Laryngitis

Oh, no, I can't just have the usual sort of viral thing that is going around can I? I can't just feel awful for a couple of days and then start to feel better. No, I have to go and get laryngitis! And 4 days later I'm still feeling like crap.

Both Harriet and Richard (Noah did have the viral thing but it was very mild and only lasted overnight and so didn't even miss any school time) felt awful for a couple of days and then got better, albeit slowly. So I'm expecting mine to follow the same route. No. I get up on the 3rd day expecting to feel better but... I. Feel. Worse. As it's a Saturday I have to ring the emergency doctor and then in my hoarse whisper of a voice, which fades in and out to no voice, explain why I think I need to see a doctor. I hate doctors! They make you feel like you are wasting their time. I know I'm not. I know the difference between just a sore throat and something more. I. Just. Know.

I finally persuade the snotty nurse that I really should be allowed to come in to the emergency clinic and so off we trot. Yup, sure enough she can see I have spots at the back of my throat and announces I have laryngitis and need a course of antibiotics. Um... duh! I didn't like to say "I told you so" but "I told her so!".

The worst of it is that I just couldn't teach at PaperArts yesterday and I hate that. I hate letting people down. But I just couldn't. I toyed with just going along, teaching the class and then coming home but even if I could have mustered the energy to stand to teach the class, no-one would have heard a word of what I was trying to say as I've lost my voice. Add to that the fact I have a raging temperature, feel like I've gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson and hurt everywhere, well, there was just no way.

I am going to do some instructions and a step-by-step for everyone who was there though and hopefully I will get this out to you all sometime in the next week or so. Sorry.

Now, I'm just waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. How long does that take?

Feeling Yuk!

That's me. There is some awful viral lurgies going around at the moment. Harriet was off school sick for 2 days this week and now Richard and I have got it. I feel bloody awful. High temperature, headaches, aching all over, the most horrendous cough and sore throat. I don't want to talk. I don't want to eat.

On top of that I finally went to the docs between Christmas and New Year to find out why I have been feeling so awful for the last couple of months. Turns out my blood pressure is pretty high and I've now been put on medication and have been having to go back once a week to monitor it. Started off on 1.25mg of medication, which was then doubled to 2.5mg last week and yesterday that was then doubled again to 5mg! It explains why I was feeling so awful but not why I'm suffering with it - I blame my mother - it's bound to be an hereditary thing, isn't it?

So at the moment I'm sitting here feeling like, well, you can imagine and trying to build up the energy to sort out some page kits for the crop tomorrow. But thinking that maybe I shouldn't waste the energy because if I'm still feeling like this it will be more likely that I will go, teach and then come right home.

If it behaves anything like Harriet's then I *should*, in theory, start to feel a little better as the day wears on. We can but hope. I hate feeling like this. I feel so apathetic. Ugh. Horrid.

Class Sneak Peek

As I've been nagged, I'm posting a sneak peek of the class I'm teaching this Saturday (20th January) at PaperArts. And it is only a peek as it's just about a 2" square of the layout. Mean aren't I? LOL. We'll be using the scrummy Blush papers from BasicGrey.

Confession Time

Fancy doing a little project? Fancy using up some of your own stash? The fantabulous Shimelle is doing a mini-book project AND, because that's the kind of gal she is, it's FREE! Yup, free. So get on over there, grab the badge and sit back and wait for Friday


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Layout Catch Up

I know, I know, I'm not blogging very often at the moment. But I'm going to try harder from now on. I'm not going to make any promises about being a better blogger, about writing more often. Someone once told me "Never break a promise so... erm...never make a promise!". I am, however, hoping that home/work/scrap life will now settle down to a better rhythm now that Noah is at school full-time. In theory I should have more time. Funny thing, theory!

So, layout catch up. Even though I haven't been blogging I have been busy on other things, not just work or family life but I have been scrapping. A little. These 2 layouts were for a class I taught at the December 2006 Scrappers Unlimited Crop using acetate, glitter and paints. The acetate shapes were cut out using my CraftRobo (boy did it have steam coming out of its ears by the time I'd finished) and then Stickles glitter glue applied to create definition and dimension. I then used the negatives left in the acetate, once the baubles/snowflakes were removed, to paint a band of pattern across the background cardstock in varying shades. The red strips were created using my favourite scalloped edged decorative scissors (see they can still come in handy!). You can't tell from these photos but they really are VERY sparkly in real life.

This next layout was based on a cyber crop layout by the wonderfully talented Shimelle. It wasn't a 'do this, put that here' type of class but more of a design principle, one based on keeping everything in the middle of the page and the balance of white space around. I love this style anyway so this was no hardship to me. The hard thing was actually scrapping this photo. It was taken WAY before scrapbooking was a twinkle in my eye and so is a terrible shot but I love it. Love what it represents and the emotions it stirs when I look at it. It also went great with some Imaginisce papers that Fiona had given me at PaperArts which I had been feeling very guilty about every time I came across them stash hunting as I had done nothing with them (orange is not a colour I do!). I mix of hand-cutting and CraftRobo-ing on this one and some colouring in (how therapeutic is that?) on the little Jenni Bowlin journalling card.

