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!!! ;)