Sketch Challenge

I am not a great fan of layers or embellishments, I just can't often be bothered to fiddle too much - lazy that's why. However, I saw this challenge in the May edition of Scrap365 and decided to have a bit of a go.
It helped that my granddaughter and her partner and daughter were staying with us this weekend so I had someone to scrap with - it is so good to chatter while scrapping.
This is the result of my endeavours.

Journalling will go in the space at the top

I suppose I should explain the title because you simply had to be there to understand and this page is going in the album of that wedding. The simplest way to explain is with another picture

official hotel notice

I had to take a picture of the notice put up by the hotel and, of course, everything that happened for the rest of the day referred back to that error, hence Weeding the speech.
Daft I know but it was a great icebreaker amongst the guests and families and it took away some of the terrors for the Grooms as they were both shaking like leaves in autumn before the ceremony.

Take a look at the Scrap365 challenge

I have been scrapping again!

It seems to have been ages since I last sat down and "did" a proper page. I am not one for lots of embellishments or folderols. I like the picture to be visible and the story to be there with it. I like the writing to be clear and I have always thought that telling the story is the most important thing. I have been known to fancy up the occasional page but that is always the exception.

I have been going through the drawers of photographs. Yep, that's right, they all contain photographs dating back to the 1900s.
The ones collected by my Granny are still kept in Grandpop's Ditty box. At least those that haven't been scrapbooked yet.
OK so one of the drawers has my collection of postcards in it, so I am not sure it counts. Although I do use postcards in my scrapbooks when my own photographs are not good enough because of weather or being forbidden to use the camera inside a National Trust property.

 This is a picture of me taken in 1981 not long after Mr M and I got married. In fact we were on our Honeymoon! we got married on a Friday and had the whole weekend to ourselves because my children were staying elsewhere. We went to Goodrich Castle, then we went through the Forest of Dean and to Lechlade so it was just a skip down the road to Tadley where my new in-laws lived. I loved, and still do like a lot, the men's collarless shirt. I bought that one in a jumble sale for five pence and wore it until it fell to pieces.

 Our white van. It was a Dodge - it could also have been a Talbot or a Simca. All the same vehicle just made in different places by the same company. We loved it and it served us well. It looks a bit worn there but that is red oxide paint where we had rubbed down the rust spots and would eventually spray with white. That was the idea anyway. We never did get around to the spraying bit so for as long as it lasted it had the red patches.

 My three aged seven five and four. For several years Michael thought that Monmouth Show was put on especially for his birthday as we went every year until Dad stopped exhibiting his electric welders and retired. Just me and my kids enjoying the day out. Their Dad never came because Monmouth Show is always on a thursday and he worked nights and wouldn't take time off.

 This is Gamesfair at Reading Uni just one of the games run by a friend.

 Three little snaps taken with an instamatic camera to record a training weekend at Broneirion in spring 1981. All I can say is that if you get the chance to go on a training weekend with the Girl Guides then jump at it. We had the most amazing fun and laughed the whole time. I remember that one year we all had to make kites and then take them up the hill and fly them. I laughed so much I couldn't climb the hill and had to crawl up. This made us all laugh even more.

Oh and a Christmas weekend is just so special grab it with both hands

OH cute! didn't I look young there? Well that's because I was nineteen. I know, I know but I wouldn't change a thing. That tiny baby is all growed up now and her own daughter is seven years old and is my youngest granddaughter.

This is the best convention game EVER! This was taken at Dragondaze '86. The Roleplaying and wargaming convention we organised and ran here in Newport every year for several years.
A young man called Will Power, I kid you not, ran Asterix the Gaul. A Bar-room brawl game that was a fast and furious 45 minutes where the players had to really think on their feet about the actions of their character. Each session ended with most characters unconscious or dead and all the players breathless and laughing. I have never seen the like of it since.

So, some plain and simple pages just to show that I am not sitting here twiddling my thumbs. I might go back and put titles of some of these - on the other hand I will probably just dig out some more pictures and do some more pages.

there was a sale, right?

The Range is moving. Our branch of the Range. At present they are over on the east side of the city but on Boxing Day they open their new store on the West side and it is a lot huger than the present store.
To save having to cart all the stock over to the new store they have a sale. 25% off everything. They have a lot of craft stuff and art supplies and............. well they were bound to have something I desperately needed weren't they?
YES, the answer to that question is yes. Mr M took me over there and I spent a happy hour rummaging through the shelves. I am not going to tell you how much I spent but my birthday money did not survive long and a lot more besides. Card blanks and brads and papers and glitter papers and some glittery matt cards and some fabulous metallic pens and white paper flowers because you can colour them with... fabulous metallic pens. I kind of wanted to get some double sided tape and some glue but others had got there before me - sigh.
I am happy with my new stash and will pet it for a while before putting it away and using it.

Best ever Christmas Present

Now here's a funny thing. Last night I sat at my table and did a layout. That's not the thing, no. The thing is that I found, amongst my father's papers that I am just being able to sort through even though he died in 2003, the receipt for the ten driving lessons he bought for me, for Christmas, in 1968. I was so pleased to find this little piece of paper and I knew if I didn't put it onto a page it would be lost very soon.
I haven't taken a picture of the page because the journalling became far too personal for internet exposure.
That Christmas present was the best ever. I passed my driving test the following February and I could put my children into the car and take them to visit my parents without having to wait for anyone else.
Being able to drive gave me back my freedom.

