The One About Having Scrappers Block...

This weekend has just not gone as I'd planned.  The idea was that my new supplies would be here by Friday and I would be able to start my new project.  Unfortunately for completely unknown reasons, despite my supplies being posted first class on Tuesday, they haven't arrived.  I sat in yesterday waiting for the postman, and only moved when M's dad turned up to postie watch whilst I had a shower.  I was in a strop all day!

The new project I want to do is Document 2011.  I've seen what lots of other people have done both for 2010, and for the start of 2011, and I thought I'd like to do that.  So as part of my treat I ordered some supplies that I could use for it, intending to make some headway into it this weekend.  I've been back through my emails and text messages and diary and put together some of the things that I did January through to MArch.  Then of course I started blogging so April and May will be a lot easier.  So I'm ready and waiting, and not able to get started.

So I thought rather than waste the opportunity, I would do some other scrapping.  So I printed off some photos from when Mum and I went to Speke hall in April, and some photos from a wedding we went to last summer.  And I just couldn't get in the groove.  I chose the card, and the papers.  The problem was the layout itself, and how I was to do the journalling.  I conscious that my LO's seem to be quite samey, with the title at the top, and the journalling in strips to the side or one the right.  So, I've put it all away.  Maybe having slept on it I'll have a better idea for how it should look tomorrow, but I didn't want to force it, and I just wasn't having fun.

It must be the thought of new stash!  Up till now I've been quite happy rooting through my old supplies, and always finding something that will work. So... I'll see what tomorrow brings.

In other news, today might just be the last time that I scrap on the living room floor, so I though I'd share a photo before I packed it all away.

The reason being, my craft area is very nearly done.  All the wood has been varnished this afternoon, so tomorrow all M has to do is fit it altogether, and screw various bits in!  Yey, so I might just have a finished craft area tomorrow!  These are a few of the pictures of what has been done today:

The top of the unit in the process of being varnished

The varnish went on it different layers, three coats of deep mahogany, with one layer of maple on top

This is the fold down work-top

These will be the legs

This is the unit that goes behind that fold down bit, and can be used to house little bits and bobs if I want it to.  It would involve crawling under the table to get at them though!

So... has anyone else ever had scrappers block?  And what do you do to combat it?  I need help!

The One About Five Things....

.... that won't be around in 5 years.  Amy, that writes one of my favourite blogs has issued a challenge, to photograph/blog about/scrap 5 things that will not be around in 5 years time.  At first I found this quite tricky, but with M's input I have the following 5 things:

1

These flowers certainly won't be around much longer!  I've decided recently that it cheers me up to have flowers in the living room, so rather than waiting for flowers to be bought for me, last week I just decided to buy these myself because the tulips just looked so cheerful!

2

The dining room table.  We have decided that replacing this is on our list of things to do, its really not big enough when we have dinner parties, and M is going to build his own (when he has the time) so that you can sit four, or you can extend it and sit 6 or 8.  (He's good at building things with wood, he did the stairs to the top floor bedroom, and is currently building my craft space)

3 Yorkshire Puddings!  M insisted!  He has been trying to perfect his recipe for the last two years, and on Thursday, these were the yummy yorkshire puddings that he cooked, well they certainly didn't last very long!

4 The video machine.  I think my Mum and I are the only ones that I know of that still uses a video machine.  I only use mine when I want to do my Yoga workouts, as they are still on video, and I haven't got round to buying the workouts on DVD!

5 This is currently the spare room/where we dry the washing/my library!  Fingers crossed in the next 5 years it will become the nursery :)

Don't forget to pop back to Amy's blog to check out everyone else's 5 things :)

And if you feel like it, please do leave a link to your favourite LO, which can be done at the bottom of this post.

The One About the Exams....

So Tuesday morning very quickly came around.  And I was rudely awakened by the wind and the rain well before the alarm was due to go off.  It sounded like a hurricane, and a down pour all at once (it always sounds worse in our bedroom that we would expect as we're right at the top of the house directly under the roof).  My first thought was oh o, I've got to go down an unfamiliar motorway to the exam venue in torrential rain.  So all I could do was hope that the rain would hold off later on.

