12 Christmas songs on 12/12/12

So, I was going to join in with 10 on the 10th and had this great idea to pull 10 of my favourite christmas songs off YouTube to share with you all. Then I realised it was the 11th! 

But, a couple of hours later, I figured I could do the same thing on 12/12/12, just add an extra 2 songs. Which, quite frankly, is just as well as I had a hard enough time whittling the list down to these.

They are in no particular order and I have missed a few obvious ones but these songs all make me smile at Christmas and really get me in the spirit.

Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin Stevens : This is guaranteed to get me off the sofa if I hear it. And don't you just love the jumper :-)

Merry Christmas Everybody - Slade : I don't really need to explain this do I??

Jingle Bells - The Puppini Sisters : This is on the Now Thats What I Call Xmas album and I love it. Its a great take on the song. While looking for it, I found a version they did with Mr Bubbly (Thats Micheal Buble to everyone else...) so if you like him, this should appeal to you. 

Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie : This always gets my feet tapping and it is great that a Christmas song can be enjoyable but still have a serious message behind it.

A Spaceman came Travelling - Chris De Burgh : There is something about the Burghs voice that is quite soothing. And what a cool title for a Christmas song :-)

Christmas Day - Squeeze : I like the pop culture references in this.  Would be great to have a modern day version of this....just substitute Morecombe and Wise with Doctor Who lol

Mistletoe and Wine - Cliff Richard : Now, I could have included any of his Christmas hits. I do like a bit of Cliff. But I picked this one because it means something to me. The company I worked for in Ipswich would have a carol service every year in London and for a couple of years, the house where I worked..staff and service users... would head down and sing this song in BSL. We even got to do it at their big carol service in York Cathedral (where I got to meet the great Richard Whiteley...I had to explain to my colleagues why I was so excited lol). I can still remember some of it and you will occasionally find me signing away in a quiet corner if this comes on.

Step into Christmas - Elton John : Another song I can twirl around the house to ....and yes, I twirl.

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard : I particularly like the video to this. There is something about men in sparkly catsuits and big chunky heels that makes me smile...

Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) - The Darkness : ...and talking of catsuits....:-). The first proper singalong Christmas tune for years.

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy - David Bowie and Bing Crosby : Little Drummer Boy is one of my favourite songs from childhood and I love this 'mash up' version by 2 of the greatest voices ever.

Lonely This Christmas - Mud : A nice song to wind the night down with. 

I could have included songs by Wham!, Jethro Tull, The Wombats, The Pogues, Band Aid, Mariah Carey (the only time of the year I will willingly listen to her), The Spinners......oh, the list is endless. But I have gifts to finish and I think after these 12, you need a break :-)

What are your favourite Christmas songs?

Happy 12/12/12 everyone

I am here.....

Yes, I am still here....date stamped the photo to prove it ;-D

I have been doing this...


cleaning the house a room at a time

and this.....



2 quilts for new niece and nephew...yet to be made up though!!

and this....



a bit of shopping at the Knitting and Stitching show

and a little of this....



first page for Scrapbook Remix

but mostly, I have been doing this...



this best represents my work as a care assistant but it isn't used every day....just didn't want to show cleaning products again ;-/

I have missed MIN :-( but rather than play catch up, I am just going to chalk it up to lack of organisation. Hopefully, starting now, this will greatly improve :-s

Ok, my shift starts again in a few minutes so now I have checked in (I have been floating around to everyone), I better get back to work and 'tentatively' promise that I will have another post up next week sometime........do feel free to give me a kick though....I do need it ;-D


- Posted on the move :)

Month in Numbers: August

Blogger has just told me that it is over a month since I last blogged!

Really? 

That long? 

Where did the month go?

There were the 12 days that I got lost in the Olympics.  BBCs coverage was brilliant and I loved watching sports that I would never normally watch and getting totally hooked on them. So truly awe inspring the olympians and the paraolympians are.

Then there were the 3 books I read, which amounted to approximately 1,565 pages. It has been a long time since I read voraciously and I have to say, I have really missed it. I read 

                          (the last in her epic Deverry series, I will really miss these),

      

                                               (easy to read and a great way into looking at Roman history)

                            (I will miss Ayla ...one of my favourite characters in fiction ever). 

