LittleBirdyScraps

Reluctant partygoer

Well, it's not actually a party, you see....It's the 'do' at work.  Last year a couple of us organised a party, like a proper party, with decorations and everything, at the local cricket club.  This meant that quite  a few of us didn't need to drive anywhere and could have a decent drink.  It also meant that we could provide a buffet from the local deli, and buy some desserts, all of which were more than enough for everyone, and pay for a brilliant disco, all at £10 per head.  They were supposed to chuck us out at midnight but we were having such a good time they let us stay til 1 am.

But , you can't please all of the people all of the time, and not everyone regarded this party as a decent night out.  I am trying, quite hard, to be impartial, but unfortunately I'm having trouble understanding why some people really don't feel they've had a night out unless there are strangers present and they've paid far too much for an indifferent sit-down meal.  Followed, on the last occasion, by a rubbish disco.

However, there are such people at work, and one of them is quite a good friend of mine who is horribly offended by my inability to understand why we have to dress up, pay 30 quid for a meal, then dance to a disco - and let's face it, if the DJ was that good he'd be doing private gigs at Christmas and earning 300 quid a pop instead of whatever peanuts they're paying him at the Holiday Inn - on a tiny dance floor whilst bumping into aforementioned strangers.

AND.  AND.  AND...............This, readers, is for me the worst part of all.  Worse than having to find something to bloody wear, worse than having to find the money for drinks, worse than having to book a taxi and pay post-midnight fares: When the people from my work danced at the last disco, two years ago, THEY. DANCED. IN. A. CIRCLE.

Imagine, dear reader, the excrutiating sight of about 30 people, grown adults, trapped in a HUGE circle which took up two thirds of the dance floor (and remember, there are other people at the venue), whilst managing to leave most of it empty, because it formed the hole in the middle of the circle.

My friend and I tried dancing outside the circle, but this was difficult because the bloody circle took up so much room.  The Other People - who are so vital to the enjoyment of this type of evening, apparently - had hardly any space and we kept bumping into them.  The other obvious option, of dancing inside the circle, was unthinkable because it involved DANCING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CIRCLE!!  Sadly, this kept happening as we found ourselves dragged into the circle by 'friends' and then tried to get out of it again  by dancing face to face with someone, only to find the circle had closed around us.  AAAAAAAGH!

Now, to some of you, as to my friend who likes to dance in the presence of strangers (this could be her new Native American Indian name but she's p***ed off enough already) this may not sound so awful.  To me it is purgatory.  I have danced round my handbag once in my entire life, and even then my friend and I decided it was so hideous that we would rather have our handbags nicked.  And did, in fact.

My only consolation is that it can't possibly be as bad as I'm expecting it to be.  I've chosen prawn cocktail for my starter and we get a half-bottle of wine with our meal.  (This I understand to mean that they give us 15 bottles and it's every man for himself.  I will sit next to someone who isn't drinking and hopefully become blotto before the circle dance starts.)

Can you see why my friend is cross with me?  I'm making a huge fuss about something she's looking forward to.  I'm looking down my nose at people who can't enjoy a proper party with their mates and a really fab disco you can boogie on down to.  What we've got to look forward to on Thursday - yes, there'll be another two days of this moaning - is a Package Party.  We pay them big bucks (and I bet the bar's expensive) for what I bet will be a pub meal, their DJ is probably going to play POP music like the other one did even though we pleaded for some Motown, and someone told me the dance floor is miniscule.  They're making nearly a thousand quid just from us lot.

And now I promise I will stop ranting and say not another word until Friday.....

WOW! Can't believe the difference it's made having wireless broadband - I was sceptical because we only get a low speed round here in the back of beyond (they won't even lay cable here, we're not worth it!). But even so it's much quicker than the mobile broadband I was using before. Shame the mobile company didn't think to offer me a dongle upgrade before I actually decided to give notice....Anyway, this means that I can now visit people's blogs and have time to leave a comment rather than waiting two days for the pages to download! Woo hoo!

A Winner!

Well, I have been very very busy lately...lots of layouts completed but not a one that I can show on here! :(

Oh no, hang on, I think I can show you this one!

