Blog Hopping! (or in my case 'Blog Hop-eless!!!)

Well this is new to me!

Karen over at memycameraeye has nominated me to take part in a Blog Hop!  I am not sure I can do it justice, but here goes!  The idea is that I answer four questions and then nominate three more bloggers to carry on next week!  I think ideally it is about people who craft but since my scrapbooking and crafting is on a sabbatical at the moment I will try and let you know where I am now and how things were just as I left them!

In case you are coming to me afresh then this is me:  mum of five grown up children (yes Kate, 17 is meant to be grown up!)  Three live at home full-time and one is away working 8 months a year, whilst the last one is married with three gorgeous girls and lives not too far away.
We run a small but busy manufacturing works from behind our house and life is busy, working in our office 5 or sometimes 6 days a week and juggling the wants and desires of family life as well.

I was an avid scrapbooker, especially with the Just Scrapbooking crew over at Newlyn for five years.  I started this just as my Mum went into residential care; she had dementia and was losing a lot of memories and as a response scrapbooking helped me put down on paper some of my own thoughts and memories of my childhood.

About a year ago, life got a little easier, for a number of reasons, our children getting older and more independent mainly, and my husband and I have managed to get out and about for weekends a lot more. The house had a kitchen extension put on (long awaited) and the house was in turmoil most of last year. Also a new baby joined her two sisters to make three grand children under 5 years of age so our free time.. and space to scrapbook was hard to find.. though to be fair the photographic opportunities still pile up! ;-).

Maybe, just maybe , I also am feeling a little less bereft after several years of our whole family really feeling the gap in our lives our Mums left when they died 5 and 6 years ago. Life goes on, memories get easier and you feel less need to be 'in touch' with the old times. Children become adults, children have children, and make new memories of their own and you all move on in the cycle of life.. and it's true, you have to live for now.

Anyway, suffice to say.. life is good, busy but good..  

What am I working on now?

My scrap desk / mess!

Life is so busy with our family, our house and our business that my scrapbooking in 2014 means an untidy pile of things in a specially allocated room.. which also houses the baby's travel cot for when she comes to stay!

I still take pictures with an idea of using them in a layout.. sometime.. later.. when I am not so busy..

I have several projects in limbo with my scrapbooking. An 18th birthday album for Jordan (who turned 19 last December) and an ongoing project to plot Zac's course through his Navigation Officer training with Princess Cruises.  
I also need to organise the albums I have. I used to do annual ones so I could see the progression of my ability and style but then I started an album for Lisa's girls and lost the flow.

How does my work differ from others of it's kind?
I think I have a kind of busy but 'organised' style, even if I try to get away from it. I tend to labour over a technique on one page and then compliment it with a speed scrapped page to lay beside it as a double page layout.. which I love.. did I say that? ;-)

You can see it on this beach layout...we were working with Monopoly pieces and I used the Monopoly Cornwall edition, the place 'Porthcurno'  Lots of layering and I love the sealife stamps.

This is the more formal second page which I use to allow me to include the loads of extra pictures I want.. because making the memory is what it's all about for me.

Why do I create what I do?
So that when I am older and greyer I can pore over the albums and show my kids and grandkids the days we had. I already enjoyed sharing an 18 year album I did for Lisa with her girls..even for me it was hard to look at the little girl doing crazy things and remember that it is the Mum and not one of the children I am looking at....

How does my writing / creative process work?...
I usually get a technique from our class leader and then try and match with my photos.. or develop an  idea from that.rarely I use sketches but when I do I think I should so it more often as I like the effect!
I think when I get back into it I shall look back and find layouts I really liked and use the formats again.

Here are three people you should enjoy reading about ..(so far I am not sure if I can get them to join in as it seems several have already taken part in this BlogHopping)

here are links to my favourite reads anyway:

Jen.. who I met through 365+1 blog

Janice .. who I met at a JustScrapbooking course way back in 2008

Linda.. my original scrapbook Inspiration..

