Weekly challenges a-go-go

Finally able to update some challenges - why do I keep forgetting to put them on here? I took the photos!
On the photo below -
top left, wk 1 - use the sketch & make us smile (avoided the 'use lots of buttons' no no, lots?! No no.)
Top right wk 2 - animal photo & several papers (completely forgot the nursery rhyme title until it was finished, and I made it on the Sunday (last day to count it) so didn't have time to try another...oops)
Bottom left wk 5 - full points this time! Use sketch, paper, bunting or stamping/inking (I inked the alphas to make them stand out more) and 'scrap a first'. Well, I'm hoping it'll count - its the 'first' page of my 2011 album! Tell me if it doesn't!
I combined the challenge with our team mojo jar prompt - for April I'd originally picked out 'scrap a sequence of photos' (eg baking a cake) but, while I took photos of baking last week, they won't get developed until May (this week!) so I picked out a new prompt to quickly fit in for April - Emma's 'scrap a layout without photos'. At first I didn't have a clue, then I remembered I needed to make a title page for last years album and ta-dah!
Oh, and the final photo? Umm, cos he's cute! Of course!

Monthly Magpie Sketch

First up - no, I didn't use the Paper Moon kit for this but I did use an SC add on from Febs kit so it's still good.
Ok, each month my crafty team set a sketch for us to create a layout from. This month was Emma and let me say - I *love* this sketch!!! I've been wanting to make a multi photo layout like this for a while but never found the right inspiration so this was fab!
Of course, another layout about my boys. Helped that they were the only subject/theme i had on hand that I could cut into small photos (wasn't in the mood to faff around printing out new pics!). End result? I love it! I altered the sketch a 'smidge' just because I didn't feel it was balanced (there were only 2 die cut 'squares' on the lines instead of 3) but other than that and the butterflies I think it's pretty much the same. Ooh do you like my twine for the lines? Repurposed packaging from a crafty templates order last month - always love a bit of recycling!
TFL!xx
(posted twice as last one went weird and seemed to vanish? I'll delete if it reappears!)

Golly gosh

My baby boy is all grown up! Ahh Taz... How could we think he was just a kitten when he strolled into our lives last October?!
He's going through a growth spurt, I think. Suddenly his little stubby legs and tail are looking all long and lean...sob, they grown up so fast! He still loves his mummy cuddles though! I wish I could figure out why he refuses to jump on *my* lap though...he's even jumped on strangers (to him!) laps and fallen asleep, what did I do?! Sigh... He will love me!!!

10,000?!

So, I'm on my laptop trying to sort out the remainder of my DD photos to be sent off. I upload the pics I took over New Years and notice something while they upload - I've hit 10,000! 10,000 photos. I mean, that's a flippin lot of pictures. I'm kind of sad I hit that many and still can't use most of the functions on my camera. Perhaps that should be a resolution for the year...anyway, here's number 10,000 (!) -

Pip passed out in front of the fire on New Years Day. Not exactly ground breaking but I'm glad that it wasn't one that was out of focus (or similar!).

What else?...oh yes, now, for some reason I haven't taken any more shots of my DD. I don't know why. Odd. With the remaining pics on their way I may as well just wait until it's done now. I did, however, manage a shot of how thick it's gotten as I couldn't quite believe it -

And I still have 14 days to add! And a few of them are multiple pages! I think I'm gonna need some bigger book rings!

Now, onto my 2012 mission. I *am* doing Doc 2012. I found some multi-pocket pages that I quite like so I'll be doing (less than last year) 1 focus page and one multi page a month (then the back of the last one for the next month). The multi page holds 2 5x7, 2 6x4, a little 2x7 and a 1x12 down the side of it but, frankly, I don't think anything would actually stay in there so I envision maybe stapling a strip of patterned (e.g. Hambly) transparency in there so better make sure it matches both months!

