12 on 12 - July

Another month - already? Hard to believe, but true. July came up so fast and as I write this, it is hurtling towards August.

The 12th was quite uneventful apart from almost forgetting to take pictures at the beginning of the day. How does that happen?

And this is really not deliberate, but once again, there seems to be a theme running through the day - it's clear that each month through the year will have its own feel but I had never expected to have themes each month. April was socialising, May was hectic errand running, June was all about travelling by public transport. July, I am embarrassed to have to admit - was ALL about food and drink. I don't think we stopped eating and drinking all day! I only had a couple of photos which featured neither food nor drink. But that is what is interesting in this project! I have to admit that over this weekend, I really think that I gained two kilos! But it was all enjoyable at the time! We went out for breakfast, needed refreshments at Ikea, stopped off at Starbucks, decided we NEEDED a fast food snack, had dinner at Helga's and finished off stuffing our face with sweets! Shocking but true and I am glad to have captured it!


This month's design was inspired by the Kelli Crowe project this week in my BPS Have More Fun class (will post other "stuff" from this class another time) using the square punch and only scraps from the scrap box. But I am pleased with how it turned out and may come back to this style again in the future. At some point, I want to settle on a style for each month to make it more uniform and easy to produce but I think that maybe the first year will all be different!

Sorry the photo is not brilliant - so difficult to get good non-reflecting light.

On the subject of "scraps", do you only have one or two colours in your scrap box? Or is it just me? Is this a sign that I only ever scrap pinks, greens or browns? Am I boring? What's in your box?

Roll on August 12....

I did it!

I wrote about doing a layout and then I sat down and did it! So pleased with myself. I have to admit to being influenced as far as design by Stacy Julian's post here and I changed the journaling a bit from yesterday's post but it is done. At the moment, I am concentrating on only using my scraps wherever possible so I was delighted to rediscover these beautiful Crate Paper pieces. Scrumptious green and turquoise - what a great combination.

And thanks to Library of Memories (again Stacy Julian), I knew exactly where to go to find a favourite piccie of Recklinghausen (in the Places We Go under the subcategory Recklinghausen!)

Ok, so the photos are really so so but I just wanted to prove that I did it!

Wednesday Philosophising

July 15th is a special day for me.

For those of you who know me and Ralph at all, you'll know that we like to celebrate the little things. The special days. The silly anniversaries. And I promise you, it's not just me! For example, Ralph surprised me one day by announcing we'd been married 1,000,000 minutes! And we both calculated (independently) and then planned special things for 1,000 days married and so on.

Therefore, I like to keep July 15th in my diary as one such day. What is it? It's the day I left the UK to come and live in Germany. So yesterday, I celebrated 7 years since arriving here. For me, the act of remembering is important. Recognition of a turning point in my life.

I remember saying a few words at my "leaving" celebration. I said that many of the people there had attended other leaving parties - me leaving for France; me moving to Cambridge; my big adventure in the Philippines. But that THIS was different. In the past, I had left knowing I would be back. But now I was leaving and Ralph was waiting for me at the other end. I wasn't planning on coming back - ever. This goodbye was for real.

I felt it strongly then, and I feel it strongly now. I have made Germany my home. My heart is really settled here and I can't imagine ever going back (of course, I still dream of moving on to Canada but that is another dream altogether!)

Since becoming an adult, I have never stayed in one place for so long, never continued the same job for longer than a few years, never really felt as at home as I do.

My family make fun of me that I have found my true destiny in Germany seeing as though I am a controlling, bossy so & so. But it's so much more than that. Yes, I'm convinced that I really must be half-German (!) but I feel so happy, content and settled. I live a charmed life and my home plays a big part in that.

In celebration of my achievement, I want to create a special layout - maybe I will use this text as the journaling - hopefully tomorrow evening. But here is a layout that I made back in January looking at the same subject but a little more light-heartedly.

What achievement are you celebrating this week?

Late resolution

I know, almost a month has gone by YET again since my last post and I have decided to set myself a new resolution to do better!

I can't say why I have not managed to blog - I always mean to but somehow the days turn into weeks and then here we are, a month later again.

But I intend to try harder - really!

I have been really busy recently on the scrapping front as well as stepping up my work hours which has made a difference. I can't show everything I have done as I was working on projects using the next Bellaboo kit (August) which was, as always, fun and easy and got the creative juices flowing! I know that I say this each and every month, but the kits get better and better and better. The July kit (available here) was not just great, it was wonderful and is up there with February as my favourite kit so far.