All very good reads.

I have decided to go the more 'educational' route next and am reading 

 (this is volume 3...I have yet to get the first 2). I am currently 142 pages into it and while it is really interesting, I will have to reread it to make notes on the things that I want to follow up on.  At least I know my head is ready to start looking at courses again...now to pick the right one ...but I digress..!

Of course, August is the month I think of those we have lost. It would have been my Nan and Grandads birthdays on 11th and 22nd respectively and little bro would have been 32 on the 15th.

  

He would not have been happy with Norwichs opening result on the first day of the Premiership....5-0 loss to Fulham. Mind you, my boys did not do much better..a 3-0 loss to West Brom. It's going to be a long season, that's for sure. 

And now, I have less than 24 hours to wait for 2 of my favourite annual things of the year...Learn Something New Everyday restarts tomorrow and as usual, best laid plans of having an album ready have fallen by the wayside. I may...may being the big word here....try and do a post a day this year but I have said that before. But, I really have no excuse since I have the Blogger app on my phone so we will see if I can actually follow through this time!

The second thing?.....

....need I say more? :-D

mmmm, no real excuses there for missing out on July and not keeping to my 'tentative, obviously not working' blog schedule. Must try harder I think the summer report reads ..lol. 

This is brought to you in association with Julies Month in Numbers get together ....join in..its great fun. I promise :-D

Cards and Photos

I managed to survive my 5 nights last week. Well, only just....it's taken me till now to fully get over them.  I think they are getting harder as I get older. 

Anyway, determined to whittle down my scraps, I made a few cards...

It's been a while since I actually sat to make cards other than for an upcoming birthday and for a while I was thinking too hard. But, once I remembered it is just a mini LO, it became easier. Who would have thought I made cards before I did scrapbooking?!!!!!

Talking of LOs, here is the one I did for the Two Peas CHA 'use a sketch' challenge.


                                 

I used the June Studio Calico kit and used a colour palette I wouldn't normally use.  I like how the photos stand out on it though. Imagine those concerts were nearly 20 years apart. The Cambridge one only feels like yesterday :(
                                 

Before I go, I wanted to share a picture taken with my DSLR.  I am staying on the Auto setting for the moment while I get to grips with it and making notes of the settings each photo, to help me learn the differences. This one is of Lister and was taken randomly...as in not looking through the viewfinder (I am holding off using the screen at the moment as I like using it in the old fashioned proper way). I had the camera underneath him, tilting up slightly and I love how it turned out.  No filters either....that's another thing I have to learn. Well, one step at a time! lol

                                  


Oh, Holly is feeling a bit left out so here is my favourite one of her so far....

Starting points

I have been scrapping up a pile of paper scraps the last few days.  I thought I had better break into Studio Calicos May and June kits rather than just stroking them every so often.
Above is my version of Shimelles Starting Point this week, which turned into this.....


I have a fair few old photos scanned from family and I got some printed through Photobox. I think I will have to run them through a photo editing programme because while they printed out ok, I am sure I can spruce them up a bit better. In the meantime, I like that they still keep the charm although I think they would be better printed on matt paper. Anyway, I am rambling....

I put the journalling on a tag and tucked it in behind the photo. Not for want of any privacy, more because I have been wanting to give it a try :)

Below is another photo, found among a pile of photos borrowed from Grandad S.  There are a few in this style of me and my sister and I think that they were taken by my Uncle.  I love it and it also makes me smile that I am sitting on the potty with a book/comic in my hand.  There are a few of these type of pictures floating around!



These are not all the LOs I have done but I have to go and get my bits together for work now. I think I will be re reading my Blogging for Scrapbookers notes over the next few nights, as my goal to blog a bit more frequently and confidently is going a bit slow.  But, at least it is happening so I am happy with that at least.

Happy Mail and Pink Paislee

Look what arrived at my door on Monday...



That definately cheered up a day which was filled with the hoover, bleach and hard labour, both at work and home.

Thanks Susanne for making my day.

Here is my LO for this months In Good Company.

