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