Best Friends Week

So how has my week been.  Busy, restful, sunny and freezing.  It's been half term and so I have been catching up with odd jobs around the house and garden (busy) but I have also been trying to keep the afternoons free for crafting (restful).  At the start of the week the sun was streaming through the window in my craft room so that I was warm enough without the heating on.   By the end of the week the sun was hiding and it was freezing inside and out and the heating was definitely required.

One of my jobs was to remove some of the weeds from the front garden and while doing it I spotted these little snowdrops.  This was on a warm morning and I really felt that spring was on it's way.

Trying to capture the sun in a photo was fun.   Here are my best attempts with the sun catcher hanging in my window and the sun/shadows on my desk.

 I originally took this photo to show the sunshine but when I came to write this I realised that it also shows the new space I have in my craft room.  Last weekend I took my dolls house up to my god daughters.  She has always loved it and to be honest it was really only gathering dust here.  I thought I would feel sad to be parting with it as I had always wanted one and really loved having it.  Instead I had a feeling of joy at all the extra space which I could fill with crafting goodies and as my Mum is having a clear out of her things I think it will soon be filled.  It also helps that I know my dolls house has gone to a very good home.

One of the things which really helped me to not get distracted while crafting was the cat asleep on my lap.  I felt so mean disturbing him that I didn't keep getting up to check for emails and getting distracted.  Here he is covered with scraps of paper which I was removing from a die.

One of my morning jobs was scanning in old family photos.  Here is one of me when I was about 7 with my grandparents.  I can remember it being taken as if it was yesterday although I can't remember who took it.  There was another one (which is now lost)  taken at the same time with me holding my doll.  I had to remove the tin foil which was protecting her hair.

Now for the Lucky Scrapping prompt of Best friends.

I have drifted through friendships over the years but up until recently have tended to move from friendship to friendship as life has moved on.  Also as friends had children we drifted apart as our lives changed and our common interests were no longer obvious.  It has only been relatively recently that I have really appreciated those friendships which others have kept going over the years and also those friendships which have resumed after the children have grown up.

Living as an expat abroad I had to make friendships fast because they could be short lived as people moved around.  Because we were often thrown together in difficult circumstances these friendships could be quite deep as we often relied on each other much more than in the west where we are more self sufficient.

This is a digi layout I made of one such friend.  

I have no idea if I will ever see her again as she is Australian but we still keep in touch and would love to meet up again sometime.

Week 7

Daily blogging definatly seems not to be happening this year, so here is my weekly catch up.
First of all I got the shot of my view which I had wanted last week.

I also got round to taking the view form my kitchen window.  I deliberately included the rubbish along the back of the sink as this reflects how things were rather over taking me.

 The highlight of my week was visiting my God daughter for a couple of nights, so here is my digi layout for the week.

 Now for impossible.  I knew straight away what I wanted to do.  It is a picture I have wanted to take and scrap for ages now.
We had no choice about when we returned to the UK and it was so disheartening when well meaning people would say 'Oh dear it's not a good time to try and get a job, not a good time to return at all.'  There was very little chance that Peter would be able to return to his old job in the NHS and it was not an easy time.  Despite all the negative input Peter got work experience after 3 months and was made permanent 3 months after that.  It wasn't after all an impossible task.  And neither was it impossible that my formerly (very) casual husband would were a suit to work every day.  Now as my job is uncertain it is a good time to remember that the impossible can happen.

Week 6 Catch Up

I have delayed taking the shot of my view this week as I was hoping for a snowy shot.  No such luck, we have had a few flakes on and off but nothing more.  So here is my view on a wet Sunday afternoon.

As predicted I used my photo from Tuesday for my weekly digi layout.

Thursday evening we had friends for supper.  I cooked Palau which I have cooked plenty of times before and thought it would be a good bet.  Of course with people coming around the rice went mushy, but in places was only just cooked.  I couldn't understand but was not happy.

Yesterday we visited my parents and brought Mum's old printer and computer home with us as she no longer wants them and Peter wanted to make sure that her hard drive was cleaned properly before the computer was disposed of.  My brother may well take the computer but in the meantime we are using up the ink in her printer.  It is about 12 years old and I had forgotten how slowly they worked then.  I have set it to print 5 copies of a document and come back upstairs to write this.  It is still chuntering along downstairs.