My other mission is 365. In theory. Possibly. I'm doing okay so far but it's the 4th so I don't really think that's much cause for celebration yet! I think I'm going to do a theme month. Like I did for 2010, where I did certain things on certain days (off the top of my head - skies on Fridays, Green on Sundays, Macro on Saturdays...) I'm going to try and do certain things per month. Now, somehow, I've ended up doing self portraits for January. Let's face it, with the weather as it is you don't really want to snap something that requires going outside. But the main reason I did it was because I *almost* forgot to take a picture on Monday. I was reading through a blog that suggested trying out the timer function on your camera to take self portraits and I thought - 'I wonder if my point and shoot has a timer?'. Turns out it did. And when I went through my photos from the 1st I had taken a pic of me then too. So there you go, a theme was born. Welcome to January - the month of the self portrait...

(that last one is proof I really did stitch on that house challenge layout! Only 2 strips and it took me all of Juno to do it! *And* you can hardly tell on the photo!!! sigh...)

Not completely sure what I'm going to do with the photos when I'm done. I guess it depends on how good/bad they are. I'm thinking either a mini a month (good pics) or a layout a month (bad pics). I have a spare 8x8 album for a collage of pics a month, though I quite like the idea of a set of 12 mini albums...hmm...Oh well, I'll have the month to decide! One good thing about a themed month instead of a themed day? At least I can get the photos developed as I go. With the days I had to wait until the end of the year to stick them all on 7 collages (one per day...obv...). I lived in fear of losing them all!

Okay, that's enough babbling for one day. I hope you are all having a lovely New Year so far!

xxx

Seasons greetings!

I hope you and yours had a lovely time the past few days!
Me? I had a lovely time! And so did these two - Taz ended up losing his collar somewhere outside during one of his grand adventures and Pip ended up in a turkey induced coma under the tree for 10 hours today- he let me rub his tummy. And he purred! Clearly there was something very wrong!!! He's awake now though so it's all good.
I'll let you see some daft Christmas day pics when I get back on the laptop - aren't you excited!?
xxx

Mini catch up

Wonderful interweb decided to give up yesterday, but I didn't really do much (or photograph much!) so there isn't really much of a catch up to do.
Maybe my title should read microscopic catch up...
Still trying to make my way through my SC kits - still on Aprils kit & add-on. Wow it's so much easier to get through when you don't order any add-ons! Might come unstuck with this months kit though as I've got 3 add-ons coming my way!!! This is why I *must* use up as much as possible!!!
Still haven't decorated the tree, there's a serious lack of energy in this house! Pip's taken up residence under there again, apparently he doesn't mind the lack of sparkle! What he does mind though is Taz's attempt at an invasion of space...should be interesting!

Blogging through an iPad?

So this could be interesting...
I got my shiny new Christmas present yesterday and just discovered that there's a blogger app which is good to know as I thought I'd be photoless if I posted through safari.
I tell you though this tiny little keypad leaves a lot to be desired!
Been having fun looking through all the apps, particularly the free ones lol! I'm loving the instagram and pop booth! Not sure the files are big enough to print off full size but I'm going to try to collage them on my laptop, fingers crossed!
Christmas/ dec daily wise, tree is up, just needs to be decorated. Hoping to get some photos sent off this week so I can get cracking on my DD pages and catch up with Doc 2011 - gotta get my magpies scrapped!
Anyhoo, fingers crossed this works!
xx

Secret Santa

Another lovely year to do Secret Santa. So far I've had some yummy bits - including these lovely die-cut flowers that Taz liked so much when he found them he started try to eat them. Wonderful. I wonder if cat drool is acid free for my scrapbooking?!

Lights lights everywhere

So today was a day of pretty lights-

possibly some of the worst conditions for taking a photo in - moving cat. moving black cat you can't really focus on anyway, cos he's black. Yet, I still kind of like it.

Why is it only acceptable to put pretty fairy lights up at this time of year?...

Dad's happy, we beat next door to put them up! It's a weird little unspoken contest they have going on. The only year we didn't 'win' was when next door actually put them up in the rain. Seriously. I mean, it's all well and good but blimmin' heck! Luckily dad's not quite that obsessive!

Hope you're having a magical, twinkly weekend too.

xxx

Present shopping and flying fur

Dec Daily December 2nd-

Today was a day of desperately needed lie-ins (after no sleep. Thank you cats.)

