January Round-up Part One

Went out with my mandem last weekend. Mandem means crew, gang, group of friends and it's a word you can use if a) you're a too-cool-for-skool 14-year-old boy or b) a teacher trying to make the aforementioned wince and slide down in their chair. Win!

Anyway, my mandem and I went to the science museum where I got a whole new perspective on psychoanalysis and two electric shocks because I'm really brave. Plus I watched a small child get one first and knew it couldn't hurt that much.

Working with the Studio Calico January kit and it's got this fab vintagey thing going on. It matched the pics of us in this vintagey looking diner. More photos next time!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Now it's time to get the mac and cheese on so that it's ready in time for Glee!

Our Bench

In 6th form, come rain or shine, my friends were to be found on this bench. It started off as a convenient place to meet, right out at the front of college (lovely views over the staff car park) so that in a place of 1800 pupils, we could find each other. It quickly became our picnic bench. Even in the rain we would perch on the edge of it, huddled under umbrellas. And we whiled away free periods reading the Metro (and then turning it into fleets of paper boats), playing cards and gossiping. Usually we sat on it with our feet on the seats and I knew I could always find someone to chat to there.

Except on occasion where you get that disconcerting feeling that comes when you find a different group sat there. A bit like someone coming into your house uninvited. I mean, it was our bench.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Another tribute to my box of old photos. And I've done it again: I like what I've written here better than what's actually on my page, it seems less stilted. Possibly because I've already written it once. Need to think about this as I would prefer my favourite version to be on the page.

P.P.S. Crochet flower! Thanks Mum!

P.P.P.S. NEED new Sassafras NOW!!! So yummy! The whole of the Sweetly Smitten and Starters ranges please.

Through the Window

Few pictures snapped on New Year's day. My friends and I spent some time tooling around London in the dark, peering in the shop windows and admiring the displays. Everything was closed but all the lights were on and the decorations were beautiful. It was cold and our breath came in clouds, but we were full of delicious tea and cake, so a worthy trade-off. I've got loads more pictures to go in my album as an accompanying page, but that's not done yet.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Hurrah for Lark Ride to Candleford on a Sunday night!

P.P.S. Spent all day getting caught up and a bit ahead with school work so hopefully much more scrapping this week!

P.P.P.S. Crate Paper's CHA releases are LUSH.

In 2011, I solemnly resolve...

I love making lists and so I love making resolutions for the new year. I like to pick positive things to look forward to so here are my page and my list (and not before time)...

Go travelling * Read the unread books on my shelves * Find a church in my new area * Join a choir * Get my Guide Leader qualification * Keep up the trips to the theatre, ballet, Proms and opera which is, after all, why I wanted to move here * Go on a tea potter * Record more school anecdotes * Spend more time with my friends * Give more to charity * Do more photography * Bake more * Get the flat sorted * Scrapbook all of this!

Kisses xxx

P.S. My mum crocheted the flower for me and sent it in the post. Handmade embellishment love! Look out for more to come...

P.P.S. I want to do a tea potter for my birthday this year, hitting my favourite places in London. And the name makes me happy!

P.P.P.S. For anyone who doesn't live inside my head, I tea potter is like a pub crawl, but with less alcohol and more whimsical gossip.

P.P.P.P.S. I officially lay claim to the idea of a Tea Potter TM.

Cake, Jousting and Worcester Sauce Twiglets.

I ended up making this page twice. I love the pictures - my family and I in a very pink cake shop in an unlikely place - and they were were all soft pink and I made a page on pink paper and it was all too much and I didn't like it.

I like this version. It's less offensively pink. I'm all for the odd touch, but this is about my limit. Of late, I love using my distress ink (the blue is new!) to add smudgy masked shapes, scattered punches and putting bunting on little foam pads. Dimension is the new black.

In other news, we've planned almost a year of Guides activities and I am possibly even more excited than they are. Camp! Eeek! And tonight I taught the girls tray jousting. You need a lance (rolled up newspaper) and a tray (foil trays are very light and work well - bigger is better) and you pit the guides against each other. They have to balance the tray on one hand while trying to bash their opponents tray off their hand with their lance. They loved it. Jousting tournament on the cheap.

As I type, I'm nibbling Worcester Saucetwiglets. I can't work out if I like them or not. I keep expecting Twiglet taste and they taste of not-Twiglets. It's actually delicious, but unexpected.

Bed now as I'm tired. It's been a busy week!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Looking forward (finally) to some Sunday afternoon scrapping time!

