Layout: Bath Time Play

My take on one of the fabulous sketches by Becky Fleck which it seems that everybody has used and way before I've gotten around to it too! It is a great sketch though and one I've had filed away to use for ages. Also finally used some of my Rhonna Farrer Grafitti papers and rub-ons. Love these. So great for boy layouts and so versatile.  This circle is a mix of shapes cut from the paper and rub-ons which I have also cut up and used separately. There is something really soothing about sitting with a pair of scissors and just cutting (I've often said that scrapbooking is just grown up cutting and sticking!).

He Said:

"When? When will daddy be home? When can we eat it? When mummy, when?"

Last year, the girls and I made our first very own gingerbread house. It was really good fun and Noah was mesmerised by it. However, the first thing he wanted to do was eat it. Obviously. But as we had worked so hard on it the girls wanted daddy to see it first. So after Noah kept asking all his questions I said he could just look at it - which is exactly what he did. Sat on a stool and just looked at it. Which meant I got this great shot of him :)

This is also my first Speshal dare attempt. I've been meaning to have a go at one (or two or three) for ages but just never seem to remember to do so. In fact this layout was sort of in my head (in terms of the "When?" question) and completing a dare was no where in my mind but when I read the last dare and saw the basis of this layout sitting on my desk I knew that it would fit and added that little bit of something to the title that I think it needed. I'm still not 100% happy with it (I very rarely am with layouts) although do like aspects of it, the big question mark for example, and am therefore going to call it finished. Done. Put it in the album. After all I still have a million other photos to deal with to waste time niggling at something that to all intents and purposes looks pretty well finished (even if I may think it just needs a little something more! LOL!).

Watch Out, Watch Out, There's A Conker About

Picture the scene.

It's a beautiful sunny day, the sky is blue but there is enough of a chill in the air to let you know that summer is over and autumn has arrived. You're walking, actually that should read dawdling at a child's pace, which is the way it should be because you are walking with your child down the school lane. Your sweet child is hunting and grappling through the undergrowth on the hunt for elusive conkers (Horse Chestnut trees grow abundantly all down the side of the lane), not only trying to find the biggest and the best but the most, which is a matter of the utmost importance.

When suddenly... PLONK! A conker falls out of the tree and lands on your poor defenceless child's head! Oh my... the tears did flow...

And the lesson Noah learned today? It's probably best to wear a crash helmet whilst conker hunting - well or get your mummy to get them for you!

'Art'ily Inspired

What a great Saturday I had.

Firstly I got to spend the day with Cherry which included a quick (and I mean quick) shopping trip around Cirencester, in the pouring rain. It still amazes me though how I can spend so much money in such a short space of time.

Followed by another quick shopping trip to PaperArts although this time ostensibly to collect an order I placed on-line earlier in the week but, as usual, I couldn't just walk in and spend nothing. It's just not done, is it?

And the best part of the day? The fabulous workshop with classes by the, once again, fabulous Emily Falconbridge and Kirsty Wiseman.

I pretty much thought that the classes would be really out of my box but actually they weren't. They were so in my box that they were positively cubed! Acetate is my big love at the moment, actually not even at the moment, I've always had a thing about clear stuff. You only have to take a look through my stash - I have a whole boxed entirely devoted to my love of all things clear.

I've been feeling in a bit of a funk scrapbook-wise, oh let's be honest, whole life wise lately so just sitting and splashing around paint and stuff was just what the doctor ordered. I worried that because we were under time restraints and didn't managed to finish either product that they would both be doomed to end up in the deep dark recesses of the 'still to complete' cupboard.

But I am pleased to say that I loved them both so much that I have already completed Emily's project, even adding extra pages and it is now gracing my side table for all and sundry to 'ooh' and 'aah' over:

In the usual way you can click on the thumbnails for a larger view. What I loved about the class wasn't that it was a 'you will be doing this' type of thing but more of a 'let me show you a couple of techniques' and we could then go away and do our own thing. I particularly loved the masking tape technique and will definitely be using this again. In fact that's my favourite page in this little mini book, it's so vibrant and colourful and if it's one thing I've noticed about my pages lately it's that they are full of colour.

I LOVE COLOUR!!!!!!!!

Oh, edited to add that this is my mum & dad from the period when they first met (aged 17 & 18) until just after they had me. It was really freeing doing this as my dad died 8 years ago and this is the first of a couple of projects that I'm now feeling strong enough to tackle. I used the lyrics from Love Is All Around for this project, mainly because of the lyrics "you gave your promise to me and I gave mine to you" as I wanted to use these on the photo of their wedding day. I think I'll also do something similar but for Richard and I using 1 Corinthians 13 4:8 as I've been wanting to use this for ages.

