What is it with us scrappers?...

Who can, hand on heart, say that they really don't have enough stash? Not enough cardstock, papers, pretty flowers, ribbons or buttons, stamps, inks, glitter and stickers? Certainly not me! I have soooo much, my room is bursting at the seams. I have piles of precious BG papers, stacks of AC Thickers, jars heaving with buttons and flowers. Just SO much stuff.

And yet, there is always that new collection of papers that I HAVE to get, buttons and flowers that are exactly the shade I'm missing, new products that call me... in my dreams...

It's scary!

And I'm quite prolific at times - there are some weeks where I scrap every single day and produce layout after layout. This year alone, I must be heading towards a hundred layouts with LOAD February and May and Dimensional Details.

But is my stash diminishing? Um, let me think about that for a millisecond... NO!

Now, I know that you are sitting there nodding your head with an understanding grimace. You do it too, don't you?  I DON'T need anything. I could scrap for months only needing sustenance and adhesive to be thrown into the room and still have BG left over!  But, I did it again on Saturday. Off to Kempen I went (I only went three weeks ago and needed a truck to bring home my goodies), because the owner had told me that she was clearing the stock out to make way for Christmas supplies. Well, I had to go, didn't I? Would have been rude not to! She told me personally. And there might be bargains to be had. I was only doing my social duty, boosting the local economy after all.

This is what I came home with...

And you can't even see the top line of BG mini stamps that will be SO useful for card making (because I am such a big card maker LOL!!)

There were really some bargains to be had and I ended up saving nearly €30 on my purchases with some items (such as the MM embellishment jar) were more than 60% reduced. But of course, I saw June Bug which I decided I had to have, some embellishments, some labels and the distress foam pads that we all full price. 

I would like to say that I don't shop all that often. I only go to Kempen three or four times a year. And I have stopped shopping online pretty much. But I have a monthly kit. I shop when I'm in the UK with Lib. And I go to Kempen more often than I admit to myself! 

What do you do to stop yourself shopping? I'd like to learn your secrets. Or maybe you don't, maybe you shop all the time. Tell me and make me feel better.

On another note, do you remember this story about visiting the coal mine? I said I wanted to make it into a layout and I did. Lifted the journalling from the blog, changed it out a bit, got out my grungy, vintage BG papers and got the story done. I followed a sketch from DD, adapting it to a two-pager and while it may not be pretty, may be a bit "dull" and maybe a bit "what???" for most people, I am very pleased with it.

("Untertage" is German miners' slang for working underground.)

Of course, there's been a whole lot of football going on around here. And today I was in the difficult position of Germany playing England in the first knock-out round of the World Cup. Who would have my support? Either way, whoever loses, I would be sad. In the end, Germany played an excellent game and England is out. I went out to the balcony and took down my England flag and packed it away with a heavy heart. At least I get to support Germany and hope that they carry on doing as well as ever. I am really not a big football fan. Really not. But I have learnt a bit over the years and today, the infamous quote from Gary Lineker rang true once again: "Soccer is a game for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins." How true, how true! In the end, it's not life and death, but who plays best on the day. May the best team win!


On a brighter note, I just thought I would share a couple of photos of this stunning single rose that I received on Friday. It smells wonderful too. Just gorgeous. Summer really is here.

Happy Sunday!