Paper Obsession

A winter's morning

My journey to work this morning was glorious.. the fields were dusted with frost which sparkled in the early morning sunshine. It was the sort of morning that gives me a little tingle of anticipation.. what would I find around the next corner (more on this shortly..)?

I couldn't resist taking a few photos when I arrived - I'm so lucky to work for CavityTech Systems, based in an old farm building in Arlington village, East Sussex. Since starting there in September, I've been able to witness the changing of the seasons, from late Summer, through a beautiful Autumn, to the first frosts of Winter.

So here are a few photos capturing the scene at about 7.45 this morning..

I work in there! :)

 

On a less picturesque note.. what I did find 'around the next corner' was a little red flat-bed truck, abandoned in a ditch. Evidently the driver hadn't accounted for the slippery conditions and had taken the bend in rather a hurry. A salutary reminder to keep my own wits about me and my eyes on the road? Definitely.

 

A Kitchen Makeover.. and a Scrapbook Page

I discovered Sarah's Modern Country Style blog when researching 'country style' for a commission I was asked to do for Scrapbook Magazine. I'm glad I did.. her blog is gorgeous... craft projects, home decor, even fashion.. and it's always great fun to read!

I thought I'd share the story of our home-made kitchen makeover as part of Sarah's Paint, Please Link Party. Since we moved into our Eastbourne home just over a year ago. Despite a whiff of neglect and a hastily applied slick of Magnolia paint, we could see the house had the potential to be something far more beautiful!

So here was the kitchen just before we moved in, plastic wood cladding, mould and all..

And just after the damp-proofing works created chaos..

Our initial plan was to rip out everything from this kitchen and start from scratch. My dream? Country farmhouse kitchen - real wood units painted a creamy white - wooden butchers' block workshops - flagstones on the floor... all somewhat beyond our budget! And once all the boring-but-essential repairs were complete, we realised our budget was not much more than zero.

Back to the drawing board.. and I found I was secretly pleased.. and relieved.. that we weren't going to trash those painted wooden cupboards that had been there for decades. Under the tatty lino we found some half-decent floorboards.. and an area of quarry tiles where we imagined there used to be a fireplace.

So instead of tearing everything out and replacing with cheap copies of what we really wanted, we set about making do with what we had.. building new wooden cupboards where they were needed..

sanding and varnishing those floorboards..

begging and borrowing lengths of worktop.. painting those original cupboards (Celadon by Homebase - Santuary range).. retiling the splashbacks..

I say 'we'.. it was of course my dear hubby Gareth who did most of the work..

I merely project-managed and provided artistic input.. ;o)

For a while, we had the walls painted white.. but I knew it wasn't right - the white tiles were disappearing into the background. Not good at all! I had a notion that a slightly dusty shade of pink would be just perfect. So off we went to Homebase with a die-cut butterfly in Stampin' Up!'s Blushing Bride for inspiration.. and we returned with a tin of Mademoiselle by Crown.

Wow, did it look PINK going on those walls!! But once it was dry, I knew it was a good decision.. and even Gareth has admitted (secretly) he likes it.

[Damn that mobile phone charging on the worktop..]

[Love my sink here so I can look out at the garden instead of a blank wall!]

[The fridge is now where the sink used to be.]

[The cupboard that Gareth built, along with a nice bit of worktop to fill in the gap and sit the microwave on. I LOVE my wooden painted cupboards!]

So that's about it.. a mixture of country cottage and 1950s diner? Oh, and finally.. a couple of sneaky peeks of the scrapbook layout I made documenting our kitchen makeover..

 

[It's not published yet.. will be in issue 58 of Scrapbook Magazine..]

Thanks so much for visiting..

[... and if scrapbooking and papercrafts are your thing, you might like to pop over to my sister website Stamping Obsession.. that's where most of my crafty projects end up these days!]

 

Best wishes,

Sarah xx

Happy New Year!

I hope Christmas was lovely for you and that 2011 has had a promising start. I'm just so glad to see the return of bright blue skies after such a GREY Christmas! Always feel so much more optimistic under blue skies.

