Part 2

Well I have finished the 2nd part of the first part of the project (does that make sense?!) and here is my page

So imagine this facing the page I posted on Tuesday!

We went up to Sheffield to visit our son yesterday and it was so lovely to see him. He seems so settled. Not sure how much work he is doing but he's certainly enjoying student life! We had a really nice lunch out with him and it was great to catch up with all his news, it's not the same chatting on MSN as being face to face. Was a tiring day, but well worth it. Now it doesn't seem quite so long to him coming home for Easter :-)

Almost half a page

Following my photographic journey on Monday, I have started to put together the double page layout for the home/neigbourhood part of H T & E. It still looks a bit bare but I want to get the other half of it done before I put too many embellishments on it. I'm a little scared to put anything on the Two Peas website because, is it just me or are those American Scrappers a bit too professional?! I feel a bit intimidated!

Going up to see my boy tomorrow and I can't wait. I spent this afternoon at the funeral of one of his old school friends and it made me feel so sad. It was absolutely heartbreaking and really makes you realise that we truly should make the most of every minute that we have, and never take things for granted. My heart goes out to Nola and Steve. May their memories give them comfort and strength. Rest in peace, Nick.

Journeys

I have quite literally been on a bit of a journey this morning. I decided that I cannot keep putting off making a start on the H,T & E project and so have been trying to make my mind up how to approach this. So I have made a decision, I am doing the first pages as a kind of mini timeline as to how we ended up where we are. Fortunately, we have always stayed local so I didn't clock up too much mileage! I decided to go and photograph the homes we have had during our married life.
Firstly the little two bedroom terrace house that was our first home together and where we gradually got used to being Mr & Mrs. After a few years there, Paul had finished his degree course, changed jobs and the thought of maybe starting a family crossed our minds. So we moved. Into a three bedroom link detached house about a mile away from our first home. It felt so big after our little house and now we had a garage too!
Baby one arrived and three years later, baby two. It wasn't long before the house that had seemed so big, now felt cramped. Toys were taking over the lounge, the nursery was too small to contain an adventurous toddler and we needed to move on. We didn't have to look far. Just across the road was another estate that we always liked the look of but was always slightly out of our reach. We decided the time was right to give ourselves a little extra push and luckily everything fell into place and we moved into the home we are still in today - almost 18 years later.
It was quite nostalgic going back and looking at our old homes and I am pleased that neither of them looked dramatically different to how I remembered them. Ah, memories! Looking forward to now getting it all down in a layout.

Here ...

... Saturday dawned bright and sunny and the perfect day to go out and take pictures for the 'Here' part of the Here, There and Everywhere project. I hadn't realised how many interesting buildings I passed daily on my way to work until I was prompted to photograph the route, nor did I realise how busy the River Stort was until I was on a mission to find some 'flowing water' to photograph! It's funny how much you take for granted about your home town. Bishop's Stortford's main claim to fame is the fact that Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the South African state Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was born here. History lesson over. Onto the water photo ...

Not sure that it quite captures the movement that Shimelle's example did but it's the best that the River Stort can offer!

Project finished

Well I have now finished my 'This Year' book although it is looking in slight need of smoothing off the edges. But that is a job for whenever I have a spare 5 mins and to be honest, after seeing what can happen to these little chipboard books if you aren't gentle with them (they fall apart!) I'm a little scared to do anything heavy handed with it.

If I am totally honest, I found the size of this book a little too small and I'm not sure I would choose to use it again. Having been to the crop on Sunday and done some 12 x 12 pages, I'm back liking the larger size again. Having said that, I think I would like to try and do something with an oblong album next, I've only ever done square apart from the mini book and it might be nice to try something totally different.
I still haven't enrolled for Here, There and Everywhere and I'm not sure what it is that is making me delay doing it. I have a sneaky feeling that I will end up doing it though. Maybe I need to see some pages from people that are doing it so I can be inspired! Sounds like a cue to go Blog Searching .....!

Early bird

It's half term. If I wanted, I could sleep in until lunch time. No need for alarm clocks. So why am I still waking up at 6am? Although to be honest, when the rest of the household are having to get up for work as normal, I'd probably be woken up early anyway!

It's coming up for our son's birthday and this will be the first one in 19 years that we won't be there to see him open his presents :-( It's a strange thought with him waking up and opening his gifts on his own. We never had this issue with our daughter as she is an August birthday so has always been at home.

We are going up to see him next week and we won't have seen him for 6 weeks. I'm really missing him at the moment. When he was still at school I used to arrive home and hear his guitar booming out of the house as I pulled up on the drive (guess our neighbours aren't missing him as much as we are!) and the house would have evidence of his presence in every room. Dirty dishes stacked by the dishwasher in the kitchen - why can teenage boys not load a dishwasher? TV on in lounge despite no one watching it. A trail of wet towels leading from bathroom to bedroom. Guitar music blaring out of bedroom. Computer on in study. I used to moan, but you know what? I miss it so much. I hate coming home to a quiet empty house that looks the same as I left it in the morning. I used to constantly ask him to tidy his room, but I hate the fact that it is so tidy because he isn't in it to mess it up. So on my first day of 'freedom' I decided to do a page dedicated to him in his student environment. I love the fact that he appears happy and settled and embracing all aspects of uni life, but boy, do I miss him being at home.

