Its been ages!!!

I haven't blogged for soooo long (well, it feels like ages for me, but I think its only a week!)
I've had a WONDERFUL weekend away with my very special friend and her lovely family and have come back all refreshed and perky! Although, to be fair I was kind of refreshed and perky after a wonderful week in Wales with my other precious soul friend before that, but hey! You can't have too many holidays!!!!)
Work has been fairly manic this week (well, this month! Phew!) and I am so far behind with crafty things that I could sob a little bit if I think about it, sooooooo...
I'm not going to think about it!! I'm going to get things done as soon as I can without making myself ill worrying about things! I have CJ deadlines that have already past etc but I'm sure people understand that sometimes life gets in the way of scrapping ;0)

So, what is the last thing with all these things I have to do and the severe lack of time I have to do them in??? A new hobby! Guess what I may have...a new hobby!!
I say may have as the 'hobby' is golf, which is my OH's true love!! He tried to teach me a few years ago but I don't like it. He now loves it ore than ever and I have become less inclined to loathe is as I once did! So in a show of love and understanding I have a set of second hand clubs on the way and promised to give it a try.  I do nto expect it to be my one true love, but it would be nice to pop out for a game in the sunshine with im occasionally! I will DEFINATELT be a fair-weather golfer! IF I can get to gribs (literally) with holding the clubs and hitting the ball where I tell it to go!
Watch this space....

Special friends...

I have met some wonderful, strong and thoroughly inspiring women over the past few years.  I don't mention it very often (well, at all actually!) but as well as loving scrapbooking and being a library manager, I am also a trained Crystal Therapist.  I don't actively practice at the moment - the financial climate over the last few years has not been healthy in terms of starting a new business.

Anyway, through my studies to become a therapist, and through my ongoing monthly sessions with the same class I have met some very special women who fill me with awe every time I see them!
They support me in so many ways and make me stronger than I would be had I never met them. Thanks ladies x

Here's a piccie I love of me receiving some treatment (which is yet another lovely thing about the classes!!)

The world outside my window(s)!!

Here is a glimpse at the world around me on this lovely day.

From the kitchen:





















From the living room:





















From my craft room:

Life versus scrapbooking ;0) plus a plea for help at the end of the post!!

I love scrapbooking!! When I have time off work I love nothing more to be out in my Craft room creating! The problem I have, is that as the weather gets better and better I am more inclined to be out doing things (which is great in itself, but results in yet more photos and events to scrap!!) rather than scrapping about things I have already done or want to do!
Thats where the great British weather comes in!! However glorious our summers may get (and they DO get glorious on occasion!!!), you can pretty much guarentee that you will have a few grey days, or rainy days. Days where you just don't want to be out visiting places in the rain etc. These are PERFECT scrapping days!!!
This year I am far more creative (shall we just say 'obsessed with scrapping' and be done with it?!) than I was last year. I have really blossomed into this past time and am always thinkign about it - even if that thought is just a little one at the back of my mind!!
I have decided that one night this week - or on the next grey day ;0) I am going to organise my Pictures folders and PSE albums and get in to the habit of uploading photos each week or month. I also plan to make myself a little Rainy Day notebook.  In this I plan to write down pages I really really want to scrap but I may not have time to do t that point in time.  I know alot of you probably already do this, but so far I never have.
I have a notebook I scribbles scrapping things I see in magazines into - but no actual Scrap Journal.  I'd like it to be a really pretty, usable and visual thing. Something that will grow to be colourful and bursting with ideas.
 Does anyone have a book like this? Could you post a photo on your own blog and leave a link here or in an email so I can pop over and get some inspiration?? Thanks in advance!!

There's nothing to be afraid of...

At work staff are are currently going through times of massive change.  Seeing the reactions people are having has made me consider change and in particular, fear.
It is awful how much change can frighten us, and make us truly fearful. We can react in so many different ways to fear  - anger, sorrow, hysteria, stubborn-ness, denial - to name just a few that I personally go through when I fear something! I try to be someone who always embraces change, who bends like a willow, rather than snapping when the breeze pushes me this way and that against my will.
There is a wonderful section in the classic "Dune" series by Frank Herbert concerning fear.  I thought I'd share it here...

The Litany against Fear

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain

Does anyone have any storage tips...

I am steadily accumulating a lovely collection of fibes and ribbons. But they are currently wound around scraps of card and shoved in a shoe box. The collection has expanded past the shoe box and has overspilled into a paper bag where, (I shamefacedly admit) they are just jumbled up.
Any tips for a nice way to store ribbons that is both practical and aesthetically pleasing (we all want our craft spaces to be pretty as a picture don't we!!!!)