 

This is my take on Georgina's original layout for the Scrap Whispers Challenge!  Our team's layouts finally went up this week - we are Team 6, after all - and on Sunday we get to find out which of the teams has won!  Check out all the Teams here and don't forget to come back on Sunday.

Sign-ups will be taking place for the next round of Scrap Whispers at the beginning of December.  Make sure you put your name down - it's great fun taking part, and you'll see from the Big Reveal above, how the layouts develop from the original.

Now for the winner of the Dotty Divas blog hop prize! I found myself a random number generator which came up with number 3 - and that was

MUSTANGKAYLA!

So, Kayla - I'm assuming that's your name! - just get in touch with me and let me know your mail addy so that I can send your prize off to you.  I'm hoping to get a photo of the prize up on here over the weekend, but you'll have to forgive my tardiness.  There's an awful lot going on here at the moment including a change of broadband supplier which is going to involve me making holes in walls in order to install the power cable for the hub.

I am also moving some furniture around and reorganising my scrappy space, following an interesting event last weekend which I will be able to tell you about at some point, but probably not until after Christmas.

Just a quick post this morning before I trundle off to work (maybe I'd better get dressed first...). Yesterday was the last chance to add a comment to the Dotty Divas Blog Dive post, for a chance to win the RAK. Later today I'll be drawing a name from some hat or other, so check back here for the results! Ooooh! And don't forget the other DT members will be doing the same thing1 Good luck!

Dotty Divas Blog Dive

Hello folks, and apologies for my absence.   I have actually got my laptop on my lap as I speak - something I haven't been able to do for some time without it stopping charging.

Things have been hectic here, and this looks like continuing, what with Christmas and university assignments, so you'll have to forgive my sporadic posts.

Anyway, today is the first Dotty Divas blog dive!  Woo hoo!  This month's ad challenge is here:

 

For my take, I used the strong colours and a collage effect to produce this:

 

As you can see, there's some magic mesh in there as well

But...this is how the blog dive works:

If you've arrived here in no sort of organised manner, then you need to go back to Dotty Divas and start there.  Now, you will notice that there is the opportunity to enter a draw for a RAK on the main blog.  All you need to do is become a follower.  And what's the RAK?  Well, go and have a look

You'll end up here again in due course....if you've arrived here via the blog dive, well done! 

Now you'll be wanting to know what my RAK is, because EACH OF THE DT HAS A RAK FOR YOU TO WIN!!!!!!!!    Until this dive starts, I have no idea what Kim's RAK is going to be.  But I can tell you what mine is...

Close your eyes, reader - well, actually you'll need to squint a bit or you won't be able to read this - and imagine the following (because the light at the moment is just not good enough for my phone camera and the other camera has no batteries....don't ask questions, just stay calm and imagine!):

A 5"x7" Sarabook, pristine, in its packaging, just crying out for someone to adorn its spotless pages with gorgeous patterned papers, photos and embellies.

A beautiful selection of vintage floral K&Co papers, cabbage roses, french roses, regency stripes, all sorts of lovely timeless designs;

Journaling stickers to match the papers;

Floral stickers, ditto!

A selection of vintage ribbons and lace, discovered lurking at the back of a cupboard, nestled together in a cardboard box and carefully preserved for about 40 years...

That's my RAK!

It's going to make a lovely mini album, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning it, is to add a comment at the end of this post.

Just to make it interesting, and because I've spent the evening listening to a really fab young rock band, I want you to tell me why you think teenagers are great!  Hehe....those of you with teenagers may or may not find this tricky!  If you're a in a bad place where teenagers are concerned, have a think about your own teenage years and try to tell me something you actually enjoyed about them!

Then hop on to Jemma's blog where you can enter yet another draw for yet another RAK.  This blog dive is awesome!

Right at the end, you go back to the Dotty Divas blog for another chance to enter that RAK. 

Tomorrow, when you come back again, we'll be telling you who's won the RAK on the main blog and on each of the DT's blogs.

SOOOOOO.....get going on this blog dive, everyone, for a fantastic selection of RAKS and some wonderful inspiration.

Good luck!

Hi folks, remember me?

Yes, I'm sorry.  I have been discouraged by my lack of spare time and the fact that my laptop is still only truly happy whilst sitting on top of my printer, from posting a post.

