Simplified scrapbooking

Ooh here's something I found interesting and useful!

How to organise yourself, scrapping-wise, by Aby Garvey. A link from the latest (July/August) Simple Scrapbooks on their website, of course!

I've got one or two of the Simple Scrapbooks books. There are definitely elements of the method that appeal!

Inspiration

A scrapper can get her inspiration from the strangest places...

My husband took me and four friends out to a local restaurant (Memsaab) to celebrate his birthday. The food was magnificent because they had an award-winning chef in on a special visit from London. (Don't ask how much the meal cost, I couldn't sleep afterwards for thinking about it, but then, we rarely get out.)

Where the inspiration came in (as well as the food!) was the feedback card they left for customers to fill in. You know the type of thing: where did you hear about us, how was the food, the service, the surroundings? Well they didn't get it back - despite being excellent in all respects - because look how pretty it is - wonder if I can adapt that for a LO?

Those LOs I did the other day

Just to prove I DO sometimes scrap! A Cathy Zielske scraplift and a Scrappers Unlimited class.
. .

Is it good to be silly?

"Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It's good to be silly at the right moment."
- Horace, Roman lyric poet & satirist (65 BC - 8 BC)

My family tell me I am always complaining and am never happy.

I guess I'm not a naturally easy-going type. Not an optimist as such...

But "never" happy?

I do believe in duty and responsibility and being serious, but I am often playful - but perhaps it's only ever online, in my blogs or forums or emails. I find it difficult to "mix foolishness with prudence" and let things go.

I wonder if I have any pictures of myself being "silly at the right moment"?

It's unlikely that I would have permitted such a photo to be taken.

Do I dare?

If you already have such a pic then you probably don't know what I'm talking about. But if you understand where I'm coming from - then you probably need to lighten up too, so go get a "silly pic" taken and send me the link via comment!

Go scrap!

I have a day off today. Sort of. I work 4 days a week and fit some freelance and voluntary work into the other day plus spare time. I was overwhelmed so I thought that I would have an extra day off work this week to concentrate on some of my other projects. But it's nearly 11 am and all I've managed to do is have a bath...

So - I ask myself the question:

"What can you do today
that at the end of the day
will allow you to sit back and say
'today was a really successful day'."

Most of my projects need loads of work doing on them - none of them are at that point where I can make a big breakthrough and feel that rush of success! I need some "two-minute" jobs that I've been procrastinating about...

• Relaxing is definitely on my list! So that's ticked off {sigh}
• Apply to renew my passport
• Put entries in all of my blogs (but NOT spend time on the forums!)
• Some housework is needed, but to get a success in shortest time... the bathroom...
  

and of course what would give me a big fillip of satisfaction would be to complete a LO, or better still, three LOs. That really would have me saying I've succeeded in something today, as I get so little time to scrap and haven't done any this month {gasp}. So: post at least one on this blog by the end of the day!

I can recommend this question if you're ever at a loose end.

Tell me (via comment!) what would make today (whatever day you read this) a success for you? And then - did you accomplish it?

Take my breath away...

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

Lewis Hamilton won his second Grand Prix yesterday in the United States. His rise to sucess certainly takes my breath away.

This week, do something different. Scrap a layout about the things that take your breath away - maybe you have a picture of a moment, but more likely you don't, so you have to be creative about this layout.

What takes my breath away? A very strong wind! Or probably, the winsomeness of a child...

Colour picker

Here's an interesting widget that helps you pick co-ordinating colours - useful if designing webpages, but also good for colours of any kind!

And of course - brilliant for helping you work out the colour palette for a scrapbook page!

Only works in Firefox, I'm afraid. If you have Internet Explorer, you won't be able to see it properly.