Still here.. I can sing a Rainbow!

I was thinking that maybe the soapbox moment below sapped all my blogging energy as I have been absent the past 7 or 8 days, just a little busy, weary and not a lot to tell.. so that's okay isn't it?  I still keep an eye on the updates from almost everyone but it was only now I got here.. thought it best to write something before the new week's challenge begins!

Zac was home last weekend, he finished college early Thursday and had enough time to make the drive worth it and get three days at home, also he got to visit and see his new niece... awwwhh.. she is doing great, and so are the girls, still boisterous, bossy and bundles of energy, but that's children isn't it! 

We will have her over for a proper ophotoshoot tomorrow as Dad is off paintballing (new dad speak for complete-mental-replenishment-from-new-fatherhood!)

Saturday evening us two, Zac & Jordan went to PIzza Express in St Ives, calling for a gorgeous berry cocktail at the Hub first.. mmm, well that was just me, it's not really a 'man drink' (well not one a man would confess to anyway!)  I had a large wine with the meal and we had a real nice time.. but boy, I peaked way too soon, home by 9.30 and I was so so tired as we settled down to watch a film in front the fire... what a lightweight!

I did take this nice picture of the fire, which we have swapped using (damp) wood in for coal and it looks so yummy and we can even get it to stay 'in' overnight!

I was thinking this would make a good INDIGO for the rainbow colours challenge set by Janice this week over here! at Lucky Snapping.

I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's offerings and even learning a bit about the colour indigo off Wikipaedia... useless fact coming up.... Indigo, Orange and Violet are the only three colours named after 'something'.. Indigo is a dye by all accounts, I reckon we see it most in the dye on the inside of denim jeans.. ahah

Oh and in the week Col was away and I got down to a bit of crafting.. I finished a layout I started back in our December Just Scrapbooking class. We went back to basics and had a few challenges, one of the sketches I chose was this one, and you can see it.. just about.. in the layout below!

It was Jordan's 18th and she has swapped it out of the frame which used to have her 16th birthday layout, with a now un-friendly friend in it., good job your Dad always stays your Dad so she can keep the Coming of Age picture up for years! ;-)

I used a school achievement medal for ARt and some misic and also a pic of the plate for her dessert.. all the things she loves.. oh and then there is Dom! ;-)

I bought the Merry Christmas 2012 tags in the sale, they are great date reminders and I was organised enough to have the house Christmassed a good deal in time for her birthday last year so that day is our kind of day to start celebrating!

Happy 18th JB ...Love you xxxx

So.. today was scrapbooking over at Newlyn, we had some lovely messy time with gesso, inks and paints, all with a lose theme of board games, April came too and I think we switched her onto art journalling again.. result!...........

...........but more on that later this week.. for now this is a medley of my favourite colours of the rainbow images, I love how they are all features of nature and how colours in nature are rarely definitely one colour, but that the morph, as does a rainbow, through the whole spectrum....and I couldn't leave out Lilly in her rainbow dress could I? xxx 

The story of the maths exam and the fake baby!

Our Kate finishes school this year and we will be happy for her. She hasn't enjoyed it much at secondary school, not that many of our children have. I think we have treated them all honestly and pretty fairly in a grown-up kind of way and the herding around and being spoken to in a nice but patronising kind of way hasn't really cut the mustard with them.   They have all done okay when exam results have been turned in, but somehow I think they should have enjoyed it more and come away more often excited by what they had learnt and wanting more.  I'm not sure if it says more about us as parents, our kids or the school system.. but hey..

Anyway, yesterday Kate got her GCSE results for the Maths exams they took in November. The idea was that they take it early with a chance to retake in the summer if they wished, but pssibly being able to finish with Maths now and have a good result under the belt almost a year early... so she set off hoping for a 'B' but expecting a 'C' .. she text me at 9.30 and I was braced for the 'C' .. and this is what I got..