Obviously a 'newbie'

I went to my very first crop day today. It was at Welwyn Garden City, and organised by Sue at Crafty Stash . I collected up the equipment I needed, packed it carefully and neatly into a shoe box and drove round to pick up my friend Denise who regularly attends crop meetings and is the person who introduced me to scrapbooking. How inadequate did I feel when she came out the house wheeling behind her a bag which, quite honestly, is bigger than the cabin-style suitcase I use for holidays where I am travelling light and taking hand luggage only. PLUS another bag like a small hold all. Fortunately, another of Denise's friends was coming with us and like me, she had managed to contain her scrapping possessions into a small paper carrier bag. Naturally we took the mickey out of Denise - until we arrived at the hall. EVERYONE else was carrying bags similar to Denise's. We were the only ones who could store our equipment in something smaller than a small suitcase. Spot the 'newbies'!

But, despite feeling woefully inadequate in the equipment department, we had a great day and the time just flew by. I managed to complete both the layouts Sue had designed for us and here is the proof:

Here, There and Everywhere!

Is it right that I should be considering another project before I have fully finished the last one? Or will signing up for something else inspire me to get those last 3 pages done ...
Well the new class being offered by Shimelle is on this website and it does look like it will be fun.
I do have a lot of photos of different places I have been, and I am going somewhere new very soon ... it would be a shame not to document it all, wouldn't it?! OK, you've convinced me, I'm going to sign up ;-)

Personality traits

I'm gradually getting through the This Year project and my little book is filling up nicely - 3 pages to go. However, yesterday when I was working on a page I realised that this little book is a perfect example of my approach to things.
I was so eager to get this started, and with best intentions to follow the instructions to the letter and learn, improve and get inspired by others. Gathered my 'goodies' together ... extra wait for the start due to website problems ... so when it came through - whoosh! I had to get started. I was like a little scrapping whirling dervish, woe betide anyone who wanted to use the study, the desk was MY territory. Consequently, I did my own thing, didn't try anything new and ended up with same old, same old. After the initial burst of 'gotta get this done', I relaxed, was there a time limit?, had I read all the last instructions? Was I copying Shimelle's layout? no no and no.
So the last few days I have been more creative, I've done what Shimelle suggested, I've taken my time. And you know what? I am more happy with these pages. Now I only have 3 more to do and I want to make these better than the rest.
Someone once told me that you should not approach things as if they are a race, more a marathon. Don't take things too fast, take time to prepare and enjoy. Wise words.

Travelling

After weeks of investigating and negotiating, we have finally found somewhere to spend a week at Easter! Had to be somewhere hopefully warmer than here, flying out from Stansted on either a Saturday or Sunday and preferably somewhere we hadn't been before. We ended up with a choice of Gran Canaria or Tunisia and we have chosen Tunisia. It's not somewhere I have ever considered going to in the past but the more I read about it, the more it appealed. Also we've been to three of the other Canary Islands and I am sure that GC is not much different to the others. But Tunisia will be very different!
Paul would be happy to just read a brochure and listen to a travel agent, but investigation for me revolves round Googling the hotels, and then going on Tripadvisor, Holiday watchdog.com and Holidays uncovered to read what holidaymakers have said on their return. If I can find positive comments on all three, I feel safe to make a booking! Is this just me - or is it a female v male perspective?
Anyway, the hotel looks fab, the beach looks fab, and internet site comments say the food is good so I have my fingers firmly crossed! However, I really do think my wardrobe needs an update, I don't seem to have anything suitable to wear ... ;-)

Mini Me

In the continuing absence of the Shimelle prompt and the extra days off from work thanks to the snow, I decided to do a scrap page of my own design using some old black and white photos of me as a child. I'm not sure how old I am in either of them, less than a year in the first one and probably about 3 or 4 in the second.

What doesn't come across in black and white photos (thankfully) is quite how ginger my hair was when I was little, although it thankfully turned auburn as I got older and now it is whatever colour me and my hairdresser decide on ;-)

The good, the bad and the ugly

School's shut again ! YAY!!! But I have kept myself busy with

THE GOOD

Been busy cooking! Home made seeded white loaf and home made celery soup from Delia Smith's Vegetarian Cookbook Which I won in a raffle at work, would never have bought it normally as a) not vegetarian myself and b) have few vegetarian friends! But have to admit I have cooked lots of recipes out of it and you know with Queen Delia, the recipes will always come out good. So a good healthy lunch. Followed by ...

THE BAD

Well, not bad in a BAD way ie not very nice but bad for those of us whose exercise class was cancelled last night and really ought to be making up for it by eating sensibly and doing some exercise at home

and finally

THE UGLY

Not often you find me in sensible shoes but these babies got me safely to Sainsburys and back this morning despite the fact that the pavements were like sheets of ice.

Snow!

How pretty everywhere looked when we woke up this morning to about 6" of snow. As I only work part time, I don't work on Mondays anyway but our school was closed so everyone else had a day off too. Train services to London disrupted, so no work for my husband and daughter - a nice extended weekend for us all! So naturally, pictures had to be taken and a scrap page had to be made and here it is

I've used some of the papers and 'rub ons' that I got with my voucher from Bellaboo and I hope I have done them justice! I'm pleased with the result anyway.

Still no further prompt from Shimelle though, do you think she's snowed in somewhere with no internet access?

More to the point, will there be another snow day tomorrow at work? The school I work at is at the top of a private road, therefore no gritters venture up there. As it's snowed more or less constantly all day, I'm guessing it's quite thick up there. Surely it won't melt by tomorrow ..... ;-)

To all the mums

Someone sent me this as an email and it made me smile so in the absence of prompts from Shimelle and pictures of my pages, I will share it with you -
TO ALL THE GREAT MUMS I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.. 'Why?' my daughter asked. 'Because it's been on the ground and you don't know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs' I replied. At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, 'Mummy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart.' I was thinking quickly. 'All mums know this stuff. It's on the Mummy Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mummy.' We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information. 'OH... I get it!' she beamed, 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the daddy.' 'Exactly,' I replied back with a big smile on my face.
When you're finished laughing send this to a Mum