrapbook store my mind goes blank and I go into automatic pilot mode. I really, really do not need anymore paper. I. Must. Stop. Buying. Paper.

So, now all I'm waiting for is my Scraptivity kits (March and April) and my pre-order from Two Peas to arrive and I'll be all sorted.... except I am in real need of those Making Memories flower foam stamps....

I did it! {Updated}

I completed a LO. And before someone posts out the obvious to me, I know it's gone midnight so I haven't strictly uploaded it within time BUT I would have if Richard hadn't moved the bloody scanner and unplugged it {grrrrrr}.

I'm not sure about it but I'm happier with it than my first attempt and so am calling it quits and putting it in my album. I didn't end up using any of Ali's lovely stamps (I will definitely use them though as they are de-lish) but decided to be brave and just go for what felt right for me.

The lettering is very Elsie Flannigan and was inspired by her Two Peas Tokyo Girl font. I still couldn't find the right shade of pink and after wasting over 1/2 hour looking for the children's colouring pencils {another grrrrrr - why can't they tidy up after themselves, or perhaps they have and that's why I couldn't find them!} I got out the inks and water brushes.

Edited to add: You know, I just couldn't let it go. It still didn't feel 'right' so I've made a couple of small adjustments and, whilst I don't think I am ever going to love this LO, I am happier with it now. Revised version on the right.