    .................' Got a 'B' : Xxxxx'

                                     I was so so so made up for her!

This evening she told me that she can choose now between extra revision on weaker subjects (but maybe subjects she isn't very keen on) .. or she can do more maths (maybe the last proper maths she will ever be taught) and even try for a better grade at retake.. oh whichever, the B is in the bag and I am so happy for her.. it will, as Zac says, look good on a CV and for me, most importantly it might just give her the confidence to realise she can Do It!

As part of her Childcare course Kate is minding what I have been calling 'the fake baby'. It is a strange thing, a fairly heavy baby doll which cries at will and need to be handled gently and you can do things to stop it crying, like 'feed' it, change its nappy, keep it comfortable.. so tonight I am babysitting whilst she works!  (If my calculation is right and true to babies the world over it will sleep all evening and be awake at 2am.. when I will be fast asleep!)

I know it's not in the spirit of the thing to do it for her but hey I wouldn't do it if she wanted to go to a party!  I am a sucker for a baby I guess... but it is kind of surreal especially since we will have a new real live baby on Tuesday...we are all finding it kind of strange knowing the day the baby will come, not having any previous experience of a c-section, but so long as it is all okay.

Colin however is mortified, not least of all when his Dad and a pal came in for some supper. He told me to put it away, in a drawer or something... yeah right!  And who explains that...apparently it has some sensors so can tell the way you handle it and stuff..or so they say til she takes it back and we've both been 'had'!    So as they came in for supper the thing was crying and I was cradling it in a bundle!  Add to that a need for an explanation of the chrome pole in the centre of our kitchen and you can imagine the looks he gave me...well, like I said you never ever know what goes on inside four walls! ;-)  .. and after all there are ladies who have those life like baby dolls full time.. and it sure beats a puppy to clean up after!

I think he can't believe Kate volunteered for the baby, especially if there was a choice; he thinks they are really made for teens the schools think are at risk of having children too young! .. but she did and I'm rolling with it... but I have got thoughts of putting it out under Ross & April's bed so it wakes them at 2am!

Not sure any of this qualifies as a serendipity moment but after seeing everyone else getting into the art journals and stuff for our challenge I am hoping to join them, after all it's only one page a month...will keep you posted if I can get something produced through the week! x

.. I have been scrapbooking today, a small crew but very enjoyable. We have been together as a group for almost five years and it is warming to spend time together. We often chat away the first hour without even getting our papers out!

We did some nice layering layouts and I was happy because I had lots of the latest photos to include.. Holly Tree Cutting Day and Baking JB on Christmas Eve. These two layouts do need a bit more work, a little extra bling or maybe a grungeboard swirl, but who knows when they will come..so here they are for now...

365/309 Paper and A dark & stormy night...

..for Story Telling Sunday over at Sian's place! here!

My Mum used to tell us stories about a fictional character called Jan Stone, I am sure there was one in everyone's village folklore, but as a kid I was sure that someone really knew him.  

He wasn't blessed with being at the front of the queue when they were handing out the intelligence and poeple loved to tell stories about him.... the one I remember best was when Jan was round at his girlfriend's house, probably somewhere St. Buryan I believed, and in came some real bad weather.  

'Jan,' said his girlfriend's mother, 'the weather has come in bad and it won't be very good walking the three miles home on a night like this, so you had better stay here, we can make up a bed in the living room.'

'Proper job' said Jan  and settled down for the evening.  After supper about ten o'clock Jan got up and went and put on his coat.  'Where you off to Jan?' asked his girlfriend's mother...

'Well if I aren't goin' home I'd best nip and let Mother know as she will be expecting me'

It's kind of a nice story not so easily understood in today's age of mobile phones and the internet..

Paper: altered paper and added paper to be fair.. some images of the part finished altered book I worked on yesterday.  I plan to add images of underwater with the kids on holiday..but the plates and drawings are lovely themselves!

