In the garden this week

Posted on 16 May, 2012 by mel

Clematis Montana Rubens. About seven years old.

The garden, in the last few days, has reached one of my favourite times. We have managed to get out there and do some tidying up and weeding and the plants are taking off filling the soil, growing.

I can spend minutes of every day when the garden is like this just staring at it all. Pondering what I like or what looks good or things I want to change. But really what I’m doing most of the time when I stand amongst the border plants just staring at it is just marvelling at the wonder that is Mother Nature.

Wondering how she manages to get plants to grow even though I take little care of them.

And then there are those times when instead of staring I’m taking photographs.

Which is just staring and marvelling by another name.

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Weekly layout – week nineteen

Posted on 15 May, 2012 by mel

Welcome to week nineteen. A fun layout about my niece playing a little football with her Dad. I wanted bright fun and a sense of movement for the layout.

I have been lurking on Pintrest this week (nothing new there!) and was inspired by two different layouts. This one from Studio Calico’s blog and this one which I found on Pintrest but I have linked to Two Peas where it was in their gallery. I liked the square layout of the Studio Calico one and the bright circles from the other so I used those as a jumping off point.

Here are the uncropped photos.

And them cropped down. I needed to make them as small as I could for the grid style.

I set them out on white cardstock. And realised one was short so I matted it on some pretty paper.

Then I punched circles in two sizes out of scraps of paper. I love being able to use scraps. I hoard scraps and really need to throw some out but..

I tried a half row on the right of the layout but decided against it. Then I adhered the circles before stitching with the machine. I used a ruler to get them more or less in straight rows.

I added the title from an old white alphabet and my favourite puffy American Crafts pink. I also added that little strip of yellow patterned cardstock on the right of the top photo to balance all that colour on the left and a few buttons. I loved it when I found a dark blue polka dot button which matched her shorts. You can just make the match out in the first photo of the post.

And finally I added my journalling around the top and bottom of the photos.

I liked the matting of just one picture and I liked the sewing although I think I need to make my stitch bigger.

Simple but good. And that was week nineteen.

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Weekly Layout is a series of blog posts that I am doing every week in 2012. I am walking through the process of putting the page together with a bit of background to why I picked the design and embellishments for the page. I hope to develop my style and push myself by taking on this challenge. You can see previous weeks here.

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Books and tops and facecream

Posted on 11 May, 2012 by mel

I took the car for a service and got the garage to drop me in town so I could while away the time. I don’t often go into the city centre so I was looking forward to it. If only for the change of pace.

There was something on the news the other day about the decline of city centers. I think it’s been going on for ages but they keep mentioning it. I suppose it was quiet in one way but not at lunchtime. After forty minutes sat listening to the chatter of city center workers on their lunch breaks I was so ready to go home.

But the upside is that I spent an hour wandering in the bookshop. And bought a guide book and a novel. I half promised myself I wouldn’t buy book 5 of The Mortal Instruments for a few months but I just couldn’t resist. I also could have piled about three more novels into my basket but I did more restraining as I should check out a few charity shops first.

I also bought some Liz Earle face cream and a new top.

Oh! Do I know how to live or what!

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Week in the Life – the finished album

Posted on 10 May, 2012 by mel

As with projects like Week in the Life it takes a little wrangling to get finished. But here it is.

In the end I used all the elements I mentioned here as well as that format. I added the lovely Basic Grey PB & J patterned papers into the album along with some cute wooden houses I had and some eyelets and ribbon.

Here is the original 6 x 6 album from American Crafts.

And here it is with my version of that artwork on the cover. (From the great not on the high street.)

The font is Hootie and I used text boxes in Word to position the text as I don’t know how to use Photoshop programmes to get this effect! It took quite a lot of time but I am so happy with the result.

I also used this idea for an overview of the week. I attached it to the inside of the cover after printing it onto photo paper.

Here is Monday. just according to the plan I used one 6 x 6 photo for the left side and the cut down page protector on the right.

A note about those cut down pages. Because two of the four seams in some cases were ‘open’ because of the cutting down I had to find a way to secure the photos/cardstock inside the page. You can see in the photo above the ribbon tie. I punched a hole through the page protector and photo/card and fixed an eyelet in place then threaded through ribbon and tied it in place.

Here is a clearer photo of that in a slightly different format than Monday’s.

The rest of Monday. The four photos on the right are a collage made in Photoshop.