I am just off to update my craft blog with this weeks LO.

It's getting lighter

Today was my full day at work and when I left I realised that the lighter evenings are on their way as it still wasn't dark at 5pm.  Trying to do a layout each week to reflect that week is challenging me to think what is the main point in each week that I want to emphasise.  Maybe this week will be the lighter evenings.  So here is my photo taken form the bedroom window when I got home.

Goodbye Friday

Friday was my great aunt's funeral.  Although sad it was also an occasion where we heard things form her life which we hadn't known before and we met up with a distant cousin who we last saw over 20 years ago.  What else could I do for my digi layout for this week but use the photos I took of the church and flowers.

Rainbow

Well I started off with good intentions but found that once I got back to work I wasn't as recovered as I thought I had been.  Although a lot better school and the ironing finished me off on Monday and working a full day on Tuesday left me going to bed at 9pm and not doing much before that.  Anyway I am feeling better today.
On Monday it looked as if our rubbish was being collected after missing two rubbish collections because of the snow.  But no, the lifting mechanism had broken on the truck and hydrolic fluid was flowing across the road.  Everyone was just standing there watching it until I cam indoors and got our cat litter to dam the flow.  Nobody seemed worried that it was creating a possible skid pan.  Needless to say I was the only woman!!  When the recovery vehicle arrived they did put something down to soak it up but not disperse it so that it spread in the rain.  Here is the recovery vehicle.


The Lucky Snapping Challenge for this week was colours of the rainbow.   I love colours so this was right up my street but I couldn't think how I wanted to do this.  I thought of words associated with the colours.
Red - Anger
Orange - Fire
Yellow - Summer
Green - Fresh
Blue - Cold
Indigo - Not really sure about this one.
Violet -  or Purple - Richness

Thinking about this as I cooked supper I opened my food cupboard up and there were all the colours of the rainbow.  I really appreciate the variety of affordable foods in this country and at that moment the colours represented this variety.  So here is a collage of my rainbow store cupboard.

Off now to update my crafting blog.

Lazy Sunday

Well no photos form me today but here is my weekly digi LO.

Of course it had to be of the snow.  Yesterday I finished my paper LO for the week and meant to photograph it for my blog today but the light went while I was on the computer.  Oh well hopefully tomorrow.

This morning I did Kids Church and now I'm off to get some supper and then hopefully I will have some time to play with my book for my weekly LO.

Yesterday for the first time since Christmas I didn't sneak a biscuit or cake.  I think that owing up to Lynne yesterday that I hadn't started to try and lose weight started me off.  So thank you, I now have to try and not start picking again.

Snuffles and Snow

Well that really sums this week up.  Sorry I haven't been around too much but I have spent all the time I wasn't in work tucked up with my tissues as I have a had a streaming cold.  I should probably have taken some time off work but it's always difficult when you know that your absence will mean that others who are already busy will have to cover for you.
The week started well enough with lots of snow.  I am one of the few people who quite like it, but we are both lucky in that we don't rely on using a car for day to day life.  We were planning on visiting my parents on Saturday but cancelled it.  As it turned out that was a good decision as I was probably highly contagious with my cold which started to show itself on Sunday.
Here is our road.

  Our bush.

The field next to us.

 The cat decided that he was not going out for anything.  But sat staring out of the patio door.  I loved the reflection of the snow in this pic as he peered out at it.

He was a bit too inquisitive when I went out the front to take pics and found himself shut out with me.   Here he is wondering how to get around to his cat flap without putting his paws on the snow.  I came in after this and he followed me back through the big cat flap - more commonly known as the front door.

This photo sums Monday up.  We went out and then we came back in.  I had to go back to school for an after school training event.  It was really good but I felt terrible as my cold was really taking hold by then.

I was going to sum the rest of the week up with a photo of my box of tissues but I used them all up too quick and then forgot all about pics.

OK so for the Lucky Snapping prompt.

Being creative makes me happy.  It can be anything from doodling to baking.  This week I started doing craft at breakfast club, it made me as happy as the children to make this little fish.