This first one has a backing paper from a Tim Holtz stamp and my favourite core papers added!
Yes, even the packaging of his stuff is good and the whole project would be dead but for Distressed Ink!

This right hand page was some layering I did but didn't like enough for the front cover.. thanks to Margaret for the hessian, Pat for the ribbon.. oh and my knicker drawer for the lace!

.. and I have caught up, two blogs below, but not very newsy.. promise to 'do better'!! xxxx

PS Looking forward to our challenge next year my bloggers!  xxxx

365/304-308 still catching up!

Quirky!

.I often tell my JB that she has a quirky-ness about her and she knows what I mean, I even think she embraces it and doesn't want to be one of the masses!  She has some lovely strappy boots and treated herself to a fab short leather jacket a while back and they are her essential items this autumn..

.. she will hate this pic but is photographer enough to appreciate the need to nick them for the blog!

Fear

Well Wednesday was Halloween and Jb had some pals over for the evening, they had scary films a few beers and some great outfits!

It was a slightly awkward time though as everyone knew that a big night was planned for the next night, her friend's 18th birthday and a surprise party with the official UK Greenday tribute band 'Green Date' in attendance.  Thursday we had a great evening, the build up and the party and for Col and I it was especially good to see JB in organising mode and looking absolutely great..she and her pal had matching dresses and had such a great time. There were about fifteen of the kids who were massive Greenday fans and despite the event being very quiet compared to most events the band play, they gave them a great night and did each other proud!  

 To top off the evening they have arranged to see the band next year the night before the Greenday gig at the Emirates and that's just a small gig but everyone will be a fan.. the Greenday guys even give their old guitars to the tribute guys and it was just so good to see everyone so excited and having 18 year old fun!

Thursday was tree day and so chilly, I had to take this snap of the tree with hail on the ground!

Well our Just Scrapbooking crew had back to back sessions the past Saturdays and worked on some altered books and I had a copy of the Water Babies which I was going to use for odd images, but on refection decided to make it the subject of my work...so much for the album of the kids school photos, but hey, that's for another day!

Our group is so nice, we don't see everyone every time but over the four and a half years we have known each other we have grown real fond of each other.. and Linda is so so good, cajoling us all in new techniques and mostly we moan, wish we didn't have to do it and then by the end of six hours go home saying how great it was and when can we do it again.. just like any other classroom full of daft kids huh!

After scrapbooking I got the girls and they came to sleep over, M&D out for a Halloween party and glad they made the effort, the new baby will put them back to night feeds and not much partying for a while after January so I'm trying to make sure they bank a few nights out before then.. we are off to Greg Davies the comedian with them next weekend and have a few other nights before Christmas.. JB is 18 herself soon, so one more milestone.. xx

Here are two groups: Lilly with her faithful friends and manky (the blanky.. don't ask, every child has one!)... oh and Pirate 'treasure' in the form of Christmas pot pouri and shells!

Lilly was playing with the Duplo our kids had, perfect for my Primary Colours!

365/270 Muted

I know I am repeating myself here, using this picture from a layout a couple of years old.. but I fell upon it whilst looking through some images I have on my office PC.

I think the tones are muted enough and I know most of you won't have seen this before. It is a layout I did at one of Linda's scrap weekends, at Mullion I think, the idea was to use beads and stuff and maybe have an autumn theme.. well Zac and his paintball antics fell right into that criteria, though not quite what Linda or the other autumn layouts brought to mind methinks!

I think Zac is hoping to get some paintball in whilst he is in S'hampton, I am sure being there til May will make him realise even more how remote we are here and just how great it is to be in easy reach of London Oxford and Exeter all in an hour or so!

365/245 Basket.

