Working on September....

Hello!

 

Well it has been too long since I have been on my blog so I have come online to post something.  Yes, I am still playing catch-up, which I have to say I don't really like.  I don't like unnecessarily stressing myself out and when I fall behind with something that is how I feel.  Hence the reason that this month I went from capturing my Project Life weekly to capturing it monthly.  Yes, I do still have a bit of July and most of August to finish but as I didn't want to fall even further behind I carried on with September and am working on October as well, keeping notes as I go along and logging my pics so I can "keep up" along the way.   I also went round & round about whether I should post my September layouts before I finished posting the July & August layouts, as I typically like to scrap in chronological order and normally I wouldn't do this, but again I don't want to fall behind in real life and online as well.  So here I am!

 

 

Below are a few pics of the layouts I have been working on.  I do find it less stressful working this way, just capturing the bits of my life as they happen rather than worrying about having to slot them within a particular week or so.  As I mentioned before sometimes there would be weeks where not much would happen and I would find myself struggling to create photos to add for that week or even worse "creating" something in the sense that it wasn't really noteworthy but I was making it so just to fill the space.  As well, I came across the opposite of that where some weeks I would have too many pictures and then would struggle to fit them all in, having to choose between which pictures I wanted to include.

 

 

This way I also found that for some reason I felt I didn't need as much journaling, that the pictures could stand alone and tell their own story.  I guess because when you are capturing your life weekly you feel, or I did, that a weekly journaling card had to be included to give a bit of background about that week, but I don't suppose that it is necessary.

 

    

I created the "Rare Moment" insert card with paper from Simple Stories  6x6 Basics Paper Pack along with a cardstock sticker ("this was the best" banner) from the Simple Stories 12x12 Collection Kit Snap Life and then some paper strips, from the same kit to create the banners along the bottom.  The blue "flower" is from a kit by Papermania called Capsule Collection, Embellishment Set in Teal (that I've had for a while). With these photos of Rupert I sort of wanted to get the perspective from my eye line view, him climbing up into my arms, so hence the extreme closeups.

I created the upper left insert card myself, again another way to "budget".  I've seen insert cards like these online on various websites and liked the mix of different fonts so created something that was unique to some of the photos I had taken.  I have never had a dog with such character and Rupert definitely has that.  Whenever Simon will eat a yogurt or pudding cup Rupert gets right up in his lap and tries to sit as close to him as possible.  We think it's so funny!  He watches Simon so intently and every time he lifts the spoon from the cup to his mouth, Rupert's tongue quickly darts out of his mouth, licking the air, as if he can taste whatever Simon is eating.  On this occasion I quickly snapped a few pictures and sorta gave me the sideways evils, like what are you looking at.  The "What are you looking at?" tag I created myself in word and the "LOL" stickers are from Simple Stories Typeset letters kit.  At the cinema this month we went to see Rush by Ron Howard, it was such a great film! You don't necessarily have to be a race fan either to enjoy it, there is a good back story there.

Baked to help a friend out with her MacMillan Coffee Morning this month.  She was organising the whole thing herself and for a good cause, so I thought the least I could do was bake and donate 4 dozen donuts for her to sell.

 The upper left insert card reads "Simon and I are not coffee drinkers and we do both like our tea, him admittedly more so than me but when it comes to Hot Chocolate, that is something we definitely both agree on!".  I created this card in Word and added a bit of clipart.  The insert card below "Enjoy the Little Things" I also created as well.  I was trying to tie the colours into the colours on the Costa coffee cup.  The title on the photo "Ho Cho" Sunday @ Costa, we don't actually call it Ho Cho.  I actually got the term from a girl I was working with that week.  She was sooo determined to not be "trendy" and not be "one of the mindless sheep", (yes, she was about 20-something) that she was striving so hard to be a unique individual that she had almost come full circle to being trendy again, in her rebelliousness. (If that makes any sense).  We were ordering tea's & coffee's one day at work and in an attempt to be unique, she said she didn't believe in the consumption of hot caffeinated beverages, only in "Ho Cho".  I found it hysterical, so I used it!

