Secret Pleasure

I am now admitting to anewly discovered secret pleasure. I have always liked musicals, but have recently started to watch the old Hollywood , big production musicals. They have no real concrete plot, but are pure escapism, such fun!

Once upon a time

This is a layout of my Dad and his brother . I came across the photo whilst cleaning at Dads and i just love Dads' attitude. although the younger of the brothers I think he ran poor Roy ragged.

September

September is one of my favourite months, I love May too. The reasons are many and some I can't quite explain, like the feeling in the air, the smells, the start of Autumn. It is the month in which two of my children were born. It is also the month that the local fair comes to town. So, I find myself remembering the excitement when the fair arrives, the anticipation of my visit to it and the fun to be had. Now we rarely go, but the memories live on .

Me crafting

Here I am in the craft room, chilling and making a decopatch cat as a christmas present for my Aunt. I gave my other Aunt one for her birthday and loads of people loved it. hence doing another for her sister. It is a technique I enjoy, from ripping the paper to finding the right shapes to fit. I fine it realy relaxing.

Been a busy bee.

Not updated for a while, so I have a few pages to add. This course is really making me think, as I am off work at the mo, it gives less opprtunities to find things to do pages about, so i really am having to dig deep. It is good for the brain.

No regrets is from a prompt theat Shimelle did about the subject. I decided to take the wider view and look at my life, so far, in general. September is such a beautiful time in nature that I wanted to capture it. Finally, "Dancing", I have always loved to dance and I had a little bop on Saturday, despite feeling really tired and poorly, it really lifted my spirits.

Blood and more blood

Had to go for yet another blood test today, I felt like if they drained off much more I'd not be able to get out of the chair. Hopefully it will all be worth it. My LSNED page for yesterday was on the cupcakes I made for the first time and I have also done a 12 x 12 page for my album. It is of me and my Dad at our sons' wedding in April. I wanted to journal how I feel about my Dad. but I hid it in the book. Dad is always there for me, always supportive and always cheerful. Just a great Dad. the picture is not the best but I have used lots of different pieces of lace as embellishments my usual wooden letters painted in acrylic paint and then a thin coat of crackle accents.

Funny ol'day

Today as been quite eventful really. had to take Dad to the hospital for a venus section, or to have his blood drained off, as he likes to put it. Bless! On the way home I had to stop the car to pick up an elderly lady who had fallen on the pavement. She told me that she wanted to just sit for a while and I was happy with that, but another lady stopped her car (and blocked the road). She took over and made the injured lady stand up. When I thought about it later I was mad that I wasn't more forceful. It turned out that the lady couldn't walk. the interfering lady had to go and move her car when another woman came and took over and was much more sensible, she ran to the chemist nearby and got a chair whilst I supported the injured lady. She found it difficult to sit down and we thought maybe she had hurt her hip. An ambulance was called and I continued on my journey to take Dad home. Later I had to go back to the hospital for my scan so it was a theme for the day, won't have results for a while.

Here is yesterdays page for LSNED. It is of our rescue cat Daisy, she was absolutely petrified of everything when we had her and gradually I have won her confidence, but she will only come to me and let me pick her up. We have had her since January and it has been slow progress with her. Yesterday was a major breakthrough when she went to Steve and wanted to be picked up. He was so chuffed, as I was too. Another hurdle jumped, I was beginning to think that she would only ever come to me. She is better with visitors now too and will poke her nose around the door to look at them, whereas before she would be out the catlap in a flash and hide in the garden. She is a lovely cat. Very gentle and loving and so sweet. I am so glad that we rescued her, it wouldn't be home now without her and Jack our other cat too.

Reflections

Our course has reached the half-way stage today. Time to reflect on all the lessons learnt so far. firstly yesterdays page is the first without a photo. My day was very frustrating dealing with Drs and the hospital, I learnt that when you're not feeling the best the last thing you need is extra stress from officialdom!

My half-way reflections have brought me to the conclusion that there are three things that really matter in life. 1) Health 2) Family 3) Friends.

I used acrylic to go with the reflection theme and inked it with alcohol inks, writing directly onto it with permanent markers. I decided not to do an actual page on the back, but have just decorated it to hide the backs of todays page.

Poorly girl

Not been on for a while as I have been poorly. I am having various tests, but as I keep seeing different Drs it is all rather frustrating. My Dr is on a sabbatical so I have to bear with it. My lates tpage for the LSNED is about my eldest son. He came home for the weekend and we managed a bit of time alone. I had to get up at 7.15 am and endure the repeatr of Match of the Day, but it was worth it. Later we visited our second son and guess what, he was watching Match of the Day too. he'd recorded it. Lucky me. Yesterday was a good day though, as we managed to see all three of our kids, not something we manage very often in one day now that they are all settled in their own homes with their partners.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be back on course and will be able to upload my latest page.

