Trust in your pencil.

This will explain it all.



On this blog (http://printpattern.blogspot.com/) which is delicious btw) I saw this book. It made me fall in love with drawing and just doodling all over again. On alot of my past LO's i've doodled words, piccies and my dots. I guess it is one of the ONLY things I learnt at school and I used. Thank you Mr.Elliott for teaching me to love art and realise we are able to suceed with abit of practise. He was an inspirational teacher for me because at home, no one had an artistic bone in there body. And it wasn't for the want of trying either. My mum used to try to do creative stuff and often used to end up in rather a 'bodge'; apart from her sewing cause she was a mean sew-er. She tried knitting (even with a machine) which failed... and heaps of other stuff. None of which she was much good at. But sewing. I can sew but not in any way as good as her or her mother. Anyhow, i've gone off the point. Mr. Elliott. He was fantastic. A rather large happy man, rather like a ginger Santa Claus, excpet maybe not so old. And he was always emphasizing during my design and technology lessons that we had to practise. We must have gone over colouring pencils, shading and pencil sketches a million or even a trillion times. But you know what, after all this practise I really could see how much better I had got. The whole project that my GCSE rested on got me an A, which I was seriously proud of and so was he. I remember results day, him being there and actually shaking my hand and telling me he knew all along I could do it. The GCSE didn't really confirm how I could do this, it was him. That moment, he confirmed that I was ok, not a 'bodge' at this and so I guess scrapping for me is all about preserving my memories AND putting that piece of me in there somewhere. I had lost this, until I saw this book on that fabby blog...



So i've begun to draw out this title. It's the one that inspires me most from those few cute pics. Retro, curly script. Cute little piccie. And in a yummy chocolate brown and orange.
Which brings me round to trust your pencil.
I've had a few peeps ask me about doodling, doing a class... doing it at crop. It's hard to teach. How do you teach someone to draw? Seems to me like asking how long is a piece of string... But i've just had this eureka moment. It's simple. Trust your pencil. Yes, thats it.
If you're copying this type or that picture or whatever, look at what you're copying and not at what you're drawing. Trust that your pencil is doing it for you. (and I don't mean never look at the paper, we've all had a go at those exercises when we end up with our eyes on our nose or completely out of the face) Keep it simple. Break it down and most of all practise and ENJOY it.

And I know this isn't finished I will post a finshed pic later on... It's a work in progress.

I saw this around on a few blogs (I got it here http://scrappingandnewfs.blogspot.com/) and it looked like fun... so here goes:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper – I adore wrapping!
2. Real tree or Artificial? I love real trees but it's impractical with two small kiddos..
3. When do you put up the tree? Normally the first but it was much later this year.
4. When do you take the tree down? Always by 12th Night, probably before.
5. Do you like eggnog? No thanks.
6. Favourite gift received as a child? Hmmm... a ticket to see Jason Donovan when I was about 11, hidden in a box of roses.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No
8. Hardest person to buy for? No one really... We're all pretty easy to buy for.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Emily
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Brooklyn Beckhams diary (a fictional book) WHY? Need I say more???
11. Mail or email Christmas card? Mail
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Home Alone
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Hmmm depends on how organised I am, this year it was October.
14. Have you ever recycled/regifted a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything!
16. Favorite Christmas song? I like most of them... fave atm is Rockin' around the Christmas tree
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel but at home, if that makes sense.
18. Can you name Santa's reindeer? No, not without a scrapping ribbon with their names printed on.
19. Do you have an Angel on top of the tree or a star? Neither, a great big purple peacock.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Day
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Shoppers!
22. Best thing about Christmas? Alcohol comsumption... time off and just lazing around and seeing peeps we haven't all year.

So if you like the look of this, cut and paste and add it to your blog. x

It isn't me...

... it does go so well with the photograph and I loved the papers, just I feel I can't 'flow' with them...









I'm still wading through stash here. I was working on some DT entries but you know I just lost my mojo with these papers. I love them individually to look at but not for me to scrap with. Does that make sense??
So I scrapped totally out of my box and used 3d foam and the closest thing to flowers i'd use... (blooms just don't so it for me at all, when I use them it looks like someone has sneezed flowers over my page) and made a teenie weenie dent in my button collection.

Same Difference.

This made me giggle. I put Ben to bed on Satruday night and Emily was watching the X-factor on tv with Kev. (Isn't it terrible when you're learning the alphabet with her and the first ting your DD thinks is X is for X-factor??!) Anyhow, so I came down after i'd put Ben up and found Emily dancing round like this. Socks on her hands, bead-y necklace round her head and the toy drum lid hung round her neck. I had to get a pic. She most definately likes cheese like her mum.


Kev, however wasn't SO impressed.

Journal your Christmas.

So, it's FAR from finished. I have completed revised my scrapping technique. I have made pages and left room for photographs, which I find near on impossible BUT time is of the essence to get this journal finished. AND I had so much catching up to do...

I still love the 'old' Queen and CO felt. It's so much thicker than the new stuff they have brought out, so much more robust and yummy!



I have found a use for all those little chipboard letters in my QVC kit that I got nearly a year ago (!) I know... And with this paper I just love them.