Well I have several baskets I could photograph but they are not that photogenic, mainly storage baskets in bedroom and bathroom, not quite the presentation of the Body Shop really! At Christmas I have several with Pot Pourri and if I am honest a couple of those still hang about but Lilly likes to play with it, it's her 'Pirate Treasure 'Me Hearties!!'

Anyway I had a great day! Up early as I can be when it's for scrapbooking.. funny, any other day, weekday or weekend I am moaning and groaning, staying there too long and getting a headache for my sins.. but when it's scrapbooking I'm up and out!!

It was a revisit to embossing world today and I travelled light and took along a few pictures but lots of tags to play with!  Anyways,there is always so much else to chat about and catch up on, you can't expect to do that much do you!  These are a few of the bits I made..all I need now is to get scrapping and use them!

I also bought these little gems! I liked them when I saw the box, let alone when I opened them and saw how big and comfortable to use they were!  I am what you may call an alpha-queen (well a worse word entered my head but I said it quietly to myself and settled for queen!... there, I told you I was growing up, surely does it!) , I love all kinds of alphabets and even stretch to writing journals and printing on the computer when I can be arsed, but these suit me perfect.. they allow you to be not quite perfect at which point they look just right! 

(did you see the tenuous link just there...?)

Here's a snippet of a layout I did today using them for the first time, look at all that inking and embossed stuff in the background!

365/241 Textured.

I like textured things for my scrapbook pages. I am going to Newlyn for Just Scrapbooking on Saturday and we are revisiting different embossing techniques, all that lovely melted metal effect and everything.  For this picture I only had to nip upstairs and look in a few little boxes for 'some of my favourite things!'

...embossed Ten Second Studio metal, glitter cardstock (I try to sneak it into every layout!). Cuttlebugged cored'ination papers, feathers, enamelled dominos and some weathered acrylic painted letters.. oh and a snippet of glittery acetate which I never seem to use but always want to!

365/218 Happiness.

....is looking back several times today on the scrapbooking day I had yesterday.  Linda made a spectacular pop-up layout but I was a little short on a project which is heavy on the photos, so I went for catch up and just enjoyed playing with papers and catching up on the chat.


Funny really, the layout is of some pictures taken by JB with her super fast camera at Ross' birthday last year.. except he's not in them!  I loved the series with Lilly telling some convoluted story or other (mmm, wonder where she gets that from..I even noticed my brother does the same.. and my auntie used to as well..!) and her Mum looking on so proud, then big cuddles.  And just to prove Lyla existed too, at that point very much in awe of and in the shadow of her big sis, a lovely shot with Auntie Kate.  Amazing how they all grow in personality and style in a year!

I found some fairytale themed adhesive ribbon at Crafty Corner in Penzance and it suited lovely.
I felt I was being a little lazy so I stamped my Queen of Hearts e-bay buy (I thought it was going to be huge.. Read the blurb Kathi!!), added some music, nice Tim Holtz paper cuttings and some Prima flowers I had stowed away. I showed Lilly and she was dead set on having the blingy bits for herself last night but I won!

PS. and as for today.. lunch out with my man no tea to cook, some blogging, a doze on the sofa and Andy Murray's triumph.. what more could we ask for?

365/216 Joy.

Well I am running a day late as Friday was busy and we went out for a bite to eat and just some time-out as cabin fever sets in being here for work and play all week..we went to see 'Ted' .. the trailers were good and it was funny, naughty but funny and nice to just do something different.  Not a film you must see on the big screen but a good take .. but my legs were so tired that I could hardly sit still.. sad old lady!

Today has been a joy from begining to end.. scrapbooking with six good friends, I have missed a few months and it was lovely to catch up, swap news and even play with some paper!  This evening we're on babysitting duties.. Lyla is really liking being here now, so much less shy and remembers some of the stuff we did when she was here for the weekend! 

Lilly and I conspire to get her off to bed good time so we can play with glue and paper.. for a 4 year old she has great dexterity and even let me take a picture of her tweezering some tiny flowers.. we have a small battle as she likes to overglue and I am trying to keep her neat.. darned control freak Nannies eh!