Women drivers

My LSNED page for yesterday is about my inablility to park after 3 attempts. My sister laughed so much that she cried. She is terrible at parking so was very amused when I couldn't do it either. I am usually pretty good, but the car next to me was parked on an angle, it must have been his fault.

My middle son was 26 yesterday, I can't believe it! He really is special, everyone thinks highly of him, he is thoughtful, kind and funny. Next July he is getting married and his fiancee is as special as he is, they will make a fantasic family.

True friendship

The BBQ that I had to leave early because of my migraine, was for a friends 50th birthday. DH and he have been friends since childhood and his Wife and I became friends when she started to court him. That was over 30 years ago. Yesterday, after hosting their party and having to do all the clearing up they still made time to phone and see how I was, I learnt what true friendship was and how nice it felt to receive that call, it made me realise what a long way a small act like that can go to making someone feel better and I resolve to be more thoughtful like that myself.

Migraine

My lovely weekend at home alone, was completely ruined by a migraine. I have had to to go bed this afternoon again, because I just couldn't shift it. I took imigrain at 6 am but it came back again, so i took another dose at about 3.30pm. It seems to have worked now, thank goodness. It is so debillitating.
For todays LSNED page I followed Shimelles prompt and did a page about time,. The weekend streched out before me, two and a half days of doing whatever I wanted when I wanted, and before I knew it it was Saturday lunch-time; a bad head and a BBQ to go to, yes another. Not been to any all summer and this weekend there were two. So My theme was that I learnt that time flies. I used Tanda stamps Retro-men stamps and brown chalk ink to give an aged feel to the page.

LSNED day 4

Yesterday, I learnt that sometimes you have to give in and have a nap, if you are feeling under the weather. The problem was that the phone kept ringing. Must be a nightmare for people who have to sleep in the day i.e night workers. So that is the theme for my page. Aunty's birthday bbq went well, although the weather was too cold and windy to sit outside. Got home at about 10.

Today it was a funny coincidence, I had an old photo of my Grandparents that I found recently whilst sorting out some of my dads things. I had never seen it before, and loved it. It had obviously been sat for in a studio and is so clear of them both that I have also framed it and put it on my craftroom wall. Well I never knew my Grand fer but my Gran looked after me alot when I was young. The coincidence is that while I was scarpping their photo, I was eating Jaffa cakes, yummy! My Gran always bought me Jaffa cakes and I didn't realise the coincidence until I was well into the task at hand. On this photo I used K&CO papers, lace and ribbon and some old buttons.

The baby I saw yesterday was so cute and smily, unfortunately I hadn't checked that my battery on the camera was charged, so no photos. Then, when I got home I found Jack and Daisy cuddled up on the armchair. They looked so cute and I was able to run and get the other camera to capture it. So, my page for yesterday is about the little pleasures a day can bring. Today I bumped into a friend in town and we had a cuppa and a chat which was nice, as it is unusual for us to have the same days off. This afternoon I am planning on just chilling, as tonight I am off to my Aunts 70th birthday party. A neighbour gave me a bread making machine yesterday, so I have fired it up and am eagerly awaiting a nice fresh loaf. Will see how it turns out.

LSNED day 2 Coming Home

I took my camera out and about with me today, (well to work). The weather was absolutely awful and as I approached home I thought, what a pleasure it is to come home, even when you've only been at work. So I took a picture as I turned into my drive and decided to use it as my theme. Today I have an unexpected ay off because I worked extra on Tuesday. This means I am not back at work until Wednesday, wonderful. Just done some cleaning, had a visit from my dear sister and am going to see afriend and her new baby later. So should be able to get a theme for tomorrow.

02/09/08

Today was an interesting day, I came to the decision not to get worked up about my less than favourable contract, because I simply can't be bothered. Came home in an absolute downpour , I do enjoy heavy rain, that was after the umbrella lost the fight against the elements, I got soaked but it was quite exhilarating .I thought how wonderful it is to come home, so that will be the theme for tomorrows page about today ! If that makes sense. Here is yesterdays page, done today, about the new contract. My darling daughter came around this evening and brightened the day.

01/09/09 - New Beginings

Well the day has arrived today is the day we try to Learn Something New every day. I unexpectedly had to work today, as someone was sick, so my day was turned upside down and my plans scuppered. Iwas planning on a crafting session, but can't really do it until tomorrow as I need to see what I will learn today.

Here is my front cover for the album, I have used K& Co, Amy Butler Lotus paper and will use it throughout for continuity, that's the plan anyway. The title is a piece of stampboard, chalked with chalk ink and then stamped with Stazon. I then used ultra thick embossing powder in two layers. The book page is left over from the Stress-free classs I have just finished. It was painted with white acrylic paint and then the design was printed onto it when dry. The "J" is a wooden letter painted, stamped in Stazon and covered in gloss finish.

New at blogging

I am new to blogging, so I thought I'd give it a go. I am about to start a scrapping course with Shimelle Lane called Learn something new every day and I hope to blog what it is I learn and pictures from the class