More ScrapaGoGo

This page was a bit of fun. The Studio Calico wooden stars in my ScrapaGoGo kit said "film star" to me. I'm (obviously) not a film star but lately a colleague and I have started popping to the cinema after work sometimes. If we shoo the kids out of the last lesson and run around like mad things, we can usually make the (slightly) cheaper 4:15 showing. And we can have a good gossip as there are invaribly only one or two other people there.

Anyway, before Christmas we went to see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader which was in 3D. Frankly, in my opinion that was unnecessary here but we got the 3D specs anyway. They have become a slightly bizarre fashion accessory in my for of late so I wore mine to school for the last day of term. And despite what they said, I totally rocked them. I just wish I'd remembered to take them off my 6th form lesson afterwards. They are too cool for 3D glasses. Foolish.

Kisses xxx

P.S. I'm angry with my photo printer (Canon Selphy ES20) for printing too dark. I've tried lightening the pictures but this just tends to blow out the lighter areas and they're quite contrast heavy. Any ideas? If I can't print, I can't scrap!!! Argh! Find this really annoying as I intentionally slightly overexpose anyway as I like light, soft photos, so photo printer has no excuse.

P.P.S. Excuse while I now watch the first episode of the new season of Glee!

ScrapaGoGo Page!

Morning all! Thought over the next few days I'd share a few of the pages I made for ScrapaGoGo. I was delighted to join their design team at the beginning of December and get to work with the January kit. And it was a winner! All sorts of lovely supplies, and I was really taken with the Crate Paper School line and some Studio Calico wooden stars too.

Obviously, polka dots are always a huge thumbs up so I picked this sheet for a background. This is a picture (self-timer-ed) from my housewarming. Whenever I get together with this bunch of folks, it's like no time has passed even though it's been a couple of years since we all went our separate ways.

To see the kit hope over the the ScrapaGoGo website and check out the Gallery for January!

Kisses xxx

P.S. David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing? I'm there!

Merry-Go-Round

I know I said this before, but there was so much Lush in my Studio Calico kit. I loved the Sassafras embellishments - entwined blooms - the glittery, long black titles and the colour scheeme which was unusual and beautiful.

These are few pics from my wet weekend in Paris and I put this together over Christmas.

January has not seen much time for scrapping! I'm wading through mountains of GCSE mock papers. Most of each evening this week has been devoted to them. Still not done.

But I can't wait to experiment with different sizes of pages in divided protectors. Fingers crossed for the weekend!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Got a new paper trimmer. Happy times!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all! I'd like to use this post to share a few scrappy aspirations for the coming year. (I'll deal with resolutions once I've scrapped them!)

I made this page about my housewarming and it kind of represents everything that I want to do this year with scrapping. I love playing with supplies (this Studio Calico kit was a stunner) but I find that there's not usually enough room to get all the journalling on that I want. I'm finding it harder and harder to find a balance between design including pretty stash, photos and journalling. The latter is probably most important to me, and I like to see my handwriting there in front of me. I don't want it typed or hidden away.

For a long time now, I've been a 12x12 scrapper. I like that I can keep all my pages together in the same kind of albums then. Plus I like the space. Mini books have never appealed simply because I've felt I can't fit enough on a page. And then I have to find somewhere to keep them and it won't slot in with my other pages.

Enter 2011. I'm going to scrap the 12 by 12 pages I want to scrap but I'm no longer going to limit myself to this size.

I'm not going to do minibooks. I'm not going to do different size albums.

This year is the start of something new for me. I'm going to work with divided page protectors. So for my New Year's Eve party I can scrap 12x12 with a few pics so that I get my design and some journalling. Then I can divide a page protector and make, for example, a 6x12 journalling card so I can journal everything I want to including details that don't fit on the 12x12, a 6x4 photo that I love but perhaps doesn't really tell any more than the one(s) already scrapped and 6x8 page with smaller photos.

And This won't be every time. Some things only inspire one page. There are plenty of photos I love but have no inclination to scrap because how much is there to say about another pretty picture of twinkly lights? This way, I hope to able to do everything I want while still staying in 12x12, highlighting photography and stories and still being able to scrap with beautiful stash.

Long post! Let's see if it works!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Ophthalmology Chicken is a game invented when were practising examining each other's eyes. You have to examine someone's right eye with your right and vice versa, otherwise you can accidently end up smooching!

P.P.S. The spelling mistake in the title is now corrected!