A picture sent to me by my best friend Laura as she was getting ready to go out for the evening and celebrate her birthday.  How I wish I could have been there but as I currently live in the UK and she lives in the US, it wasn't going to happen.  She has become such the fashionista!! I love it!  That photo almost looks like something you would see in a magazine.  (I don't like the insert card on the upper right so will probably go back and change that, as it just doesn't work for me).

 

A pic of the laundromat as we get all the linens ready for the cold months ahead. The bottom pic, a pic of my homemade Mac & Cheese because sometimes you do just need some good old comfort food!

The top pic (its only in posting it online that I now see there is quite a bit of glare on that - I will need to fix that) is of the mist that is now starting to roll in early in the morning, which means the days will get chillier and the nights more crisp.  Fall will be here soon and then gloomy winter.  The bottom pic is of Simon and Rupert - that dog really is just so attached to him it amazes me. "Adore you" is a sticker from the Simple Stories Typeset pack.  

A weekend country walk we took while in Hertfordshire. All stickers and tags are from Simple Stories.

A few pics of Rupert from one afternoon when we were playing in the garden.

"Shopping at Jerry's" - this has become a bit of a tradition for us now.  A great butcher located in our village. People come from far and wide to shop at Jerry's.  We typically find ourselves there on Saturday morning picking up things we'll need for the week and as well for a Saturday morning breakfast.

 

That's all for now.  I want to get September finished and wrapped up as by the end of next week October will virtually be over.  November is just around the corner. 

 

Thinking about it, going forward though, if I am only capturing Project Life on a monthly basis, maybe for the purpose of posting, so it is not just once a month, I can break it up into two parts.  Something to think about.

 

 

 

Playing Catch-up

Hello!

 

I have desperately fallen behind in keeping up with my Project Life via Snap, which can happen so easily.  You miss one week or even two and then before you know it you are a month or two behind!  Then the likelihood of catching up to the current day quickly slips from your grasp.  However I am persevering! 

 

I am just about done with July and trying to put the finishing touches on August.   I have most of my pics in, just need to add some insert cards and date cards for the weeks to be complete.

 

Although, for September I'm thinking that maybe I will go monthly rather than weekly.  I have seen other "Project Lifers" take this approach, which I think might make it less daunting to keep up.  As well, some weeks I find that I don't have enough pictures to fill up the entire week and then other weeks I have too many pictures for just the one week and don't like having to leave stuff out or make pictures smaller to fit them in.  By going monthly I think this will make the whole process a bit more manageable . Hopefully it won't have the opposite effect and make my album too overwhelming to complete by then having excessive numerous pages to do!

 

In the meantime I have posted a pic of the cover my second album (the pink one) as I never got around to scrapping it when I started it at the end of April. (This is a bit of a "scrap-lift" as they used to call it in the old days!) 

 

 

 

I have also posted a pic of the introduction page for the second album.  I wanted to try doing a full size picture and then splitting it up between the pockets.  I like the way it looks.

 

That's all for now.  Back to playing catch-up!

 

SMASHing!!!

Hello All!

As it was K & Co's Smash Book's that sort of pointed me in the direction of Project Life & Snap Studios (as I liked the freedom and the creativity you have with the Smash Book, which brought back many good childhood/teen memories of creating collage type books)  I thought I would share a few of the pages I created in my Smash Book over the last year or so.

I chose the Doodle Red SMASH Folio, mainly because red is one of my favourite colours and also because the illustrations just seemed to resound with me.  When I received it I couldn't wait to Smash!!

This is the cover, which I have not altered in anyway, as I wanted to maintain its simplicity.