I treated myself...

to a new album and a few scrap goodies today! I'm going to put all the pages I make for my2010  projects in this lovely new Papermania album.  I couldn't resist the cupcake embellishments and I got some Golf ones too to do a page about my man and his obsession ;0)

Excited to find some magnetic clasps for hidden journalling experiments and bargain of the day was a wooden alphabet set from the kiddies craft section - only 99p - yay!

As it was my day off I also treated myself to a well deserved lie in and a day of scrapping. I spent some time playing with digi- elements this morning before getting back to the style I love this afternoon and creating this page:

And then this evening I have been curled up on the sofa with Shimelle's latest digi page template on the laptop and I created this page:

All in all, a very very successful and busy day off. I can't tell you how depressed I am at the thought of having to be at work until 8pm tomorrow night :0(

My very first digi-page

I am sooooooo excited and proud of myself. I just completed my very first digi page using a template of Shimelle's:

I am really really happy with it and think a whole new scrapping world may have just opened up to me!! I don't think it will replace paper scrapping but its a wonderful thing to do when you are feeling a bit ill and are curled on the sofa with a blanket and a lemsip!!!

Sing a little song for me

Music has always been a huge part of my life. I spent most of my childhood learning and playing the piano and am a little disgusted at myself that I haven't kept that up. I do have a piano at home, so maybe that is something I should rectify.
There are so many pieces of music, songs, poems etc that I find inspiring. It would be too difficult to pick one as my very favourite.
At the moment there are some words from a Hinder song that really stay put in my head:

Go for it, run toward it,

Dive in head first

Live life with no regrets...

This is something I tend NOT to do. I'm not very spontaneous.  I tend to think things over far too much or often just opt for not doing something for an easier life.  I'm starting to think that this is really quite silly.  I'm not condoning spontaneity to a reckless degree, but I do think I need to enjoy life far more than I do at the moment! Maybe this should be my new years resolution ;0)

Th world outside my window...

Well, I made it to work today (sob! I was kinda hoping to be stranded at home!!) I really shouldn't complain though as this:

is the view from the library today!! I don't think we'll be getting many customers in today though - everyone is either at home or out on the field building snow men!!

Just a normal day...or is it?!?!?!

Its my day off today and I thought I'd take a few shots of my daily routine as a tip from Shimelle's Year of Blogging.  I had a lovely lie in and then struggled out of bed, opened the curtains - to find my world had turned white!!! A thick blanket of lovely luscious snow lay over everything and I must admit I over-reacted just a wee bit - running through the house shrieking (and frightening the deeply asleep Saffron!!)

I did contain my excitment enough to snap a few 'routine' shots:

including one of a very disgruntled Saffy:

And then I headed out into the garden to play with my new camera!!

My poor little Craft retreat (nestled at the bottom of the garden) is all frozen :0(

I'm hoping for another snow day tomorrow!! Hopefully it will keep us home from work and we can make Snow Maidens!!!

Back to normality...

Well, its Monday morning and here I am at work.  Everything is back to normal (well except for the sorry looking Christmas decorations in piles waiting to go up into the lofts here and at home!!)
Its been a lovely holiday - especially as I have had such a long break from work, but it really is good to get back to routines!!!
I've really missed the people I see when I am at work and am looking forward to catching up with the ones that really count!

Exciting new projects for a new year...

Its been a fairly hectic holiday in my house - rushing around feeding people, desperately trying to keep up with my JYC pages and becoming totally obsessed with the Twilight saga - again!!! All returned to normal on Saturday though when I went back to work. The alarm going off was something completely alien (and VERY unpleasant!!!) but its so easy to get back into the old routine!! (And quite useful that I work in a library and had just finished book 3 of 4 and needed "Breaking Dawn" to continue my fix!!!)

I'm starting a new routine this year that I hope anyone reading this may join in with.  I am involved in a weekly Scrap challenge with some ladies I met through Shimelle's blog class.  You can find our joint blog and weekly challenges here! I hope you take a look and join in!

Another exciting thing I am working on is practicing with my new camera!!! I treated myself to a lovely canon DSLR as my christmas present from my family and am (very)slowly getting to grips with it!! We went for a quick stroll around the local resevoir this afternoon and I practiced some macro shots (with varying degrees of success!!!!)and the obligatory cheesy photo shoot of us!!!