We joined some papers together and gemmd the flowers and generally blinged it all up.. oh and cut out sweet pictures and stuck them on.. now we can be sure what little girl are made of!



Lilly loves Bling! Oh Joy!



365/133 Self-portrait

I thought I'd struggle here and end up offering one of those teen 'at arm's length' type phone-cam shots, but then I thought of this page..

...as it turns out the pictures were taken during the fishing trip mentioned below during Ken & Jean's Golden wedding weekend..but the 'pieces of me' page is all my own work, for me, about me..

Looking at it now I can see that although the sentiments reflect a time in my life where I was adjusting to being an elder in the family, taking responsibility for both the older and the youngest members of the family, things were changing and I am much more settled and content and understand now what it's all about.. just a shame you have to cry a lot before it all makes sense and you can accept it!

.. thanks to Linda at Just Scrapbooking, it was a lovely page to do.. I should retake the picture as it is pretty poor quality but hope you get the drift!

P.S. have a look at the next blog entry for an up to date scrap self portrait from last year!

365/78 Hobby.

I never really had a hobby til the children were grown up and I guess until after Mum moved from here to the home before she died. Never 'Sporty Spice' and a dalliance or two with knitting, crochet and the odd intention to make a felt parrot, interspaced with a bit of card making and taking the usual family photos but never a full on 'hobby' which I think is something you do regularly and take time out to do..

I guess having the children and justgetting through 20 years of family life was pretty hectic in itself and I always did that 'guilt' thing if I took time out for myself.. amazingly it was always a self inflicted guilt, I think some of the family even wished I'd go out and do something... give them all a break!



Recent layout with Ten Sec Studio

Then for Lisa's 18th I decided to make a scrapbook of her travels through life and knocked up a scrapbook from a complete 'kit' in about four days.. you know, no matted pictures, no inks, no special effects or journalling to speak of.. but it went down well and I planned my next project , an album for Col's folks Golden Wedding. Well it was almost biting off more than I could chew, but I did it and it is still my pride and joy, I was a pretty smug puppy seeing the interest and effect it had on the family and friends and that it was for all our family's history made it even more special.  

I went to some classes with Linda at Just Scrapbooking and I was /am hooked. The group are lovely and I am so happy to have them as friends, in fact if they weren't friends I'm not sure who would be!       Then I started blogging to complement the layouts and once again to write down the mundane stuff, just in case, one day, when the kids are all grown up, I start to forget and need to look up a time and a place..and oh, a whole new bunch of 'friends' I have not met yet!

Yesterday I bought some stock of scrap stuff (I have way too much stuff for the amount of layouts I do, but I understand that makes me true to type?) including an alpha set (my mild addiction) and amazingly JB had ordered and bought the same set online for my pressie today.. but as I say, you can never have too many alphas, there's always that extra 'E' you need! 

So, scrapbooker, blogger... and they say in the office that my Mastermind subject would be.. Zac...!..who by the way is doing good, been on excursions in Mexico (snorkelling and horse riding) and Hawaii (volcanos with snow at 14,000 feet!)

Lovely Mother's Day, time with all five and smiles all round.. though some of my lovliest blogger friends are not having such an easy time of things and it doesn't hurt to be reminded on a good day that we must enjoy and appreciate the comfort as with family there is always another rollercoaster ride somewhere lurking..! xxx

365/53 Ordinary....not!

Well the day couldn't end in a less ordinary way and that's fine by me! All the men in the house are away, Zac in Mexico somewhere this week,(well to be fair, he's at sea off the Mexico coast, with glimpses of cruise ports as a bonus!?)  Ross has gone out on his first trip with Colin, visiting customers and getting to know the M4! His dad is out at bowls and Kate out for tea, leaving me and JB at home.


