Write it on Wednesday - 7 random facts

Nickibee tagged me last Wednesday - and no I'm not going to play by the obvious rules, because this is a scrapping blog - and not only that, it's a journalling blog.

So let's use this as a journalling challenge!

There was a great Cathy Zielske Big Picture class with a template for a LO about 5 random facts. So this is a bit of a scraplift of that template, which you can find examples of all over the Web, e.g.,

5 random facts
(UKScrappers Gallery)

This time I didn't even write facts about myself - I interviewed my son. He came up with a few phrases, which I then fleshed out with him. I "tag" you to have a go! Scraplift this, by all means :)


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Scrapping TV

Blogs and TV go together in scrapbooking land.

Here are some good online TV stations or video archives relating to scrapbooking - all American so far - I haven't come across any UK ones - have you? Tell me!

Craft TV Weekly
Real women scrap TV
Scrap in style TV (requires registration)
Scrapbook Lifestyle with Scrapbooks etc.
Kari & Gina
Paper Wishes Weekly Webisodes
Fiskars TV
and of course, anything on Youtube including the parodies Inside Scrapbooking...
Youtube scrapbooking videos

Write it on Wednesday: The unexpected

"Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks." - Samuel Johnson

The unexpected - it happens all the time - whether it's an unexpected compliment from one's loved one or an amusing comment from a child. Or it could be an unexpetced juxtaposition of two objects that make for a funny result - and makes you want to get your camera out.

Of course, the unexpected can often be sad, tragic or depressing. And sometimes you don't really feel like writing about or scrapping those kinds of things. Yet they are often some of the most meaningful times of our lives.

So let's have one of each. Today, write about one unexpected good thing, and one unexpected bad thing. Just give yourself ten minutes and a blank piece of paper and start:

"I didn't expect..."

Worry about the photograph later - this exercise is about the journalling!

Here's mine

"I didn't expect to be working in a city 70 miles from home - I left my last job because I couldn't cope with the commute - it was 30 miles away. And now I have chosen this! Luckily it IS all my choice, and I only do it once a week and not every day. It is on my terms, and that makes all the difference. So sitting in a traffic jam on the motorway at 7.15 am is unexpected but I can cope - I hope!"

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A face that says it all...

Sometimes a picture really can be worth a thousand words (and you didn't hear me say that!)

Coming back from a holiday in Cornwall I realised my son had rather tiresomely pulled faces in virtually all of the photos I took, in many cases spoiling a beautiful photo of his sister smiling attractively. So I took as my theme a quote (I wish I could remember where I found it because it's PERFECT!):

"Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting"

Just look at those faces!

Write it on Wednesday: Writing about Home

What does the word "home" mean to you?

Home might be a place we have not visited for a long time, or perhaps never at all. For some of us, it's just part of a personal history we create for ourselves, but for others there really is somewhere like that described by Robert Frost:

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."

But even though its meaning is strongly rooted in a physical place which we can visit, in these days of frequent re-location the real power of Home is often defined more in our heads than by buildings, countries or landscapes. Of the several meanings given in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, perhaps the most germane for the global village is a definition from as far back as 1548:

"A place, region or state to which one properly belongs, in which one’s
affections centre, or where one finds rest, refuge, or satisfaction."

So, Home can frequently be found more in memory than in geography or more in imagination than in reality, and a song, a flower, a word, or a mouthful of food can be all it takes to bring to life a whole theatre of recollection.

What photographs do you have that say "home" to you? Alternatively - start with the journalling.

When journalling to create a layout ask the questions:

• What does the word ‘home’ mean to you?
• Describe the home of your childhood.
• Describe the scent, taste or feel of home.
• Which object most evokes home for you?
• Where do you feel you ‘properly belong’ now?

Home mosaic

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Using similes as titles

The simile is a way to create a picture in the reader's mind. It can add an extra dimension to a piece of writing, a poem - or a scrapbook layout. It asks us to picture one thing as being similar to another; it does this by using the word 'like', 'as' or 'than'.

Let's look at some examples:

• Dance like an angel/princess
• Shine brightly like the star you are!
• You sparkle like a diamond
• Your words are like eyes burning deep in my soul
• 2 peas in a pod
• A face without freckles is like a sky without stars
• Life is like a Bubble Bath... a few splashes, but generally good, clean fun!
• Spring came that year like magic, and like music, and like song. -- Thomas Wolfe
• Our love is like a song that never ends

Some similies are cliché - something we have heard so often that it has lost its original power to surprise or amuse us, such as: Cool as a cucumber; like chalk and cheese; softer than silk. The same is true of many scrapbook titles. But if you haven't used them yet - they may be new to you!