Body guarding - We though last nights fight was a one off. Turns out Pip's finally snapped and we've now had 2 bouts of flying fur. Sigh. I hope this is just his reaction to the rain and not a sign of things to come. Taz does seem to be giving as good as he gets though - good boy! ;o)

It was also a day of present buying. Dad's was bought yesterday, Mums today...mine tomorrow?! Who knows!?

Was nice to drive to the shops tonight though, even though I had a pounding headache, as some people have put up their lights - twinkly prettiness!

xx

Santa Paws fail No.1 (and the kit killer strikes again!)

He was fast asleep on a pair of glasses and looked so adorable I thought I'd give it a try as he's much more agreeable than Pip (read - no claws). Problem I forgot, when I tried this on Pip he half woke up and it took a while for him to realise and eat the hat, with Taz - he wakes up and boom, he's awake and wants to play/eat. Ah well, we have a few weeks to try again...!

Here's my start on killing kit #2. This one will take a little more work as I had 2 add-ons so a bit more to use up! So far I've made 2 layouts for my 2007 album (...err...yeah...). Fairy cakes are really just a picture so I didn't bother with any journalling, just lots and lots of layers. That you can't really see. I really should wait until the morning to take the pics in a better light!

Here's number 2. This one has some journalling as there was actually a story behind the banana bread - I had been saying to mum how I would love to find a nice, easy recipe for it as all the ones I'd found were quite complicated. Then, talk about meant to be, the next day the M.E. association mag came and had a easy banana bread recipe! Hence 'Perfect Timing'. I can't even remember how many layers are at the bottom of this one, and still so many scraps left over! Hopefully I'll be finishing this kit soon - I think the next kit is being posted tomorrow...from U.S...holiday season so a slower post...so, minimum of 2 weeks to use up as many kits as possible...*need to make space*need to make space*

Progress!

They've been chasing each other round every day since the weekend, but the past 2 days they've also curled up on the bed together.

Before Pip would run off (or run Taz off!) if Taz so much as looked on the bed. Now he lets (!) him on the bed with him.

Progress!

xxx

Such a busy weekend

Warning - photo heavy post!

The past few days have been exhausting but lots of fun!

The little dude was finally allowed out unsupervised - shock! Mum was cowering in the house once she realised he went on the roof (he's basically sniffing out Pips route). Now, you'd think to get off from there he'd jump onto the bin from the lean to roof? Nope. He decided to 'slide' down the fence panel he climbed up. All I can think is he figured if he can spider it upwards, he can spider it downwards. He couldn't. Ouch! Nice little lesson about gravity there!

After all the mushrooms I found in the woods on holiday this was a fun discovery in the back garden!

Here's one of my focal pages for Oct. Doc. 2011. This is a 99% scraplift of Nicole Samuelsgorgeous DT creation for Studio Calico's October kit, Field Guide. 99% only because the photo was too big to put on the tag and I wanted to add some journalling.

Here's the other focal page - enjoying the bonus summer time that appeared at the end of Sept/start of Oct. This was my layout for the UKS weekly challenge too - full points but I can't remember the rules!...90% patterned paper...bling?...umm...ooh, time! That's why my journalling was about bonus summer 'time'! Genius! This also used the SC Oct Kit - the paper was an exclusive Sass/SC combo - yum!

Here's my attempt at fireworks. Sparklers are about as wild as we get in this house. We've had these hanging around for about 4 years so I finally decided to light them and try and get some photos as it wasn't quite as cold as Bonfire Night usually is. (yes, yes, I could have done them in the summer but I forgot - okay!?)

We used up 4 packs and mum and dad stood outside the back door waving them around for me to get photos - don't I have the best mum & dad ever?!

Today was a trip to the RNLI Lifeboat College for a birthday afternoon tea. See those 3 cake stands? There were actually 4 of them! Originally there were going to be 8 of us but 4 cancelled at last minute so birthday girls hubby brought their 2 gorgeous girlies along to help bump numbers and get all this scrummy food eaten up!

In summery -

Best scones ever.

I do *not* like dill.

