Ah, the 80's - they were so special...

Boy, oh boy - this brings back just the best of bestest memories. I am a true child of the 80's and so proud of it. I was (and still am!) a huge Duranie even before they released their first single (here for your pleasure) and it brings a smile to my face every time I hear this song. I go back to being a 13 year old again and all the excitement that came with it - do you know what I mean?

I was always totally in "love" with Simon Le Bon and was honestly devasted when he got married. I wanted to change my name to - wait for it ... Portia Le Bon! (We were reading Shakepeare at school - Merchant of Venice? - and I thought the Portia sounded so much more exotic than Lisa. And of course it "is"!)

I have wasted a whole Friday evening wading my way through You Tube bringing back those days of the early to mid eighties - nothing else really matches up for me. Japan - Quiet Life; Department S - Is Vic There?; Big Contry - Chance; and the ultimate: David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes, Fasion, Scary Monsters. The list could go on and on.

Anyway, enough rambling from me - let me know if you appreciate my choice of Friday night music...

Like it?

I LOVE it! And I know that must sound a bit conceited but I think this is totally adorable! You might recall that I made one of these gorgeous altered magnet boards last year to celebrate sweet Isabella's Christening and I have been itching to make one for myself ever since.

Of course, this is totally different from Isabella's - in every way - which was important for me because I did not to make just a copy and anyway, Isabella's is totally wonderful and so pretty.

But for the organising class I am doing right now, we had various projects to help us with our inspiration - collecting and displaying. I decided that an altered magnet board would be perfect for me as it was already hanging and I was not really using it for anything in particular and hey presto!

And then there was also a small inspiration clipboard which is simple but still so pretty. I adore the Infuse range of papers from BG and am so pleased that it was suggested in class that we made everything coordinating. It is such a simple suggestion but one that has made a big difference to how I feel about how it all looks. I think that left to my own devices, I would have made each item in a different BG range which would also have been lovely, but this coordination pleases me. I will also use Infuse for all the labels and other decorative bits that are bound to follow. It makes me smile and isn't that what it is all about?

Product? Technique? things to think about

Following on from last entry's discussion, I continued with the challenge of starting somewhere different for a set of layouts.

The first is product first. And this was much more difficult than I thought it would be! Maybe it was because I did not have a "kit" to work with - I just decided that I wanted to use Periphery because it has been sitting there patiently waiting for me all these months and I was really looking forward to jumping in with it. I would make stylish, effortless layouts like those I admire so much on the galleries. Mmmm, not be to. Was it me or was it the product - I took out all those gorgeous papers and looked at them and .... nothing, blank, void! But I had an idea that it might work with architechtural details so I fished some out and forced myself to make the layout. But I am unsatisfied with it - it is uninspiring, boring even. What is wrong with it? But what else could I have done? This is frustrating.

I was flumuxed and surprised because when I get the Bellaboo kits, I HAVE to work product first and the ideas come quite easily (well most of the time LOL) and often I have a complete layout before I have even sorted out the actual photos because I am working on more of a feeling of what I want and know roughly what photos will fit.

Anway, enough moaning...

And then there was the tool/technique first.

This was MUCH more fun! I was thinking about what I could do and then realised that I had the BasicGrey notch tool that at the time, I just HAD to have but really, when have I used it over the last 18 months - not that often let me tell you! So out it came and I liked the idea of the semi-circle. But decided to move away from the idea of scallops and make a stamp edge instead - just on a big scale. Once I had the basics in mind, I needed a stark contrast paper and the brown Chatterbox was perfect. Mixed it in with a couple of other brown tones (colour - another blog post coming on that one!) and I was away.

Apart from the fact that it took me ages to notch the edge with the tool and it was quite hard work, it all came together really quickly and looks very much like the idea I had in my brain. Much more satisfied with this one and once again, journalling round the edge of the page seemed ideal. More Chatterbox in the form of these wonderful olive letters and it was all finished.

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would and may well use this technique again to get me out of a rut - it really made me think about it.

Only one more to do from the challenge prompts - my "natural" way. I actually think that this does not really exist - each of the methods has made me think, yes, this is it. Maybe I will just go with the flow and see how it works out.

By the way, the spell checker here on Blogger seems not to be working for me any more so apologies for any typos or spelling errors - don't understand why it isn't working any more. It was fine a few weeks ago....

So, are any of you brave enough to rise to the challenge? Shall we do a round of this again together?

Different starting points

I'm doing an online class right now over at Big Picture Scrapbooking (Get Organised Be Inspired) and one of the tasks was looking at how we scrapbook - what is our method, what order do we do, what do we reach for first.