SUPPLIES: Pink Paislee 'Butterfly Garden'
Pink Paislee Wood Veneers
Pink Paislee (Mist).a.bles
Studio Calico Mists - Pony, Green Gable
Papermania Capsule Collection Flowers



Yep, it's Pink Paislee this time and meant I had to use the paper which I had been scared of saving for ages.  I adored the paper but as soon as I got it home, it was just too pretty to use.  I hate that half of my paper collection is like that! The good thing is that using the paper as the background requires little other embellishment so just a few flowers and butterflies and a bit of mist on the letters and we are done :)

The picture is from my graduation 13 years ago!!! imagine :s. It is the official picture and while I am not overly fond of it, the frame was decomposing a bit so I wanted to get it on a page.  I cut up the frame using the oval aperture and university emblem on the LO.  There isn't much journalling, just the date, place and degree as while I have plenty of stories to tell of the day, they didn't seem to fit the picture..although I may do a 6x12 page on the side for the journalling now I am talking about it....

Come and join in if you have any Pink Paislee papers you want to use up.  It's a great way to really use your stash.:)

And while I am here, I am going to join in with Jennifers Scrapbooking Soiree.  It's like a virtual party where everyone shares what they are up to with their scrapping and you have till the 7th August to join in. See you there?

Euro 2012...MIN June

A bit late again. And the worst part is I have had my notes sitting on the table all week :s. Still, I am in front of the computer for the first time in 4 days so here goes...

You can probably tell that the month, for me, was all about the football.  4 weeks of 22 men playing with a ball. And, for the first week, 2 games a day, every day, which coincided perfectly with my break between nights. Needless to say, all other activities were suspended for me from 5pm onwards unless they involved a pub with the football on the telly....which a few times, it did the disadvantage of living opposite the local :p

The decorations in the pub 

I watched the matches on 3 channels...RTE 2, ITV and BBC, the latter being my preferred channel and the only one I forgot to photograph incidentally.  

Being a Brit living in Ireland, I couldn't hang my flag out the window, so I made one out of  felt that I had inherited from the bosses late Gran.

I made an Irish flag out of cardstock, then with the newly embellished Radio Times wallchart attached, I sewed the 2 together.  I am thinking of using it as a cover for a minibook for the tournament as I am loath to throw it out.

It had pride of place on the wall by my chair for the month....the boss, while he enjoys football, doesn't have the same obsession dedication that I have for the game.

Now, before I chuck some numbers at you, I better tell you that I am including the final, even though it was played on the 1st July.  It might be cheating a little but since I wanted to get the whole tournament stats in, then I guess, today, I am a cheat!

Ok, 25 games were played overall with 18 of them in the group stages. There were 16 countries involved overall.


Spain scored the most goals....12 in total, with a third of them being in the final against Italy.  Incidentally, that was the 2nd time in the tournament that those 2 countries met, the first being in the group stages where they drew 1-1.


Italy and Spain both had to go through penalty shootouts to get to the final, Spain winning 4-2 against Portugal in the semis and Italy beating England of course, like we could ever get through a tournament of any kind without having to play at penalties :( 4-2.


There were 3 red cards shown and 119 yellow cards.


6 players scored 3 goals each to get the Golden Boot...Torres, Gomez, Dzagolev, Mandazukic, Balotelli and Ronaldo.


France v England had the ball most in play during any one game -76%


England stats were: 4 games, 2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, 1 penalty shootout, 5 goals scored.

Spain have won 3 major tournaments in a row: Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and this one.  They are the first country ever to do this. Iker Casillas, who plays for Spain, is also the only player ever to have played in 100 winning international games.

I guess that will do you, before I seriously bore all you non football people. I will now send you on your merry way to Julie who will tell you more about Month in Numbers for those of you who are new to this and want to join in.

And, I will leave you with my feet...well, my very patriotic Docs to be exact. yes, I wore them to the pub for the France v England game and it was very tempting to wave them in the air when we scored but I didn't, much to the relief of the boss lol







All stats taken from The Irish Sun.

In Good Company? I sure am :)

This month, I have remembered to join in with In Good Company at Susannes blog. I say 'remembered' because, after finding out about it at Alisons blog last month, I was all up for joining in. I had a Sassfras LO all completed the day before, then completely forgot all about it! Doh! 