Not wanting much tea and having some homework to do Jordan suggested I do some scrapbooking... now my kit is still in the kitchen hidden under the table after Saturday and my scrap room is a pit, (really needing an OCD son to come sort it again) but I was persuaded.. and got to do about three hours.. I used some of the great bits I bought on Saturday, fell head over heels in love with the Charcoal Inka Gold and did some crackled letters in prep for an album I have in mind...all very satisfying... tea never got made, we made do with bread and cheese and cups of tea, the fire never got lit and the TV not turned on...couldn't have been 'less ordinary' .... but hey, if our plan works it won't be the last time..

PS the charcoal silver is less shiny than it looks.. not too chavvy at all!

.. and as I wrote this two more interesting less than ordinary things have been discovered this very evening..... I have one of my pink orchids flowering (first as a gift a year ago when our 2nd g'daughter was born, it flowered til November).. and Richard Armitage (aka Guy of Gisborn and aka Luca in Spooks...swoon) is in the Hobbit.. sadly with a nose and beard, but the thought was good!..ahhh, and so to bed!

A Different Scream..

I often finish the day with some speed scrapping, and this is yesterday's offering Still with 'Scream' in mind Iused this for the title because it kind of describes Jordan's face.. and we won't mention my lack of motherly concern for her will we!  If you look closely you can see the cause for concern... Lisa has a mackeral threaded onto her finger and was surely enjoying the effect on her little sister!  

I can remember being really scared as a child, taken out in the boat on a fine Sunday and Dad catching a few mackeral which were put in the fishrooms;all that separated me from the crazy fish was a wooden seat.. I must have made my Mum and Dad wonder what kind of 'cove girl' they had on their hands, being so scared of the family bread and butter!

The photo was taken on a great little boat Colin had once, it was a former Dutch army vessel with an air cooled engine which shot an envelope of warm air up the gunnels and made a trip out all the more enjoyable in a cold wind!

Scrapping Saturday.

Great day today, small crew but messy play and some lovely layouts It's amazing how many variations you can have on the theme. As it was Hallowe'en recently I remembred a grI also used eat pic we had of Lisa and Zac many years ago...and sure enough I found the
photo and used it today. Loved the red / gold/ green /black paints and inks, wish I  did enough in between sessions to make buying lots of different pots realistic!

I also managed to incorporate a nice image from the Spiderwitch Chronicles, love using that transfer paste and having  spooky character in the layout.

Last few bits..

I can see I'm going to have to tweak on the pc later, just can't get the pics the right sizing..but still, they do beat my phone offerings!

I have played with some metal work and this is a date addition I should add to the last layout..I'm not sure if I like the distressed sanded one or the 'clean' version yet, but I am loving Ten Second Studio stuff..(hint, Santa x)

I did work on another layout last time, it was a single page, but on a Dear Photograph type theme, just featuring, as I often find myself doing, a then and now pair of pictures. The old pic is a little faded but maybe for the best as I am very short skirted, sitting on a bridge...(mmm, aged 13...sorry Kate for nagging you these days!)

White Gate then &now

Almost there..

October at Just Scrapbooking was great, I took Ross' girlfriend along, she's doing art at Uni and got really absorbed in a layout..amazing the effect some inks and paper can have on you, it's a cross between total relaxation and full mental attention, sometimes I come home exhausted... yeah, like therapy!

The theme was music and incorporated a 45 single, though my kids didn't know what I meant when I said that. Amazing, they won't get having a film processed either will they, just lucky JB is doing photograohy 'A' so she is actually doing dark room work (and loving it)

I worked backwards as I was keen to use the great pics we took out at Logan Rock, the last trip in the boat where Zac and Kate went right into the rocks, I adore it there, it is so majestic and I really do get some kind of recharge from being there, esp on the sea side.

The song was hard to find but I plumped for words from You Raise Me Up..the page has been flattened a bit in my album which is almost full for this year, but hope you get the idea.