Ready to tell tales

Is anyone else planning to join in the Telling Tales class over at Kirsty's blog?  I absolutely loved the last class she ran and it is such good value for money.  Don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself!
So anyway, she has done a little tutorial on journaling cards so with snow in the air and an afternoon with not much else planned, I've covered the dining room paper with craft supplies and come up with these.

I’m not sure how many I was supposed to make but once I started I got a bit carried away!  I loved getting a selection of papers together and layering, stitching and sticking and before I knew it I had eight and thought it was time to stop. 

We woke this morning to a light dusting of snow and when I left work at the end of my half day at 12.30 the gritting lorries were already out gritting the roads.  I went to the dentist at 2.15 and when I came out it had started snowing quite hard and has continued since then.  It looks so pretty out there and there is more forecast for tonight.  Snow day at school tomorrow?  We only have about 6 students with exams tomorrow so only two members of staff needed for invigilation, and that would be the two people who lived closest and could walk in.  Fortunately, I don’t fit that category!Fingers crossed for more snow then, and I might get to make a few more .

Forget the forecast

For the whole of last week, the weather forecast for this area was snow.  Disruption to travel and freezing conditions.  But as all us Brits know, the weather forecasts are often wrong and I was doubly grateful on this occasion because not only was it the Enfield Scrapmates crop yesterday but Scrappi Sandi was going to be there.  I've been reading Sandi's blog  for years now but despite living within an hour of each other, we've never met - until yesterday!  I was so looking forward to meeting her properly and hoping so much that the weather wouldn't put paid to my plans.  I needn't have worried, forecast wrong again!

And here's the proof, a group shot of Denise, me and Sandi.  It was a great day and time flew by so fast.  I even managed to get both of the classes finished 

I love Ann's style of layouts, she manages to pack so much into a small amount of patterned paper and yet it is so effective.  It was great to meet up with so many blog friends like Denise, Karen, and the other Sandie.  
In amongst the crafty business there was much other discussion to be had.  Like an impending visiting from another couple of blog-friends from the other side of the Atlantic ...

Colourful language

'I'm only working two days next week, are there any little jobs you want done around the house?' asks the husband.

I let a moment or two lapse before answering 'redecorate the hallway'.  He's taken slightly aback, think he may have been expecting something like 'tidy the garage' or 'wash the conservatory windows'.  And before you can say 'Farrow and Ball' I've brought out a paint chart.  This now starts a little game I call 'trying to avoid getting a paintbrush out'.  Seems our idea of what needs to be done differs somewhat.  One of us is going for the 'a quick coat of white gloss on the door frames will freshen it up' and the other is going for the 'total revamp' option.  

Attention turns to the paint chart - now who thinks of the names of these colours?  We already have James White on three of the walls of our kitchen (always confuses me as that was the name of our son's best friend at primary school).  I like the name 'clunch', not for the colour, but the sound of the word.  Clunch.  Churlish Green.  How can a green be churlish?  If you could see Charlotte's Locks, you'd recommend Charlotte went to the hairdressers for a few highlights.  Do you like fish?  How do you fancy Dead Salmon?  I think I'd prefer 'Smoked Trout'.  We are actually going to head into animal territory, we've disregarded Pigeon, Fawn and Dove Tail and gone for Elephant's Breath.  Until we look at the chart in daylight of course when round two of the discussion will start.  I guarantee that conversation will begin with the husband saying 'actually, I don't think it needs redecorating at all.  Maybe I'll just give the ceiling a coat of paint, I think it'll make all the difference.'  Swiftly followed by me saying 'and once we've completely done the hallway, we can think about a new colour scheme for the downstairs cloakroom.'  That should keep him quiet for a while!

Back on track

It was the EK crop on Saturday and it turns out that was the place I had left my scrapping mojo. I shouldn't have been surprised really, it was the last place I saw it after all.  

I'd lost all track of the days because of the new year bank holiday and thinking that Thursday was Friday, got my bag organised a day early.  (Didn't stop me being late arriving on the actual day though) So being super organised, I arrived with a bag of coordinating papers and photos and departed with three - yes, you read that right, three - layouts!

Starting with a layout to celebrate the annual family photo on Christmas Day, then moving onto

a layout celebrating our trip to Edinburgh to visit our son and his girlfriend after their move 'up north'  (Could moving from England to Scotland be considered emigrating abroad?)  Then after lunch I did a scenic page

to show a couple of the sights we saw on our trip.  I think this one needs a little more but I'm not sure what.  There's a part of me that thinks a few splodges of misting or droplets of paint might finish it off but there's another part of me that thinks that something like that, done by someone like me, might 'finish it off' in totally the wrong way ;-)

I had a brilliant day, catching up with old friends, discovering that the lady sitting opposite me runs the company that sends out the monthly scrapbook kit subscription that I signed up for last year, and selflessly sampling the cupcakes that Karen made.  You see she made two batches and for quality control purposes I had to make sure that both were equally good.  The first one was vanilla, with a vanilla icing and the other was a marmalade infused sponge with an orange icing.  It was a tough call but I think that after careful consideration and much deliberation the winner was .... no, it's no good, I really need to try both again ...

Picking my January Precious

Oh the tales this telephone could tell.  The stories and secret that have been spoken into it.  The laughter and the tears it has shared.  Memories by the million.  

