And I’ve just wrapped my first Christmas present. Admittedly it’s the cat’s christmas present but still this is the earliest I’ve started wrapping!
I think I’ve been infected by all the early Christmas adverts on TV!
Another thing is, why when you’ve ordered things you really want do they not turn up (via Royal Mail) but the things you don’t want like free magazines from the Pet Insurance company do?
*grumbles* because I really want my pretty Cosmo Cricket stuff!!
I’m a day late posting this but live writer was playing up last night. This is just my little photo post about the war heroes from my family (including the newly discovered relatives). They may not have been decorated other than the medals issued to everyone but they’re my heroes.
My great-grandfathers, Wilfred and William Percy. Wilfred or Farvy served in home waters during WW1 while William Percy or Pop-Pop served we believe in Gallipoli and the Middle East.
1%5B2%5D.jpg "IMG_0056 (2)1")
My grandfathers, Thomas and Reg. Grandad (on the left) joined up in 1943 and apparently went over to France a couple of weeks after D-Day. He was shot and sent back home where he was found to have shrapnel in his arm and lungs something which he suffered with for the rest of his life. Granna (on the right) was out in the Far East and was captured by the Japanese. I don’t know much about what happened to him as he never spoke of it but I know the experience haunted him.
There are so many men and women like these who aren’t the well known names from the wars but they deserve just as much recognition, so this is my way of doing that for the members of my family.
Since I’ve been to school and through the Open University system I’ve come to detest writing. When I was a little girl I would spend hours writing little stories, admittedly all following the same basic template lol but throughout school and university you’re told how to structure everything, almost told what to write etc etc. Now when it comes to blogging or journaling I find I do the same. I can’t just write any other way.
I didn’t follow the prompt exactly today as I just couldn’t think of anything to write about but I did produce a layout about my problems with writing. The journaling is hidden behind the patterned paper and says the same as above.
This and the next layout also use part of today’s prompt whereby I did something I hadn’t done before and that used my new alphabet stamps and the mini stamps which are part of a Maya Road set, which I now love. The chipboard pieces come from the same set.
I know it’s a well known joke that it always rains in Wales but when we went to Snowdonia earlier this year it rained for 6 out of 7 days. The picture was taken on the Sunday when we had just come over the Llanberis Pass which had sent my Mum into fits because she hates windy roads with drops to one side. The scenery was worth it even if she did make us promise never to take her across it again!
No I’m not talking about football. Today’s prompt was about our goals and it got me thinking that right now I don’t really have any…not big life changing ones anyway.
I’ve just finished my final Open University course and hopefully will achieve my Honours degree in December when the results arrive. That’s been a big part of my life for the last 6 years and now it’s over and I don’t know what to do.
I decided when it was finished that I would spend more time scrapping because I had firmly shut the door on my muse while studying because the two just don’t mix, so now it’s free to play! It’s partly because of that, that I decided to sign up for the Blogging for Scrapbookers course and also Jessica Sprague's Holidays In Hand which starts soon. I also want to once again attempt to finish Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas as I failed to do so last year. I have no idea if I will manage to complete everything but I want to try.
No layout for today’s prompt…as yet but here’s one for Day 5 (kind of). I took the photo as normal of my mp3 player but played about with it in Picasa which was new for me…
It’s just the first 10 songs that played this morning while I was using the computer and I thought why not scrap them.
Following on from the comments left on an earlier post I wanted to post more about researching our family history.
It was prompted by inheriting all of my Nan’s photos and papers. When we asked her we got some names for them all but some are still unidentified.
Mum and I started out by searching back from my great-grandparents using the free sites such as http://www.freebmd.org.uk and its partner sites as well as the pay as you go sites such as http://www.findmypast.com . Earlier this year having found as much as we could with those we signed up with ancestry.
The family tree software I use is limited but it suits me. This is our tree as far as it will allow us to upload.
The most interesting finds have been on my Mum’s side. Her great-grandfather is the illegitimate son of a local farmer and his mistress. While her great-grandmother is descended from a man who fled from France during the Revolution and settled in a small village in Norfolk.
We’ve not gone so far as ordering certificates yet so we may find we have some of the links wrong but we have contacted long lost relatives who have found the same connections so we’re pretty sure they’re right especially in the two cases above.
I’ve always been interested in the history of the Second World War. It probably stems from my Dad watching any war film going when I was little…all of them ‘classics’, but the first memory I have of knowing that it affected my family was when I found out somehow that my beloved Granna could speak some Japanese. When I asked my Dad if he would tell me, I was told not to ask him because he’d been a Japanese POW during WWII.
Since then I know a lot more, both about what he went through and that my other Grandad and Nonnie served during the war. This year Mum and I have been researching our family history and found that three of my great-uncles were killed during the First World War and there were those that survived and like my Grandfathers possibly suffered for the rest of their lives for it.
