Tagged!

I know that I talk about the wonder of the blogosphere more than often but there's hardly a day goes by that something sweet doesn't come my way because of it.

Whether it's a sweet email photo from my adorable Whimsical Musings friend Pam, the wonderful gifts I've received (as in this giveaway post - still open - here), plain outright lovely comments on blog posts, new ideas for new things to try, right through to kind blog awards.

Today I've been tagged by the idea generous, Stamping Guru Deb who has inspired me to stop being afraid of card making and stamping and whose blog is full of fun photos, gorgeous cards and stunning crafts - go check her out, you won't be disappointed! :-)

I have to tell you ten things about myself... tricky as I've told you all so much already.

1. I hate shopping - no really! Unless it's scrapbooking stuff or shoes/handbags that I don't "need"!
2. I've always loved to take photos but am happy to say that I've improved my ability a gazillion percent over the last few years - when I look back at old photos they are awful!
3. I'm about to embark on my 4th daily layout challenge of the year (eek!).
4. I'm in love with Canada and am still living on the memories of our Yukon adventure 4 years ago - but you might know that already :-)
5. I'm a BasicGrey-aholic - but you probably also know that already :-)
6. I can't live without "importing" tea (just plain old builders' tea) and chocolate (Cadbury's) from England.
7. I have a huge schoolgirl crush on Taylor Lautner - go team Jacob.
8. As of right now, I've received an incredible 1,400 comments on the 386 posts I've posted so far on my blog.
9. I am considering learning to crochet after seeing Deb's incredible creations and wanting a piece of the action. In fact, I stumbled across this blog today with an amazing free class on offer in October to learn the basics of crochet and am really considering joining in! What do you think?
10. I'm a Scorpio - need I say more?!?

And therefore, I tag my Whisical Musings partner, Pam. She's cute, she's quirky, she's very creative, she's a lot of fun and she makes me smile! Go on over and say hello! Tell her I sent you...

And just because Deb was kind enough to compliment my photos and because I agree with my friend Sarah that all blog posts should have a photo, I'll leave you with a couple of my favourite Autumn pictures of recent years (from our previously mentioned Yukon adventure).

Just a reminder: Don't forget to go over to my "Delightful" post (link here) and leave me a comment for the chance to win a small giveaway. I'm celebrating 5 years of blogging and want to share the love!

Help Me Celebrate!

First things first...

I have been such a creative bunny recently. Joining in on challenges, making cards, scrapping lots, catching up with missed assignments from past classes. And of course there is the reading. That could be considered creative if you stretch the meaning a bit :-)

And last week I ventured out into the world of other crafty people, to my local craft trade fair Creativa. I don't have a very local LSS so once a year, I brave the crowds to this fair and when I say crowds, I mean it. I am always surprised by just how many people are there even on workday afternoons.

It's a huge fair covering everything from scrapbooking to card making, from serviette technique (!?) to painting, from patchwork to doll making, and everything in between. The good, the bad and the downright bizarre!

Quilting seemed to be a main topic this year and a patchwork quilt in the colours of a local, rather passionate football club caught my eye (for good or bad, I'm not quite sure!):

Then there was the artistic display made entirely of paper (I think these were made of some sort of mushed up paper pulp):

Don't ask me what these insect looking wall things were supposed to be - I suspect they might have had lights inside but I don't think I will be rushing to get them on my wall. They remind me too much of some creepy crawly horror movie!

Mmmm? Really not sure about this.  Environmentally friendly, it might be. But it's a bit creepy!

And Easter was definitely in the air with so many bunnies and eggs and everything you need to make your own Easter decorations:

Even though the show itself seemed to be bigger than last year and there seemed to be more people there, I was a bit disappointed at the scrapbooking stands. Not as many real scrapbook stores represented and then the range of products was quite limited. Lots of really old products mainly reduced, much of which I already had and have even been purging from my supplies recently, and the new stuff was mostly Prima and Tim Holtz. No BG Luscious, no Echo Park, not even much American Crafts.

I was a bit disappointed. Not disappointed enough to have saved my money mind you!

I still managed to come home with a bad chock full of scrumptious supplies that cost waaaay toooo much!

I concentrated on embellishments as I have so much paper already and stocked up on lots and lots of Prima flowers, some bling and then other interesting bits and pieces I saw along the way. Of course, I got home and thought that I should have taken the plunge and got X or Y or why didn't I get two Z. But on the whole, I am really pleased with what I got. I picked up just a few sheets of paper (MME Stella & Rose) and a few alphas including 4 packs of Thickers but the rest is all embellishments. Pretty stuff!

Every year I come home vowing not to go again next year but with the lack of a good local shop, I find myself drawn to it each year again! And it's always fun to see some of the "interesting" hobbies that are out there.


