personality

My next pages for Shimelle's class, I'm nearly done! Three stages of my life, I don't think I've changed that much. Yes, I now have 4 children and 3 grandchildren but inside I don't feel much different. I have always loved to read and listen to music. I can still be a bit stroppy. I'm still trying to lose weight and I still feel family is important. I like to occasionally win at games too but don't get much chance against Jenny!

sudoku - 457

Creativity

I finally managed to do my creativity pages for shimelle's class, I think I just needed a break for a few days. i used my latest sarah's cards kit which I love.

Not much news here, the weather has been too awful to go anywhere so I have been pottering around at home.

sudoku - 294!

Work and play!

For these two prompts we had to do our serious and then playful sides. The work one was done in the form of a conversation with Andrew. He is always coming home from work and asking me "what have you done today, watched tv and drunk coffee?" He thinks I save all my work till he comes home so that I look busy!
For the play layout we were encouraged to doodle!! I went for it but I think Becca could have done better! The photos were taken at the beach last week.
I've done my scrapping today with The Monkees to keep me company, I still know all the words!

My pin - up!

Today's blog prompt was to share your personal favourite teeny-bopper pin-up! I think all my family would say Davy Jones of The Monkees!!
Being the youngest of the family no one could understand my obsession with The Monkees, "they are just a rip-off of The Beatles" I was often told. To me though they meant everything, I even managed to go to one of their concerts, Lulu was the supporting act. I collected everything of theirs, any magazines they were in, their albums, although I was still at Junior school so they had to be birthday presents. I had clothes with The Monkees on and you couldn't see my bedroom wallpaper for their pictures. Davy Jones was my favourite although I got very concerned about
my height as he was only 5ft 3ins!
I thought my love affair would last for ever but when I was 20yrs old and had just had my second child, money was very tight. One evening a man knocked at our door asking if we wanted to sell any records, I sold him my Monkees collection, I had finally grown-up!

Our first challenge

http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?p=5141599#post5141599 Our first team challenge went live today on UKS, it has been exciting seeing if anyone would do it, fortunately we have had some great layouts done already!

Shimelle's prompt today was to blog someone who has been a creative influence in your life.

I was never very good at art when I was at school, I envied people who seemed to do it so effortlessly. I could copy simple things, I can remember drawing endless pictures of Mr Men for my children to colour in, but that was it, very limited!
Two friends, Edna and Janette, got me interested in cross stitch. I still get immense pleasure from following a chart to get an amazing picture that looks like what is it meant to be! That is the nearest I will ever get to drawing people and animals.
Another friend who I worked with was very good at photography and made wonderful displays for the children at the nursery where I worked. She encouraged me to have a go at these displays and I found I was really good at them as I got the children to do all the work! My favourite one was the Disney castle which I did, with the children's help, one Christmas. I had been quite afraid of this part of my job, so thank you Rita for giving me the confidence to do it.
Now I would say my daughter Jenny is my creative influence with my scrapbooking. Through looking at her work, being shown links she uses for inspiration and the encouragement she gives me to spend money on stash, I have fallen in love with this craft.

aspiration

I've managed to finish last weeks layouts now, this is my aspiration one for Shimelle's My Freedom class. I love the way Shimelle makes you think and realise that your ordinary life is really quite special! Although I know I could have done more educationally, I was too busy getting married, I have managed to achieve all I set out to do so far. I look at the little girl sitting on the wall and wander what she was thinking, probably "hurry up and take this photo you know how much I hate it!" There were many good times and bad to come, let's hope the next few years are good times only!

My Freedom

Today's prompt is - If there was just one thing from your youth that you could pass on to todays younger generation what would it be?

I grew up in the sixties and although it was an exciting time I think it made me grow up too quickly, by the time I was twelve I thought I was an adult! My advice will probably be the same as a lot of other people, enjoy your childhood, don't grow up too soon. Before the Beatles came on the scene I was a normal little girl. I loved hopscotch, riding my bike, playing with my friends. I would go to the library each week and read all the Famous Five, What Katy did, The Lion the witch and the wardrobe etc, books were my passion which probably led to my first job which was in the Library, I had a saturday job there and then went full time when I left school, there, I've managed to do two prompts in one day!!

Inspiration

I'm slowly catching up on Shimelle's class, I managed to finish this DLO on Inspiration this afternoon.

Nature has always been a great form of inspiration for me. I love walking by the sea in any weather and use a lot of sea photos on my layouts. I also get a great deal of pleasure from watching birds and animals, the world would be a very dull place without them.!