For this is the telephone that my family used all of my growing up life.  Mum and Dad refused to update it even after it had gone out of fashion and the telephone company said they wanted to take it away and give them a plastic one with a plastic lead.  Now they are collectors items and I am so grateful that Mum and Dad kept it.  I spent a lot of my teenage years sitting in the hallway on the velvet chair which is now at the top of my stairs and next to the table that this telephone now stands on.  Curled up in the cushions, twiddling the cord between my fingers as I confided news and shared gossip with my friends.  

When I was little, our telephone number had just four numbers to it, then the 3 at the front became 29 and then in latter years a 4 was added to it and it became the normal six digit number.  The numbers are still visible, written on the little circle of card in the middle of the dial.  Just beneath the printed information to remind you to call 999 for Fire, Police or Ambulance and 100 for the operator.  Hand written by my dad, the ink is faded now, but this is still a tiny, tangible part of him, and still very precious.

At Christmas, the young children in our family were enthralled by the phone.  The weight of it in their little hands, the effort it took to put their tiny fingers into the silver holes of the dial and turn it.  The noise it made as it whirled back into position.  They had never come across a phone like this before.  

So, January 2013, I have 'picked my precious' - now please pop over to Sian's blog to share other people's precious possessions.

Rubbish at being ruthless

'What's that pile of old papers in the corner?  Can I throw them away' says the husband.  The old papers being the left over bits and bobs from the last crop I went to in ... hmm... well, a little while ago.  See the problem is that I have an issue with throwing away pretty things.  Left over pretty things.  Because I know the minute I throw them away, I will find the perfect use for them and it will be too late.
But today, with a spring in my step and a determined look in my eye I have taken those old papers, and the other piles of 'old papers' and spread them over the dining room table, put collections of them in bags ready to take to the crop on Saturday and umm ... moved what's left around a bit.  Put them into piles of similar colourways.  Thrown away lots.  Hmm well maybe not lots exactly but anything smaller than a 50p coin.  Any bits of ribbon less than 4" long.  Any slither of paper less than 1" wide.  Well that made a dent in the pile.  But then I thought about the papers I was left with.  Bits too pretty to be thrown away, but then again, if I've already made a few layouts with that pattern or those colours, do I really need to keep scraps to make more?  Yes of course I do. No, I probably don't.   Patterned paper which looks a bit dated now.  I could come back into fashion.  Just remember how much you regretted throwing away those old platform boots.  Getting rid of it is a good excuse for buying new, up to the minute paper.   Pages of alphabets with only ks and qs and vs left.  Am I likely to make a page which uses them up in a title.  It could happen. No I probably won't.  Half pieces of lace doilies that have got a bit scrunched around at the edges at the bottom of a bag.  I could always iron them or stick them down carefully. Possibly not.  Is it time for a coffee yet?  No, stick with it, the throwing away pile is getting bigger.  Sheets of stickers where I've used the nice ones and only ones I don't like are left.  But your taste might change, you may grown to like them. No, you've used nearly all of them, you've had your money's worth.  Feeling a bit hungry, is it too early for lunch?  Yes it is a bit.  
I know what, I'll write a quick blog post and then get back to it ...

Out with the old

I ended 2012 feeling like a Hobbit.  Not in a weird 'I feel like a Hobbit, does anyone know if there are any Hobbit selling shops open today?' kind of way.  Nor because I have exceptionally large feet and hairy toes.  No - that is just a rumour.  I'm size 4 and proud of it.  It seemed that whatever I did in the last hours of the year, I came across exceptionally tall people.  My daughter had an old school friend pop round for a coffee and as he stood up to give me a Happy New Year hug, I went up on my tiptoes and still only came up to below his shoulders.  We met up with friends in town for a glass of wine in the afternoon and as the last couple arrived, I stood up to share Happy New Year hugs with the husband (isn't Dec 31st a very huggy kind of day?) and again practically had to stand on the seat to reach above is shoulders.  Have I shrunk or do I need to find some new friends?
Seems that in comparison to some we had a boring kind of Christmas.  But in this case boring is good.  Boring is happy and relaxed, chilling in the same house all day, relatively healthy save for a few sneezes here and there.  The 3 groups of friends we had met with had experienced much more eventful days.  Couple one's husband was brewing pneumonia and their grandson was sick all over the lounge carpet.  Couple two moved abroad 4 years ago and had to fit in many family visits to see everyone.  They spent most the day in the car, starting with an elderly parent in Hemel Hempstead, picking up daughter in Colchester, onto son number 1 in Cambridge, then son number 2 in Birmingham and then onto elderly parent in Leicester.  Don't envy the designated driver all those miles.  Couple three ended up calling the paramedics after an elderly parent fainted and took a while to revive.  I'm sure you'll agree that boring was very good in comparison!
I'm trying hard to resist the temptation to make a New Year's resolution.  I never keep them and then I end up in December thinking 'what went wrong?'.  I have a few intentions though. 

• I intend to learn a bit more about photography.  Husband has promised me a lesson in Black and White this morning and we're about to head out over the park in a moment for some practice.  Wish him luck! 
• I intend to eat more healthily.  I need to get this chocolate consumption under control.  After I've finished off the salted caramel chocolates of course ;-) 
• I intend to find a new exercise class.  The one I used to go to folded in the summer and the only other one I've found is Zumba and I'm still getting over the trial class I did for that back in May. 
• My biggest intention though is to get my scrapping mojo back.  It's been forever since I last made a page and there really is no excuse.  You'll be able to see how I get on with the first and last intentions via my blog.  You'll just have to take my word for the other two ...