Tuesday.

Wednesday.

Thursday.

Friday.

Saturday.

Sunday.

As well as the highlights page on the inside cover I made a pocket on the back cover to keep the hand written notes in that I jotted throughout the week.

And there it is all finished. Are yours all done?

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Bloom – early May update

Posted on 9 May, 2012 by mel

When I decided to grow flowers to fill our house I forgot about the gloomy damp and chilly British weather. And is it ever making its presence known this month. (Except for this morning when I want to take photos and the sun makes that tricky – so apologies for really bad pics today.)

I’m in panic mode. Well semi-panic anyway but I did get some annuals in the ground yesterday.

Ammi Majus.

The plan is already out the window but that’s okay gardening is an organic thing that needs to change and adapt especially when it was mu fault I planted things in the wrong beds. And Gav asked if he could plant some of his forest of lettuce in one of my Bloom beds and I could hardly refuse since they are currently empty. So I’m adapting my plan.

The green house is full of seedlings but I’m worried about my Sunflowers.

It’s out of focus but you might just make out the brown tinges to some of the leaves. I’ve already lost four seedlings. Could be over watering so I shall monitor these.

I have been hardening off the Sweet Peas and need to get on with preparing the ground and supports for them. Hopefully this week.

And finally here’s a shot of those six beds.

The self sown Euphorbia Oblongata is taking over as usual but that’s okay I shall harvest the stems I want before digging them up. That plant is a great self sower as I haven’t had seed of it for 6 years!

I’ll work on those photography skills for the next update. But now I think I better take advantage of the sunshine.

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Weekly layout – week eighteen

Posted on 8 May, 2012 by mel

Hello and welcome to week eighteen. We are back to an old photo this week.

It was taken in Athens about 14 years ago! I remember we were amazed at the oranges just hanging there and also I they were my favourite shoes and I loved that top.

So I pulled a few pieces of cardstock and a sheet of patterned paper out. Here are some choices.

I loved the orange spots and the kraft cardstock together best. And as it was a large photo and I didn’t want to crop any of it I decided to place the pattern in the middle and have the photo central.

A few embellishments.

II had a sheet of really old Anna Griffin paper that had a green pattern on it and I used Distress ink to darken the pattern then matted the photograph to add definition.

Using the reverse of the same paper I hand wrote the journalling. ANd cut each strip out. I love the look of strips of journalling but don’t often use it.

Then I placed the title next to the strips and thought about embellishments.

As usual I can never decide what to go for so I tried them all out. The ribbon is actually a belt tie from a pair of Gav’s old shorts. Never throw any sort of ‘trim’ away!

It still looked like something was missing so I cut a small piece of kraft card and inked it with distress ink.

And added that to the top of the layout for balance. I just need to dig out the date we went to add to the tag. Finally I inked all the edges as I thought the tag might have been a touch dark but the ink helped that.

And there it is done.

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Weekly Layout is a series of blog posts that I am doing every week in 2012. I am walking through the process of putting the page together with a bit of background to why I picked the design and embelishments for the page. I hope to develop my style and push myself by taking on this challenge. You can see previous weeks here.

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One lady owner?

Posted on 6 May, 2012 by mel

Until about a year or so ago I would never have thought about consciously going to the charity shop to look for a book. I may have stumbled upon a book while in the shop for a browse but never gone into the shop purposely to buy a book.

Then came the quest to complete the collection of Poirot novels and I began to go into all our local charity shops hunting for Agatha Christie books to add to the shelf. I talked about the trip to this amazing secondhand book shop here and how I picked up a nice little stack.

I’m reading one of those at the moment and while I was looking at the cover I was thinking about the story a secondhand book can tell you, not only the one inside the pages but the story of its existence through the years of ownership.

Take my current read.

It’s forty eight years old. And looks pretty well read.

What’s its story? Has it languished on the bookshelf of an old lady who had it bought for her 40th birthday and it aged with her? Or in the bookcase of a fellow Christie fan who treasured it for years only to have it sold in a house clearance sale after they died. Or maybe it has been on charity bookshelf after charity bookshelf wending its’ way through countless homes and hands, enjoyed and loved numerous times over the last four decades.

I’d like to think it was any of the above as long as it has been well read and well loved.