• Sweet like chocolate
• Sleeping like a baby
• Blooming like a garden/weeds
• Swing like a monkey

Can you come up with some more creative similes to be titles for your layouts?
Jot down the name, the event, or a feeling that the photo immediately evokes, then "is like" and see where you go...

Jenny is like a butterfly, always flitting, never settling for long...

Hopping crazy as a cricket

As changeable as the British weather...

Your smile is like a thousand suns

Write it on Wednesday: Mondegreens

There's a name for misheard song lyrics - they are mondegreens.
There's a lovely story behind this name:

The word mondegreen, meaning a mishearing of a popular phrase or song lyric , was coined by the writer Sylvia Wright.

As a child she had heard the Scottish ballad " The Bonny Earl ofMurray" and had believed that one stanza went like this:

Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands
Oh where hae you been?
They hae slay the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

Poor Lady Mondegreen, thought Sylvia Wright . A tragic heroine dying with her liege; how poetic. When it turned out, some years later, that what they had actually done was ‘ slay the Earl of Murray and lay him on the green’ , Wright was so distraught by the sudden disappearance of her heroine that she memorialized her with a neologism.

An Aussie friend's son’s class at school used to sing the first line of the Australian national anthem as:

Australia’s sunset ostriches.

(Australia’s sons let us rejoice – now amended to ‘Australians all let us rejoice’)

I remember a few from prayers and hymns at school as well...
More recently, I thought for some time that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "The Zephyr Song" had the lyrics - "Fly away on my cellphone..." I thought it was somewhat fanciful to describe a mobile phone call in such terms!

Have you a mondegreen to share? (Can you find one on the Web?) Is there a mondegreen that could inspire a LO for you? Could you use it as the title?

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Never be afraid to see...

I created this layout on the day that my mother-in-law was in hospital having a cataract operation.

She has led a quiet and sheltered life in a small town in the north of England, and is one of the nicest and sweetest people I've ever met. Whenever she comes out for a trip or a holiday with us, it seems that we do something that she has never done before, whether it's having a milkshake in McDonald's or seeing a peacock for the first time.

I loved this photograph in which she was looking out to sea from the lantern room at the top of the Souter Lighthouse. There are so many things I would like to show her. On the day I scrapped it my feelings were quite strong because we needed the operation to be a success. So all the feelings were summed up in one longer-than-usual title...

Never be afraid to see...

Inspirational scrapping spaces

So you're disorganised? Or maybe you're not but you'd like your scrapping space to look a bit more unusual or stylish. Here's some inspiration!

An American scrapping shed

A British scrapping shed!

Scrapping Rooms on Scrapjazz

Diana’s room

Terri on 2peas

One from scrapbook.com

Something a bit more elegant

The one that gets people drooling (for all sorts of reasons!)

From the blog On Eagle's Wings - the Prima collector!

The Work Box - a scrap cupboard you can buy - very organised!

Storage for Crafts - a shop that specialises in craft storage

Write it on Wednesday - inspiring people

This is a BOM LO really - and if you don't know the jargon, that's a "Book of Me" layout!

I have for some time been a deep admirer of Aung San Su Kyi, the imprisoned opposition leader in Burma. Her courage in the face of dreadful repression is truly inspirational, and she risks death just by existing. Looking into her story there are personal tragedies and sacrifices that she has made for the sake of her country and her people. And her struggle, and that of the Burmese people, is far from over.

Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of a famous martyred general, was married to a British academic in 1972 and had two sons, Alexander, born in 1972 and Kim, born in 1977. She spent all too brief a time enjoying family life in England before, in 1988, she heard that her mother had suffered a stroke and did not have long to live. Knowing what was likely to happen, she returned to Burma where she joined the pro-democracy movement and was put under house arrest in 1989. She left her husband, Michael Aris, a Tibetan scholar and two children (then aged 11 and 16) behind in England. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991: her sons accepted the Prize on her behalf.

In 1999 her husband was dying of prostate cancer. He was refused permission to visit her in Burma and Suu Kyi dared not leave Burma for fear she would not be allowed back. They had met only 5 times since her return to Burma. They never saw each other again. Michael died in March 1999. She is now a grandmother, but rarely sees her family.

There are several possible LOs in this:

People who inspire me

If you were separated from your family what would you want them to know?

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Great inspiration for making cards

This is an American store which I think looks really classy:
Impress Rubber Stamps
http://www.impressrubberstamps.com/
Check out "Impressive Ideas"
Archive of Christmas card ideas

Some inspiring cardmaking blogs:

Kathy B’s blog

Jo Kill’s blog

Daring cardmakers’ challenge blog