The next was for a Scrapbook Inspirations feature in their January 2007 edition. They asked 12 different people to each cover just one month and come up with a calendar page to represent that month. The results were really interesting. Interesting on how people had interpreted 'calendar', the thing they focused on (some the season, some the month etc.) and there were some amazing layouts. Really inspiring. I've never done a calendar page before, thinking they would be boring but now I might have changed my mind. I'm not saying I will do one for every month of every year but they could come in very handy if you need a 'filler' layout in your album.

Finally just a couple of random layouts. The double layout 'Splashdown' and 'The Many Faces of Harriet' were both inspired by a Becky Fleck sketch. 'Splashdown' really is straight in real life and does line up - honest! I loved the sketch for 'The Many Faces of Harriet' and in particular the placement for all the little photos. Such a great idea. 'Christmas Concert' was a layout I did for the ScrapManic weekend, back in November, for my Ad Inspiration class. Obviously, it was inspired by an ad. Got to love ads, such a great source of free inspiration.

Well I think that's it apart from a couple of layouts that I just haven't scanned in yet. I will get to them eventually so watch this space.

Happy New Year

Just want to wish everyone I know a Happy New Year and hope that 2007 is a good year for all.

We had a very quiet New Year which is pretty much normal for us since having children and living so far away from family. We chatted, we watched a bit of TV, we drank champagne, wished each other a Happy New Year and then went... to bed!

Richard hasn't made any New Years resolutions. I'm still thinking about mine. Do I make some and inevitably not keep them? Or not make any and therefore not have anything to aim for? Difficult dilemma as even though I nearly always break any resolutions it is nice to have put those thoughts out there, to know that there are things you want to achieve in the coming year. This year I turn 40. There, I've said it. It wasn't too scary. I will be 40 this year and yes, there are things I would like to achieve. Some big things, some not so big, but something to aim for all the same.

I'm not going to put them all down here on my blog though. I've decided to do a mini album, which I will post as and when during the year.

Today is a glorious day, the sun is shining and a walk is beckoning. Perhaps a geocaching jaunt?

Happy New Year.

A Treasure Hunting We Did Go

We have caught the geocaching bug. Big time.

We had our first go at this fab pastime whilst we were on holiday at Longleat Forest Center Parcs at the end of November. Even though we ended up walking miles, and I mean miles, we absolutely loved it. So Father Christmas treated us to our very own GPS unit, the superb Garmin GPS 60.

It appeals to me in particular because I love all that treasure hunting sort of stuff. It includes the use of a gadget (always a plus), the buying of said gadget (and I am a gadget girl!) but also I'm not really one for just going out walking. I like to walk with a purpose. And geocaching gives me that purpose. It doesn't hurt that it's a hobby that all the family can participate in and gets the children out in the fresh air and excercising to boot.

We are now proud members of the global geocaching world. I've also logged on to the website, Geocaching.com, and I was surprised, nay shocked to say the least, to find that there are no fewer than 2340 cache sites within a 50 miles radius of our home! And that in fact there was one within a 5 minute walk from the house.

We went out on our first trip on Boxing Day, to see if we could find the cache that was within walking distance. This was a multi-cache site, meaning it involves two or more locations, the final
location being a physical container. There are many variations, but most
multi-caches have a hint to find the second cache, and the second cache has
hints to the third, and so on. An offset cache (where you go to a location and
get hints to the actual cache) is also considered a multi-cache. In this case we got to the first location and had to note down the 2 numbers on the nearest lampost. The top figure = T and the bottom figure = B. We then had to note down the number of dragons on
top of the roof of the local chinese restaurant, this figure = D. From this we were then given little mathematical problems to solve and could then work out the co-ordinates for the next cache. And so on. The children had a blast. We got to the last set of co-ordinates (called waypoints) but alas couldn't find the physical cache, even after rooting around in the undergrowth and were just on the point of giving up and walking away when Richard stepped in and became the hero of the hour. He found it!

We were very excited... and then very disappointed. The cache had been moved because of mugglers (non-geocachers who can potentially find/see the cache and take it!!!) and we were then given another waypoint to find the actual cache. This time we failed. It was getting late and getting dark so we decided to make our way home, have a lovely hot drink (a warm winters Pimms for me) and try again another day.

We haven't yet been back there but today we did go on another outing. We took my mum and step-dad too and think we've got them hooked! Today we were highly successful, if a little muddy. What I'm really loving about it is that we are getting out and seeing parts of our local area that we have never seen before. Today we were to be found alongside the Wiltshire and Berkshire canal - we never even knew this part of it was there! And we found the cache... yay! And not only that but we found 2 traceable items, a TravelBug and a GeoCoin. These are items that
people buy (at a very small cost) and that they put out in the world to travel, sometimes with some sort of set goal/agenda (to see the castles of England for example), and the owners can follow their progress. They work sort of like hitchhikers. You pick them up and carry them with you to some other cache. Each has its own unique tracking ID that gets entered online and can then be tracked. Cool. Also today in the cache the children each got to choose a small toy and the owners of the cache had left a Christmas card for the next people to find it (us!). We left a pc adventure game. Oh, and we saw some very sleepy ducks!

We have been bitten by the bug (a TravelBug perhaps?).