This week my printer has joined in the rebellion, and if printers could laugh it would have no socks on now.  A week or so ago, it told me that it had no black ink left.  Replace Black Ink Cartridge, it said.  So I rummaged about in the drawer and found - oddly - two quite incorrect cartridges, one of which I had opened before I realised how incorrect they were, and two proper ones, one of which I inserted.

Replace Cyan Ink Cartridge, said the printer.  Okay.   Obviously it had forgotten to mention this earlier, but I'm a forgiving sort of person so I smiled indulgently and rummaged about in the drawer, which sadly failed to yield any cyan ink.  I went online and ordered a couple (buy one get one free).

Three days later the cartridges came through the letter box and I wrestled them open and put one in the printer.

Replace Pink Ink Cartridge, it said.

Okay.  Indulgent smile missing now.  At this point I thought I'd wait a few days, til I had some money in the bank and could afford to Buy One Get One Free.  I didn't really need to print anything off  - plenty of photos on my desk to scrap already; nothing to churn out for college til next week.  But then Daughter said that she had some terribly urgent homework to do that HAD to be in tomorrow, even though she had inexplicably failed to have a go at it during the ten days she'd just been off school....

There was nothing else for it.  I drove to the shops and Daughter jumped out with my last tenner and spent ALL OF IT on a pink ink cartridge.  I can get two for 7 quid online, but Never Mind.  The homework had to be done, as a mother it is necessary occasionally to make financial sacrifices for the sake of one's children *cough cough*.

Home again, I continued making the dinner whilst Daughter went upstairs and carried out the instructions I carefully shouted up to her, for changing the cartridge.  When she's done that, I thought, I can print out some stuff for college, update my notes, etc etc.  While I was standing there dreamily stirring something and fantasising about such rubbish, Daughter stuck her head over the banisters and shouted down to me:

'It says, Replace Yellow Ink Cartridge.'

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

So I have now ordered a full set.  I can't remember this ever happening before; it will be interesting to see which cartridge runs out first once I've replaced them all.

And here's what I've been up to, with my pile of previously-printed photos:

 

These are some photos taken many, many years ago, when obviously I was far too tiny to be taking them - probably not even born, in fact - of the street party we had for the Silve Jubilee.  Don't ask what those blue things are, I just saw them, very clearly, in my head, whilst wondering what to put in that bit at the bottom.  They're a sort of balloon/crown/alien amalgam. (Yes, you did ask after all, I heard you!)  Sorry it's a bit small, but my columns aren't wide enough to make it any bigger!

 

This one is very RED.  And bobbly.  Sweet pic, tho - I'd already scrapped the original (horrors!) and so had to scan it.  Oh, and I'd cut it into an oval shape (more horrors!) so there wasn't much of it left...

One of my son, in the amusement arcade on holiday.

 

And here are a couple of pics I really like, altho they're a bit badly composed, lol, of my son and a good friend a few years ago.

Now, don't forget to go for the Dotty Divas Challenge - another fab prize this month, of a kit from Label Tulip!  I love the ad challenges, you can do absolutely anything with them, use the colours in the ad, lift the design, use it to inspire a technique or a subject for your LO.  We've already had some gorgeous entries, with another couple of weeks to go AND a wonderful Bazzill cardstock pack also up for grabs from Cardinal Colours....Wow!

Happy scrapping!

Dotty Divas Ad Challenge #4!

Mmmm....butterscotch.  Mmmmmmm......really fudgy chocolate icing.  On top of brownies.

No, stop.  They're supposed to be for the cake sale.  But - mmmmmmm....

Anyway.  The latest Dotty Divas challenge has arrived, and here it is:

I really wanted to see this being used other than as an inspiration for the title - although there's nothing wrong with that! - and Kim has done it with her gorgeous LO.  Go and take a look!

Also this week our guest designer is Christina Clouse from our sponsors, Label Tulip .  They're giving away a beautiful kit AND yet again  Cardinal Colours are providing a fantastic 25-sheet pack of Bazzill cardstock! 

I made this

...my black ink ran out, so I rummaged about in the drawer and found four new cartridges, of which only two were the right sort.  Oops.  Bit of mis-ordering there.  I printed a thing or two and then the cyan ran out.  So I got online and ordered some cyan, which turned up on Monday.  I put the cyan cartridge in and the printer told me it had run out of pink as well.  Well, maybe it would have been an idea to mention that before, printer.