Hmmm. Not sure about this one.



I have to fill in my times but I have been proud of how much 'old' stash i've been using. I had the Christmas papers (ok I brought 3 more sheets on Sunday but thats it) and I've just rummaged around for embellies and yummy-ness to add to it. I've used a heap of stuff but stuff I wouldn't of otherwise used on anything else.



I LOVE lists! (and fake stiching too!)



Hmm. Not sure on this one either.



YUM. Scenic route chipboard letters, glossy and shiny goodness!



Cute.



I think this maybe my favourite page so far. I love the pink Christmas tree paper. I think this is my ALL TIME fave Christmas paper i've EVER seen. And I love creative imaginations stuff. It's so useable.



This page took me the longest to complete and not because I din't like the prompt, just because I actually finished this one AND it isn't my true style but I am SOOO in love with this bird and stitching just looks so cute on LO's. And the brown feather just had to go with the bird and so I used the least of my fave of the papers I had and suddenly, as I was sat watching dragons den (lol) finishing it off I realised I did in fact really like the paper now I had put some goodies on it. And I can say I found this on very theraputic.





So. This is my journal up until now. (Nina you will be pleased i've gotten on)

So on my daily scout around blogs...

... I found this and it really made me think about 2008.

It was posted by Leslie (http://oranginadreams.wordpress.com/) who is Michelle's (www.scrapcouture.typepad.com) cool sister.

“There are two ways…
of spreading the light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” - Edith Wharton
I have always loved this quote. And today I realized that I’m the mirror.
And. That. Sucks.
But it’s true. I wish more than anything that I could be inspiring instead of inspired. I can’t come up with any good ideas on my own. I’m reflecting the light when I scrap lift other peoples ideas. I’m reflecting the light when I look at a magazine and decide I want to wear a certain item of clothing. I’m reflecting the light when all my decorating ideas come from magazines. I’m reflecting the light when I knit something exactly like it is in picture. Nowhere in my life am I the candle.
I’m having a bad day. I was trying to make Christmas cards, but I only made one. ONE! I couldn’t come up with any ideas. Well, I came up with some ideas, but they weren’t mine.
We decorated our tree last night, but we only had about 10 ornaments, so I made some today. And they’re pretty. Everything I make is pretty.
I remember a few years ago, I read an article on Christina Aguilera in Rolling Stone. It was all about how she was changing her image (this was before the whole Xtina thing). She was getting piercings and what not. She was at a meeting with someone to pick out the cover for her new cd. Someone says to her, “What about this picture. You look very pretty.” And she says, “I hate pretty. F*ck the pretty.” That’s how I feel. Does that make sense? I want to be edgy and artistic and funky, but somehow I warp it and it becomes sensible and pretty.
That’s me. Sensible. I’m the Gap when I want to be Urban Outfitters. Or Anthropologie. There isn’t any edge to me. Not my clothes, not my hair, not my furniture, not my bedding. Not my scrapbooks. I’m so unoriginal!
I bet you Edith Wharton never had to question if she was the mirror. But I guess we need mirrors in this world just as much as we need candles, right?

And so it has got me thinking. Am I just the mirror too? Have I gone through 2007 just being a mirror and reflecting all i've seen. I can honestly say that some of my scrapbooking has. Alot of my ideas have been altered slightly, changed to what I like but they maybe haven't been 100% orginal. I have not lifted for the whole of 2007 though, so I guess i've not whole-y been a mirror??? So this is my resolution for 2008, alittle before time but i'm ready to commit. To be myself, to inspire people to feel free to love their own style, their own ideas and for me to be me. For me not to be that mirror all the time.

And if Leslie is Gap, I most definately am something like primark.

The Crazy Ones.

Blurry cause he's just too crazy.



And this one needs no excuse to be crazy.


And I saw this today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvn_Ied9t4M Go watch it and feel alittle crazy.

And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk&feature=related this makes my hair stand on end. How amazing is this? I cannot imagine how life was for black American's at this time. And so, Do something crazy today and make a difference.

Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

Someone is excited...



Someone else is too...



Decorating needs alot of concentration...



me!



I love these shiny disco ball kinda ones!



My fave's that are not making it onto the tree this year...BOO!

It's the latest that i've put our tree up for years. Normally without fail, on the 1st of December our tree would always go up. I'd have heaps of new decorations to put on our small tree and it would be ladden with goodies. This year it's gone up today, on the 12th and you know what it still doesn't feel one bit like Christmas.

Emily could not contain her excitement when she saw the battered Christmas tree box carried into the lounge! The baubles and tinsel and lights just made her run around in excitement and so we decorated the tree this morning. Stopped for a quick lunch break and then continued to add baubles and sparkly things and all the little Crimbo momentos you collect from over the years. In our decorations box we have baubles from when my mum's mother and father got married and had their tree. I have stuff which my sisters made at school and stuff that I made at school too. It's kind of a whole sentimental thing our Christmas tree. It's ladden with memories from Christmases years and years ago stretching right back to before I was even born.