The inside cover.  (Left page) I liked the vellum page that was immediately inside the front cover but I was torn (no pun intended) between leaving it there in its beautiful pristineness or taking it out and using it in the book.  Sooo, I decided to tape it inside the front cover with some Washi tape and add a few banners and tags from the Smashpad Word of Mouth pad, Blank Pad and 2 of us.   (Right page) I have also been a big of fan of postcards since I can remember and used to randomly pick them up whenever and wherever I was.  I remember ages ago, when I lived in LA, some companies would use them as a form of advertising and you could find them in a postcard caddy in restaurants, bars and book stores.  I used to love picking these up.  These were two that I had picked up locally, the top was for a shower curtain and the bottom one was from a company that I had ordered three little blue ceramic starfish from for my nautical bathroom theme.

The first page.  I so loved the little quote there by the moustached groundhog (?) that I didn't want to cover it up and just left it as is.  (Although, if that is a groundhog, I'm not sure how a groundhog can be bigger than a bear, as the little fella next to him, on his left, clearly is).  On the left page is another postcard from a shop I ABSOLUTELY love called Daisy Park.  They are an adorable online store here in the UK that sells must have shabby chic gifts, furniture and decorative home accessories.  You can check them out here, if you like: http://www.daisypark.co.uk/

Next is the "I am" page which I have started on but haven't fully completed yet. I think because I find this page somewhat precious so want to get it right, if that makes sense and doesn't sound bonkers.

The next two pages that I Smashed were pure collage and so fun to do.  Just cutting and pasting, cutting and pasting, until it felt right.  A really fun way to just release some creative energy.

 The next two pages were the splendiferous pages!  As they were already green I thought they would be well suitable to document a country (dog)walk we had taken with some friends of ours in Cookham to the Bounty.  (The Walk in Cookham stickers and the photo strip were something that I have been hoarding for years so couldn't even tell you who they are by.  The "Fabulous" flag is again from Smashpad and the Rendezvous button is Flair by American Crafts.  The "Yadda Yadda Yadda" stamp was sent to me by a friend so not sure on the brand. Makes me laugh though because it always reminds of that episode of Seinfeld.)

The next page was just very simple.  I looked the colours in this ad and as well the style of the girl in it, very retro, has a 40's-ish feel, which I like, so pasted this pic on the green page to tie in with her top.

Can't have a Smash book without a page on Washi tape!  Love polka dots and thought it would match nicely with the Puffy Alpha (polka dot letters I have in my stash) from Making Memories.

Just a page on how I like capturing my life in pictures.  There are a lot of small old churches dotted about, throughout the countryside here in the UK.  I like to go and take pictures of them, preferably in black and white, as it automatically gives them that sort of spooky feel. This is just the door of one of the churches here in White Waltham.  As for the die-cut camera, this is something that has been in my stash for quite some time.

These two pages I find quite funny as I was Smash(ing) about Smashing! Showing some of my favourite pages.  

As Simon and I enjoy our films, we often frequent a place near us called Norden Farm Centre for the Arts. A brilliant place really, like a local community art centre-they have a lovely café, art exhibits, different types of classes, live theatre and also a selection of films.  Most are typically not the mainstream films you would get in the cinema but independent or foreign films, which have been some of our favourites.  I had recently been reading a book called "Sarah's Key" which I found very compelling and deeply sad so when I saw the film was playing at Norden Farm I suggested we go.  The film was very moving and represented the book well. Not only was this one of the best books I have read in a very long time, but also one of the best films I have seen too. I included the ticket stubs from the cinema, their film brochure and the description of the film from that brochure plus an old style movie projector that I had cut out from a pad of K & Co. Cut N Paste Designer Paper.

