Mixed up lateness

I really thought that I was on top of this blogging again and then last week my dad died.  As I have mentioned before it was a difficult relationship because of the amount of abuse and if truth be known his death has been a huge relief.  He wasn't happy for the last couple of years and he was able to get out (which he loved) until a few days before he died.  I have mourned more for the life we never had than for his death.
My digi layout for the week of his death is using an old photo of him.  He was never happier than when he was sailing, which unfortunately he was not able to do for a good few years before his death.

Mum has wanted the house cleaned thoroughly as Dad didn't like her doing it and would express his dislike very forcefully, so for the last couple of weekends I have been cleaning.

Here is my June view and a collage of all the monthly shots taken so far.  It was interesting to see how it has changed.

Oops Gone

For some now I have been humming and haring whether to have my hair cut, this week I took the plunge.  So what else could I use for my weekly digi layout.

I mentioned in my last post that I can lose myself when working with children.  Over the years I have worked with children from toddler to teenagers.  One of the huge freedom of working with young children is that they are not so aware of boundaries which control adult behaviour.  So I can join in with fun things without them realising that actually I can't sing, dance or any other silly thing.  If they laugh it is because they think I am funny not because they are embarrassed or think I ma silly.  This gives such a freedom to express myself.

They also demand 100% of my attention when I am with them so I have to put all my personal worries behind me when I am with them.  This is so liberating, no matter how much is going wrong for that time I am with a child I am free from all my troubles.

Hopefully Back on Course

Well I don't know what has happened to me over the last few weeks, but hopefully I'm back on course.
Here are my two digi layout for the last couple of weeks.

 The first one tells of a visit to the opticians.  I have a very real eye phobia.  Even talking about them can make me go all funny.  Having had an eye infection that didn't clear up I went to the opticians to be told that I had a small mark on my eye and wasn't producing enough tears to lubricate my eyes.  That is a joke as I can burst into tears at the drop of a hat.  When I was on drops for the infection Peter had to pin me down to get the drops in, now I have to give them to myself 3 or 4 times a day.  Scary but I have managed it.

 This LO is about a trip to see my god daughter and her husband.  Instead of using a photo of her which I did last time I visited I used photos of the traffic jam on the motorway and her baby hamsters which she is potty about.

For Anne's Silver Lining challenge I created a page using photos of my icing equipment, a paint bottle and cake stamp.  My journalling on the reverse tells how I enjoy creating things, in my craft room and kitchen and on the computer.  O course I also enjoy eating the cakes.

So now for Lynne's losing myself in the service of others.  I always find that working with children makes me lose all my inhibitions and truly be myself.

Prom Praise

Here is this weeks digi layout.  On Saturday we went up to the Royal Albert hall for a proms concert.  Although based around christian music there was also some great classical pieces.  We went with a group form church and had a coach there and back which saved having to mess around with the trains.  We have been several times before and the best bit for me is always when we can join in with the singing.  The power of all those voices always just blows me away.  The layout is just my photos and the programme cover merged together.

Birthdays

Yay I've actually got round to doing this before the weekend.
I just love birthdays. So what if I am another year older it's time to have fun and one of the big fun bits for me is the cake.
I have always baked cakes for others but except for the rare occasions when my Mum would bake me one I never really had one myself unless I also baked it.  That all changed in 2008.  We were back in the UK for my birthday and I decided to buy a cake for myself and the tradition has stayed.  Unfortunately the photo I took of that first cake has been lost but I do have a photo of another cake that I had for that birthday.  The actual day of my birthday fell on a Sunday and we were visiting a church that was supporting us for the weekend.  I jokingly said when the date was arranged that I expected cake if I had to work on my birthday.  Peter and I celebrated with my shop cake on the Friday and then set off on the Saturday morning.  The church had arranged the most amazing cake and party for me, I was so overwhelmed.  Yes we were there to talk about our work in Tanzania but they forbade any work realted talk for the evening and gave us a wonderful time.  My cake had a firework and musical candle on it.

I still have the candle on my dressing table as a reminder of the generosity of those lovely people.

In 2009 there was no cake as we were pretty sure that Peter had cancer and were trying to arrange for us to get back to the UK as fast as possible.  He did have it and the NHS were amazing.  So the next year we were back in Tanzania.  

When we first went out there English style cakes were just not seen in the area we were living but as time went on they became more common.  This one was baked by a friend who ran a local cafe. 

