Out from behind the camera..

..but only nearly..this reminds me of that person who never allowed people to see the whole of him in his self portraits.. who was that?

.. Uncle Bill and Deborah on New Year's Eve, showing how you can dance in my kitchen!

The day job..

.. as if I had one!

Just found a lovely set of STS pictures in Uncle Bill's folder. He got a 'guided tour' of our workshops and took some great pictures, I thought it would give a flavour of 'our other life' to anyone who hasn't been here.. this show's my Col with our 'flagship' product' the drum trolley which allows people to move 45 gallon drums safely. 

We make lots of other kit now, ten years into the business, everything from pallet movers to drum and roll turners for paint and packaging companies.

We all pitch in and Zac works too when he's not at college (though we are in danger of losing him to the local paintball venue at the moment.... can't think why he'd find that more fun than cutting & grinding!)

 So here's the evidence that I do work and have other things in my head barring the new blog entry or layout!
I have the job of juggling all Colin's calls, he thinks I should have a bigger scaled map as he often drives 300 miles and demos to two or three customers each day, poor thing!
Good job he's my husband, not sure another wife would be impressed with the itinerary if she hadn't organised it!

We have a mixed bunch of people working, a couple of us token Cornish but also

.. our crazy Polish electrician Pawel (we went to his wedding two years ago.. and what a Polish celebration it was!) .. and then there's Rudi our South African workshop manager.... they always have something to say and smile about!
^^^(At this point Pawel was saying.. you do not want to photograph me, an ugly Polish man!!..really)

Maurice is our main stainless steel welder, he's such a star.. been with us almost since the start. He's off to China soon for his son's wedding, he'll sure have some good photos and stories to tell..

...last but not least Justin, who joined us just before Christmas.. and came on our Christmas 'do' his first night, talk about in at the deep end!

(apologies to the others who were on hols before U Bill arrived.. oops!)

If I was a salmon..

I think if Uncle Bill was our official photographer over Christmas, and for the fact, for most of my favourite pictures of last year, then I want to be his official scrapbooker!

Jordan just transferred the pictures to my house computer and it is such a joy to look at them all and relive the moments..all 395 of them.. should keep me in scrap photos for the year!

..so I thought I'd share a few with you..

first is a rare pic of me with Jordan, huddled up in the cold at the Minack..half a mile either side of there feels like where I belong, I feel so fulfilled when I go there..hard to explain but if I was a salmon that's where I'd be heading!

This one of Kate and Rob our mellow, gorgeous dog, he had been bathed in prep for Christmas, and Kate had also washed her hair and was caught here pre-straightening ....shaggy dog story?

I really like this one too.. me and my pal Noemi, we gas away like crazy when we meet up, only trouble is it never seems often enough! But at Christmas we always get together and her house (ala Christmas Cottage) is just soooo festive, so much food, always a fab (Polish) welcome, and so much to laugh about..love ya x

And just in case you think the photos are always of personal times.... he captures such beautiful Cornish moments too..
(PS 7pm same day.. this is what Uncle Bill told me just now about taking this picture...The picture of the Cornish sunset was taken from the local bus while moving between the buildings etc over my shoulder , to get behind Deborah, and with one hand. Two other photos had huge power lines running across the picture. Just shows you how much that photo wanted to be taken. )..Bravo!!

Ticking clock..

.. as we left our December Just Scrapbooking session Linda got us to take away some papers and set us the task of being her chief designers!  'Use the papers in any way you like, so I can post on my site as examples' she said..

Some of the papers were Christmas and I took two types, buying some extras so I could set to work on the accordian book I had begging to be embellished, since I made the Paris book (did I ever photograph that, don't think I did..?)

Luckily in some ways we missed our Jan meeting due to the snow, but I had nothing done by then... and now Linda has tweeted us to remind us that .. 'the clock is ticking!'  Col is away this week so quick teas and evenings scrapping could be the order of the day. 

Here's where I am so far..book pages and box edges inked, box covered in a fantastic bright Christmas paper..I am toying with doing one set of sides in the red / green bright papers, as per the box, and the other side in the more traditional Christmas, not sure if it will work, have cut out some of the sides and there's some nice potential.

Will get Jordan working up the photos, we relied on Uncle Bill as chief photographer so there should be some nice angles to choose from.

Last but not least...

.. must add this photo of Kate's feet, wrapped up cosy in a pair of flight socks Uncle Bill & Deborah left in their little pile of goodies when they left.. courtesy of Virgin Airlines.. complete with little plane..

