More Lessons

Days 22 to 26 went a little bit like this:

22 - I can't be in three places at one time.

23 - I can't run for three minutes just yet even though week 3 of c25k calls for it.  I did, however, find a flatter route than the previous one I have been doing.

24 - My eldest leaving for university is easier to cope with the second year.  Lots of problems in the house she and her friends are renting, not least an unfinished but useable bathroom and no hot water until today.



25 - horse chestnuts, or conkers as we in the UK call them, have markings on them which I've never noticed before. 

This was the haul little man and my other half got from the park on sunday.

26 - The decorating is not going to do itself and I need to make a start hence having to call at B&Q for a filling knife to get the holes in the walls filled in.

Still Learning

Day 16 was definitely that tissues and the washing machine are not a good mix and that they clog up the tumble dryer filter

Day 17 was that scrapping for just because rather than commitments can be enjoyable (see yesterday's post for the layout) and that is what it is supposed to be about.


Day 18 was that the weather can be unpredictable especially when I have delicates on the washing line that can't be tumble dried.

Day 19 was that it costs quite a lot more to travel by train into the big city at 9am than it does at 10am.

We got to shop in almost empty shops though so there are positives.  Gotta love Cath Kidston and I got to have a look at some of the lovely stuff in there without other people being right where I want to be (I hate that lol).  I'm currently eyeing up a new purse.  Expensive but I might treat myself for a big birthday which is coming up next month.  The purpose of the trip was for the last few bits (apart from food shopping) that my eldest needs for going back to university on saturday.  We got her most of the essentials last year so there wasn't a huge amount to buy - mainly things like a new duvet, sheets, duvet cover because she has a double rather than single bed this year, stationery, pegs because she will be in a house and able to hang her washing out rather than in her flat in the halls of residence last year and general bits and pieces. 



Still running and this was yesterday's run. I'm happy with that pace although it didn't feel any faster than the 25 minute miles from last week so I'm taking everything the pace thing tells me with a pinch of salt. I'm still convinced that 25 minute miles are definitely not what I did.

Exactly two months today I am having a stall at a craft fair for the very first time.  For the last few weeks I have been messing around with yarn and trying to perfect a couple of ideas. I think I'm pretty sure on one of them now so here is a little sneaky peeky.  Taken with my phone because my dear husband has taken the camera to work with him as he is going off to the Leeds v Manchester game straight from work.

Scrapbook Starting Points

Have you stopped by Shimelle's blog lately? She has started something called Starting Points where she has a picture of a starting point of a layout.  The latest one (full details here) was this:




Love how she has used stripy paper because I hardly ever use it and it is a satisfying feeling to use a full piece of paper every now and again.  I chose some Jillybean Soup papers from the September Scraproom kit and my starting point turned out like this (crap phone pic)

which then became this

Ack.... I hate the photo of the layout.  I need a scanner or lessons in how to photograph something 12x12 so it doesn't look like this.

LSNED Plus A Bit Of A Skywatch

Day 13 was Tuesday and my lesson was I need to be more organised and not leave things until the last minute.  Also maybe not to overcommit.  I don't think I'll be taking on any more round robin things for a while.

Day 14 was yesterday and with it brought what I think must have been an absolutely outstanding sunset.  I only caught the very end of it and even then it was from the car when I was driving out of Asda carpark. (I did park back up to take the pic).  So this is my bit of a skywatch picture for this week. A bit of one because it is quite rubbish and blurry.  The blanket of cloud was black against the bottom bit of sky which was pink.  Not something I've seen for quite a while.

Day 15 is one that I have been learning all year.  Today is the first anniversary of my dad losing his wife to a very long battle against the horrible c disease.  We knew the end was coming and we hadn't seen her for a few months for no particular reason so myself and my daughter who was shortly going to university for her first year decided we would go to the hospice and made arrangements to visit on the wednesday (15th).  Unfortunately the time scale the doctor had given her didn't quite work out and she died a short time before we were due to visit.  I made the decision, along with my sister and brother, to go and see her anyway and I'm glad I did.  Back to the learning and my lesson learnt is that we can't dwell on regrets.  We can't change what has already happened.