Because I had to be at the exam venue for 9am, and I didn't know how long it would take me to get there in the rush hour, I raced around the house, and was off at 7:30am (I know it sounds mad to leave an hour and a half for a 40minute journey, but last time I went down this motorway in the rush hour it took me over an hour just to get to the motorway, so I was being cautious!)  Luckily the rain had eased off, and the traffic wasn't so bad so I was worrying for no reason (I worry about everything - its very difficult to turn it off!)

Photo courtesy of Ashton Under Lyne.com

The other issue was that the exam venue didn't have a car park, and I had to kind of follow my nose and hope for the best when I got there to find a car park, as I didn't know Stockport at all!  Well as I got closer to the town centre, all I could see were big signs telling me where the car parks were, and how many spaces were left!  So again, worrying for nothing!!!  I can't parked just around the corner from the venue, and arrived at twenty to nine - I know miles to early but what could I do!

So as it was the first exams I've taken for my AAT I had a lot of questions.  It turned out that we get our exam results about ten minutes after the exam finished, so that really pleased me as I hate waiting for anything!  And I was told that the other students doing their exams in the room might be sitting different exams to me, so I mustn't worry if some of them finish before me (I'm quite glad I was told this as in the second exam someone left after 30mins and I would have panicked!)

Well the exam was due to start at 9:30am, and I was starting to get nervous, I'd read and re-read my prompt cards and just wanted to get in the room, and get it over with!  But, someone hadn't turned up, and we had to wait for them to sort that out before we could go in.  Ten minutes later, still feeling nervous, and we were shepherded in.  I was quite relieved to find that the first exam included questions similar to the practice papers I had done so I was able to just get on with it.  I had plenty of time to check over my answers, and left early.  And..... I passed!  You don't get a numerical result with these exams, you get either a pass or a fail.  (To pass you have to get 70%)

So I had a couple of hours to kill before the second exam was due to start, then it all started again at 1:30pm (each exam was 2 hours long), and this exam was far more difficult than I was expecting.  The questions were not at all like the past papers that I had done, and so I had to take educated guesses with some of the questions.  And, I hadn't even got halfway yet when the first student left after half an hour.  Because I knew he wasn't doing the same exam I didn't let it get to me.  I plodded on, until I was the last one in the room (thats doesn't sound so bad there were only 5 of us taking the exams) and when I had checked everything over I walked out, knowing I had done everything I could.  I didn't feel very confident at all about this one, and while I waited for the result, I had butterflies in my tummy, and my heart was racing!  But... I had passed, and breathed a sigh of relief!

Competent means a pass, not competent means a fail.

Yey, half of the Level 2 qualification complete, only half to go!!!  I'm now just waiting for the next batch of study materials to arrive so I can get started.  You would think I would want a break from it, but it feels like I've been revising forever for those last two exams, and now I'm just keen to learn more new things :)

In other news, because I passed the exams I treated myself to an scrapbook stash order from Sarahs Cards (I was thinking about it last weekend, and I haven't bought any new stash in 18 months!)  I'm just waiting for it to arrive now, fingers crossed it comes today so that I can open it this weekend!  Will share piccies when it comes!

Don't forget if you haven't done already to leave a link to your favourite LO at the moment at the bottom of this post here.

The One About More Weekend Scrapping...

I think I may have well and truly caught the scrapbooking bug again!  After my late night scrapping on Friday, Sunday afternoon turned out to be another scrapbooking session.  This time I focused on using photos from my Race for Life last Year, and M's Bupa Run last weekend.

I knew all along that I wanted to use the pretty pink butterfly paper for the Race for Life page, I've got a thing about butterflies at the moment.  Plus I needed to get last years photos scrapped before we do this years run in July!

For M's page, I went rooting through my paper supply, and I couldn't decide what paper to use until I came across this blue one with the birds on.  I've had it for years.  It came in a scrapbook kit from Scrapagogo a long time ago!  I love how this LO turned out, its one of my favourites I think :)

I'd be interested to see what your favourite LO's are at the moment please leave a link:

The One About the Very Nearly Finished Craft Space...

So M did lots of work on the construction of the craft space yesterday, and tested how it would all fit together, and I thought I would share some photos, so you can get an idea of how it will all work.  I'm so excited about it!