I wish for time, or maybe good use of the time I have.  Time for relationships, time for creating and time for quiet.  I know that I forgot the house work and work in that, but they can be creative, relationship building and there is quiet in the travelling if only I would appreciate it.

Hopefully I will be around a bit more next week.

Snowy Friday

The snow started while I was in breakfast club and is still going all be it lightly.  We were planning on going to visit my parents on the East Coast tomorrow but think it might be a stay at home day.  I managed to fall over twice on the way home form school.  The only trousers I had needed heals as they are too long for flat shoes.  Of course I should have worn my walking boots, tucked my trousers into socks and changed into shoes at school.  I now have a sore knee where I slipped.  I think tomorrow might be camera/ photo day but for today my picture is of this weeks digi layout.

I have mixed some elements from just jaimee with some of my own papers.  I realised that the two I have already done have been blue themed so made sure that it was a different colour theme this week.  I think my layout next week will have to be the snow.

New Beginnings

I am by nature a person who reminisces, I can be the bore of a dinner party with my stories of the past and so I have decided that I will create memories of now with this challenge instead of looking back. On Saturday I showed you the book I have bought to put my weekly digi layouts in.  I have also been inspired by many of you creating art journals and so I have decided to try and decorate my book before I stick my photos in.  I have a blank photo to help me see how things will look.
This year is a new beginning and at the end of the year I want to look back on a book which shows me the highs and lows and gives me plenty to be nostalgic about.

Oh yes I forgot.  I have put my latest two layouts onto my craft blog today.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Well I have really applied myself today and got a long way with a LO.  Challenging myself to one a week certainly seems to be working.  Last weeks was finished just not put on my blog yet as I have to take a photo.
MY photo for yesterday was of the present my mum gave me, and this has a story attached.  In 2011 I found a great piece of Christmas fabric in our local work aid shop and decided to make 24 little bags to put gifts in as an advent calendar for mum.  Well I sort of ran out of time so I only made 12 and called it a 12 days of christmas calendar.  She loved it and promised to refill the bags for me this year.  As mum was ill I didn't get it until last Friday and being somewhat impatient haven't managed to limit myself to one present a day, although I am quite amazed that it has lasted until today.

I have had all sorts of little goodies but there was one which made it a proper Christmas gift and that was the chocolate money.  As children we would always be given this in our stocking and since I have grown up mum has nearly always given me some for Christmas.  It really is as central as the turkey and pudding.

 Tonight I received a phone call from my mum telling me that this morning my great aunt died. I used this photo of her last March when we visited her but I would like to use it again today. She didn't have great wealth but always gave you anything you commented on.  She married late and never had children yet she was never alone, people couldn't help but love her.  She never travelled but had a far more fulfilled and contented life than many who have seen the world.  My brother visited her over Christmas and she was not suffering in any way, she just slipped away from us aged 100.  A truly beautiful person.

Snowy Monday

We woke up this morning to a light coating of snow but it soon started up again, big fluffy flakes which settled.  Today we weren't using electricity at school (so that the children could appreciate how many things use it - this terms project is electricity) and I'm sure that the white outside helped to compensate for not having lights.  So today's photo had to be of the snow.

I then read Kathi's lucky snapping prompt on Nostalgia.  My childhood and Dad have been very much on my mind this last week and the snow made me think back to the story behind this photo.

It must have been the winter of 62/63 and Dad and I had made this huge snowball but were in trouble with the neighbours when we couldn't move it and it was blocking the road.  Think Dad might have been in a bit more trouble than me.

I will have to think of something else for the New Beginnings theme but nostalgia and snow just seemed to fit this photo.

Pyjama Day

Well I have got dressed, but it is 3 o'clock.  I am having a crafting lazy day and using my new glasses which I picked up yesterday.  I have never really liked darker frames and heavier side arms like these but fell in love with them as soon as I put them on.  Just goes to show how your tastes can change without you ever noticing it.

Also today we have made a start on emptying the freezers of left overs.  Because we have had people staying I have just been shoving left overs into boxes and freezing them.  Christmas day the turkey went in whole so we are now eating our way through it.  Lunch was pesto turkey with sweet potato dumplings (also form the freezer) and not sure if they went but some sprouts left over from christmas.  Think we might start on turkey sandwiches for supper.