So I stuck with the photo I had already found of my daughter taking a picture of herself.  Which is all 14 year old girls seem to do...

Today has been a hectic day, which started when I got up IN THE DARK and found that even after I had showered, dressed and made a cup of tea, IT WAS STILL DARK.  I have some issues with this, but apparently it happens every morning and there's nothing I can do about it. 

I wanted to leave quite early so that I could get to uni before I was meant to be there, as opposed to the last time when I arrived 15 minutes late.  If you leave at 7.20, I was told, you will get there at 8, whereas if you leave at 7.40 you could end up being 15 minutes late.

Unfortunately I had woken up at 4.30 so I don't really know how I'm still awake.  Today was the day of our Presentation.  I won't bore you with the details except to say that we had to compare our school with another one.  And whilst we could use a powerpoint presentation, the tutor did ask God to save him from a whole day of such things.

The tutor also told us that because last year's students did such a RUDDY  GOOD JOB of their presentations, he had decided that this year he would actually be including them as part of our assessment.  So, no pressure.

Now, I like to think that I can talk pretty good, so I had decided not to read anything off bits of paper and to create a super-groovy selection of visual aids from my scrappy supplies.  You know, corrugated cardboard, acrylic paints, cardstock, markers etc.  Glue.  Lots of glue.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake, just as Victim #1 had finished her trembling, breathless presentation, of turning to ask the tutor something.  It wasn't 'Can I go next please?', but he thought it was and said yes, I could.  I hadn't even softened my blutac, for heaven's sake.

Nevertheless I rose to the occasion and started sticking things to the walls whilst banging on about mission statements and the school ethos.  It was all going okay until I got to my conclusion, which had no visual prompts and therefore, I realised with sudden clarity, needed to have been practised a LOT more.  I probably shouldn't have said 'Oooh, I'll just get my bit of paper, haha'.  And in any case, when I looked at the paper nothing went into my brain.  Reader, I missed bits out.

Apparently, we all passed, which was good news, although when we get our written feedback I'm expecting mine to include the words 'blabbering' and 'shambles'.

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Yay!  We're hopping again!  If you can see this, it means my laptop hasn't spontaneously combusted, and neither have I.  One of us needs to keep it together...

Here we are with the latest Scrap Whispers blog hop.  If you didn't start at the beginning you can go back and do that now.  This week we are lifting the lovely and very productive Mary Eason - lots and lots of LOs for us to choose from!  This link will take you to  her Scrapjazz gallery, and it's prettybig.

Mary has the sort of LOs that are a joy to lift - plenty of colour, which I love, and a huge variety of designs and subjects.  I guarantee if you take a look at her gallery you'll find something you want to have a go at!

I loved the vibrant colours and bold lines of this one:

 

I'm afraid I saved the thumbnail so it's tiny but gorgeous.  Honestly, I wasn't intending to make mine look even bigger and more wonderful!  Here it is:

 

As usual, I've taken appalling liberties with the original design, and I can't even pretend I've turned it round or whatever.  I just go with the flow, man.

It will be remarkable if two of the DT choose the same LO to lift this time round, as there are so many all in the same place - like trying to work out which blackberry to pick, lol!

Next you need to hop on to Nilsa to see more scrapliftery!

The Scrap Whispers Challenge is well under way, incidentally, even though I have been a bad team leader and behaved in a demented fashion at emailing time.  Another challenge this weekend, too, so don't forget to come over and join in.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #47

This week's challenge over at Scrap Whispers is from Sarah - she's given us a recipe which specifies what stash we can use on our page!  To see the actual recipe, hop over to the site - after you've had a look at this, of course!

 

Also this weekend I have made the page below, for a challenge over at Lotus Paperie:

Unfortunately you can't really see the paint I painstakingly splashed all over the background, but never mind.

I was hoping to wander downstairs and do yet another page, for the Scrap Whispers blog hop this week, but that will have to wait since apparently I am going to the pub.  After I've cleaned up the kitchen...

Bit of a hectic week again, but that's par for the course on a college week.  This time around I decided to get a bit gobby, when we had a lecture.  Now, I've never done this university stuff before, but having read what we were recommended to read, and taken a look at the luverly bumph we have been given, I came to the conclusion that lectures are for listening to.