Anyway, onto the celebrate mentioned in my blog post title.

This blog post is my 300th!!!!

I first started the blog back in 2006 so that means I'm obviously not posting often enough, but 300 sounds like quite a big number to me!

And it so happens that this weekend is the weekend of a retreat that I should have been at but which I needed to cancel. So I'm sitting here, nursing an icky cold but needing to do something to cheer me up.

So, in celebration of 300 blog posts, I'm going to do a little giveaway.

I have a little pile of goodies here (some Graphic 45 Le' Romantique papers and some La Blanche fairy rub ons) which I will be adding to with some bits and pieces that I round up from my room and I would love to share them with one of you.

To be entered into my first ever draw, just leave me a comment telling me something that cheers you up!

I'll pick a winner next weekend.

Top 3's, 5's & 10's (2010 in review pt2)

Even though I was glad to say goodbye to 2010, when I was thinking about the year as a whole, there were many highlights which is always great to realise. Sometimes, when you are in the middle of it, it's difficult to see the positive and hindsight then becomes a wonderful thing.

And so, on I go to the first batch of top #'s (all featured in no particular order)

Top 10 Events of 2010

1. The Chances visit Germany. Always a treat to have them all over here. We fitted loads into just a few days but the highlight was definitely getting us all on the same photo.
2. Easter.  What a surprise, a totally pink affair full of prettiness. It's such a great time of year to decorate the place with glitter, flowers, feathers, eggs and pretty, pastel colours. So very me! It's a great way to welcome the spring.
3. Our trip "Untertage" (or us down a coalmine!). A life-changing experience which I know sounds a bit exaggerated but it was a spectacular adventure that gave me a much greater sense of respect for those who work (or have worked) underground.
4. Liberty and I taking mum for Prêt à Portea at the Berkeley Hotel in London for her birthday present. A fashion collection inspired afternoon tea followed by Mama Mia in the West End. It was lovely to spend the day together and I think we all enjoyed ourselves so much and had a lot of laughs. My favourite delicacy was the Chanel shoe - what a classic.
5. My brother-in-law's wedding to the wonderful Elke. Ok, so I didn't want to post a photo of them here as I haven't asked their permission but they set up a self-portrait corner for the guests to have a bit of a laugh and we spent five minutes there taking some silly photos. Silly being the operative word! If you know us, you know that is not hard for either of us!
6. Mum's visit to Germany for my birthday. I blogged about it but it was lovely to have her here for my birthday and to check out three Christmas Markets in as many days. We never find ourselves together in a photo so I was especially pleased with this one. 
7. The World Cup in South Africa and Germany coming third. I did support England through the fírst stages until they lost against Germany (an ever so slightly awkward moment!) but then it was all out to cheer on the German team to their well-deserved third place. It's hard to support England over here (!) but at least I get a bit of the best of all worlds in being able to support them both. (And I am really NOT a big football fan - once every four years only).
8. Surprise flowers from a very special friend. I wrote about reconnecting with a wonderful schoolfriend earlier in the year. We hadn't seen each other for 9 years (since I moved to Germany) and I went to vist her in May. We chatted and laughed and caught up as if we hadn't been apart all that time and then she surprised me with these beautifully thoughtful flowers to let me know she was thinking of me. Good friends are so hard to find and it's one of my resolutions this year to do better at keeping my friends in my thoughts and to keep in touch more regularly. 
9. Halloween. This year I really went to town on the crafting and decorating for Halloween and was thrilled with the result. We had our usual small party with family and friends complete with very ingenious costumes and it was a lovely, relaxed evening. 
10. 24 hours in Hamburg with Ted. My first time to this very beautiful port city and even though we were there for such a short time, and we kept to a real budget, we managed to see the main highlights of the city. It's really a lovely place and I hope to go back one day with R to look around in more detail. A very successful weekend.

Merry Christmas!

Just to say a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Here's to health, wealth, happiness and the love of family and friends for 2011!

Thanks for dropping by during 2010. I look forward to seeing you again next year!

St Nicholaus Day Monday musings...

Happy St Nicholaus!

Whilst most of Germany was waking up to boots or boxes full of chocolate and gifts outside their front door this morning, I woke up to the alarm screaming at me to get up and get going at some unearthly time of the morning! When I don't have my 8am Monday class for a few weeks, it's always a bit of a shock to the system when it kicks back in again. And this morning was exactly one of those mornings! Going down the communal stairs, I noticed that one of our neighbours had left out St Nick presents for four other neighbours and it made me a little sad that I wasn't one of them! I bought myself a small chocolate St Nick for myself but not being a huge fan of German chocolate, it's not exactly the best present I ever bought myself! So as a treat for myself, as soon as I get home tonight, I am going to do some scrapping. Sounds like an ideal present, doesn't it?