So on Sunday I’ll watch the service on TV, and promise myself that next year I’ll go to our town memorial
None of us should ever forget what they have done for us.
Just to finish and because his life and that of his family fascinates me so much because I hardly knew any of them except for my Nan, this is my Great Grandfather “pop-pop”.
This…about the prompt from day 3 of favourite things. My favourite author.
I’ve photographed it in a different place to try and fit in with today’s prompt of looking at surroundings differently.
Today’s prompt was all about those everyday tasks we do and how to try and make them more interesting as blog posts. I’ve stayed indoors all day (cannot stand Bonfire Night and avoid going out all day if I can) so not too much has happened really, except for one thing.
Dad went out to clean the downstairs windows and found he had a supervisor checking in on his work…personally I think she was just putting pussy-cat nose marks over the inside of the windows so that he had more work to do!
I just managed to get the picture before she jumped off the windowsill to chase him around the house as he went out into the back garden.
So the inspiration has returned!!
5 websites I check every day:
1. UKScrappers – the first scrapbooking forum I found when I started and somewhere I check every time I’m online, even if it is just to check the qvc threads.
2. Facebook – If only to play Bejewelled Blitz!! I had really high scores until they updated it and now I can’t get above 50,000.
3. British Speedway Forum – I’m a big speedway fan and this forum has to be the best place to find the news and discussions about the sport. It might get heated and there are people on there I don’t like to read but over the years I have met some lovely people across the country via this place.
4. My BTYahoo Mailbox - Obviously lol.
5. Google Reader – During the class I will check it daily and had a list of blogs already on it but I had got way behind on reading. Hopefully I can keep up this time.
There are others but I would have to say the top 4 would be sites I would check even if I had little or no time.
…in this room…
So inspiration left me a little today combined with other stuff going on so I’m opting for the little bit more time option for the prompt.
I spend much of my time in this room, either watching TV, crafting, using the PC or playing on the Nintendo Wii, so there are a few things I have in here which are favourites of mine. However, I’ve never really looked at the room in much detail. I figure I know where everything is and I can find it when I need it, (yeah right!).
So my list for today is of my favourite things in this room right now.
1. | My crocs. I don’t have a pic of the shoes but the label from my last new pair sits on my desk waiting to be scrapped somehow. I love how crocs just slide on my feet. I have very funny shaped feet and crocs just make life so much more comfortable for me. |
2. | My USB sticks. I have all my photos, family history paperwork and all my other files backed up, just in case! My music sits on my mp3 player on the same shelf should anything happen to my PC. |
3.  | This is the last actual real life CD I bought. Usually I download but when Daniel Boys released this album it wasn’t available for download. It’s very easy listening so I can have it on in the background and came in very handy during my studying. |
4.  | My phone. Nobody should be without theirs should they? It’s not very exciting but it’s there, waiting for texts to come through from non-internet friends or for catching quick photos of the cat when my camera just isn’t to hand! |
5. | My new storage for inks, eyelets and pens. Ok so I like the labels more than the storage! |
6. | The Nintendo Wii. I love it. I was never enamoured with the playstation 2 that my Dad bought but I love the Wii. |
So that’s my list. I may continue the lists every so often as they come to mind so that they are documented for the future. Hopefully I can do a layout for the prompt at some point too.
Thanks to everyone who has commented on my blog so far :) I have to apologise because I am behind with my comments to other people. One of my intentions was to comment more to other people, the only trouble is I can only type for so long before my shoulders begin to ache and I just have to stop, which means very little time for commenting. So to the people I’m reading, I am loving reading what you’re making of the prompts and all your layouts are fantastic, even if I don’t get to say it on your blogs themselves!
I’ve never really had to think about what I post or don’t post before. Obviously I know not to put personal information out there, but on my LiveJournal account I only had people I knew and in quite a few cases had met so obviously there was more detail put in and anything more personal was locked so only the select few could see it.
As for scrapbooking, journalling has been my main downfall. I never know what to write and when I do it always seems a bit trite and contrived, rather than just my thoughts, my memories and anything I didn’t want anyone to see, I just didn’t write down at all.
So today’s prompt was a bit of a difficult one for me. First of all, try and journal something…anything at all…second, add something that could be hidden. I toyed with adding a hidden photo but in the end went with the journalling, something that I have never said to anyone else.
The layout is inspired by an event that I had no photograph for. Twelve years ago I underwent a double hip and single knee replacement, all within 5 weeks. I was in a hospital 100 miles from home and had been unable to walk for 8 months. The thing about having all that done in such a short space of time was that I really didn’t think about the fact that (especially after the knee was done in the second week) I could actually walk, albeit with a walking frame.
Eventually I moved onto the crutches pictured in the layout and was allowed home. Six weeks later on the day of the first check up the surgeon told me I could ditch the dreaded crutches and was fine to stand on my own two feet once again. It felt wonderful. I didn’t have to rely on people so much any more, I could move about without the heavy metal things getting in the way and making my shoulders ache.