Sadly we are flying Monarch when we go on holiday in March, but despite that we're really looking forward to it. Kate has made a tear off set of paper pieces with a date on each one, so we can count down..but she has a birthday first.. always something to celebrate here.  (and don't ask about the diet..the homemade shortbread, chocolate cake, apple crumble etc. at our Mevagissey scrap day have not helped at all!)

Phone grumble!

... this should be one of the labels at the bottom of my blog entries as I'm sure I have moaned about it several times before.

Back in the summer I got an LG touchphone, meant to be very like the iPhone...it looks nice and when it works well I love it .. but when it's being tempermental I want to throw it at the wall..the camera has lots of lovely functions, like make your pictures sepia etc, but what the hell's the point of making a snapshot which took so long to take the moment was lost, being made sepia I ask you!

Anyway, I had issues getting the computer to even recognise it, seems the lead may be dodgy... but now it keeps freezing if I try to connect it to download, so I have to remove battery and reboot...bah, humbug...trouble is I can't really be bothered to get something different as I hate the transition period when you feel like a stoneage person presented with a car before the wheel was invented.

Needless to say I don't feel this way about new phones...(thanks Jordan..so cool, and I love the coloured bands..x)

PS.. feeling a little guilty now.. (as if a phone can do this to you..?) but holding it gently in my hand, it connected and I downloaded my latest photos..it lives to ring another day!

And this is an example of what it can achieve on a good day..

Ross' day job..

..trying to give a nice flavour of what we all do every day, Ross sent me this picture of one of his after school study support sessions at the Pirates.  The kids really enjoy the teamwork, meeting rugby players, working with computers on newspapers and animations and generally learning in a totally different environment to school.

Don't you just wish your school had mega-beanbags like that when we were there?

Tomorrow I get to play Nan for a few hours in the afternoon, it's always fun to realise just how at home I feel pushing a pram... for me it's like riding a bike even after you've grown up... something that just comes naturally!

Deviant Art.

My JB has been really enjoying her drawing this past couple of years and is having fun with the graphics tablet she had for Christmas.. she recently joined the Deviant Art site which she loves and every day adds some more drawings or images ... and she's so excited when she gets comments..

She and Ross are trying doing their bit to supply me with the daily picture but sadly I'm not being quite so good at keeping my blogging side of the deal..

Linda and I liked the thinking girl, thought the patterns would make a great patterened paper.. or maybe I could use the whole thing as the basis for a layout.  (ideas on a postcard?)

The other is a great drawing Jordan did for Taylor at Christmas.

(...just hoping Kate will eventually be as creative  with the notebook she had, though not sure My Face or SpaceBook are great training grounds for genius!)

Ross' dawnies...

My Ross just sent me this gorgeous picture of the sun rising this morning, taken from Penzance Jubilee Pool...no surf but the sunrise made the effort of getting himself out of the house about 7.30am well worth it!

This one from the Hendra end of Praa Sands....

This has made me look at some of the blogs which post an image every day to show a little of your life..and several people I know are following Dolly and her 52 layouts in 2010 (52 in 10) challenge.  I wonder if I have the stamina for it, well maybe I should start with a layout for each month of the year...

I sorted out my albums yesterday while the house was quiet, and in fact I have a good view of how last year went, even with scrapping February snow in October!

Moments..

...moments captured so much better than just a bunch of photos on the computer...also you can remember the fun you had with friends doing the project.

Sounds like the best explanation so far for scrapbooking!

Tidied my scraproom over the weekend.. yes, really! (only way I could get to find what I needed for next session!)  And last night I was putting a few things away at bedtime and Kate came in and we got out the album from last year, took it in our bedroom and spent a lovely half hour looking through the pages....everything from Zac's paintball days to Kate's trip to the ballpool with Lilly.. all great moments made special again when you see the layouts and the comments..ahhhh

Looking forward to seeing some of the people we met at Mullion back in October next weekend at Mevagissey...

Perservering!

..Yesterday,  for the first time in months I got on the scales.. reckoning on seeing a certain figure in my head, thinking I must have lost a pound or two.... I was horrified to see a number 11 at the begining of the weight!  Hell, how much did I put on over the last few months.. you mean the trousers were not just tight from the latest wash / shrink cycle my Hotpoint seems set on??!

Okay, so I've been good.. as in 'better than I would normally have been' (no mid-morning saffron buns, no blatent eating of biscuits through the day....not enough chocolate or tasty stuff to register on a calorie counter.. to be exact: ONE tiny chocolate Rudolph the Reindeer and a fruit bagel for supper the other evening) but it was a shock to see the number 11 on the scales, not since Kate was born, though often I have sideled up to the 12lb mark and I should know that is two pounds off the next stone.

