Thank You!

You guys are so sweet! Thank you so much for your cyberspace hugs and words of encouragement. It was just one of those days when I felt a bit overwhelmed by things and it seemed like one thing after another. I don't think I'll delete it though, if it were an entry in a diary I wouldn't rip that page out so I will leave it be - blogging can't just be about good things can it?
So today is another day, the sun is shining, I am wearing summer clothes and the plan is to eat lunch out in the garden. This is the last day of my son's Easter break and we have the long journey back to Sheffield tomorrow, so I have to make the most of 'mum time' today!
The daughter's mood is brighter today and it seems like they have both decided it is worth trying to keep things going so ... who knows, we could be going through this again in a months time or it could be the impetus they needed to make it work.
I'm going to try and get some photos taken today, I am going to a crop on May 1 where the guest designer is Shimelle! Yes, I am going to meet the Queen of Scrapbooking! Yay!!! I'm so looking forward to it but now I need to make sure I have enough new photos to do pages worthy of her attention. Oh the stress ;-)
Thanks again for your kind words of support, they made a big difference!

Tough days

It does seem that bad things all come together at the same time and at the moment our family seems to be in that position. I'm not sure it's the best thing for me to blog about so I may post this, think better of it and then edit or remove it but at the moment it's nice to sit here and type these feelings out of my system.
My brother in law started radiotherapy this week and whilst it is a bad thing that he has had the diagnosis that he needs to have it, I have to convince myself that it is a good thing too as it hopefully marks the start of his recovery. This treatment comes at a stressful time for my sister as her daughter is expecting her first baby mid May. This is my niece who lost a baby last year and who is prone to Strep infections so the moment she goes into labour, she needs to get straight to hospital to be put on an antibiotic drip. So again, a worrying time but hopefully marking the start of happy times.
Back on the home front, I have an angry son who has just found out that one of his 2nd year uni exams falls on the day his girlfriend of 2 years flies out to Africa for 9 weeks of voluntary work in a school, so he cannot go to the airport as planned to wave her off. I have a distraught tearful daughter possibly in the midst of breaking up with her boyfriend of 7 months, unsure what is the right thing to do and dreading making a wrong decision and regretting it. I have a husband whose job is unsettled, much changes afoot at work and a lot of uncertainty there. I am the kind of person who does try hard to see silver linings in grey clouds and normally I would say it is probably better for my son to say goodbye at home rather than in an airport, and that Mr Right is waiting round the corner for my daughter. Sometimes it is easier than others to put a positive spin on things, and today I am struggling.
Thanks for listening! I feel better for having put it all down in a post, but will quite possibly delete this at a later date!

Confession

This is supposed to be about using up OLD stuff isn't it? So could someone please tell me why I ended up in Hobbycraft yesterday buying NEW things? For a start, this prompt was about transparencies. I have none. Even if I did, I'm not sure that I would be able to fashion them into anything attractive. So I found myself looking at vellum. Oh, here's a pretty one, the design on it reminds me of the circular window in the Notre Dame in Paris. Oh, I have a photo of that at home .... Oh my goodness, look at that pretty butterfly cutter. Lots of people have used butterfly cutters on their pages and I could really use one of those. Oh look, and here's a pair of scissors with a curved scallop edge to them, that would look good round the circular print on the vellum. And so, here is my page using (ahem) lots of things I already had - like purple card stock, photo of me in front of Notre Dame taken on my 50th birthday, silver ink pen ... and a couple of new bits :-)

Easily distracted by pretty things

So I'm in Tesco at the pharmacy, dropping off a repeat prescription in for my daughter. "There's about a 10 minute wait, do you have any other shopping to do?" "Yes, that's fine, I have a couple of bits to buy, I'll come back in 10 minutes" I then go in search of the chicken breasts and stir fry vegetables and Hoi Sin Sauce. On my way round I find myself in the wine aisle. And at the end of the aisle, round with the flavoured liqueurs, I saw a box that had the prettiest bottle inside it. Only £6. 'New In' - the sign declared. 'Take a tall glass, fill with ice and pour a measure of this over. Add 10 ml gin and top up with lemonade' Raspberry Liqueur - mmm I'm sure I could make use of that in summer desserts. And look how pretty that bottle is. How have I lived without this? I came home and showed my daughter the beautiful bottle and we both agreed it reminded us of the Vivienne Westwood jewellery collection with the jewel encrusted orb. We mixed the drink and both agreed that it really was delicious. Then she asked the crucial question: 'Did you pick up my prescription?' .....

I knew there was something else I was supposed to be going back for ;-)

Chilling

See that blue bottle in the photo? That's sun tan lotion. When was the last time you used yours? Feels like it was years ago that we needed it and it definitely isn't a factor 20 day today here. This is the layout that I did for the sketch challenge at Saturday's crop. I had taken along this photo of the 4 of us on holiday in Portugal back in the mid 90s with the idea of using it on a page kit that I had bought at a Crafty Stash crop a while ago. However, when I saw the sketch I realised that I could use the papers I had brought and use them for my own ideas on interpreting the sketch Karen from Eclectic Keepsakes had given us.

Now, is it worth keeping that sun lotion out of the cupboard? Let's just check the weather forecast ... no, don't think I'm going to be needing it again any time soon!

Easter Weekend

Firstly, Happy Easter! Isn't it lovely to have a long Bank Holiday weekend? Time to relax and spend time with the family and remember that it's not just about chocolate!
The weekend here got off to a good start, I went to a crop run by Eclectic Keepsakes and they had a guest designer there , SJ Dowsett, who had designed some adorable cards for us to make. They were fun to do and you've just got to admire the talent that S J has. I have trouble drawing a straight line with a ruler, so no way could I design little characters like these:

The first half of the day is allocated to doing your own projects and we were also given a sketch challenge to do. I've forgotten to photograph the design I came up with for that at the moment, but I also used the time to do the 'chipboard' prompt from the Shimelle class. I have so little chipboard that this was a tough one for me, but I sneaked a few bits onto this page and hope it qualifies for the 'chipboard' category. Speaking of Shimelle ... guess who is the guest designer appearing IN PERSON at the next crop .....

Buttons

By the time I started scrapbooking, I think buttons had reached their height of fashion and other things had taken their place in the embellishment world. I can think of no other reason why I do not have the dozens of buttons that other people have! In fact, in making this layout I have halved my supply of buttons.
These photos were taken in Menorca in 1995, kids aged 8 and 5. Sitting in a beach bar overlooking Cala Galdana beach. I can still remember that day so clearly. One of those lovely days where the sun is shining, everyone is happy and enjoying being together. Definitely one for the 'Celebrate Life' album!