I'm not sure how many of you may have heard about Graze but it's a brilliant concept.  Go to www.graze.com/uk.  As they say its "nature delivered".  They have a range of over one hundred tasty snacks (with healthy benefits), including nuts, dried fruit, dips, olives and seeds, as well as some well-deserved flapjacks, cakes, popcorn and natural treats.  You log-on to their website and sign-up, then browse through their products and rate which ones you think you would like.  Then you give them your payment details, they will bill you a few days in advance of each delivery and then send you one box a week, on the day you designate.  Quite a handy way to get healthy snacks on the go and you get a bit of excitement in not knowing what's coming through the door until you arrive home that evening.  I was turned onto this by a girl at work and as I was quite taken with them I decided to create a page based on this.  On the left page I cut out the inside of the top of the delivery box and on the right page I then took the section part of the box that the punnets come in and put this on the page, using (3) of the windows to document the snacks, like they come in the box, and then used the last window for the journaling.

                         

This page is my homage to Iced Tea.  I have been in this country over 7 years and one thing I still miss most is Iced Tea, especially during the summer months.  I used to ask for it everywhere we went (Brits could never understand why I wanted to put ice in my tea) just in case I happened upon somewhere that had it (as I used to find it in the strangest places - once at a small café in a shopping centre in Bath, which wasn't even an American restaurant). I was pleased as punch one evening when we stopped at the local Esso Express station on the way home (for you American's, this is sort of like an AM/PM).  We walked in to pick up a few bits after getting our petrol and I was so surprised to see that the Costa Coffee kiosk in there was now selling Iced Tea.  I was over the moon!!!

 And my final page to share is one about Acupuncture titled "Believe".  I have recently been suffering from some physical ailments and have been for some time. A friend who has had similar problems swears by it and said that it has changed her life.  I wouldn't really consider myself a believer or a non-believer, having never tried it before, but I do consider myself an open minded person so thought what did I have to lose!  (And hopefully that it wouldn't be too painful as I am not a big fan of needles!!  My doctor still has to distract me with a red lollipop whenever he wants to give me a shot or take blood). 

As a footnote, I have to say I am now a firm believer as it has indeed alleviated a lot of my symptoms.  Obviously like any applied therapy, it won't fix everything in one or two sessions, so I will have to continue to go in order to truly reap the benefits .

Well thanks for looking at my Smash pages and hopefully you found them very smashing indeed!

{ Week 27 - July 1st to July 7th }

Hello!

This here is Week 27.
Below is the two page spread:

  

Left hand page:

 

 Right hand page:

 

Week 27 Date Card:

Still keeping with the theme of using the big numbers for what week it is.  Although I decided to try something a little different here, which involved a lot of layering and multiple text boxes in Word.  As Wimbledon was on the telly here and we were obviously watching it, plus with it being such a big part of the British culture I wanted to reflect it here in my layout this week.  Hence the reason I chose green for this weeks date card.

 

I wanted to create an individualised insert card for Wimbledon.  I wanted to use the insignia that is at Wimbledon so created a green journal card in Word to go with this pic and then used clipart for the tennis racket and ball.  I think it all came together quite nicely.   I have to say I do feel for the players this week as the UK is in the grips of a heatwave, good and proper. Very hot and humid.  Must be unbearable running around those courts in this heat.



This 3x4 pic is of the heritage chimney that Simon is currently working on.  He doesn't always get to work on projects like this so he is really enjoying the detailed and intricate work, which he excels at.   I wouldn't hesitate to let him build our house, if and when we were ever able to do so!

Again, with all the free time on my hands and as well with time getting on and my thoughts going to places I don't like, I decided to do a little baking and "get lost".  These were carrot cake muffins I made with cream cheese frosting.  They were very delicious but so that I didn't eat a dozen cupcakes or so I sent them to the jobsite with Simon.  At least they can work it off there.  Plus I'm sure John & Biddy will appreciate a nice little home baked treat.