My favourite game

I have been away from my blog for a few days as we have had visitors so I am a bit behind with Shimelle's class. Will concentrate on this weeks prompts whilst trying to catch up on last weeks!
Today's blog prompt was to tell your readers your favourite game. I love all kinds of word and number games but my favourite at the moment has to be http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/sudoku/play.php. I try and do the daily sudoku to keep my brain active, "well, that's not working" I can hear the family saying!
Having been able to retire from my job in charge of a pre-school, which was a very rewarding but extremely tiring job, a lot earlier than most people, I am conscious I need to do things to keep active both mentally and physically. These sort of games appeal to me as I am a competive person and like to see how I can improve my scores.

sudoku time today - 381

Blogs that inspire me

Today we have to put links to blogs that inspire us for the My Freedom class. I do have a few blogs I read regularly, so here goes!
I do try hard to save money and cook healthily so I often look at shirleygoode I used to have a cookbook of hers when the children were young and it was one of the rare ones that was used regularly!
Still on this theme I read downtoearth everyday too. Also littlejennywren and beyondmypicketfence
I followed moneysavingexpert with interest recently to see how living on such a small amount could be done. As you can see I try and save money to spend on stash!!
I have lots of craft sites I visit but those I do daily are dolly'sdreamings and of course uks and shimelle Another two favourites are scrappaperscissors and cardpaperscissors

I think that will do for now, I'm looking forward to seeing what sites other people visit!

Prompt 6

Today's prompt for shimelle's My Freedom class was to put an old photo and one taken recently, on your blog.
This is very hard for me to do as I hate having my photo taken!
I managed to find a very young me with Ian, I think I must be 15yrs as I can't see an engagement ring and we were engaged on my 16th birthday!
The recent photo is of Ian and I at Slimbridge last weekend. as you can probably guess, I'm back on my diet after seeing that!
What has changed is Ian has lost his hair and I have got fat! We have had 4 children and now have 3 grandchildren.
What is still the same is we are still together and just as embarrassed at having our photos taken!

It has been very hot here today and we have been to Jamie's sportsday, his team won so we were all very pleased.

My Freedom!

These are the first two double layouts I have done for Shimelle's My Freedom class, I'm really enjoying doing this as I really like the way she makes you think. The Time LO was all about how I spend my time and how I would like to spend it. The clock is the astronomical clock in Prague and the photo is of me enjoying myself!

The travel layout is about how I hate travelling. One question was to recall a childhood memory of travelling and my biggest memory is the journey to Portland and always being sick!

This weekend she has gone digi and there are free digi kits to download, might have a go at that later!

a travel quest!

Today we had to do some searching on the internet, something i don't do very often. First we had to find a map of where we live and paste it on the layout. Next we had to search for our dream location, I had to think hard about this but finally decided on the Fjords of Norway. I'm not very keen on very hot countries and have always fancied a cruise around the Fjords.
We then out how much it would cost to fly out there this weekend.
Finally we had to find a map of the world, country, and plot where we had already been. That was easy, I haven't travelled much, there were too many places I still want to visit to put on the map!
It is only since the children grew up that we have started travelling abroad, I enjoy holidays but I am just as happy travelling in Britain or staying at home!

Back in time!

Today's blog prompt: If you could travel in time for just one day, where would you go and what would you do?

I think my choice has been influenced by our recent holiday with my mum and aunt. As they are both in their eighties they naturally spent a lot of the time reminiscing about the war and how it affected them.
I would like to go back in time to when the bells rang out over the country to tell the people the war was over. It must have been an amazing, moving, moment which could only be truly appreciated by the people there. For my Grandmother and others like her, the thought of getting her two sons, who were prisoners of war, home safely, must have been the predominant thought. The ordinary people on both sides, suffered so much, the community spirit was so strong, everyone had pulled together and shown such courage.
I managed to find an old photo of my parents wedding which was shortly after the war ended. The reception was in a bombed out part of the pub my grandparents ran, the bunting covering the lack of ceiling! I wish I could have found photos of the many street parties there must have been, rationing carried on for ages, but I bet they all enjoyed what they had!

My Freedom - an online class by Shimelle

We had the first prompt from Shimelle today, for her new class. We had to take photos of various clocks etc telling the time around our house. How I wish I had an unusual clock!
We have also got to find some photos of places we have visited, no problem there, I have plenty!

I haven't finished yet, I'm sure there are more things to photo, but these will do for a start.