Each day we were to start at a different place and create a page given a specific "prescription".

Design first

Story first

Photo first

Product first

Tool or technique first

It has been really interesting so far (although I am not through them all yet!) as I STILL cannot say what I do on a regular basis - I think I might be a mix!

Anyway, you already saw the design first (Get a LOAD layout January 27th) but here are my story first and photo first. They are not brilliant layouts but once again, important to get the memory down and recorded. I am still playing around and trying things out - not always successfully!

I had written up my Joe story some months ago in rough and this was a good incentive to get it down on pretty paper at last - I love the story although I think you maybe had to be there to "get it"!

And I had printed out these self-portrait photos thinking I might use them for the Bellaboo Floral Frenzy kit but somehow they were not quite right so i quickly got them down on a layout as part of this photo first process.

I think that I mostly do the next process - product first - as most of the layouts I have been doing recently have been focused around a kit - either a Bellaboo one or one that I made up myself out of my own product. But I still have to do this process and then lastly, the tool or technique one.

By doing this, it should help us identify how it would be best to organise our product so that it aids us in the way we naturally work! Still trying to figure that one out but getting there.

How do you work?

Flowers a plenty

Just finished up making some gorgeous flower filled stuff using the Bellaboo March kit - all pretty and floral and soft and gentle. Really lovely to make some spring inspired projects.



You need to check out the site (http://www.bellaboo.co.uk/) to sign up for the kit which is being released a little earlier than usual because of Mother's Day (and there is a sneak peek of the kit in this month's newsletter).



Here are a few sneak peeks of mine!

Photo update

I have been continuing with my photo a day challenge to myself - started last January - and have just got around to updating the blog with pictures from November, December and January.

While, if I am honest, I may not take photos EVERY single day (so much more difficult in winter with terrible weather or horrible light), I certainly take hundreds of photos across the month. Where I have a day with a lot of what I consider to be good photos, I might use some of those to fill those sad days when inspiration just was not there - cheating? Not at all - this is just a challenge for me and I get to make the rules!

I have lots of ideas about photo themes for the months to come - any further suggestions from you? Let me know and I will add it to the list. February is just a "whatever takes my fancy" month. Themes are easier when the light and weather are better.

You can find my albums to the right - thanks for looking!

The rest of LOAD

I'm back! Hectic few days (or rather two weeks) since my last post and I have been a busy scrapping girl.

Yes, I did actually manage to complete the "Get a LOAD of this" challenge in January - 31 layouts in 31 days - although I must admit to having to add in the projects I completed for Liberty over there at Bellaboo (have you been yet??) for the fabulously wonderful February kit.

But anyway, without further ado, here are the rest of the layouts for January...

17th January

18th January

19th January

20th January

21st January

22nd January

23rd January

24th January

25th January

26th January

27th January

28th January

29th January

30th January

31st January

and just for good measure here are the rest of the Bellaboo February "Classic Cupid" projects:

Clarity

February Inspiration Card

30cm x 30cm altered canvas - this was SO much fun - will definitely be doing this again - the painting of the background was interesting to get the colours right and then just making something simple to go on the top. One of my favourite wedding photos. This kit is seriously lovley, you really should have one.

yes, and I know that I use "that" photo of Ralph over and over - but it's just too good not to!

I MADE IT TO 100!!!!! GO ME!!!!

POST 100!

So cool to see that this is my 100th post. So i decided to do one of these tag things that you see on blogs and email all over the place - I thought this was as particularly good one to put on the blog with reflections on the last year and the year to come:

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Went on a motor home holiday - FANTASTIC!
Went further north than I have ever been before - check out Inuvik on the map - it's WAY north!
Visited the US (not all good, not all bad)
Entered my 40s
Took photos every day

2. What are your New Years Resolutions?
To continue to work on the resolutions from last year - be a more positive person, become more organised, to take photos every day and improve photography, write more in the blog, scrap a lot more, be creative every day, save money (or rather stop spending!) Is that enough?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth in 2007?
Yes, we all welcomed Isabella Hope Chance into the world last January!

4. Did anyone close to you die.
Thank goodness not.

5. What countries did you visit?
Long list all things considered:
The UK
Canada
America
Italy
France
(and then add on top of that those places that Ralph visited on business: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Austria - think that is all)

6 What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Patience. Every BasicGrey paper and product that there is. Time to breathe.