The raspberry's were the yummiest I've tried all year.

Apparently coffee is an acceptable substitute for a girl who likes the concept of afternoon tea, just not the actual tea part. And yes that girl was me.

Check out this beautiful sunset we were lucky enough to see -

And I came home to the boys having a bit of a...err...disagreement. Taz is starting to stand up for himself (have I mentioned his name on here yet?...) 'you bop me on the nose just because I want play? Well, I'm going to bop you back!' Yeah...not the best plan little dude!

However, all is forgotten when there's a dish of leftover cauliflower cheese sauce on offer...

Cute!

And now? I think I'll get some much needed sleep!xx

plannings

Still trying to decide what to do about this years December Daily. *finally* managed to get last years done last week (here it is before being decorated - yes, yet another episode of Bones on in the background!)

I keep seeing so much inspiration all over the place it's just so overwhelming! Should I pre-make an album or wait until after the month? Should I use book rings or an actual album with page protectors? Either way, what size should I use?! Decisions decisions...

You'll be happy to know I managed to resist the Studio Calico w/Ali Edwards DD kit. So tempting but I have far too many Christmas papers already! If it was just the album and the embellies it may have been a different story...!

I'll leave you with this photo. I got up in the morning, opened my door and discovered these 2 in the hall. They both charged into my room (aka the forbidden zone thanks to my allergies) so I figured I'd snap a photo before getting rid of them (of course!) - it's Taz's eyes that make me laugh

So cute!

Helper cat?

Seems like someone wants to give me a helping hand with my crafts...

Well....I say 'help'...

How is it

When you go out shopping for someone else you end buying something for yourself too? I'm sure it can't just be me!

My phone was getting clogged with pics so I dumped a few onto my comp today here's a selection of my month so far -

A trip to Poole to buy for my Secret Santa (which of course required a stop at Starbucks) -

Pussy Cat No Name hiding under the stool while I'm crafting (yup he's still here and still adorable!)

Warning - there's a spider in this next shot! This lady was living on my window for a while then vanished. Turns out she'd moved above my window and tripled in size - super...then she vanished again.

Turns out she moved round the side of the house and built the biggest spider nest I've ever seen. Double super! *shudder*

The day before I took this pic she'd started to cover it up with leaves and bits, there's even a chunk of plastic under one of those leaves - very well protected! But still...shudder!

Here's my stack of holiday/doc 2011 pics with a nice screen grab of Howard from Big Bang Theory. I'm telling you, when you're adding 217 pics to print off it does *not* seem as big as it ends up!!!

Well, wasn't that a nice a boring/pointless post. Can you tell I'm bored!?

Is anyone else ready for Christmas to be here already? I don't like wishing the year away but there's something about the nights drawing in that makes me yearn for twinkle lights and glitter. Sigh. Probably doesn't help with all the Christmas bits and bobs in shops and on TV already. They just showed another one of those sofa store adverts promising that you'll have your new sofa before Christmas - it's October 23rd, I should blimmin' hope it'll be with you buy Christmas! How long do they normally take to deliver!?!

I realised yesterday that I still haven't finished last years Dec. Daily!!! Eek!! Better get that done before it's time to start this years! Still need to decide how I'm going to do it. I still love how my one from 09 turned out so I might try to replicate it somehow (diff. papers and embellies obv!). I'm hoping this year I'll be up to making a bit more of the month/season. I was so ill last year and only left the house twice and that was the 23rd & 24th!

I've eyeing up Studio Calicos kit for the Dec. Daily (they've joined up with Ali Edwards) but for $79.99 I'm not sure it's the best thing for me to do! Particularly when you look how many Christmas bits and bobs I already have...*I must resist...I must resist...*

There you go, rambly photos and rambly words, wasn't that a treat! Must go find something to entertain my brain!

Can you feel the tension?

The growling at first sight has slowed down a bit but it's each cat for himself come feeding time. Thing is Pip has this habit of eating half, going out then finishing the rest off later. Yeah, not for the past couple of days!

