Can't Believe My Eyes!

I honestly cannot believe that it has been more than TWO months since I last updated the blog. What must you think of me? And there I was doing so well and then silence for so long. No excuses although I have to confess to having a crazy time over the summer with family visits (baby brother for three weeks and then the Chance family for five days) which are always great, a visit from my best friend, holidays, two trips to the UK including my baby sister's 18th birthday party and various scrapping challenges!

So where do I start?

Ok. How about with the Bellaboo stuff over the last couple of months? If you have not already checked out the monthly kits that I work on, well pop over to the site (here) and check out the kits for September and October here. I'm sorry to have to tell you that you missed a couple of FAB kits for July and August but September was a dream to work with and October was right down my street with hints of Autumn, texture and memories of home. I will put a few sneak peeks for my October projects below but check out the gallery here and then order your kit here!






Unfortunately, I have to admit to falling off the Big Picture Scrapbooking "Have More Fun" class after such a good start but I am slowly working through the outstanding projects and have made inroads into the daily project for September which I hope to be able to post later in the month.

I think these two projects have not yet been posted and I have to say, the layout was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I like the fact that it includes small items that have special meaning to me - ideas are represented by certain items! And as for the mini-album, well this is great and I have just finished a second one with the October Bellaboo kit (see above). This is Stacy Julian's take on completing a "photo album scrapbook" quickly and easily to get a whole load of photos "dealt" with to allow you to focus on the important stories you want to tell on your scrapbook pages - such a great idea and so easy. Uses up lots of photos and product and you get such a sense of achievement. Great!

Mmmm, what else?

Well, yesterday I managed to catch up with my 12 of 12 project - I was missing Aguust and September althought I had at least managed to take the photos! Thanks to Susan's reminder! So here they are ...

And of course, there was the infamous Bellaboo Birthday Bash which you can read all about in the October newsletter here! We had a total blast and it was so worth the effort of going over to be part of it - I enjoyed every second of it and participated in three classes by the delightful Cleo which were great fun. I managed to finish the canvas on the day which I was so proud of (featuring me and Ted at Crange Kirmes - a local famous funfair). The other two projects are half done and I really want to find time to get them done over the next week or so! It was just so much fun and you HAVE to be there next year!!!

I am sure that I am forgetting something but that will have to do for now!

What have you been up to?

I think I want to share!

I have been having so much FUN over the last three weeks on the latest BPS class, Have More Fun with Stacy Julian. I am keeping up with the assignments which is an absolute first for me - (ok, if I'm honest, there is one that I have not done so far, but I will get around to it. Somehow it did not speak to me as much as the other ones.) Over three weeks there have been a total of 14 assignments and I have done 12 of them - I am SO pleased with myself!

Yesterday's is one of the larger projects and I need to give it more thought and I might need to go out and get some supplies in. Still thinking!

We have done some great, silly things with our pages and have not been thinking so much about everything which has made them fast - some of them were complete in under 30 minutes! Others such as "Baby Sister" or "Meant to be Together" of course took longer but you can see why when you look at them! And I have only been using scraps. I think I have not broken into a piece of new paper (except cardstock) for any of them which also makes me feel productive and therefore, re-energised.

In effect, FEELING GOOD!

I have already posted the mini book I created for Cam and the 12 on 12 layout but here are the other 10 projects:

Bowl

Engineer Creek Divas

3 x Trouble

Mini album with photos of the Yukon

Mad Maddie

Home?

Baby Sister

Isabella

Meant To Be Together

This is today's assignment and I feel I should explain - it's on acetate but it won't lay flat because it was rolled up so the picture looks a bit strange - and it's a double sided layout hence the second picture below! (As for the story: Well done Libby!!!)

Cover Story

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?