Here are a few sneak peeks for August then...

And you can see my projects using the July kit here, but in case you, Jacqui, are reading this, here is one dedicated to YOU! (or rather US). Hope you like it.

And what else then? Well I made these two simple layouts using up some Urban Lily that I had from a pre-Bellaboo time kit! Again, trying out some different styles and testing what I enjoy doing.

And once again, I am in a Big Picture Scrapbooking class for the next couple of months and this little mini-book was the first project. So simple, so quick, so lovely! I made it in about 3 hours including writing up the tags, deciding on photos and printing them out. And the best bit? It only takes three sheets of double sided paper and then I added in a bit more PP for the decoration, two sheets of cardstock for the mats and tags, some stickers and a bit of ribbon - so easy and I love it. I dedicated it to sweet Cameron - hope you like it Libby!

And my head is full of ideas and inspiration so expect more to come....!

Apart from that, computer issues have been taking up a lot of my time and frustration so I am currently sitting at my dining table using my old, slow computer connected through a lan cable to the internet - YUK!!!! Work is busy and slow at the same time if that is possible and I am REALLY grouchy! Must be the hormones - poor Ralph.

12 on the 12th again this Saturday which I am looking forward to. Watch this space.

12 on 12th June

And another month completed! And look how fast it was this time. It's only the 17th and I have not only edited the photos down, but also completed the layout. Go me!

So pleased with myself and love this project. A really great snapshot of my life month by month.

This month, the theme that came out was time and transport which was interesting. I noted down the time of each photo and it showed me that I had a great morning complete with an always welcome Starbucks time and then in the afternoon, there wasn't really so much going on - or at least not that interesting. And the sky was still a bit light at nearly 11pm which really surprised me. I have also listed all the places I went and how I got there - I think I used every type of local public transport which will be interesting to look back at in the future. An ordinary Thursday for me - nice!

I've been a busy scrapper!

I took the opportunity of some alone time this weekend (Ralph needed to work the WHOLE weekend) to catch up with some serious scrapping - how fun is that? I had almost the whole day on Saturday and Sunday and I used it all for being creative which I enjoyed so much.

I was busy working on the July Bellaboo kit (another winner if I might say) but of course, you will have to wait to see it - let me give you just a single sneak peek as a teaser!

And you know summer is here in Germany when it seems like everyone is on holiday or about to go on holiday. The school summer hols here in North Rhine Westphalia start on 26th June so lots of my students with no children or much older or very young children take their holidays in June or later in August and then of course, the main 6 weeks of holidays is like a business desert with all the others taking three weeks off at a stretch.

Which of course means lots and lots of cancelled classes for me. On the one hand this is bad because no class means no money but on the other hand, it means that I get a bit more free time to myself.

So, this morning, I got up really early and I do not need to leave the house until 10 so I decided to catch up with some "me" scrapping. I have been taking Stacy Julians's Library of Memories class at Big Picture Scrapbooking which encourages a non-chronological way of looking at scrapbooking. Not focusing so much on the events, holidays etc but rather looking at making connections, scrapping about the everyday and benefitting from an organisation system that supports the way of looking at subjects differently. This last week, the focus was on "Things we do" or "Things we love" and I have realised over the class that while I do a lot of non-typical scrapping, I was sometimes missing out on the things that are important to me.

I have been trying to rectify this with some of my recent scrapping (for example, my "I *heart* my iPod" layout from the May Bellaboo kit) and this morning, I decided to sit down and just complete two layouts. So easy, not complicated and using coordinated products which made life easy. Each took less than 30 minutes from beginning to end - the system helping me to find my photos really easily - and while they are not perfect (in fact, I think that on the one, the photos are decidedly a bit wonky!), I got them done and uploaded and captured another thought on paper which is what it is all about.

So chuffed with myself and now I can go off to work having completed something just for me today - what an achievement!

Photo a day - an update

You might be surprised to know that I am still continuing my Photo a day project which I started in January 2007. I know that I have been rather slack in updating my albums (here on the right) but the photographs have been taken on a very regular basis if not always every day. It has just taken me some time to work through them all and sort out my favourites for each day. Can you see the cheat photo?