Anyways, my resolve is good, we thought about swimming on Monday evening but neither Col and I could come up with a pleasurable aspect of going....the cold car drive there, fumbling for parking money, changing amongst the plasters, swimming amongst the plaster wearers, dressing a wet body in the chill of an evening draught... and then waking the next morning with bird's nest hair (me, not Col)....oh, yeah, feel good about the swimming per se, but not about the rest and the chocolate bar you eat to stave off hunger until you go home and cook tea.

So, not swimmers, least of all not pool swimmers in winter..(esp with a warm holiday looming  :-)  )  ...cross trainer beckons..

He passed!

.. for those of you 'in the know' ..just that.. Zac passed his driving test today..

well done hon, almost as soon as it happens, I blogged it..

love ya x

Progress..

.. well not a biscuit or a cake has passed my lips for two whole days..porridge for breakfast and lots of fruit, plus usual meals.. feeling quite proud, and def less sluggish, esp around the waist, though doubt it would measure anything, it's the feeling which counts.. isn't it.

No porridge this morning and did have saffron bun (not a cake or a biscuit.. isn't it just fruit bread in another name..?) for breakfast / croust as I got in the office..but all is not lost, and I did save it from being stale and thrown away didn't I!?

Trying not to fall into the trap of analysing everything I eat, but looking at last two blogs I'm not so sure it's working...also got the Donna Downey canvas album in my head, off to do a day with Linda at Mevagissey next Saturday and really want to hone my ideas and stash so I don't go there with no idea and two bags of kit I'll never use.

Resolution..

.. well we're a good few days into the year now and several boxes of chocolates are still lurking in the 'our presents' bag in our bedroom (namely plain Ferrero Roche, Chocolate Ginger and mini Rolos.. all my favourites, but perhaps that's why they still exist, the childhood teaching of waiting til later and savouring the best..?) 

The extreme cold weather and my normal low for the first half of January has passed so I am going to be a healthy eater...I am stopping short of calling it a diet, but from this mornings bowl of porridge and the apple I just scoffed I will be calling time on biscuits, buns and cakes!  Not sure if it will have any effect as the extra cakes and sweets eaten over the last 6 weeks will take a bit of counteracting! I love Christmas Cake, and have done more than my fair share of demolishing a whole Christmas Cake, with almond paste and icing , plus a red wine cake.. the second of which is still half eaten and hiding in a tin to be found when I am on a healthy sugar fix (I tell myself that it is all dried fruit, aka fibre, aka healthy eating!)

I thought maybe writing this down would be like a cheap version of Slimming World or Weight Watchers, an unspoken world out there watching to see if there is any change, exerting some pressure on me....just how much willpower I have will depend on how quickly these jeans feel a little less tight..I need instant results here to even get me to the weekend.

(So strange, I was googling for a photo of rolos and found this one.. in front of some curtains exactly like mine! How wierd is that? Or how common are my curtains?)

Cyber Scrapbooking!

..it was great.. and we all promised that we would do it again soon as an extra to our usual Saturday sessions. I think at one point 8 of us were all online, either chatting, reading and sticking, cutting or sewing, the conversation, jolly banter and the wry digs, (as usual almost always at Linda's expense dear heart), it was real fun and certainly made up for not getting together in the flesh!!

I chose some photos of Lilly's first birthday and used my Cuttlebug for the first time, I'll need to get some new dies and embossing folders but these are the ones it came with..

I used my favourite whitewash core papers and they give a lovely baby feel..the little stamps and the bay colours remind me of Loveheart sweets....x

Pictures for Will..

I was chatting by email to Will in the US earlier this week, (or is it now last week?... whichever)...I promised I'd post some pictures for him. The first is of Jordan the day we did the West Cornwall nostalgia tour with U Bill, Deborah & Suzannah.. wow it seems an age ago now,but the very cold weather was approaching and we were trying to hide from the chill in the lee of the scenery!

The second is my favourite view of the snowy garden.. from inside through a window! 

Ross bridged the gap between adult & child, as ever and this one of him and Rob (grateful for a play out of doors,whatever the weather).   Kate's here now wishing the fine mist of snow which has ben drizzling its way to the ground all day, would turn into afullblown blizzard capable of crippling the school calendar for another few days yet!

And a last little view of Christmas in Mousehole.. we chose a dreadful night of rain to go there, but we persevered and the lights look spectacular whatever the weather..ahhh, til next year then..xx

Remotely ..fascinating..