In the Bleak Midwinter......

My favourite carol has to be In the Bleak Midwinter. I have fond memories of standing under a street lamp with the church choir, in the village where we used to live, and singing at the tops of our voices for the residents who came to their doors and windows to listen. We would also go to the sheltered housing complex - with prior permission, of course - and the carers would wrap up their residents in warm coats and blankets and we would sing several carols for them. Any money raised would go to a shelter for the homeless or a refuge for women.
Just singing the first line or two brings back the happiness those cold December evenings brought to me and my children.
In the bleak midwinter,
Frosty wind made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone.
Snow was falling snow on snow,
snow on snow.
In the bleak midwinter,
Lo o ong ago.

For the last few years I haven't been able to go into town to listen to the Salvation Army band so I have missed them playing this carol. If  my daughter is going into town this weekend I will try to go with her, It would be a big step forward if I could manage that................no promises though.

Christmas Remembered

I don't have any pictures from this time so I will try to paint one with words.

December 1981. We were living here, in this same house, having moved in on 7th November. So, we had no money, again. It was time to put up the Christmas decorations and the tree. I like the tree to go up on Christmas Eve but Mr M likes it there where we can see it as early in December as is possible. We didn't have an artificial tree and no money to buy one. The house had carpets that came with it but.......... If I say that it had been let in rooms to students before we bought it you can have some idea of the quality and colour of the carpets can't you? There were lots of things that needed doing to the house and the tiny patch of what we laughingly referred to as "the Front Garden", one of which was to remove the Leylandii trees that were growing next to the front path. The path is only 12 feet long and there were five of these darned trees growing along it, each one was around 15 feet tall and as we all know the Leylandii is a hybrid thing that grows around a metre a year and can reach more than 10 metres (that's more than 30 feet) if not severely cut back and controlled.

While I was in work, I was a Tupperware manager then and was out every day doing parties, Mr M decided that one of those leylandii would be perfect as our Christmas tree so without thinking of the height of the ceiling and the height of the tree he cut down the one nearest to the front door and dragged it into the front room He had the help of my sons while doing this
.
"Oh dear,"  he thought, "It's a little too tall, I'll cut some off the bottom." they lifted it up, laid it horizontally across the back of the sofa and cut three feet off the bottom with the saw used to cut it down. they didn't cut the sofa, they were very careful. they tried to stand it up but it was still too tall.

OH, OH you have to keep in mind that Mr M had put the fairy on the top as this was easier before you put up the tree.

He laid it across the sofa again and cut off another substantial length. He tried to stand it up again and once more the fairy had her head battered against the ceiling. Still too tall. Once more the fairy swooped across the room and waggled about as he sawed another couple of feet off the bottom of the tree.

He tried the tree upright and as long as she kept her knees bent the fairy just brushed the ceiling with her wand. At this point I arrived home from work and as I came in through the front door Mr M was there helping me to take off my coat so he could show me what a brilliant idea he had and how they had done this as a lovely surprise for me.

It was a lovely surprise, as I waded through the sawdust to the tree I could see that he had saved us lots of money and the delight on their faces outweighed any crossness about the marks all over the sofa and the sackful of sawdust on the floor. We all shovelled it into a plastic sack and put it in the cellar to use for the rabbits we had then - see more money saved. I used the vacuum cleaner to clean up what was left. Well, I tried. We had that carpet for 12 years before we could afford to replace it and every time I used the vacuum cleaner I sucked more sawdust out of the carpet.

So there you are, a Christmas remembered

10 on the Tenth - December

I am a bookcrosser, you can see more about bookcrossing here if you want to. The idea of releasing books into the wild and catching books appeals to me and I thought it would reduce the number of books stacked in my house... it hasn't. This is because there is a list that all obsessive dedicated readers and bookcrossers should have hanging somewhere in their house, preferably where your partner/husband/wife can see it. I did not make these rules they came to me through the bookcrossing UK group on Yahoo. So for my 10 on the tenth I give you
Rules that apply to Bringing Books Home:-
The Books Don't Count as Extra if....
1.  I am doing him/her a favour by taking the book. So It Doesn't Count.

2.  I am only buying this book by way of a donation to charity. So It Doesn't Count.

3.  He/she would have been offended if I didn't accept the book. S.I.D.C.

4.  I needed it to complete the set. S.I.D.C.

5.  I have been wanting to read this book for ages. S.I.D.C.

6.  It's a classic that everyone ought to read. S.I.D.C.

7.  It would have been wasteful not to use the Waterstone's/Smiths/Booktoken vouchers S.I.D.C.

8.  It was a present from a non bookcrossing friend. S.I.D.C.

9.  The Not So Secret Santa organiser wanted me to join the group. S.I.D.C.

10. I am a bookaholic, so I can't help it.

This list has come to you through the 10 on the tenth, a fun thing devised by Shimelle go take a look at the other players.