It was so cute earlier though, Pip had his usual sniff of The Newbie's feet (not sure what that's about) but didn't growl. He did this twice so Newbie takes this as his cue that he's friends now and bounds after him to play...yeah...not the best plan buddy! Still no phone calls about him. I hate the thought of someone missing him, but I hate the idea of giving him up! Dilemma!

Here's my answer to this weeks challenge on UKS. (ignore the apparent spelling mistake. It wasn't, but it looked like it so I tried to 'correct' it and it made it worse! Stupid! It's annoying me, I may have to cover it up lol)

This one is one of my favourite photos from the holiday. Funny the things the camera captures that the eye doesn't see!

Anyhoo, challenge was -

* Use a photo other than 'standard' size (6x4) - Used 5x7 on an 8x8 page

* Use Halloween colours - well, I think so!

* Use a hardly used stamp - I was just going to use the AC Amy Tangerine's feather (tag top left) but after my new grey ink wasn't all that obvious on the kraft card I also stamped the 'oh snap!' that was in SC's September Glee Club kit.

In other news, I'm hating this auto spell check thing on my browser! I mean, it's handy for the most part but stop telling me I'm spelling things wrong when I put the U in colour and put an S instead of a Z in realise! I'm not American!! Sigh.

House Guest

So yesterday afternoon this little guy followed mum into the house, ate some of Pips food and promptly curled up on the sofa and fell asleep.

He was taken to the vets to see if he was chipped so we would know where to take him home. He isn't chipped (side note - grrr).

He then fell asleep on my lap.

Darn it, I'm in love.

He has the loudest purr I've ever heard.

We've put up posters round the area so we'll leave them up for a couple of weeks and see if we get any calls. (our theory is he's a house cat, my theory is they might be on holiday and the person who's feeding didn't notice/care he got out).

Pip's mildly tolerating him. As long as he doesn't eat his food. He seems to have set up a 5 yard exclusion zone, I think that's because it's the limit of his eyesight.

There's been a little sniffing, a lot of growling and 2 hisses. Other than that, I think we're ok. In fact, the neighbour cat Hugo seems to hate him more than Pip does.

Wonder how long he'll be here for?...

My Friday

Wasn't exactly great. Started off alright then all of a sudden my back started hurting - no clue whatsoever why, just happened. Brilliant. So yet another day of not doing anything much. In fact, it was even less than the last few days as I couldn't walk. So here's my photos for the day. Literally, here are all my photos for the day. Luckily I managed to take these before my back started otherwise I'd have diddly squat!

Even his feet are cute! Argh!

My feet...not so much...that reminds me - I need some new slippers...!

Luckily my 'day off' wasn't a pretty blue sky kinda day

One of my favourite tops - Emma Watson's collection for People Tree. (the union jack one I was wearing the other day was from there too). It's just a lovely cut and fabric.

And again with the cuteness. I don't know what he'd gotten upto the night before but he was completely zonked.
And that was my Friday.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly putting a lot of details on here - I'll include more of the mundane routine-y stuff on the pages when I put them together.
xxx

A week in the life

Is anyone else joining in with this? When Ali Edwards announced her dates as 25th-31st I wasn't sure whether I'd play along too as my birthday falls in those dates (tomorrow in fact) and I've fallen into a mild depression each birthday since I was about 20/21 *however* this year I'm fine! Not sure if it's because I'm just too tired to care either way but it's nice to not have a feeling of dread and wishing the day away.
I don't think I'll be quite as involved as Ali's (she does a whole album, I'll just be using one side of a divided page protector today) but it'll be interesting to look back on either way! So far so...boring?! Ahh, I think that's the point of it though - it's not about documenting all the choice moments of that holiday/party/day out but documenting how your life was in the day to day. The little details you don't usually note down but find fascinating when you find an old diary in a charity shop (or something to that effect!) So - here we go, I'll warn you, today was Pip centric. Cute though!







Thought I'd try documenting what I wear everyday too. We'll see if I remember to keep it up! Do you like my new wardrobes? Still trying to get my room straight. I was hoping it'd be done by now but oh well, a messy bed and walls in need of a coat of paint is all part of the here and now so it's all good!

Hope you're having a lovely day wherever you are xxx