Saturday Tidy Up

Yesterday (Saturday) after our friends had left we wandered down the town to pick up my new glasses and shoe repairs.  Our loo has been having difficulty flushing but Peter was worried it would be a big job and so we had been making do with it.  Our friend found an easy way of doing it so we bought the parts needed.  We treated ourselves to lunch out at our favourite cafe and then on the way home I called into a charity shop to buy an old book.  I wanted a hardback book that I could use to put my weekly digi layouts in.  It had to be large enough but not have shiny pages as I am hoping to paint them.  It had to have at least 200 so that I could tear some out to make room for the thickness of the photos.  I found this wonderful book which was out the back of one shop and was due to be thrown.  I am now looking at ways that I can use some of the beautiful pages in my final book.  Here is a collage of two pages.

When we got home I completed my digi layout for this week.  I am so enjoying doing some LO on the computer again as well as paper ones.

Scarves and no Silver Lining

Yesterday the wool for my ruffle scarf which I bought on e bay turned up and I had great fun starting to knit it.  I hadn't been sure how much wool i would need and bought 4 balls.  Turns out I probably only need one.  I think a lot of people might receive ruffle scarves this year.

Also last night I phoned my parents to wish my dad a happy birthday.  Mum was glad that I had phoned as the day before dad had been told by the doctor that he probably only has months to live.  We have realised that his time here is limited but to have it said has been tough.  He is an abusive bully who has made all of our lives hard but still I find myself in tears today.   We have friends staying and I have been asked to do extra at school later this day so I pull myself together and keep going but today I can't find the silver lining.

Last week I finished a LO of a visit to my parents last year, it's on my craft blog.

Back to normal Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday Catch Up.

Here is the promised non moving view of the school this morning.  My hours have been shortened so that I'm not having buckets of overtime, but I have decided to volunteer to stay on for a Tuesday afternoon to mainly work with a particular child.  This child was not in school today and so I wondered if it was a waste of time to stay on, but I got loads of admin things done.  I then took the after school club as normal on a Tuesday.

Here is the view back along the road as I left school.

I have decided to make a tab book of digital layouts for Anne's Silver Lining and have used these two photos for serendipity.  I have journalled the full story to put on the back of the photo when it is printed.

 

Back to Normal Wednesday

Because of the extra work at the end of last term I started using the car for shopping and then nothing was normal over the holidays.  Well today as well as getting in the routine of school I was back on the bike for the shopping.  I chose this back to routine theme for my photos today and am thinking of using these for my digi layout this week.

 Bike Panniers in Kitchen 

 Baskets and Bags in Hall

 Muddy Bike

Back to work Monday

I knew that this was the photo for today even before I had set off from home.

It is actually the view of the school I see as I walk in, with the steam coming from the chimney and warm lights inside.  As I walk down the hill it looks warm and inviting.  However I hadn't intended it to be so wonderfully blurry.  I think I must had inadvertently followed the car and so moved the camera.  Think this is probably the opposite of serendipity as I thought that I had a good photo and got a mess.   I will try again tomorrow although the light will be different as I will be a lot earlier.

This evening we took down the decorations which we had left up until Nathanael had left, the lounge looks so huge now.

Happy Sunday

My photo for today is also my digi scrap page.  I have so loved having Nathanael to stay one of him had to be my photo of the week.  I am so proud of him as he has turned into a great person.  Unfortunately he doesn't like having his photo taken.  I was relatively restrained and this was the best that I got.

A Local view

This morning I walked down the town with Nathaniel (our godson) and took the camera with us.  This underpass has recently been repainted by the youth of the town and looks really good.

Out of my Kitchen Window

Yesterday was a very productive day with lots of household paper work being filed as well as spending an afternoon with a friend and her new baby and older children.
Today I have finally finished scanning my mothers photo album in, all I need to do now is to scan the numerous loose photos.  I have also updated my craft blog with my latest LOs.
Here is my photo for today.

I had thought of putting the blind up but as this is how I see it I thought I would leave it down.