It works like this: student looks at details of upcoming lecture and probably downloads slide show and prints it out from study website.  Student does any preparatory work that student feels necessary, maybe reading around the subject a bit.  Student turns up and crams self into stupid chair with tiny fold out table that will take either a cup of coffee or a pen, but not both.  Student listens to lecture, using accompanying printed-out stuff to  make notes on.  Student might ask a couple of pertinent questions at an appropriate point, before trolling off to the library in order to borrow books offering further enlightenment.

See?  It's all about independence!

OR, if you are a different type of student, probably perfectly pleasant and friendly, you might do it like this: Turn  up a bit late again, sit there talking to people while the lecturer smiles pleasantly at the noisy students who are making the lecture start late, don't have anything with you that refers to the lecture at all.  Make faint 'Uh?' sounds when you see other students taking out their slide show print-outs. Loudly ask neighbour where the bloody hell that came from, then explain in great detail how you didn't have time to do that.  But you'll do it later.

Make no effort to look at your handbook, unless it involves a great deal of flapping about and cries of 'what page??'  Shortly after the lecturer has started speaking, ask a question.  It doesn't matter what the question is.  It may have very little to do with the subject in hand; it may be about something that you should make the effort  to look up in your own time; it may be something really silly like 'where did you go to school, then?'

Continue to do this as often as possible.  You may find that you can think of another damn fool question before the lecturer has even finished answering the previous one. There will be other equally irritating students around you who are happy to add an annoying extension to your stupid questions.  No need to look for them, you will recognise the SAME BLOODY VOICES EVERY TIME.

At some point, probably when you have reached the sixth slide after only an hour of the 90-minute, 20-slide lecture, you may observe some students behaving strangely.  Are they gripping their print-out so hard that their knuckles have gone white?  Are they playing aggressively with their highlighters in a manner that suggests they would like to insert them somewhere unpleasant? When you open your mouth to speak, do their eyeballs roll so much that they drop out and trundle across the floor?

Let me help you out here.  These people are Irritated. Beyond. Belief. By your Stupid. Pointless. Relentless. Bloody. Questions.

Aaaaah......that's better.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #46

Today's the day at Scrap Whispers - my challenge, folks!

I thought it would be good to reminisce a bit, so your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to think about something that really floated your boat when you were young(er).  A record you wanted, a concert you were desperate to go to, some clothes you were after for ages, something - anything - like that.

The twist is that it must be something YOU DON'T HAVE A PHOTO OF!  So you can download something, cut it out of a magazine, draw a picture or just do it without.

Here's mine

The journaling says something like: As children, we used to visit Bishops Park in Fulham, near to our home (and where part of The Omen was filmed!).  Inside the entrance on Fulham Palace Road, behind a chain link fence, was a huge adventure playground.  Not like the mass-produced playgrounds we have now; this one had been built by people with hammers and nails, and painted in bright colours.  Every time we passed it, we used to pull and whine to go in there.  I don't know if it was because of the 'rough' children my mum claimed were in there, or just the element of danger, but however much we begged, the answer was always the same:  Not Allowed!

I found some photos of similar adventure playgrounds on flickr and google.  The very best one was in a place called Port Phillip (sp?) - it was JUST like the one we saw in the park.  But the photos were just thumbnails and wouldn't reproduce at a decent size.

I love these places full of nails and splinters!  How much more fun for children to be allowed to do something where they actually have to take notice of hazards and find a way round them, rather than being forced to enjoy the same set of apparatus as a couple of thousand other playgrounds.  No graffiti problems either!

I remember reading about a playground in Norway where they had all these wonderful things like rope swings and tyre swings, rope bridges, high walks, all the stuff that makes yummy mummies shriek with panic....and they just put down loads and loads of tyres to cushion any falls.  In two years they had one or two broken bones - no more than any other playground.

As you can tell, I still feel some resentment towards my poor mother!

Now, if you hop over to Scrapjazz,  and take a look at the October sketch challenge, you'll see this page that I did a while ago

Dig that letter S!  I love using this technique, as it ends up somehow looking as though the letter has been cut from the patterned paper behind it, and I like how it looks when there is more than one paper there.