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.

 

South Wales adventures

Last week we stayed with my parents in south Wales.. here's a few highlights of our week.

Monday.. we took advantage of the sunshine and headed to Barry Island.. recently made famous by Gavin & Stacey, of course..

   

Wednesday... Harry's 3rd birthday...

..Ogmore beach.. rock-pooling..

...Splashing in the sea.. (isn't this photo dreamy..? I just love the colours! Thanks Dad)

Thursday... Porthcawl promenade..

(been playing with the LOMO effect on Dumpr.. thanks Sian for your post on this!)

 
..the boys idolise their Grampy..

...Harry takes to his new bike..

..a rare family photo!

Now to get scrapping some of these...

Pretty things..

1. Our little meadow at the back of the garden.

2. My new mugs from Waitrose (remind me so much of the wonderful spots and stripes in the new Cath Kidston catalogue.. but without the price tag)

3. OK, so they looked prettier before the boys got hold of them..

4. A bead and button necklace bought from a stall at the Community Wise Farmers' Market on Saturday.

5. Baby apples in our mini-orchard.. This tree is right next to my washing line so I can check on their progress each day as I hang out the washing.. they are so sweet!

I'm having a bit of a clear-out of craft stash... spread the word... there'll be lots of brilliant (and barely used) goodies up for sale as I make room for... well, other stash.. I know I'm being a little secretive about things but I'll let you know what I'm talking about in my next post..

18th Nov = Harry's day

On the 18th of every month I try to record a few details about Harry's day and complete a page in his mini-book. It's a bit like Shimelle's 'Scrap Your Day' class but focused on the new things Harry has done over the past month, the funny things he says and what he did on this day. I do the same for Charlie on the 23rd of each month.

I am not entirely up-to-date with the scrapbooking side of Harry's minibook, or Charlie's come to that. But if I take a few photos and write down a few things, I can do the scrapping when I have time.. at least there's the theory.

Harry's day:

Morning:

• hot Shreddies and raisins for breakfast, plus 'milksnake' (Actimel + milk)
• drawing/scribbling on the dining table, occasionally on paper
• watching Postman Pat videos (for the umpteenth time)
• dragging chairs into the kitchen to help me wash the dishes (please, no)
• drinking 'pink milk' (strawberry Nesquik) and eating Humzingers

Lunch:

• 'bubbly cheese' on toast with Branston pickle and baked beans
• throwing cutlery on the floor, smearing bean-juice on face and hair
• NOT liking having face and hands wiped

Afternoon:

• taking Charlie to Nursery, riding on the Buggy Board
• NOT liking being dragged away from Nursery
• having a nap (peace at last..)
• a quick Jaffa Cake before going to collect Charlie
• splashing in some DEEP puddles in the park

• home for a complete change of clothes
• back out to the charity shop (bought some lovely eyelash wool) and newsagent (the new Craft Stamper magazine.. couldn't leave it there)

Evening:

• dragging chairs into the kitchen to help mummy make dinner (nooooo....)
• pizza, oven chips, carrots and sugarsnap peas, followed by an ice-cream for dinner (we don't eat junk food every day, honest!!)
• bathtime = let's see who can splash the most water onto the floor
• stories - 'Shhhhh, Duck - Don't Wake the Baby!' by Jez Alborough is favourite this week.
• bed at 8pm.

Harry's favourite things:

• Going to the park
• Chasing Poppy the cat
• Splashing in puddles
• Postman Pat (Po-po Pat) - he can name all the characters
• Helicopters (Ta-ta-ta), ambulances (La-la-lance) and trains
• Scooting around on his trike

I'll be back soon to share my mini-books as they are so far.. now there's an incentive to get some scrapping done! ;o)

Six Flickr Favourites

Here's a little mosaic of some of my favourite photos on Flickr.

1: 'Thinking of You' by kiaraleestudio

2: 'Eyes up' by PlanetCoco

3: '20090916_Port_Lympne_Wildarena_0119' by Darren's

4: 'Scooterin'' by Stitchy Wishes

5: 'Banished' by Nabview

6: 'EXIT' by petervanallen

If you click on any of the links above, you will be taken to the photo in Flickr, where you can explore the artists' other photos - which of course I heartily recommend!

Thanks to Kirsty Neale's post, "Glorious Technicolour", for inspiring me to try out this mosaic feature by BigHugeLabs.com - I have been struggling for days to find a good way of getting some Flickr pictures into my blog and this is perfect!

Hello blog, I'm back... with some photos

I've been letting it slip these last few weeks for various reasons..

• Just 'discovered' the Hero Arts blog and their Flickr group - wow, it is SO inpirational!!!
• Been uploading lots of my latest crafty stuff to Flickr - somehow easier than blogging it all.
• Started up my own Flickr group for my Landscape Photography classmates to share our portfolio pictures.
• I have just been 'adopted' as a newbie on UKScrappers by the lovely Dawn (bagofscraps) which is very exciting - can't wait to get fully involved in the UKS!
• Been trying to get motivated to get Landscape Photography workbook and portfolio sorted - the deadline is a week today..