With the desk out

A look at the cubby holes under the table

How it will look all folded away

So all it needs now is for the lighter wood to be varnished to match the drawers and shelves, and the various bits screwing in place properly and then it will be finished!

I'm also going to have some shelves put up on the wall on the right hand side, and I'm thinking of getting some clear glass jars & pots to put things in.

Then on the wall that runs at right angles to the craft area I'm going to put up some frames LO's, I just need to find some 12x12 frames.  Any ideas please let me know.

The One About my Late Night Scrapping...

So last night was my scrapping night while M was out at boys night, and goodness I really was up late - for me anyway.  I packed it in and went up to bed at 1am, and by that time my back was really sore, because for now I scrap on the living room floor, and it doesn't half hurt after a while bending over on my knees!  Luckily though I have a yoga mat that I can sit on as we have laminate floorboards in our front room!  (Fingers crossed it won't be long until my craft space will be ready - M has been dispatched outside while the weather is dry to do some more work on the wood :)  I think all it needs is some sanding, then the worktop and leg mechanisms need varnishing, and it all putting together).

So after nearly 4 hours of scrapping, I finished one LO, and one DLO.  (It took me a while to find the photos - some are on my PC, some are on M's laptop, and some are on the portable hard-drive.  It turned out that my PC doesn't recognise the hard-drive which was a bit of a pain as I had over 200 pictures from our holiday in madeira that I wanted to put on it.  I know this all sounds rather complicated, but the printer is currently downstairs and I print from the laptop).

Anyway, back to the LO's.  The first one was of our trip to Alton Towers shortly after we first met.  I had completely forgotten that I had taken photos whilst we were there, so it was a nice surprise to find them!  I took inspiration from Shimelle's 6x4 Photo Love class, and the LO came together really quickly.  I had a bit of an accident with some glue, but managed to cover it up with a co-ordinating red circle embellishment!

Next up was the DLO of our trip to the rugby league final of Wigan Warriors versus St Helens last February (?), so can't remember the date, now that I'm blogging hopefully I won't forget things like that now!  M's dad printed photos off from the trip a while ago, so I just decided to scrap them (all that faffing about with the printing of photos, and I only used three that I printed myself!  What am I like!  Think it was the wine that I was drinking that had something to do with it!!!)  Anyway as it was a special occasion and we didn't know whether the Wigan Warriors would make it to the final again, P (M's dad) decided to make a proper day of it and go to one of the hospitality suites first.  It was fab!

Bit of a dilemma about what to wear (well we were advised to dress smartly, but then I had to factor in we'd be sat outside in the cold to watch the match!), but after a yummy three course meal, we went out to find our seats.  We were up in one of the corners, quite high up, and with a good view of the screen to see the close-ups.  I can't pretend to understand all of the rules, but I got quite excited every time they scored, and cheered them on.  And it made our day that they won!  M and his Dad are season ticket holders so they try to go to all of the home matches, and some of the away ones (means I get to scrap on a Friday night!)  and sometimes, for exiting matches I tag along, or if there is an away trip somewhere nice I tag along there too (last year I went to the game in Hull, and we had a nice look round the town before the match).  Only if it's in the warmer months of the year, during the winter months unless it is going to be a really spectacular game I stay at home in the warmth!  Not really a cold weather person!!!

So I was thinking about how long it took me to put just two pages together, and I wondered... how long does it take you to put a page together?  And does it bother you that it might take three hours to do just one SLO?

The One About All the Blinds...

So last weekend we finally got both of the blinds up, I say we, I mean really that M put them up!  I did have to decorate my purple one first though!

A few weeks ago I ordered a roman blind for our downstairs loo, and a roller blind for the kitchen, and last week they finally came.  The kitchen blind was pretty straight forward, a simple case of M putting it up on the wall (and the little pull string is rather pretty too):

The purple blind however was another matter.  I wanted something purple to match my colour scheme, but any interesting blinds were just far too expensive or didn't come in the right size.  So I ordered a plain one with the idea that I would use my KandiKane to add some silver gemstones to give it some interest.  So I spent an hour last Saurday morning measuring out the spacings for the gems, and sticking them down.  And actually I'm quite pleased with the result:

Tomorrow night M is out having a boys night, so I might just get some scrapping done :)