So, Susanne posts a challenge every month getting you to look through your stash and use anything from a particular brand name.  All in the name of using your stuff. 


This month is October Afternoon. I don't usually focus on using a particular brand as a jumping off point but it was a great challenge and I laid out the papers before I picked the photo. 



Below is a list of all the products used:

Tim Holtz Kraft cardstock
Papermania capsule collection
OA Sasparilla high noon (for half the title) and stagecoach papers
OA letter stickers
Sassafras for SC butterfly stickers and paper
Fabrics and washi tape
Elles Studio tag
Distress Inks: Chipped Sapphire

The photo incidentally is another occasion of me wearing a rarely seen dress in my teenage years.  It seems to be the only time I would let my picture get taken because of the stir i wished to create lol.  And the jacket I am wearing? It was my Dads wedding suit jacket.  I had the whole thing (I loved the flares) and am now on the search for some photo evidence of me in it. I am not sure there is one though :(

Month In Numbers - May

May was the month of the Scala choir.

 It just about trumps anything else I did this month including the 12 hours I spent at a friends wedding (a long time for me, I usually bail before the fun starts!), the 92 points the boss's golf team scored to claim 7th in the tournament and win us a meal for 2 in a local restaurant and the 2 random prize draws I won in a week *yay*.

The boss loves Scala and Kolacny Brothers (to give them their full title).  He heard they were playing in Dublin at the beginning of the month so having a little money left over after buying my new camera, I picked up a couple of tickets.  You see, the boss is not much of a concert goer, whereas I will go to see anyone, so when he tells me about a date, I will jump through hoops to get him ...and me, there.

Incase you have never heard of them, here is a taster of how great they are....

There are tons of videos on YouTube and they do covers of loads of popular songs, including Smells like Teen Spirit, Creep, Under the Bridge and Bittersweet Symphony to name but a few. To find out a bit more about them, you can find them here.

So, the day in numbers goes as follows:

16.02 train to Dublin....the journey takes around 2 hours and costs €40 return. The bus costs €17 less but the journey is less comfortable, it takes half an hour more and the travel times are less frequent.

60 seconds walk from our hotel..The Fitzsimmons...to the Olympia Theatre.  Good choice by the boss and it only cost us €90 for the night, which in Dublin on a Saturday night at short notice is pretty good.

€3.50 a pint till 8pm in The Turk so took advantage of that.  They were showing the Heineken Cup final and we managed to catch the end...Leinster beat Ulster 42-16 so the locals were mighty happy.

The show started at 8pm and we were in Row M, seats 5/6 which was a pretty good view (and situated close to the bar and toilets...always a bargain in my eyes).  I have always liked the Olympia...it is a beautiful building and the accoustics are brilliant in it.

The support band were a Donegal country/folk band called The Henry Girls and they were fantastic.

Then at around 9pm, the main event started and I have to say, they were everything we expected and 100 times more. I found watching the brothers fascinating, especially conducting the girls.  They connected really well with the audience and an hour and a half really wasn't long enough. They sang a few well known songs as well as some original pieces. And much to the boss's delight, they also played his favourite, Yellow.
(26 September, they are the O2 in London.....I hugely recommend it)

And, that is my month.  Cut off a bit short admittedly but this is probably the 5th draft I have written and thats it....my brain just can't cope anymore lol.

So, thanks for looking and do pop here to get a link to Julies Pinterest board and visit a few other participants

Oh, and I better warn you now, June will consist largely of Euro 2012 ....so if you dislike the beautiful game, sorry!!! ;)

I may start crying!!!

I want to move on with my Cover to Cover work ... lots of notes but no physical work done.

I want to scrap but now I finally have time to do some, Jean has fled (newly christened creating gene!!!).

I want to write my Month in Numbers post but can't seem to get the flow going. I am proud I have lots of notes to pick from though (and you can go here to find out more and get links to others while I procrastinate)

I know this is the reason why I am having brain freeze.....



I want to leave it till next week when I have my days off between nights so more time to organise.

I guess what I want just won't fly today if I want Jean to return....reckon she left in protest!

I think I want to cry at this point as this is such an ongoing issue!