Anyway - I'm back with a few pictures from the aforementioned Landscape portfolio. Still struggling to get the workbook done (in fact I really ought to be doing it RIGHT NOW!) but hey, I need a little break..

Here are my favourites from the Sea, Shore & Beaches theme:

Portland Bill lighthouse - just how a lighthouse should be!

Newtown creek, Isle of Wight - fascinating place.

These ones are for the Cultivated & Farmed Land theme:

Cherry tree in Glenthorne Avenue allotments

 
Allium plants at the allotments.

These are probably my favourites out of the twelve pictures .

I will be back soon with some crafty offerings.. just as soon as I get this darned workbook completed, if not before.

So many new obsessions, so little time.

A new layout - and not a butterfly in sight

I've made a few ditched attempts to scrap this photo - and at last, this afternoon I managed it.
It's a photo of me, taken by Jo from my Landscape Photography class during a field trip to Cuckmere Haven and Beachy Head earlier this month.

I love the look of concentration etched in my face (I didn't even know I could wrinkle my forehead like that) as I was attempting to take a picture of a flower among the grasses.

The layout was pieced together with scraps of BasicGrey 'Perhaps' papers on top of white Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock. I made the flower by combining a Banana Frog 'Retro Snowflake' stamp with the stem from the 'Build-a-Bloom' set, stamping with Black Staz-on ink onto acetate then cutting round the shape. So pleased to have found a 'non-festive' use for the Retro Snowflake stamps!

[By the way, the picture I took of the flower was not worth a layout.. .]

Freedom... for two whole weeks!

Today I handed in my Digital Darkroom portfolio and workbook... on time (...just)!
Despite my determination that this term I would be super-organised and have it all done well before the deadline, somehow I still needed to stay up til 5.40am to get it all complete.

Why does this course demand so much time?!
I have honestly done little else with my free time for the last three or four weeks.
Not that I have a great deal of free time.. I guess that's half the problem.
The other half of the problem being that I'm not satisfied with just doing enough to pass.
No, it has to be as near perfect as I can manage.. and that takes way longer than it should.

My portfolio contained 12 images, six on the theme of Dramatic Landscapes and six on Time Travel. I will set up a couple of photo albums to put all the pictures in, but just for now here are two of my favourites.

Above: Black Hut at Rye Harbour - I added the stormy sky using Photoshop.

 

Above: Charlie aged 10 months - I converted to black & white and erased his vest to show the blue colour in the layer underneath.

Signs of spring

Spring is here!
The garden has sprung to life with tiny narcissi, crocuses, snowdrops and irises.
I've been trying to take photos of the flowers using the macro setting on my camera.
Finding it really tricky to get the bits I want in focus, but I've managed to take a few pictures I like.
Here are some of the crocuses and irises in our garden.

 
I have been thinking about having a go at digital scrapbooking..
Was inspired by Shimelle's digital layouts in the March issue Scrapbook Inspirations -
She has done some amazing things with her photos which I really fancy trying.
Also, this sort of thing could fit into my current City & Guilds Photography assignment which is actually my main motivation for trying digi-scrapping techniques.

But I will never stop paper scrapping.
I agree with Shimelle that there's not much point doing exactly the same sort of thing digitally that you can just as well do with paper and glue - especially when my shelves are bursting at the seams with paper and embellishments.
So digi-scrapping will be mainly for doing special effect type stuff that you can't achieve with traditional methods..
At least that's the idea.. I don't know if I will love or loathe digital - it's a whole new world - but at the moment I can't stop thinking about it.

Back to the blog...

I seem to have had an extended blog holiday but now I'm ready to go again. December was exceptionally busy - I got rather too involved in Journal Your Christmas, leaving my City & Guilds photography work all to the last minute (so typical.. never been any good with deadlines). In fact I managed to miss the deadline completely and ended up spending two VERY long nights getting it all done. Never Again! I will be more organised this term, I swear.

I have now uploaded the photos I submitted for my two portfolios - 'My Family' and 'People, Statues and Buildings'. They are in two Photo Albums which you can click on to see the pictures. We just got our marks back yesterday and I am delighted to say I passed with distinction!

This term it's Digital Darkroom - that is, Photoshop. And I'm finding it really hard! The portfolio requirement is going to be very, very different from the last one as we have to really show our Photoshop skills. We shall see how it goes.

On top of this, I am determined to do lots of scrapbooking and already have two new projects on the go. I have just started two mini-books on Charlie and Harry. Each month, on the day of their birthdays, I am going to complete a double-page layout to document little bits of information about them. I wish I had done this right from their births, of course, but there you go. No time like the present. By the end of the year, I should have two albums showing lots of little changes and milestones for each of them.

For Harry I am using BasicGrey's Archaic papers. Each page is A5 size, bound in landscape format. Charlie's is also A5 size but it will be bound in portrait format and I am using BasicGrey Offbeat papers. I LOVE BasicGrey, some of their ranges are absolutely gorgeous!

I will upload more pictures of these albums shortly.

It's good to be back! Will try to blog more regularly now, I promise.

Sarah x