I have plenty to keep me busy. I have three layouts to do for The Scrapbook Magazine and my December album to update and photograph and I am woefully behind on my BPC class by Nic H. I'd love to do the main layouts before class end at least.

You might have noticed that I have given my blog a bit of a facelift. Thought it was about time having had the same layout and blog banner for the last two years and my intention is to change it up each month with a few photos to represent the month to come - thanks to Danielle for the tutorial about creating such a blog banner that gave me the push to stop thinking about it and finally do it.

And I'm thinking about being a bit more consistent with my posting. Something like a theme for each day of the week (even if I don't post every day) so that I would have some structure to follow when I do want to post. Maybe something like Monday Musings, Tuesday Tips, Layout Wednesday and so on. But I'm not sure - what do you think? Or is this too restrictive? I'm not really sure. Maybe I need to think about it a bit more! Am I perhaps just thinking about this too much?!? Sounds like me though, doesn't it? It's all about the control.

Later...

So, after spending a total of 3.5 hours travelling, 1.5 hours window shopping and more than 3 hours in Starbucks (nursing one single coffee!) for only 4 lessons, I am back home and have managed to catch up a little. I have completed today's December page and photographed them all.

Several things to note that tell me that I should have planned this out a bit more than I did before I launched in:

1. It's enormously thick already and it's only day 6! I can only imagine how huge it will be by the 25th. Mmmm... 
2. The 6x4 format is limiting my journalling and photos so if I have more to say/show, I need to add more pages. And here comes point one into play. Mmmm....
3. I have put the day number on the left which means that when the pages are together like a book, all I can see is the back of the labels. If I had put them on the right, the edges would have been visible from the front of the mini-book. Mmmm....
4. I haven't really decided if I am just winging it and recording the everyday or if I am following Shimelle's prompts. Hope it doesn't turn into a mish mash. Mmmm....
5. I have not decided on a title for the book/album nor have I thought about a cover. At the moment, this part of it looks über-ugly. I really need to decide what is I am making here. Mmmm....

On the positive side, I am chopping up papers and throwing down bits and pieces of Christmas goodness with abandon. It feels good to see these pretty things (and to be honest, some not so pretty things - must sort out and get rid) used up. I have a couple of blank or more blank pages that I will go back to at the end to embellish up. And I have a bag of embellishments to pretty up the whole album at the end (if the binder rings will stand the thickness that is!) The main products I am using here is the Shimelle Christmas kit 2009 which of course, I had to have, but never touched. I have it all in a drawer and am just opening and grabbing. And then all my other Christmas stuff is in another drawer so it has really turned into a bit of a lucky dip. Go me!

Here are the pages so far (apologies for the poor photos - it's late and even though I sorted out extra light and adjusted the white balance, they are pretty groggy) :

 

Unproductivity...

Is there even such a word?

Anyway, it sums me up.

Totally. Utterly. Unproductive.

Worrying... a bit.

It's not like I haven't been in here (my room) but when I am here, I just waste time in the blogosphere (not on my own mind you...), waste time shuffling papers, waste time staring at the screen. Waste. Time. Full. Stop.

I have two classes over at the newly renamed Big Picture Classes and I love them both. But I have done nothing.

A week or so ago, I fished out a lot of really old stuff and challenged myself to use it. I still like it all. No need to ditch it all. Use it up.

Most of it is still piled there on the table.

But I did dig into some rather bold Glitz stuff and came up with a very uninspired layout featuring Chance Diva Extraordinaire - Isabella.

But I can't promise not to redo the photos and make a nicer layout. Can't quite put my finger on what is wrong with it, but something is shouting, "Nooooooooooo."

But I have agreed to join in in a bit of cyber scrapping with Deb and Libby taking part in "Create Free" from Crafty Templates which looks like it could be a lot of fun.

I have signed up again for LOAD during October - 31 layouts in 31 days.

I know I can do.

I just need to find my mojo. This week...

Anyone know where I can find it?

From waaaay back when!

It's funny how one's taste and style changes, isn't it? How even in scrapbooking, there are fashions, fads and trends. How we try things on for size and then find that it doesn't suit us at all. How long it takes to find a style that fits.

If anyone had asked me a couple of years ago if I had settled into a style of scrapbooking I liked, I would have said, "Sure".  After all, I'd started at the beginning of 2006 and by the beginning of 2008, I felt like I'd been doing it forever. I was working for Libby on the Bellaboo design team, I was taking classes, I liked what I was doing.

