Jen's World

Started Scrapbooking Again

Well with a year or so gone by, I have managed to sort out my srapbooking stash following my house move, and have managed to relocate my scrap room, sort most of it out and rediscover most of my stash. 

I've been to a crop last weekend which reinspired me, and now I am raring to go, and have done three LOs in a week, more than I have done in the last year. I need to get back into photographing my pages and share them with you, but am just taking babysteps at the moment.

Top of the agenda today was snow!

I did 53 mins of aerobic exercise at the gym, and feel proud of myself.

 

More scrapping.

I did this Lay Out some days ago, but couldn't get around to editing the image properly as my Photoshop Elements has become tempremental.  Pout!!  Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's offering, The picture was taken about three years ago by the lovely Stevie on Felixtowe beach.  I can't believe that my boys looked the same size.  I know they are very close in age, but now, Elliott, who is 15 tomorrow, has shot up this last year and is taller than me, and his voice has dropped at least two octaves.  I sometimes think I have a strange man in the house when I hear him in another room.  I tried to get a bit arty with this Lo, I used some rub ons and inked around the lacy paper.The design is loosely based on a design I say in a very old Scrapbooking Trends Mag of March 2007, by Tammy Morrill.  I love the little heart I made, it's paper again with rubons on, and I'm glad I haven't lost the knack to fiddle with those tiny little bows made from ribbon.

Ok, that's it for now.  I'm halfway through another Lo which I might get done tonight.

I'm so thrilled to be back scrapping. I might even need to find a crop to go to. :0)

She passed

Today was the day of Sophie's driving test, her 2nd one.  She had an early lesson and then I dropped her off at the driving school.  I returned home and was so nervous, time ticked on and I didn't hear, but for some reason I felt that was a postive thing.  Once I got a text she passed, I rang her and screamed down the phone, she wasn't  over excited because her instructor was driving home, and she probably felt a bit embarrassed, but I was so excited for her.  I took her and her boyfriend out for lunch to celebrate, and took the ritual photo of her tearing up her L plates!!.  Then it was handed over to her, she drove around the block and then down to her dancing school, where she is going tonight and then took her boyfriend home.  I'm pushing her a bit, to gain confidence.  She got back to the car after midnight tonight, and I was worried that she wouldn't be able to demist the car as it's very cold tonight, but she managed, took a friend home and turned up home safely.  Thank Goodness.  Will I ever stop worrying??

And more scrapping....

There's no stopping me now.  Last night I finished off the 3rd LO in two days.  It is again a Pencil Line's sketch no 161 by Anna.  I think I shall have to stick at sketches for now as I am so rusty.  This LO is some very old pics of Sophie and her cousin Hannah in June 2006, they'll both hate this when they see it, but I like to keep the memories.  I need to get some of my newer photos printed and then I can get back scrapping some newer things and do some more uptodate journalling.  Sorry the LO looks a bit wonky, but trust me everything is stuck on straight, and I should know better than to not take photos in bright sunshine!

Today has been so beautiful and sunny, second day in a row, we just never seem to get that relentless rain everyone else in England gets, but I guess we are about the most easterly point.

It's a nerve wracking day tomorrow for a certain young lady in the household and I wish her all the best luck in the world. xx

Scrapping Again

Thanks to Cath Stannard who inspired me yesterday with her Pencil Lines LO, I was tempted to get back to my scrapping after a break of 18 months.  Before starting anything new, I had to finish of my unfinished LO.   I was sick of looking at it too everytime I went into my scraproom, but I did used to love the LO.   It comes from a designer in Jenni Bowlin's gallery that came with one of her kits about 2 years ago.  It's a scraplift, but with my house of course! 

This was our first proper house we had when our family moved from Norfolk down to Devon.  I was 14 at the time, It was in a tiny, tiny little hamlet called Warkleigh, we had a good few acres of land with it.  We had chickens, tame lambs, dogs, cats and even neighbour's horses, it was a real shift of lifestyle for me.  Our neighbour was Carol Klein, the TV gardening guru, she used to be my sister's art teacher.  I remember the day she moved in and them renovating their house. The circle around the scalloped cardstock is drawn, not stitched! 

The Lo, that I actually managed to complete last night from start to finish is was this week's Pencil Line sketch n0 162 by Michelle.   It's just some quite old photos of my Boys, and their cousin Will taken in 2006.  I used an old Jenni Bowlin kit from June 2008.  (Gosh I have loads of them stacked up and unused, it will take me a long time to get through them all.)  I'm pleased with it anyway and it was great to use such a fab sketch.

Typepad has changed so much since I last used it, that I am struggling to find where all the old buttons are, so excuse me if this looks a bit rubbish for now.

So what have I been doing with myself over the last year if I haven't been scrapbooking?  Well I've been madly growing veggies in my garden, and had some very sucessful crops of just about everything, and I am still harvesting lettuce, carrots, curly Kale and chinese radishes.  My other obsessive hobby is my family tree, and I spend loads of time on it.  I love the detective work and I have recently managed to obtain a lot of photos from my Aunt, which are gorgeously old and beautiful.  I'm still trying to put some names to faces though.

Trawling through parish records are a favourite of mine, and I love seeing the little comments left by the parish priest.  Last week I was going through burial records in the 1770s, and found an entry that said the name of the man followed by "who was killed by a windmill"  I just had to laugh out loud.  I'm sure it was devastating at the time, but I just had visions of this windmill chasing this poor man around the field!!