This feeling that is conjured up within my head and heart about the romanticism of reading has only occurred as I’ve got older. You only have to mention a secondhand bookshop to me these days and I go gooey eyed and my mind begins to run over the possibilities. Of wandering the aisles in amongst all those lovely books and the thousands of stories within the pages.

I’m guessing that most avid readers have a similar feeling to books. I can’t imagine not reading and hope that my romantic notions about books keeps growing. Like my Poirot collection.

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Week in the Life – the middle

Posted on 3 May, 2012 by mel

Well perhaps not the middle, maybe nearer the end of this project but in terms of phases this is the middle phase. All the photos are snapped and now comes the pulling it altogether bit.

I have been pondering what format I want for this little album. I know I don’t want 12 x 12 or for it to be within the Project Life album. I actually have an 8 x 8 album which is exactly the same as the one I used in 2010 for this project and also an American Crafts 6 x 6 ring binder album both of which would work. But I can’t decide.

Here’s the American Crafts one.

I looked through the 2010 album with a view to gather my thoughts about what I liked about that type of format and what the album ‘said’ to me. I liked the clean look of it. I also liked the main photo, journalling and the collection of photographs on the right side. In fact I loved the 2010 album! But I didn’t want to reproduce it this year. I don’t know why but there it is. The creative heart wants what it wants.

Ali has mentioned the flow of life. I definitely think that the 2010 album was somewhat contrived. I guess that is inevitable when you have to take the photos. There is no outsider to truly capture life as it happens and for the most part I’m okay with that. But I was also interested to think about how life flows and changes from minute to minute and day to day.

This brought me to this thought: our life is simple. I haven’t just realised this by the way but putting it into words is good. That said however, I may not always be happy about the fact that ours is a simple life but it’s true whether or not I like it. We do the same things day in and day out. There are some things about the sameness that I love like our baseball watching and feeding the birds everyday or my Emma Bridgewater crockery and Buddy’s greeting of Gav on a morning.

I hope I have been able to capture that sameness within the weeks photos.

All this thought is a very good positive process but it does not bring me any closer to deciding what format the project will take.

So I went ahead and looked through the photos for last week again. And then back to the potential albums again. This to and fro process can be frustrating but I got there in the end.

With a little help from this on pintrest and this for my cover and this post about using washi tape to customize page protectors I came up with the design for the cover of the album and the inside layout.

Here is a look at the plan for the photos.

And here are a couple of photos of the process. Cut down 12 x 12 divided page protector.

Attaching the tape to the edge that will have holes punched for the rings.

And the completed custom page protector.

I like it.

Now I just need to finish the cover and the highlights of the week sheet and then print and trim the photos.

Better get on it.

Have you used Ali’s design or your own?

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25 Books – number ten

Posted on 2 May, 2012 by mel

The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver.

It’s a while since I read a Lincoln Rhyme and this one did not grip me like they usually do but I got to the end and was surprised, as ever, at all the twists and turns. I think I’m almost up to date on this series of books but will wait a while before I pick up the next.

I’m ahead of the game in the reading stakes this year let’s see if it lasts……

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Weekly layout – week seventeen

Posted on 1 May, 2012 by mel

Hello and welcome to week seventeen of the weekly layout series.

This week I pulled a stack of photos of my younger niece out of their storage binder. They were of her at the park riding her bike.

I went for these photos as I’d been inspired to scrap smaller photos by this layout on pintrest. What an original idea! I used it as a jumping off point. I cropped the photos and decided to leave the larger shot out of this story as it didn’t really fit with the smaller ones.

Then for the background.

You know when you really cannot decide which background to pick?

Hmm…… decisions, decisions. I went for the green cardstock. But decided to matt the photos onto white card so they had more definition.

I then sploshed watered down white acrylic paint onto the card. First time I’ve tried this for a background and it’s scary!

Not exactly as I planned but I went with it. I then picked a selection of scraps to act as the horizontal lines under the photos and stitched them onto the card using my sewing machine.

The photos went back on and then a piece of felt ribbon. Next was the title using Doodlebug letter stickers and American Crafts thickers.

Then a few gems and the journalling.

You can’t see it very well but I hand drew some dashed lines around part of the edge of the card, like the original, to add an extra something. I don’t think it worked.

Overall I like it but it is a huge leap from my usual style and not really like the original. My photos were still too big and I think I will try it again with smaller pictures and make an effort to write the journalling on a slant!!!

But it’s always good to flex the creative muscles.