And then Libby got me involved in The Scrapbook Magazine (UK) and I got my first commission! I was thrilled to pieces and got stuck in to everything they asked me to do. These were surely my "best ever" creations...

Off the layouts or projects go and you wait ages to see them in the mag - such a boost to see one's own creation there in print. And then you forget about them. The layouts are with the magazine and generally they wait until they have a box full until they send them back.

Fast forward to this summer when a box of said "best ever" creations came back to me. Ranging from summer 2008 to winter 2009. Yes, it was lovely to see them again and to read the journalling and look at the photos. But the designs? Not so "best ever" any more.

It's weird how I spent so much time and effort creating these commissions, and then when I look at them now, I see all sorts of design faults - trapped white space, non-common margins, too busy designs - every design sin in the book.

But I also look at them and see how not settled into my style I was. And I think that now, it's really getting there. When I showed Lib my latest mag creation she told me it was "... so absolutely you... " which I liked the sound of. Thanks Lib! And at the same time, they too are a snapshot of life - the way I saw things at the time I made them.

I am listing them here in the order I like them (least like first) and then there is one I just can't bring myself to put on (yes, THAT one Lib - the one with THAT cardstock!)

Definitely my least favourite - don't know what I was thinking with this - gorgeous papers, gorgeous photos, heartfelt journalling but the whole thing just misses! Created back in summer 2008

Summer 2009, created using some of my favourite papers of all time, and one of the best Bellaboo kits that Libby put together - still love it. (BTW I got a second kit at the time and fished it out the other day to get to use it - it's still gorgeous) But the design is somehow not quite right. But it's getting more towards what I would say is "me"!

I really like this one (summer 2008) but looking at it now I would do it completely differently! But it's one of my favourite wedding photos and I love the papers and the buttons and of course the journalling. But the flower? Mmmmm... not at all convinced!

Overall, not too bad (summer 2009) but that trapped white space?  A total no go!

Yes, one of my favourites. (late 2008) I love the clusters (I was just beginning to get to grips with those) and I like the sentiment. But today, it would look different! What is it that is "wrong"?

 Created most recently (May 2009), using great products and much more "me" than the others - multi-photo, multi-PP, journalling, small cluster and some stitching. Think some of the positioning could be better.

But when I look at them all together, it's so interesting to see the development in my style and to see how different they would be if I was making them today. I am seriously thinking of ditching the one I couldn't feature as it was so bad and also the one with the roses, but then again, maybe I should keep them, just because...

How has your style changed over the years? Do you cringe when you look back a few years?

Not much happening here

I have been busy doing not a lot.

A family wedding took up a lot of time and energy last week and last weekend and you know what? I didn't take a single photo at the wedding. It was totally liberating to just be a guest and enjoy the day rather than trying to get the perfect photo. I left it all to the professional photographer and hope to get a copy of some of the photos from the happy couple when they have climbed down from cloud nine.

So, can't show you any photos of that...

And I have managed a layout but it's for a magazine commission.

So, can't really show you any photos of that either...

Well, ok, a sneaky peek then:

And a happy, huge, "Thank You" to both Deb and Libby for sending me the Friendly Blog Award. 

I am honored to be considered their friends and it makes me very happy to realise what wonderful people I have come into contact with via Libby and her work with Bellaboo and her crop. As you have both already nominated friends I would also have chosen (Deb, Libby, Rach, Sarah), I will send out friendly blogger greetings to:

Betty

S

Cathy

Smile

Among other things, I have a reputation for being a bit of a sociophobe (!) and a Billy-No-Mates (!!). Both of which I have to agree with to some degree :-))

Now while there may be some truth in that, I do actually have a handful of people who I would like to consider my friends. I may not see them that often or even be any good at keeping in touch with them (!) but over the years we have kept out friendship alive.

One such true and loyal person is G and our friendship has now lasted an incredible (almost) 32 years. She was my best friend through secondary school, meeting on the very first day although we sat at opposite ends of the class - my surname starting with S and hers C. We might have had other friends over the years of school misery but we always found each other again. We shared a lot of good times, and she was always there for me at many low points for which I will always be grateful.

We met up for the first time in nearly 9 years in March at my mum's birthday celebration and then I went over to visit her when I was over in May. We talked non-stop for hours and hours, catching up on all those years which had seen many changes for both of us!

It did me a lot of good. It was great to be able to chat as if those years had never happened and to find that even though our lives have gone in very different ways, we can still connect. It was lovely to see that we still cared for each other and we both hope that it won't be nine years until we see each other again.

So imagine my delight this morning when these....

... arrived on my doorstep. 

Thanks G for listening, for understanding and for letting me know you're thinking of me. Yes, your kindness certainly made me smile - as well as bringing a lump to my throat.  ;-))