Although I have been in the UK for quite some time now and probably haven't properly celebrated the 4th of July for more than 4 or 5 years, for some reason this year I was really missing it and all the American traditions & fixins that come with it.  I wanted to represent this in my layout this week.  I had looked online for some free 4th of July insert cards but most of the ones I found were for free printables, either to frame or to use for a party, so I decided to create my own.  This took a bit of time and was somewhat involved, having to use a separate text box for each word, plus each circle and the sunburst, plus the firecrackers, but I enjoyed it and think I represented the 4th nicely.

I just had to include this picture, not necessarily just because he won but more so because Simon and I have always said we didn't think Andy Murray had it in him to ever win Wimbledon.  We've watched for a few years now and every time he seemed to fall short, just barely get there and then fall short in the last hurdle.  Well this year was different.  We couldn't believe he was in the men's finals so we found ourselves sitting in front of the tv on Sunday watching an intense match between Murray and Novak.  It was quite gruelling and suspenseful.  We simply couldn't believe it when Murray won the final shot.  It was an unbelievable match!  Although, as Simon says "sometimes its not about who won, but about who actually lost".  (He watches a lot of golf and he says that some of the players that have won Opens and Masters probably wouldn't have done so if Tiger had been there and on his game.  I suppose he makes a fair point.)  Nonetheless, congratulations Andy Murray! Well deserved!

That's me done for this week.

A simple one.

Bye now!

{ Week 26 - June 24th to June 30th }

Hello! 

This week has been a bit busy for me with a few interviews and luckily enough the good weather is staying with us, so still enjoying the sunshine.

Below is the two page spread for this week:

Left hand page:

Right hand page:

Week 26 Date Card.  I have kept with the format of the large number to represent which week it is.  I am liking this at the moment and it seems a quick & easy to do them.  As well you can create variation simply by changing the font or the colours.

I had a phone interview this week, which I hate, with a local Pharma company in Marlow.  Interviews are nerve wracking enough as is but I really don't like phone interviews as the only thing they can focus on is your voice and what you are saying (instead of being in a room with each other) and it just in turn makes me all the more self conscious.

Journal card for this week.  Again, trying to keep the "title" different so went with the journalism (5) W's - Who, What, When, Where and Why. I also had an interview this week with a local film school, which I was really excited about! I was really hoping that this would be the job for me, there is nothing like working in a creative environment.  I went to the interview with my fingers and toes crossed but unfortunately, although they were interested in me I wouldn't have been able to take the position as it would have been with a major life changing salary cut. Always the way, isn't it?  Extremely disappointed.

I also signed up with another agency this week (Grace Personnel), an agency from years back and one that I didn't think was still around anymore.  Was pleased to find them again as they are brilliant there!

Of course Rupert and I were out enjoying the sunshine, taking our afternoon walks in Cookham, along the river, with loads of playtime in the water for Rupert.

I thought the cover of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 would be apt this week as quite recently the feedback I have been getting from interviews is that I am too senior for most of the role's that I have been applying for.  And the irony is that before I had my last two jobs, both with the same company and both somewhat senior roles I was always told for every job that I went for that I was too junior for the jobs I was applying for.  You can never win!

I love Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory, he's such a schmutz.  I've never known anyone to have such cheesy pick-up lines and so many of them.  Actually, I take that back, I do remember a number of guys from my youth that could have been serious contenders for the real life role of Howard Wolowitz.  This week whilst doing a bit of shopping in WH Smiths, looking for printer cartridges and mumbling to myself like a mad person, a distinguished gentleman in the same aisle started talking to me.  At first I thought he was just making polite chit-chat and then I realised I was being chatted up.  Commenting on my American accent, asking me about my life in America and then regaling me with stories of his travels through America.  It was only at the end of our conversation when the shop assistant, who was standing close by, said he could ring me up now that I realised I was being chatted up as the gentleman sort of made a dejected "ohh" sound.  Always nice to be chatted up! (even if it had been Wolowitz style)

 Rupert completely and totally sacked out after his walk.  That's the kind of tired I like to see.

That's it for this week!

 

Thanks for looking!