I'm halfway though another LO, which I hope to finish tonight.. It's great to be back blogging to, except I doubt anyone will read it.  Hee hee!

Jennie

 

Soooo Long, but glad to be back

I don't even know how long it is since I was last here, but I have time on my hands at the moment.  I was inspired today to scrapbook.  I've niot done that for a very long time, and it felt good.  I have so much stash, that it feels like I have just been shopping, but I have piles of Jennie Bowlin kits to play with.  I will upload the LOs I did tonight, tomorrow in the daylight, as I have lost the software I used to use, "Arc Soft" to knit my images together, so I shall have to get used to photographing them.

Life has not been good to me recently.  I've not been over well, but have improved somewhat over the last week, and find rsting, however boring, really is the best remedy. I ned to go back to work at some stage, but I am not quite sure I'm just quite there yet.

My main passion over the last year or two has been my family tree. I spend hours doing this, and get so excited when I discover something new, which is nearly everyday.

Hopefully I will be posting on here a bit more regulary.

{Happy New Year Folks}

A very slow family evening showing very little interest in celebrating the new year in.  Sophie worked until10:30, and then for the first time desserted the family and went to a friend's family party.

At the last minute we all got together and shouted and jumped up and down watching the fireworks, and probably took 100 awful photos.  I can't face looking at them tonight, but might show you tomorrow. I missed my little girl tonight though, although we did shout HNY down the phone.

Hopefully get to the beach for a lovely Winter walk tomorrow!

Happy New Year to all of you, and I hpethis new year brings you love , health and happiness. (And I guess a little bit of wealth would help too!}

{Back to work already}

Wow, this Christmas holiday went quick for me, and I was back to work in a flash.  part from defrosting the windscreen for 10 minutes of my precious time, everything went well at work.

I then took the plunge and rejoined Slimming World!  My weight was a shock, but it had to happen at some point, I had to take stock of the situation and do something about it.  I feel better that it's done now, and I start tomorrow.  My "very healthy" lunch is already packed up in the fridge ready for tomorrow.  I wonder howlong I can continue to make it the night before?

I am not totally sad to see theend of this year tomorrow, it'snot been a totally bad year, but I wouldn't want to repeat it again.

I'm working New Year's Eve, and will have to drive to pick up my daughter from work at some ungodly hour, so no drinking or snacking if I'm following my new SW diet anyway, so it'll be a pretty boring evening watching the TV, or a board game of monopoly with the boys, their favourite Christmas present this year.

I shall record all my New Year Resolutions tomorrow, I am always up for a new start, and a change in my habits, so I do take the whole thing very seriously.

Oooops!

I guess no-one reads this anymore, but in case you do, I hope your Christmas Festivities went well. 

 I had a fab family Christmas with my sis and her family and my Pa over.  My niece and nephew are both so grown up now, in height and age! Monopoly and remote control tiny helicopters kept all the boys busy.  Sophie worked her poor tired feet off waitressing all over Christmas, and is only just recovering from a really terrible cold.  It really knocked her for six.  Both Justin and I are fighting it at the moment.  I am feeling quite unwell today!

I've had to take quite a break from my blog over the last few months.  Mainly time and a few other issues.  I've taken a real back seat with my Scrapbooking lately.  I resigned from Scrapagogo Design Team, I just couldn't keep up with doing so many designs to order and would much rather scrap for myself.  My camera was out of use for many months, and so both my blogging and scrapbooking was affected by that.

Another thing is I have felt very unhappy about myself generally over the last few months.  My health has deteriorated a bit, I have been walking with a walking stick now for some time, my weight has ballooned, and I just don't tackle the heaps of "stuff" that needs doing.  My latest was to send out no Christmas cards.  How sloppy!!

On a more optimistic level, I can do something about my weight and I am tackling that as a New Years Resolution, one thing I am pretty good at keeping.  I need to be more organised and get more stuff done, but this is hard as I am working much longer hours now.  I'm much happier at work than I have been for a long time, so that is a definite plus in my life.

I shall be back a lot more regularly, get some scrapping done, now I have  had a good rest, and at last get some photos taken.

I use Facebook regularly for anyone who reads this and really does want to talk to me more regularly.

Have a Happy New Year, but I will be back before then, I promise.

{Changeling}

I went to see this film tonight.  I had great expectations of it, as a bit of a 1920s costume drama, which it was, including the old 1920 cars and LA trams.  Angelina Jolie was fantastic, I hope she wins an Oscar, she deserves it.  It was a harsh reality film ie true story, about the corruptions of the LAPD etc.  But some scenes were brutal and disturbing and it was only a 15 rating.  I'm not sure I would want my 16 yr old to see it. I think some of the scenes will haunt me for a while, but it was such a moving film, one that will stick with you for a long time.  Don't find out the ending before you can see it, that's what keeps your willing all the way through.

My Pa has his old girlfriend from his teenage years staying for a break with him, so I invited Felicty to come with me tonight for a girlie night out.  We had such a fab chat about our lives, and got on so well.  It's only the second time we have met, but we spent plenty of time over a meal and coffee discussing life.  But we were a right pair hobbling around with walking sticks.  I loved her company, and look forward to her being my guest for Sunday lunch.