And men think women are complicated?

Miniature Earth

Whilst browsing yesterday I came across this website (you need to click on your language of choice for the video to play). It was very interesting, not least because I've recently bought the book If The World Were A Village for the children.

Both it and the video can really bring home how privileged some people are, including myself. I have to say the video is a little schmaltzy and probably made for the American market (as in my opinion it seems to be targeted at that part of the western world) but definitely brings home in a very visual way the world (or should I say village?) in which we live.

Update and general catch up

Life has moved on since my last post in more ways than one.

Firstly my mum turned 60! Yes, 60 and did we, by which I mean my whole family, let her forget it? No! We've been building up to it for months now and at every possible opportunity have managed to mention 'bus pass/seniors discounts/heating allowance etc.' in almost every conversation. Even Katarina got in on the act and has been pulling grandma's leg unmercifully - she's obviously been well trained.

My step-dad, Richard (yes, another one), planned a surprise meal for various family and friends. Actually surprise is a bit of an overstatement because mum knew something was going on but not the actual where or who so it wasn't that much of a surprise. I don't know about anyone else but I had a great time. It was so nice to meet up with family members I either haven't seen in a long time and in one case haven't even met yet. My cousin Kurt and his wife Helen each fall in to one of the previous categories. Richard (my Richard) and I really enjoyed talking with them and Helen is so lovely. Kurt's not so bad either

I've finally got around to uploading the photos from the dinner party and, putting on my best "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" voice, they are to be viewed in a nostalgic 1950s humourous style (for those of you with trombone arms: just click on the little pictures for the big picture!):

Scrapbooking wise I've not been very pro-active. I did complete one LO which I have been trying to complete for months. You know what I'm talking about. The LO you take to each and every crop, pull out of your tote, shuffle the photos around on the page, play with the embellishments and then end up putting away saying "I'll have a look at it another time!". The same LO that then stays in your crop bag untouched until the next cropping day where you take it out and repeat the whole process again. And again. It's not that it was a hard photo to scrap. It's not. I mean look at that photo. It's just that I really wanted to do justice to it, not over crowd and take any focus away from it. I also was adamant that I wanted to use this particular range of Christine Adolph paper as it is just so 'right' for the photo. I also knew that I wanted to use that quote too (from the movie To Have and Have Not). Anyway, I finally completed it and I'm really pleased with it too. It's my current favourite and will be until I do the next LO, LOL!

Life is settling back in to the school year routine. Noah is slowly settling down to school life. We have had a few incidences where he, shall we say, has physically shown his displeasure with children who either annoy or irritate him. But his teacher and I are teaching him other tools in which to handle himself on these occasions. I must admit to feeling a little guilty about sending him to school at such an early age and have asked myself whether or not I should have held him back, at least for this term, but apart from him needing to learn how to control his temper, academically he is more than ready. And most importantly he loves school, is desperate to learn how to read and spell and obviously isn't unhappy there as he is currently demanding to be allowed to stay at school for lunch. How can you explain this to a 'just 4' year old? His sisters take their lunches to school, why can't he? But he needs to only be going for half days at the moment, he is exhausted when I pick him up at lunch time. However, it is only for a little longer as after the October half term he will be staying until after lunch, still only half days, thankfully, but at least he will feel happier trotting off with his packed lunch with 'the sisters'.

I also applied for a job. I feel ready to get back in to the work force but am trying to avoid falling back on the old steady of accountancy. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it once but it wasn't a career path I chose. It chose me, I sort of just fell in to it and luckily happened to be quite good at it. But each and every time I've stopped work, due to popping out more children, I have promised myself that I wouldn't go back to it, that I'd do something I really wanted to do, not just take the easy option. However to be honest I don't think it would necessarily be the easy option now. I have been out of the work force for so long that I'm completely out of touch with the current tax/company rules and regulations and ought to go back to study in order to get a decent job. I would really have to be desperate to further a career in accounts to do this and quite frankly I'm not. Desperate that is! Unfortunately I heard yesterday that I didn't get the job I applied for. It was, apparently, a very close call but close calls do not get you the job. I would be lying if I said I wasn't really, really (and I mean really) disappointed, because I am but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, isn't it?

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Finally, and I apologise for my verbal verbosity (is that an oxymoron?), I have restarted at the gym. Well I say restarted, I went twice last week and this week not once so... but it's a start... it's better than not having gone at all... and this week isn't over yet...

Oh, and I feel sure I owe someone a tag but I can't remember who tagged me and what the tag was, so if it was you then feel free to drop me a gentle reminder.