I'm going to do something I never normally do and ask something so please don't take offence and just bypass it if you like because I feel guilty asking. My brother in law is running the Great North Run this weekend to raise money in her memory for the hospice where she died.  If you have a few spare pennies they are very much appreciated. His fund raising page is here 

LSNED Catch Up

Here are days 8 to 12.

Day 8 I learnt not to leave my eldest son in charge of cutting and cooking green beans for tea whilst I take little man for his swimming lesson. Burnt pan and no edible beans.

Burnt Saucepan

Day 9 I learnt that, despite doing the exercise, eating crap doesn't get rid of the excess weight and at weigh in today I was the same as last week.

Day 10 My middle man (13 year old) accompanied me to the big park for my run this morning.  He was on the school cross country team last year so in theory it was a good combination to take him.  In practice though maybe not.  All my fault though because I left his inhaler in the car.  He hasn't had any symptoms for several months so I didn't really consider taking it until half way around and he was struggling for his breath.  The decision was made to take a steady walk back to the car instead of carrying on.  Lesson learnt was definitely not to second guess that he would be OK and that his inhaler still needs to come with us. 

Walked half the runs

Day 11 A massive spider took up residence in the living room this evening and I hadn't estimated how much of a phobia certain people in this house have of them.

Day 12 today - running again but a big lesson for me in technology.  I was messing with the c25k app I use over the weekend and today I just pressed the go button thinking it would start at the next run from the last one I did - erm no doesn't work like that.  I ended up doing day 1 week 1 again.  However, since I didn't do it properly on Saturday and considering I stupidly chose a route with an unexpected incline and the wind was quite strong I maybe didn't make too much of a mistake.  I'll just start week 2 on Wednesday instead.

Wrong Week

Speaking of the wind - it isn't the actual hurricane we are getting here in the UK.  It isn't possible for a hurricane to hit.  My daughter explained it all to me yesterday and I had heard it on the local weather forecast on Friday aswell.  It is something to do with the sea temperature having to be at a minimum of 27 degrees to a certain depth which we just do not get here.  Gales more like but definitely not a hurricane as lots of places are reporting.

LSNED - Day 3

Day 3 I discovered I love Webster Pages after receiving a massively discounted warehouse sale package. It cost me just over £30 including postage from the US and I got a mammoth amount of loveliness. Lots of papers underneath the gorgeous embellishments you can see in the picture. I've only ever had one or two pieces of patterned paper from Websters Pages before and definitely no embellishments apart from a very small length of ribbon in a kit once so I am very excited at the contents of my box.



There are a few christmassy bits in there but with a bit of creativity they can also be universal or I could just use it as an excuse to sign up for shimelle's Christmas class :)

LSNED day 2

No picture for day 2. It was the first session of a rerun of the weight management course I have done three times before. Every time in the past I have missed some sessions so I signed up again to revisit the lessons from the previous times and hopefully manage to catch the ones I missed. It's a fantastic free course run by the nhs aimed at educating people about the way we eat, what we eat and how to make small changes which add up to big differences to our health.

Anyway my lesson was from the weight scales that in the three weeks since the last course finished I managed to maintain my weight despite being lazy about exercise.

Learn Something New Everyday Day 1

Are you taking part in Learn Something New Everyday over at Shimelle.com?

I signed up for Learn Something New Everyday (hereafter known as LSNED) a couple of years ago and the great thing about Shimelle's classes is that once you are signed up that is it for however many times the class runs.  LSNED is a September class and this will be my third time trying to do it.  The first year I manged something like 4 layouts for the class and ended up just doing a montage layout with tiny photos at the end because I couldn't keep up.  Last September was a particularly sad one for our family and something happened slap bang in the middle which made it difficult to get motivated.  This year I'm hoping I can stay on track.

Anyway off we go with Day 1 in which I learnt that my little man is not so much a little man anymore and is turning into a bit of a daredevil.