O, Jean just whispered to me there is a LO in the making here and if I do a little now, my reward will be a short visit of encouragement.

See ya later :)

RIP Robin Gibb

I love the Bee Gees.  Their songs are ones that I go to when I need cheering up because you can't help but smile and sing along.

Such a sad day that Robin has passed. RIP :(

My favourite Bee Gee song 

Organising....!!??

Organising is something I thought I was reasonably good at. The boss begs to differ on the strength of my room. He does have a point I suppose, but at least it's an organised mess...as in I know where everything is and he doesn't have to ;)

However, recently I have noticed that I am a great list maker but a poor completer of these lists. Now, I am working on changing the completing part but I love that todays prompt is all about the list part :)

Yep, I know I have skipped prompt 5 here but as I am currently on nights, i think some of these will be jumbled a bit depending on my sleep pattern which can be poor to say the least.  I am blogging and that, for me, is an achievement in itself :)


Now, in the interest of complete transparency, I haven't made this list yet. I only just read the prompt to be honest. But I have a few ideas of what albums I would like to have and it is just a case of getting it down on paper and starting.

Since I don't have a system at the moment, this should be relatively easy to get started.  Not too much shuffling, just albums to purchase. And so far, I have ideas for albums on each of the nieces and nephews, heritage, early years (family), early years (me), our life (now), our life (since we met), wedding,  me, him.

But then Shimelle got me thinking. I have several lists dotted around the house about ideas for pages. Maybe I need to use these (did I mention something about collecting this list before?) and see how they would fit into each of these lists.  You see, while I like the list I have, I am not sure if it is exactly what I want. I am sure there needs to be some refining somewhere. I am sure there are some aspects of my life that I could document and not realise, so it is a good chance to look at where I am at the moment will work great in conjunction with my OLW


All this thought process from what is effectively a bit of homework on organising.

Which, I better go and do, since I have to hunt these bits of paper down and eat something before I leave in half an hour :s

xx

Anything missing?

 

I don't need to look through my pages to see what is missing.  I know that journalling has always been my weak spot and a lot of pages have more story that can be told.

Above would be a good example.  I did this in response to one of Shimelles online crop challenges but never got round to uploading it....it was the colourful one I think.
There are lots more stories I can tell about this day trip.
There is a story I can tell about taking these pictures actually, now I come to think about it. It would also be nice to see if #1 and 2 have any memories of this particular day.
So, the next stage is do I add to this or do another LO? I will have to see if any other pictures survived the great death of the first laptop....many didn't and I thought I had backed them up. Was pleasantly surprised to find some stored in Photoshop the other day :)


So, lots to look and plenty to think about......think I need to buy more notebooks....!

A few people on the forum were answering the questions laid out in the prompt and I thought that was a good idea.So, here goes....

Do you start with a plan, sketch or inspiration piece?
- not always although I do find them very helpful


If you print your photos at a variety of sizes, how do you choose?
- A lot depends how many pictures I want on the LO or if I am following a challenge. It       also depends if I want one to be prominent or not


How do you select the colour scheme for your page?
- I sometimes pick the photo first so that leads the colours. Other times I may go with the paper I am loving at the time . But to be honest, it varies alot.

Do you mix and match your supplies or stick to just one collection?
- I always mix and match. I rarely buy whole collections and if I do, I end up mixing them up and forgetting I have them :P

Which comes first: embellishments or writing?
- It used to be the embellishments but recently, I have been deciding where I want to write before I begin the process of prettying up the page.

Do you handwrite, print or stamp your words?
- handwrite ....i like the look of printed words but I love writing so...!

What do you do with your page once it’s finished?
- photograph it, put it away, then post it up here and/or on 2peas

:)

Photos, photos everywhere......

I, like a lot of people, thought that so far, I had very few pictures, especially since I have had only the use of my iPhone camera all year (new camera arrived Friday though....my picture uptake will triple while I learn how to use it  :D ).

Nikon D3100 ...my first DSLR but I will whittle on about it another time :)

Guess I had forgotten about Instagram then!

my 2 fur children....proof that i did take some pics!!!

And the fact I am doing Take Twelve this year.