I picked it up after work and carefully placed it on the floor in the footwell of the passenger seat.  It was covered and being on the floor meant it was out of the sun and wouldn't bounce off the seat on the unmade road home.  It was a very hot day and I wanted to get it home fast before the icing melted.  On the way home I was stopped at a police checkpoint and required to produce paperwork for the car.  I handed over the photo copied documents only to find that I needed the originals (the law had changed -oops!!)  I had to acknowledge that I was wrong and got the standard £10 fine out.  I was then informed that I would need to go to the police station for a receipt.  This would mean giving the police a lift back to the station.  Is it at all possible that I was only stopped so that they could get a lift back?  Of course not being the end of the day was pure coincidence.  Any how I was not having them getting in the car and so making me move my cake.  It took some talking but eventually I was allowed to go and my fine refused even though I was willing to pay it.  I just didn't want a receipt.  The cake survived the heat and was yummy.

Sorry I have put the robot thingy on but Anonymous has found my other blog so I thought I would protect this one for a short while as well.  If he should leave a message on your blog don't be tempted to follow his link, it could be a virus or something yukky.

Chaos

I'm not sure why but I really haven't been able to keep up with lucky scrapping this year.  Maybe I pushed myself too hard to get more scrap books produced.  I have certainly had to slow down on that front a bit, but have uploaded a load that I have finished.  I also uploaded some ATCs, if you fancy swapping let me know.
I have continued with my weekly digi layouts though and here are the offerings form the last couple of weeks.

End of Easter Holidays

This weeks Lucky snapping promt was How do I react when I feel Vunerable.  I immediately thought about what I do when I feel out of control, is that the same as vunerable?  Not sure but that's all I can think of.

Years ago it was a standing joke that in ties of stress I would bake or clean the kitchen floor.  One day at work a collegue told us she had breast cancer.  Without realising what I was doing I found myself in the small kitchen area cleaning the floor.  I am pleased to say that my friend is now fit and well, also I no longer clean floors when stressed.

Nowadays I tend to shut myself away.  My craft room is a real sanctuary, I might not be crafting but just tidying my desk (oops sounds a bit like floor cleaning) or just playing with paper.  I find that I tend to make ATCs instead of scrapping as they are smaller and therefore less frightening if I'm not coping.  I also retreat into my sudoku.  I can be with others but mentally remove myself from them totally.  However if I am stressed they take me twice as long to complete.  Another way I withdraw in public is to hide behind my camera.

As it is looking as if my job will be continuing I am giving up doing talks for the WI and this week saw my last talk.  I had to take a photo of the ladies to mark the occasion.

We live realtively close to Waddeson Maor and today we went over there as the weather wasn't good enough to do the outdoor jobs.  They had a wonderful light display by Bruce Munro.  I could have spent hours just watching these beautiful lights as they changed colour.

 

As I was taking the photos I suddenly realised that they were ideal for playing with, so here are my results.

Off to do my weekly digi layout.

Oops a week has gone!

So much for doing more on my blog thispast week.  Where did it go?  I might not have ben working but I  still seemed to fill every moment.  Yo be honest a lot of time was spent at my craft desk.  Also I had a cold and spent a fair bit of time curled up watching i player.  Last week I broke a tooth on thursday and the earliest appontment I could get was on Tuesday because of the bank holiday.  Well that had to be cancelled becasue of the cold.  Fortuantley I haven't had much pain from it and have another appointment booked for tomorrow.

Yesterday suffering form cabin fever we got out for a walk to a pub for lunch and then continued our walk ending up in a coffee shop for an after dinner coffee an hour or so later.  The weather was beautiful and I was way too over dressed and ended up with my coat tied round my waist.

Today we got out in the garden, where spring certainly seems to be coming in - at last.

 The cat had great fun bouncing around and exploring in the sun.

I used a selection of these photos for this weeks digi layout.

This weeks lucky scraping picture was the view.  The tree still isn't in flower but the garden is looking less wintry this month.

 And here is the view form the kitchen window.

Easter Post

I'm afraid that I just didn't get round to the Lucky Snapping challenge last week.  Here are my offerings for Easter Sunday though.  

As we did last year we went to the Sunrise Service in the park and then climbed a hill overlooking the town for a hot picnic breakfast.

I used them for my weekly layout.

I'm off school this week but feeling a bit sorry for myself as I broke a tooth on Thursday and went down with a cold on Sunday.  I am not in any pain with the tooth but have had to cancel a dentist appointment because of my cold.  Hopefully I will get on here a bit more than I have been.