Haven't quite managed to tie down and commit to paper all my thoughts, goals, aspirations etc for the New Year.. but one thing I decided today was to try and take part in the 365 Project. A photo a day.. how hard can that be to keep up? LOL... we'll see, shall we?!

OK.. so here's my favourite photo from yesterday, Saturday 1st January 2011:

The boys had found a crab shell amongst the seaweed on the beach. Harry was just pulling off one of its eye-stalks to show Charlie... *sigh* boys will be boys.. Love the concentration on their faces.. wish I'd got down lower to take the photo.

And this from today, Sunday 2nd January:

Harry at Gildredge Park this morning... he's still such a little munchkin... I adore his blue eyes (and envy his long eyelashes!).. I really must scrapbook this photo.

Oooh and here's a bit of news! If you happen to see Creativity magazine this month (you know, the Do-Crafts one), check out page 111... my scrapbook club is featured.. woohoo!

Right.. time for bed.. the dining table is barely visible under all my JYC scrapbooking mess but I think it'll keep til the morning. I hope I might even be able to share a few pages tomorrow!

Let it snow...

Yes.. we have snow! Here in Eastbourne!!

It started yesterday morning, just as I was beginning to explain the workings of my Christmas Planner project to the ladies at Scrapbook Club. We carried on regardless, while I kept a wary eye on the state of the road and gave updates on how it was settling.

Here they are, hard at work..

[If you'd like to see what we made, do pop on over to my Seaside Stampers blog for all the details!]

Thankfully, they all finished the project and the snow stopped long enough to enable them to get home again afterwards.

In the afternoon it was play time..

 

We've had some more snow this morning so there'll be more fun and games in the white stuff later, no doubt.

Have fun!

Oooops... where did the last month go?

Yep, it's been a busy one. I thought I might be away from here for a week or so.. but a whole month?!! I'm afraid 'Learn Something New' fell by the wayside too.. and I SO intended to finish the book this time!

I'll try to explain - briefly - what I've been up to..

Thurs 23rd Sept - my second ever Stampin' Up! home workshop - I spent ALL DAY getting anxious, fretting about my Make & Take etc etc.. All pointless fretting! It was a great evening, the ladies who attended were all really lovely - they enjoyed the workshop, spent some money(!) and one of them booked on to my next card-making class.

Sat 25th Sept - Stampin' Up! Open House Event at Community Wise, Eastbourne - my lovely upline Pat came down from Bromley to help out. Another successful event - we did two Make & Takes, made plenty of great new contacts and had lots of interest in my card-making classes. Hard work but I was exhilerated that we did it!

 

Mon 27th Sept - Beach Belles card-making workshop - I wasn't expecting this to be easy.. and it wasn't! The Beach Belles are a club for retired ladies which meet up in a pub on Pevensey Bay every Monday afternoon. I was asked to prepare for 12 ladies but only seven of them could be persuaded to take part. The rest were disinterested to the point of rudeness..

Sat 2nd Oct - Hailsham crop - So glad I went to this! What fun to spend a day catching up with my lovely crop friends.. and getting a few LSNED pages done too.. and I even won the raffle (again!!).

Fri 8th Oct - Card-making class - we made two cards using the SU! Vintage Vogue stamp set. My Mum & Dad came to stay this weekend and we had a fabulously busy time - and some great sunny weather!

Sat 16th Oct - My first Saturday card-making class - and we made some special Christmas cards using the SU! Delightful Decorations stamp set.

Today and tomorrow - I've been helping the children at Harry's nursery school to make bookmarks this afternoon. What fun! I love seeing the kids just get down to sticking straight away - no agonising over what pieces to use or where to stick things - I could learn a lot from them.. But the best part was seeing their pleasure in showing their mums their feathery, sparkly, stickery creations - and the pride of their mums too!

(Top: Harry's; Bottom: Charlie's)

Oh and another thing on my To-Do List.. catch up with Google Reader, which is currently up to (excuse me while I go check..).. 678 unread items!!!! Oh help..