This year we have not really put many of our glass baubles on ~ Emily wants to swing them and twist them and stroke them (especially our velvet baubles) and Ben... I think it's out of his reach but I can never be TOO sure. And my, Christmas trees are SO inviting for little hands! I'm a little sad cause I have this great set off bright huge glass bauble which are my absolute favourite find from two Christmases ago and they just hang so well and look so pretty but they are glass and I know that if they get on the tree somehow someone will break one/all of them and it's just too risky with two sets of hands stroking our tree.

Now I just have the whole of my wrapping to do. And of course my Christmas journal, which I haven't even begun yet ~ apart from the front cover and back cover. I guess maybe tonight I will really make a good start on it. Kev is out, taking our nephew to see West Ham play and so I shall be able to whip the kiddos to bed on time and craft...

p.s. And honestly I didn't dress my two to match the tree ~ honest!

The Weekend.

Saturday: We braved town and I tried to do some Crimbo shopping. Kiddos, Kevy and Crimbo shopping do not mix. In the end I got three little things and we came home. Everyone was tired and fed up. I do only have a few more bits to get though but even so would've liked to have gotten them this weekend just gone rather than having to brave town again!
I still need to get:
Ben - little bits.
Jill - half to get
Steve - voucher
Kev still has a fair bit to get and of course I still need to wrap all our gifts up and post some ~ I have to get a wriggle on with it all, it's just finding the time and the inclination to be bothered to.

Sunday:
I spent the whole day at Sugar and Spice at Nina's crop. I just love it there. It has a nice vibe about it all. I didn't buy anything! (yes!) apart from Kev's gift (we have agreed to go handmade this year, much to his digust!) and I made a flag book and started and finished Kev's gift. I am seriously impressed with it. I have looked at it again, just now and it does look super girlie ~ I may have to rethink it all but it's just the cutest thing i've made in a long time.
I also came home to two kiddos with fevers. So today we have two sick kiddos and luckily Emily still has her sense of humour... kinda and Ben is not a total grump but even so I hate having sick kids.

Nostalgia.

Last night I wasted nearly the whole time on facebook. I'm addicted but in fits and starts. Sometimes I don't go on at all, sometimes i'm on there the whole time. It's a strange place really because surely we should all be looking forward, yet when you're there you just look back. So i've seen many old school friends on there. Noticed NOTHING changes back home in the little village where I grew up. Noticed that all that happens is people get older, definately no wiser and still are doing the same old things.
Then by chance I stumbled across a boy I used to nanny for - who is now a young man. I had already added his two brothers and sister but he had not long joined. He was such a little sweet thing when I looked after him. He was amazingly cute. How weird is it when you find out that this 6/7 year old boy has grown and likes Scrubs...??? We used to sit and watch pokemon and digimon together! I took him to see the first Harry Potter film and he cried he was so scared. OMG, when did he grow up?! It is so great to see how successful he is but it does make me feel OLD.

p.s. Did anyone see Jonothan Ross a few weeks ago when Russell Brand was on?? :) I laughed so much and shared it with my sister last night. How can anyone have a mouse live in their hair???

Right now.

I saw this yesterday on Karen Russells blog. It's me too. Right now I have SO much going on in my little head. And to top it all we have Christmas to contend with, which is always stressful. I'm going to be super organised and DO lists for everything ~ AND more importantly complete all the things on the lists. (And to remember : Delegation always helps)

I've been tagged by Joanna (http://joannabags.blogspot.com/) So here are my 7 random facts.....

1. I hate waiting ... :)
2. This year is the first year in, I don't know how long that we haven't had our Crimbo tree up on the first.
3. I have so many Crimbo gifts still to get...
4. Ben is obssessed with changing channel on the topfield box ~ it's driving me potty!
5. We still have to decide what we are doing at Christmas.
6. I still have that never ending 'to-do' list.
7. I am loving the book I made at Shimelle's class!

Waiting.

Waiting. I'm a person who hates waiting. I like things done right now. You know. I make the decsion and then I want it all sorted. So when you're looking for a job it's no good if you're not able to be paitient.

I have emailed two places today with my CV. I guess that atm working is really awkward, as we have major childcare issues... and so IF I see a job thats suitable I kinda wanna know if i'm likely to get it or not. NOT, we'll be in touch within THREE weeks. Three weeks is just TOO long. So now i'm waiting and waiting truly sucks.

Whoot hoo!!!

Well. Ok. Calm down. Seriously. Ok, ok, ok!


I did a 'real~life' Shimelle class and it was WONDERFUL. I cannot tell you how good a time I actually had the best time. AND I came home with the cutest bind-it-all'd gate folded album. A huge thank you to Ann and Shimelle who ~ made room for me and found me a kit. A huge thanks to the ladies (Shaulean, Tara, Allison and Justine!) I sat and scrapped with!! (and ate with, nattered with and laughed with) You cracked me up.


I hear you calling 'photos, photos, photos!!' Ok, I need to load them up on my laptop... OK, my book isn't finished. the idea is each day you add in some journalling about something you have loved about that day ~ using your photos. I am just gonna journal my heart out. I just need a quiet evening to sit and write... and of course embellish more and maybe add some more ink and paint and oooohh everything!

p.s. Shimelle's cupcakes are as scrummy as they look.