Five Things Week

Tell us 5 things we didn't know about you was the prompt for the nostalgia challenge on Lucky Snapping this week.  The first four things were easy as there were prompts.

Here is where I was born, the Firs Nursing Home, Leigh, Lancs. It is no longer there so thanks for Wickipedia for the photo.

I should never leave home without my glasses.  I only need them for reading but if (like I did this Tuesday) I have to read without them for any length of time I really suffer form head and eye ache.

My oldest piece of clothing is from my teenage years.  It is this neck warmer which is so cosy without adding bulk.

The idea of a person who has influenced me was quite hard.  There are many people over the years who have done this and I am ashamed to say I have forgotten many of them. So I chose a little boy who has been a great encouragement to me over the last few years.  Daniel was born 3 months after we returned to the UK.  I was still at the point of sitting in the corner in tears and generally not coping with life.  He was born the day that Peter started work and I saw a lot of him in his first few months.  I remember early on holding him in my arms and thinking 'You have fought your way into this world and survived.  What you have been through is far more than what I am going through.  If you can survive so can I.  He is now over two years old and every now and them when I look at him I remember my own journey and how far I have come since those not so good days.  He gave me such hope and encouragement.  I don't have an up to date photo unfortunately.

Now the fifth piece of information has been left up to me and has been quite difficult to think of. I spent a lot of time browsing old photos and came up with these two.  Taken in 1985 they show me as a leader on a Brownie Pack Holiday.  Trust me it did involve some work as well as sitting around and acting the fool.

I used to love being a leader and can't remember why I gave it up.  The white haired lady in both photos is my mum who used to come along as our cook.

I spent time in the garden today taking this photo of the ice on the washing line.

And last of all here is my weekly digi layout for the week. 

Birthday

Well today is my birthday and I am celebrating in my craft room.  Last night we had take away pizza.  I have never actually had one delivered before and so decided that instead of going out for a meal that is what I wanted.  With the money I saved I bought easy cook meals for the rest of the weekend so I am being totally spoilt.
Peter and my mother have bought me a tablet for my birthday and I did spend rather a lot of time in bed with it this morning before I dragged myself into my craft room.  This morning has been spent on the computer updating my digi layouts.
Laughter was Anne's word for the week.  Here is my layout using various photos taken over the last few years.

The journalling I am putting on the reverse of this page really sums up laughter for me.
 What a gift! I think that one of the most important lessons I learnt from living in Tanzania is that you can laugh in any circumstance and that in time you will be able to laugh at most things. Just thinking about laughing makes me smile. I remember standing in our lounge in Dodoma praying while we waited for the taxi to bring us home for Peter's treatment in 2009. I prayed for safe travel, good medical care and laughter and it was granted. If I can laugh then I can laugh any time and it can heal at any time.
My other layout was using the photo I posted last week.  A bit twee but somehow that theme felt right for this one.

I am going to take various birthday photos later and will scrap them this week.  They may or may not appear by themselves.

Two weeks worth of news.

Having decided that I would probably only post once a week, that went totally to pot.  Why?  Because I took on too much in the way of cake making.  Here are the cakes which took a lot longer than I had planed.

I was rather glad when I saw that the word for the week was small as these two cakes fitted that word perfectly.

Of course my digi layout for the week had to be of the cakes.

Last Sunday we celebrated my mother in laws 90th birthday (actual birthday was on Tuesday) and I thought that there could be no better subject for this weeks digi LO so I made this one.

How wrong could I have been?!?  On Friday I was told that my job has been extended to July and possibly further.  On Saturday I received a beautiful card and hand made jewellery from my god daughter as a mothers day present.  I was so very overwhelmed with both of these I have spent a large part of the rest of the weekend in tears.

Here is the champagne cork from celebrating my job and my mothers day gifts.  This has to be for next weeks LO, dont't think anything could have been better.  Or could it?

Ok for this weeks views.  I really must go back and check if this view really is changing month by month.

And out of my kitchen window.

What you can't see in the above photo is that the pond is literally heaving with frogs and filling up with frog spawn.  Next doors cat is enjoying eating the frog spawn but there is still quite a bit left.  Needless to say all the frogs dived for cover when I appeared with a camera but here are a couple of little chaps who reappeared when I waited around for a bit.

Having caught up on odd jobs etc last week hopefully I will be more on target this week.