Thank you Sian - for your comment on my Seaside Stampers blog which prompted me to get back to blogging over here.. and expect a return visit some time soon!

 

Learn Something New - keeping it simple

Wednesday 15th September:

 

Vicky Bees Toddler Group resumed after the summer holidays (well, it actually started last week but we didn't realise and missed it). It was lovely to see the ladies who run the group - they are always so friendly and welcoming - and all the mums and kids again. Every week, the children have a little crafty project to do - and the boys' efforts always adorn our fridge. 

It's good to get back to a happy routine of activity after a particularly rainy August.

Thursday 16th September:

We met up with my friend Helen and her two boys at the Bumper Bookshop in Eastbourne - I'd wanted to go for ages and it didn't disappoint. A lovely children's book shop with a great cafe, vintage books to look at, along with hand-made gifts and knick-knacks.

They do occasional craft workshops for kids in the large basement, which I only noticed as the loo's were down there and I saw a big table and lots of chairs. I asked the lady about it, said I ran card-making classes and we chatted about the possibility of me offering a workshop for children in October half term. An interesting idea!

That's all for now.. bed time!

Sarah x

Three pages to share..

And here they are..

Thursday 9th September:

I tend to stay up way too late during the week - scrapping, card-making, blogging, reading blogs (am I alone in this..?). It's all very well if you manage to get to sleep promptly when you do get to bed.. but not so great if you then take hours to doze off. When Harry trotted in at 6.15am on Tuesday morning, I was awake.. and I thought to myself, 'I swear I have not actually been asleep yet!'

So after three nights of little-to-no sleep, by Thursday evening I felt pretty rotten.. and an early night was essential - particularly as I had my card-making class on the Friday morning..

Friday 10th September:

I explained this one in my previous post.. I thought I'd prepared well for my class, but hadn't accounted for the possibility of an extra student. I learnt a number of other things during the class:

• Ink pads will get contaminated
• Wood-mounted stamps will get inky
• Stamping mistakes will be made.. and hence more pre-cut pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock will be needed
• You will get through more foam pads than you thought possible
• Unless you put your sample cards in cellophane bags, they will also get inky (see above..)

Information all filed away for next time..

Saturday 11th September:

Well, what could be nicer than a bit of scrapbooking on a wet, miserable Saturday afternoon? While I was busy sticking buttons to Thursday's page, the boys decided to get in on the act.

At first they played really nicely with a handful of buttons each, making patterns on the table, counting, sorting.. then Harry decided to tip the whole jar on the table and drive his little truck through them. Before long, though, buttons were flying in all directions.. Absolutely everywhere! Impossible to be mad at the little scamps, the buttons did look so pretty scattered around the dining room, and they did help pick them all up again!

Right then.. you know what? I'm off to bed! Night night..

Sarah x

Catching up on some learning

Where has this week gone?!

I keep thinking of things I really want to share here.. but just haven't found the time to sit and write. So now I'm all caught up (momentarily, anyway), I'll try to keep it succinct!

Sunday 5th September

A thought struck me while in the kitchen today.. 'I'm SO much happier when Gareth is home!'

I realised how hard things could be sometimes with Gareth working away Monday to Thursday. How everyday life just got on top of me at times.. especially after several nights of not-enough-sleep. It was just really good to have him around.. for cuddles, for laughs, for the adult conversation.. and of course for the boys to have their Daddy.

By the way, this is the FIRST time I have used bunting on a project.. expect to see more of it on future pages! (Yes I know.. I do catch on to trends a bit late in the day!)

Monday 6th September

One of my hopes for Learn Something New this year was that I would try to enjoy cooking a bit more. And I have been making an effort! I've invented a dish involving cod fillets, assorted vegetables and olives in a rich pasta sauce (the Loyd Grossman ones are a favourite).. oven-baked with cheese on top. I've done it twice now and it's delicious!

Actually, that's an aside.. my page today celebrates an Apple & Raisin Crumble which was also pretty fab.