Anyway, all quiet on the scrapping front right now - must be the weather - but it is all set to ramp up again over the next day or so with the Bellaboo July kit which is (yet again) a stonker! Oodles and oodles of stuff to play with which is so exciting. I just need to clear my desk and my head and then off I go! Watch this space.

What you been up to?

12 on the 13th

I cannot believe that actually, on the 12th May (which was ideal as it was a Bank Holiday here in Germany), I FORGOT to take my pictures. The reminder had come out from Susan during the weekend and I was all set up but poof! my mind went blank and did not remember until I went to bed that evening! But I decided to do it the next day instead and still stick with the twelve pictures even though it did cross my mind to do 13.


But again, it is really interesting that even though you know the whole day that you need to take photos, it's so easy to forget. I had a completely manic day because I was determined to get all those errands done that I usually cannot do because I can't do them on foot or public transport and on this day I had the car. It was a hot, sticky day but I still managed to do everything on my list (normal for any woman I think but Ralph was well impressed!). However, some of the stops I made along the way were not captured on film because I forgot - how this is possible, I have no idea but there you go!


And I am pleased to have managed to finish the layout before the end of the month, even though once again, I am not enamoured with the layout itself. Maybe I am making it too hard for myself by trying to come up with a different design each month - maybe I should just decide on a sketch and keep to it. I will see how I go in June and take it from there. But anyway, I am pleased to have captured another month and June will be interesting because Thursday is a busy day for me and we will be in the middle of the European Football Championship so I fear my living room will be once again turned into some sort of a football studio by Ralph! So I guess the German flag will feature and probably some sort of football stuff. (mmm exciting - NOT!)

Ok, own up... who stole that last month???

I mean, it can't be a whole month since I last updated my blog. It's just not possible! I think I must have entered some alien space time continuum where I am in some kind of 5-hour day parallel universe!

It was a busy month all things told with two trips to the UK and quite a lot of scrapping although I cannot share most of it with you! Bellaboo is keeping me really busy with crop kits, National Scrapbooking Day (check out their blog to see what fun we had over there!) and their fabulous monthly kits.

Yes, I know that I say this every month, but June's kit is a total must have - and don't forget that the May kit sold out in just 3 (yes you read that right) days.

You can find a sneak peek in the shop here and I think that it would be ok if I shared a few sneakies for you here. Let's just say that it was a joy to work with and I think I could have gone on and on and on...

And just to prove it is totally possible to complete three layouts in an afternoon here is what I accomplished in one afternoon using the great Rusty Pickle based NSD crop kit (pinks, grey and black sparkle just worked so well!)

When Libby and I are working on the crop kits, we are usually really strict and try to complete three layouts in three hours using ONLY the kit supplies (meaning, you can come along to a crop, purchase the crop kit and do not need anything else except the basics - knife, glue, ruler etc) but this time, I was a little slower - too much giggling and gossiping! - and used one or two things from my own supplies for the third layout here. Try challenging yourself to only using a certain amount of supplies and see how creative you can get! It works. There are a few of the NSD crop kits available here.

And as for my 12 on the 12th? Yes I did it, even if it is actually 12 on the 13th! I have the photos and the sketch for my layout - just need to get the two combined. Hopefully, this weekend.

In the meantime, it is hot and humid here in Germany which is not really my kind of weather (how I EVER lived in the Philippines I will never know!) so I will be taking things easy this weekend in an attempt to avoid "glowing". But have a great one whatever the weather and if you come across May in your travels, send it to me - I need those days back.

12 on the 12th layout

So pleased to have got this done today. I am not overly thrilled with the layout itself but it got all 12 photos down and the important information captured. This is definitely something I want to try to do each month. It will be interesting to see the months go by and how the weather will change, how we will look different and what we do month by month. The anatomy of a day encapsulated by just 12 images - I love the idea.

I will work on improving the composition next month but this time, it was just important for me to get it done and finished! 12 photos on one layout? Sounds impossible and it took me a while of jigging them around until I found the overlap I was happy with. I like the idea of the two page layout too - I have been doing so many single page layouts recently that it was nice to rediscover them during the Bellaboo May kit and then it seemed obvious to me the 12 on the 12th would be a double too. But maybe next month, I will make the photos smaller again and leave more white space so it is not quite so busy!

And I have just realised that I should put the month somewhere on the layout! Doh! I will use the small stickers and just put the month very small in a corner somewhere. Good job I realised in time!