We went to a park with one of those spider web climbing things and he would usually just stay at the bottom but this time he was like grease lightning.  I stood his scooter up at the side of me and got my phone out of my pocket, pressed the hipsta button and looked up.  He was almost at the top and wanted to know how to get to the very top point!

This photo scares me because he was just holding on with one hand and looking at the view. 

I guess he is growing up.

10 Things On The 10th

This is my first time joining in with 10 Things On The 10th over at Shimelle's blog

10 random sort of things from over the last couple of weeks:


1. My boys have found a love of reading. Harry Potter for the eldest two and erm Master Crooks for this one lol

2.  We have been on lots of buses

3. My little one never bores of the steam train arriving.

4. Even the ordinary should be recorded every once in a while

5. He loves his football

6. There is a massive sense of satisfaction at producing homegrown veggies

7. Even when it is raining the river is a peaceful place to be once you learn to ignore the noise of the clay pigeon shooters

8. Birds on feeders are incredibly difficult to photograph when they want to be.  You can just see the blur of it flying away.

9.  Whilst I don't mind watching birds on feeders as above, when they appear very close to the back door and are capable of staring out the dogs and then have their eyes on said back door they really do freak me out.  This one did just that earlier this week and no it wasn't injured.  Same with pigeons in town - I hate them because I know they are going to set off and flap their wings as soon as I walk by them.  (photo taken out of the window)

10. The council need to get a big stick and make the man in charge of the allotments do his job.  Just look at the state they are in.  People like myself are willing to take on plots yet they let them get into this overgrown condition.  Letter of complaint together with photographic evidence should be hitting their desk right about now.

1.

Explore - Cover and Prompt 4

I'm out of order with the prompts.  I've made the little playbook out of 2 12x12 sheets of cardstock as suggested by Shimelle.  I misted a doily and added some chipboard covered letters to make a quick cover.

I haven't really had a proper chance to look at the prompts properly and get my head around the thinking so I haven't yet done prompts two and three. 

 Prompt four was an easy one for me.  It was about perfection.  I intend the project to be about this summer and perfection to me is one thing that I have particularly enjoyed this year and that is growing things from seed.  What springs from a tiny seed and leads to such perfect flowers is miraculous.  Nature is amazing.

This year I planted

Marigolds which cost 19p for the packet:

Pumpkins which we planted at brownies and I used a couple of spare seeds so a freebie

Tomatoes which were in a grow pot thing which was reduced to 49p in Wilkinson

some beans which are just starting to form

and a nasturtium which came in a seed bomb thing with 3 others that haven't produced anything at all despite being looked after the same.  Also in this tub are some ornamental cabbages which will hopefully turn into something nice to look at in the winter. Something has eaten some of the leaves.

Bits and Pieces

Have you ever heard of Moo Cards?  I've heard them mentioned before but yesterday one of my facebook friends posted a discount code so I went for a nosey.  They are business cards but you can upload photos to print on them which makes them ideal for scrapbook layouts.  I decided to give them a go and this morning placed an order.  This threw up a discount code for me to share so if anybody fancies giving them a go (they have a sale on too) then please use this link to get 10% off your order.





My skywatch picture this week

I also joined Shimelle's Explore class this week.



Being as disorganised as I usually am I have only done part of the first prompt which is a self portrait in the mirror.

My Turn

This week it is my turn to set the challenge on Scrap Weekly In 2010.

My challenge is to use fabric.  I've just got some Basic Grey Blush so I used that on this layout

I also did this for Shimelle's class - Something From Almost Nothing.  The challenge was to use those metals that have been lying in your stash pile for years.  I used this chipboard tree from a kit I got a long long time ago.  I painted it pink and then used up some of my stash of metal eyelets.  I also used a metal rimmed tag.  I actually quite enjoyed getting my Cropodile back out and setting the eyelets.  Took a while to get back into the swing of it and some of the eyelets are much more squashed than I would like.  I plan using eyelets more regularly in future so I have decided to leave the imperfect ones as a reminder that I need to practice using them.