I want to add a few bits to this page.. it needs some apple stickers or something!

Tuesday 7th September

The boys and I enjoyed a 'crafty afternoon' together on the dining table. While I scrapbooked, Charlie and Harry drew round their hands and coated them with glitter. Harry, exhausted after his morning in Nursery, got very frustrated with his efforts and took a nap on the floor by the cat-flap. Poppy looked most unnerved as she came through to find a sleeping Harry in her way.

These photos go in the little envelope.. there's journaling on the back of each one.

Wednesday 8th September

Reading The Copy + Paste Project blog this evening, I learnt about a neat photography trick called 'Tilt-Shift', which makes landscapes look as if they are miniature models.. and just HAD TO have a play immediately (thanks Kirsty!)!

Also on The Copy + Paste Project was a post by Julie about using song lyrics in your projects. That instantly brought to mind one of my favourite albums, Dead Calm by Morcheeba, which I've been playing a lot lately.

So I took this photo...

...let the Tilt-Shift-Maker do its thing, added some poignant lyrics, and ended up with this...

And here's my page:

Well, I think that's enough for now.. except to say all the papers are from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper stack by Stampin' Up.. and are only available til the end of September. If you'd like them, pop over to Seaside Stampers for all the info.

Thanks for popping by,

Sarah x

Those life lessons keep coming..

I had a bit of catching up to do, but now I have a couple of pages to share from my Learn Something New book..

So here's Friday's page:

Along with the hidden journaling card:

We are currently remodelling our kitchen - on a minuscule budget! Rather than hauling out and replacing all the units, as we originally planned, we are simply moving things around and adding home-made base units and recycled worktops to fill in the gaps. I rather like the original wall cupboards - they are REAL wood, painted an antique cream (or is it decades-old white.. we're not sure), and they go right up to the ceiling. It would have been so sad to replace them with 'foiled laminate' wall units with no character whatsoever!

And here's yesterday's page, documenting our afternoon trip to the beach:

It was SUCH fun playing on the seashore with the boys splashing around, drawing faces in the sand, collecting seaweed and generally getting wet.

Memories of that lovely afternoon prompted me to muse about how much happier I am when Gareth's home on the weekends. We get to do things together as a family. And that is my lesson for today.. page to follow!

Here's where I'm at...

As you may know, it's been almost three months since I took the plunge and became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. It's been quite a steep learning curve.. And yet, in these last few months I do feel I've begun to achieve something.

On Friday 11th June I held my first monthly card-making class at Community Wise, Eastbourne, for the benefit of just two ladies. I fretted all week in the run-up to that class - but I got through it.. and my ladies enjoyed some creative me-time while producing two pretty hand-stamped cards. 

The following week I gave a stamping workshop to a group of ladies who attend a monthly scrapbooking club in Hailsham. I was a little petrified at first - but my hostess and the other ladies were so chilled out and friendly, the evening was great fun.. and also a success in terms of orders!

I held my second monthly card-making class on Friday 9th July - this time at home. It was attended by three ladies this time - well that's a 50% increase on June's numbers! It was the right decision to hold the classes at home - I felt so much more relaxed, and I hope my guests did too. The ladies each made two stunning cards and had lots of fun in the process. :o)

Meanwhile, September is shaping up to be a pretty hectic month. I'll be doing another card-making class, giving another stamping workshop and also holding an Open House event.

To add to the general chaos, Charlie starts school in Reception class and Harry will be doing five sessions a week at Nursery. The logistical challenge involved in getting each child into his respective school within a ten-minute window - all before 9am - is going to be taxing to say the least! (And that's assuming they will both go happily into class without tears or fuss.. eeek!)

{Charlie getting to grips with box-making.. a natural talent!}

I'll be back tomorrow with news of a scrapping blog-hop, a fantastic SU! promotion... and maybe even a big stash giveaway?!!

Fancy a quick nose round my other blog..? Pop over to Seaside Stampers to see a few more of my SU! creations.. I'd be delighted to see you over there!

Thanks for reading..

Sarah xx