I have TONS!   :shock:  :D

Now, I like the idea of sending a print order every month because, as much as I like printing at home, I do see the costing point of view (hence the reason why I am actually changing my printer since 50 pictures dried up my colour cartridge and I heard that Kodak prints upto 100!).

So, I think I need to put in 20-30 photos a month into my budget.

Because, if I am honest, it bugs me big time when I have a photo on the computer that I am dying to scrap but can't print!

2 days in and I think I have changed nearly my whole process of organisation now....well, got it on here what I want to do anyway. That cant be bad  :D

April- Month in Numbers

No LO again this month but then, not much crafting has happened since I went back to work after my 2 week break over Easter and for the last 2 weeks in April, I seemed to live at the place.
In the week ending 22nd, I managed to do 57 hours from wed thru sunday....that's not including the 10 and a half hours break I had for the 3 split days which I don't go home for! I think I will have to be careful about how flexible I am for others in the future!!

I managed to do 6 pages for Shimelles online weekend crop, but only remembered to upload 4.  I still have the challenges though and plan to work my way through the rest of them as I have notes and ideas for all.

1 new baby born to my neighbours and above is the present I made for them. I love the Mabel Lucie Atwell designs. They are so cute.

If you look in the bottom left of the picture, you can just make out the 2 chilli sign which indicated here that this houmous ranked as medium on the 'burnt mouth' scale. I have a reasonably good tolerance for all things spicy but this...? Well, this blew my head off.  Medium, my eye!!!!

2 days...how long it took me to eat this medium sized beauty. Which considering it is chocolate and Creme Egg chocolate, it was a minor miracle it lasted 2 hours!

Well, thats me done for the month. I actually have plans that don't involve the house or work this month, so I will have to remember to document some numbers down somewhere!!
In the meantime...head off to Julie to see what everyone was up to :)

Homework

Shimelles new class started today (link in the sidebar if you're interested in joining us) and it's all about how we store our pages.
Today, we got homework....
1. If you have a system for your photos, pages and albums, how would you describe it? What does and doesn’t work as well as you would like?
2. If you don’t have a system, consider my system as a rough draft. What things do you already think
you would not want in your own system? What elements seem perfectly sensible for you?
3.Take a photo that helps describe your current status with scrapbooking.





I don't have a system at the moment. Above is what I currently have in the way of albums.  Nothing is chronological (the Harry Potter folder is my OLW storage....been a bit lazy in covering it yet!). I just add the page to the album to keep it safe and carry on.

I am not happy with this.

You see, what I want from this hobby has changed.  I want to make it more story based, rather than just putting pictures on pretty paper. I want to tell the story of me, of my family, of things we do, events we go to etc.....pretty much everything that other people already do.

I already doing that, I hear you ask? Well, kind of.  I certainly lacked the confidence in telling the story....either through poor memory or not being sure how to put it down on paper. Now with practice and plenty of inspiration and encouragement from the web, that is changing .....(my OLW is certainly being put to work.....'change')

So, my album layout has to change.

I have long admired Shimelles way of scrapping.  I like the idea of having a linear story so it is easy for other people (and future generations) to follow.

 I have already started by sorting out my pictures into easier categories for easy access. The white divider cards have notes for story ideas. I am not overly happy with it at the moment but it is certainly better than being left in a mess in the drawer and the bones of what I am aiming for is there.
                                                 
I need more albums (easier said than done in this part of the world without incurring hefty customs bills and I only like 3 ring albums for their flexibility) but don't feel constrained to stick to any particular size. I like the idea of having special events (or as Shimelle puts it 'upgrades') as either minibooks or in different sized albums.

I also want the albums to be easily accessible to people. Easier said than done to be honest, but apart from me flicking through them every now and again, I have to ask my family if they want to have a look.  I want them to be more like coffee table books....especially as I have started scrapping a lot of older photos of the family.  I can't leave them downstairs though but I could make a size that could be left on view for a while.

I don't know....plenty to think about but at least I am in the right place :)


Incase anyone is wondering, I have not forgotten about my Month in Numbers post.  I have hugely busy  the last 2 weeks and hardly near my computer, but I hope to get one up in the next couple of days....even if its just to document how many hours I lived at work!!!!! :s

Challenge 12: one photo printed twice

no date on this yet as waiting for the family to help me out with that!!