The hidden part of the journalling, is about the other side of the story, about my feelings on the future regarding my hips and knees and hopefully will at some point help me face the fears I have about them.
The layout also ticked off a couple of my intentions that I wrote down in yesterday’s layout…trying something new (the bubble wrap stamping) and to scrap more about myself.
So far I’m keeping up with the class…I’m not sure how long that will last!
So two posts for one prompt…good or bad lol.
I managed to get a whole layout finished this afternoon for the first prompt in the class so decided to share it.
It didn’t turn out anything like the way I planned. I wanted to use my new acrylic alphabet stamps but the ink wouldn’t stick to them and when it did they came out very blotchy. I went back to my trusty Thickers. Part of what I want to achieve with this class is to expand my scrapping style as well as improving my blogging, because until now I have just matted, layered and stuck things on which looks lovely but I want to be a bit more adventurous! I failed at the first hurdle with that today.
Despite that I am very happy with how it turned out in the end…
The title is inspired by The X-Files, as I am rewatching all my old episodes of it at the moment, and I’ve just used the photos I took yesterday from the prompt along with a screenshot of the beginning of yesterday’s post.
Onward to day 2…I have the beginnings of a layout in mind, now I just need to work out a way to do it as I don’t have a photo specific to that day but it was a pretty important event that I would like to document somehow.
…of the Blogging For Scrapbookers class which I have signed up for. This will hopefully be the first class of Shimelle’s that I can complete. I signed up for Journal Your Christmas last year but with one family problem and another I didn’t get past reading the first three or four prompts.
I have been using LiveJournal to type my thoughts for a few years now as I have friends who are non-crafty who also use it…but there I mostly write about my beloved cat and various TV shows that we are interested in. This blog will probably be more directed to my crafting, such as it is!
Today’s prompt was all about the idea of the course and my intentions and the three options depending on how much time you have. I will probably alternate between the three options and today I have gone for options 2 which involved a post and taking a photo to show how blogging and scrapbooking can go together.
I craft and use the PC at the same desk when in my computer room so that’s the photo I took today because that’s where most of this class will be completed.
To symbolise the crafting side of the class I took a picture of my trusty tote bag which stores most of my everyday scrapbooking supplies apart from my papers and ribbon.
I tend to scrapbook when my joints allow so I will mainly complete the photo and blogging part of the course and then go back and scrap those parts of the prompts as and when.
Finally, hello to anyone from the class who is reading this!
That no matter how many photos you have, there's just not anything to scrap? I’ve got oodles of photos sitting on my hard drive as well as loads more that have been scanned in from my family history research and I just can’t find anything to scrap for me. I’ve been great at starting projects for other people and getting them finished but when it comes to layouts for myself nothing happens.
I’ve registered for the Wicked Cybercrop on UKScrappers in November but have no idea what I’m doing lol or whether I’ll actually complete any of the classes.
I’m just having such a meh day today.
The only high point was finally getting my Mum’s new computer (with Vista, despite the PCWorld’s saleman’s best efforts to get us to have Windows 7) and getting it set up AND having the internet work without having to faff with the BT setup CDs!! Result.
Now if only my scrapping inspiration was that easy to get going!!
Just because I like the pretty pictures, here’s one of my older layouts.
I’ve finally managed to get round to taking photos of my Christmas projects for this year. Thanks to the Open University course being over pretty early I have made a good start already (which may come in handy with the uncertainty of the postal strikes!) so hopefully won’t spend December in a tizzy because nothing is finished.
For the last few years I have made little calendars for friends and try to come up with a different idea every year. The one time I didn’t send them one, I got complaints! This year I have made little file folders for them
The colour scheme is a bit brighter than usual for me but I had the set of papers and card to match so just went with it. I’ve also made a little handbag/desk calendar for my Mum using bazzill and Basic Grey papers.
My biggest project of the year has been to complete the wall hanger which was part of the Cosmo Cricket TSV on QVC for my friend who sadly lost her cat a couple of months ago. I hope she will like what I’ve done as a reminder of her girl.
Other than that the trip to Capture The Magic was very fruitful as I managed to get my hands on the WRMK magnetic circle cutter which I’ve been hunting for everywhere! I already had the mat and other bits from another QVC TSV so just needed the cutter. Let’s hope Santa remembers where he’s put it!!
I’m just trying out Windows Live Writer, after seeing a post about it on the forum for the new Blogging for Scrapbooker’s class that I’m taking. Seems to be pretty good so far!
As another test I’m going to post one of my scrapbook layouts from a few months ago, to test if I can insert photos as easily as I can on LiveJournal!! Although it did take me months to work out how to do that in the first place!
How about that!!
Off to Capture The Magic tomorrow so I better search down the side of the sofa for any spare pennies! I may need them!