7. What date(s) in 2007 will remain etched in your memory and why?
25th January - Isabella
22nd November - the big birthday
24th November - the big party
August 27th to September 14th - the big holiday to Yukon (5 years in the making)

what a fantastic year!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Turning 40 without breaking down!
Surviving the Yukon wilderness
Completing my Canada 2006 album, my Christmas album, my 2006 in review album and all the other scrap pages I did.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Bit of a strong word. Still working on being positive - not a complete success
Did not get all my photos organised

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury?
Nothing at all. A good year.

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?
My stunning watch from Ralph for my birthday.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Cameron - what a darling he is turning out to be
Ralph for putting up with me in party monster mode!

13. Whose behavior appalled and depressed you?
mmm - still thinking on that one - so many celebrities were just down and out disappointing over the year.

14. Where did most of your money go?
In Ralph's shopping sprees! And our glorious holiday of course
(oh and that constant supply of pizza boxes stuffed with scrapping goodness!)

15. What did you get really, really excited about?
Our holiday
My scrapbooking
My party

16. What song(s) reminds you of 2007?
Down in a cold dirty well - Justin Nozuka

17. Compared to last year are you...
a.) Happier or Sadder? Happier
b.) Thinner or Fatter? Fatter
c.) Richer or Poorer? Less said the better

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Been in touch with everyone
Stayed at home
Taken time to learn my new camera

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Moaning. Travelling.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Totally at home - in our own flat!

21. Did you fall in love in 2007.
Every day anew.

22. deleted the question - not a nice question for anyone


23. What was your favorite TV program?
Navy CIS, Numbers, Criminal Minds

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't this time last year?
I don't think we should use that word about how we think about people (well I am working on it anyway).

25. What was the best book you read?
Did not really read much over the year but was very inspired rereading all my scrapbooking books - esp Cathy Z and Stacy Julian

26. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
Left my 30s with fun, flair and a great party!


27. What was your best musical discovery?
Justin Nozuka

28. What did you want and get?
My watch plus loads of other goodies for my birthday - just fantastic!
A charmed life with Ralph
A life-changing holiday in Yukon

29. What was your favorite film of the year?
I don't think I watched any movie made in 2007. Only watched DVDs from older movies - James Bond probably

30. What did you want and not get?
Enough time for us


31. What one thing would've made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Completing my "organise my photos" goal.
Losing the weight I had wanted to lose for my birthday.


32. How would you describe your fashion concept for 2007?
Me? Fashion concept? you gotta be joking! I reckon my fashion concept for 2007 was "how long can I wear these old clothes before I have to throw them out?" (ps. I am still wearing stuff I bought in the UK before I moved to Germany in 2001!)

33. What kept you sane?
Scrapbooking, photos, knowing we had our holiday booked, Ralph, laughing at myself

34. Which celebrity or public figure did you admire most?
Difficult one. Al Gore and team for winning an Oscar and the Nobel prize I think. (that was 2007 wasn't it?)

35. What political issue stirred you most?
The state of the environment, global warming, the ice caps melting

36. Who do you miss?
Grandad - still

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Not many new contacts over the year - probably those girls from the Heidi Swapp class I did online.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned.
Things could be so much worse.
Maybe 40 is not so bad after all.

39. Quote a song line that defines your year.
Our first dance song - still so good after all this time - still brings tears to my eyes, and I got to dance to it for the first time at my party, 4 years after we did not dance to it at our wedding - and I danced with Ralph for the first time in more than 9 years:

I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
I wish I could break all the chains holding me
I wish I could say all the things that I should say
Say 'em loud say 'em clear
For the whole wide world to hear


And I guess I should "tag" someone else to do this. With my "vast" social circle (!!) I tag Libby - go for it!

Post 99!!!!

A quick and easy layout for 16th Jan capturing those photos and a few thoughts about when I left the UK to move to Germany. It really was "for good" compared to all the times I had "left home" before. Don't you just LOVE BasicGrey? It just works every time!

2 Posts in One Day? Must be busy!

So here is my layout for 15th Jan.

I just realised today that I am REALLY driven by colour (bet you hadn't noticed!) and this has given me a push to really think about organising my product predominantly by colour. I know it is a difficult thing to do in the first place, but over the last two weeks, each layout has been dictated by colour first. Views? And a first on this layout - I tried out machine stitching! What fun! Definitely something I will be doing a LOT more of! Love the effect. I also did a bit of hand stitching on this one too to attach the ghost hearts. Almost half way through the month - keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to complete the month.

I also managed to get this assignment done for my Get Organised Be Inspired class - I am hoping this will help me get the most of all the wonderful product I have and make it easier for me to store and organise it all so that I can use it! Nice little project!