Wow, I have never churned out so many LOs before :) well, not without having at least a week off anyway lol

It seems my Nan H took a lot of group pictures. I remember the camera being out alot but I don't really remember family shots as such. But I am so pleased I have found them as we don't have many and they are great for telling stories that no other photos exist for. This one will be partnering many stories in the future but for now, it is good for recording that photos such as this exist :)

The challenges are open at Shimelles until the end of the week if you want to pop over and have a look by the way. There are some great LOs popping up so far :)

- Posted on the move :)

Challenge 15: Rubbish Photos

...although I wouldn't say the photo is rubbish so much as extremely old!!!



I have always loved this photo. It's of me, Aunt C, Uncle R, Nan and Grandad. I have had the photo for years and have no idea how I managed to get hold of it. No doubt, I robbed got given it by someone in the family!


It has faded in those years.  By a huge amount as it goes. I certainly don't remember it being this bad when I acquired it.

used pop dots on the photo to make it ..erm.... 'pop'!

Still, it was worth scrapping and this challenge certainly gave me the confidence to go for it. After all, about 2 thirds of my collection at the moment are 'rubbish' photos...either bad quality or just old film ones. I am pretty bad at printing photos and my printer eats colour cartridge.....the boss is taking some convincing on the printer I want

can u guess which one I am ......?

Here's a closer look at the photo. I am guessing the photo is Xmas 1977 based on decorations u can barely see, the lack of little sis and the fact that I look considerably older than 3 mths old ...which would have made it 1976!!!!


- Posted on the move :)

Challenge 2

Here is my effort for challenge 2. (Sorry about the poor quality but no chance of me getting a daylight picture now this weekend!)

I changed my mind so many times doing this but opted to lift a LO from Glitter Girl after I found some old American Crafts paper (I was determined to use old paper only)!

In the end, these were the products I used:

American Crafts- Metropolitan Underground
Creative Imaginations- Barb Tourtillotte sticker sheet
Amy Tangerine Mini Alphas- Olive
Elles Studio- handmade layers cutouts
Mister Hueys- opaque white, gable green
A selection of stars of which I have no idea where they come from, other that I have owned them for nearly 10 years :s !
A scalloped circle that came from my Interesting Bits pack

A fair amount of product for such a simple page but then I rarely do LOs using just one collection anyway!


- Posted on the move :)

Challenge 1: Shimelle scrap weekend

It is the first day of Shimelles online weekend extravaganza and I have been able to play live today which is a great way to spend my day off before I hit the long weekend at work! (scrapping event and semi final football??!! Should have planned my holiday dates better lol)

I have managed to do a LO for the first challenge which was to scrap lift from a Jaime Warren LO. I picked up on the scattered embellishments, placement and one photo theme.

The picture is just before we left Ipswich to move to Ireland.

That was 8 years ago!!

Only feels like yesterday! :s



- Posted on the move :)

Month in numbers: March

A brief bunch of numbers this month but I have achieved a LO, so I can't complain.
211 pages read out of 1076 of story written by Ken Follett for The Pillars of the Earth.  One of the books that has been taunting me for months on my 'to read' shelf (yes, I have a set of shelves in the bedroom with the books I have yet to read....gaps are beginning to appear at last!!!)
15 days where I completed my exercise routine this month - 10 of my DVD and 5 walks.
7 days of nasty headcold. It arrived over Paddys weekend, which is Bank Holiday over here and if it wasn't bad enough that I was working, I worked my way through my nice, posh, soft Kleenex tissues in the process!!
16 days that my Studio Calico box spent in the sorting office in Carrick because I couldn't get there to pick it up.  I have it now though and I used the kit for the LO.
Ok, that was brief!
You can join in with Julie here and she will share a link to her Pinterest board where you will find others who join in with this fun monthly roundup.
And on the subject of Julie, I highly recommend you drop into her Etsy store where she has some great Interesting Bits and Plundered Paper packs.  I received an order from her this week (ordered on Thurs night, arrived here Monday morning...super happy Jayne that day). Her new range is brilliant and has loads of great bits in it....some of which I used on this months LO.
- Posted on the move :)