..there's no Scrapbooking tomorrow as the Centre has been closed, I can't imagine how icy it must be on the pavements and hill there in Newlyn!  Haven't ventured out yet, happy to be housebound with no sprained ankles, thanks! (Scaredy cat)

Ahaha, but a few have us have kick-started the idea of a CyberCrop,  which I guess means scrapbooking in a group, but not as a group..(aka Irish Scrapbooking maybe Linda?..sorry)..but being in touch online at the same time..

Karen has done it before and the rest of us are learning..if all it does is get me back in scrapping mode I'll be happy. My stash of stuff is in piles and needs a good sort out; we are 'meeting'online at 11am tomorrow soI'll be in that scrap room and tidying by 10!   (Can you hear the spring this has put in my otherwise sluggish steps this week?)

I'll post anything worth showing tomorrow.. (phone refusing to link to PC at the moment so not sure about how to photo transfer.. bah!)

(s)NO(w) School today..

So Ross, Zac, Jordan & Kate set off to find some slopes to enjoy the fun. The snow was sprinkled on the hedges here but quite thick in places and there's something nice about being on the roads where no cars can travel.  I really like this picture, almost black & white with odd accents of golden gorse. 

(Good scrapping pics to use my black & white stash Lisa gave me for Christmas..) Ross took most of the pictures and I can see he had my scrapping gene at work while he was eying up the shots..

SAD ?

...that January is here, and May and June seem a mile away... or just Seasonal Affective Disorder? ... though in my case 'Sore And Decrepit' .. I don't know, I'm aching all over, weary and wishing it was summer, well warmer at least.  Not an unusual warcry from me at this time of year, and the cold which makes me feel all hunched up and much older than my age doesn't help.  Looking for a nice holiday in February / March but not firmed up anything yet, that'd help.

Went out west yesterday for the funeral of an Aunt, well more specifically the mum of 3rd or 4th cousins I grew up with, but in those days everyone you lived close to was an Aunt or Uncle, a sign of respect and general closeness in life, rather than direct family connection. It was a sweet personal service and again it really makes me think, seeing so many faces from my childhood, many of them of my parents era, we all share so many similar times, but each of us have travelled our own paths too. Nice to see them and feel the common ground. 

My liveliest memory of Val was when she was carrying a tray of sausages around to everyone at one of the famous Bonfire Nights they held at the Nook when we were kids, someone let off a jumping jack which startled her and seemed to chase her along, but she still managed to keep the sausages on the tray!  We used to collect wood and papers for those bonfires from September on, as soon as school started back and the evenings drew in, all stored in their cellar.

My Mum worked with Val and as she was being courted by my Dad, 'Tommy Thomas from Penberth' and they in turn introduced Val to the man and stalwart of the Cove who would become her husband, Teddy George. If you carry the thought through my mum and dad could be responsible for a whole bunch of family there yesterday...ahhhh.   Makes you think of that film 'Sliding Doors' where two possible life stories evolved from a simple do or don't decision made on a single day... ahhh, feeling warmer inside at the thought x

Stop press!! First grumble of the year!

.. Meadery turns into Motorway Service Station!  

We went to Branwell's Meadery last evening and it was grim.. (libel laws allowing.) We were so cold we all wore our coats, the blackberry wine didn't come in the usual little Cornish Pint glasses and shock, horror, Meringue Glace has been lost from the menu!  The waitresses were all freezing cold themselves with chilly personalities to match. 

Whatever happened to the little dippers of garlic mayo for the mushrooms, the wooden plates for your Chicken in the Rough and the girls in wenches outfits capable of carrying three meals without the aid of a tray???

Call us demanding or from 'the days of way back when' ...but truly it was a shadow of its former self..luckily I don't think U Bill had been there before to see the changes for himself, but thought I should let you guys know.. be warned!

(Oh yeah, Col's New Years Resolution.. tell it like it is, demand a better deal for customer's everywhere, get a discount ......that way all the people coming behind you get to benefit from your complaints?!)

Quickie!

..just on the way out for U Bill and Deborah's last night here.. he has a fancy for good old British Fish & Chips from a Chip Shop, ........but we know better, that they will sweat in the polystyrene box or the newspaper and will be a soggy mess... so Bramwell's Mill Meadery it is.. and the all round eating experience which will be so 'Pirate-Cornish', just the way he wants it.. he got a sore throat the other day playing the Cornish Pirate am-dram style while reading dialect from 'How to be Proper Cornish'.

We've had a great time, I took them on the nostalgia tour to the 'west'rd' and yesterday we had a tea party for Col's Dad and his friends who have been so good to him the past couple of years.

Will add pics and more chat later..but unless I want to be fashionably late I'd better go!