trimmingthesails

A bit of a comic touch ...

 "Comics and bars" -  that's what it was known as in our house. On a Sunday evening, once school bags were packed, shoes polished, and kit sorted for the next day, my brothers and I would settle down round the fire as Dad brought us that week's edition of the comic or magazine we'd each chosen as a regular order, along with a chocoate bar. There'd be the rustling of pages, the scrunching of wrappers and - mostly - silence for an hour ...

I realised later, of course, that it was a resourceful way for my parents to ensure some peace and quiet for themselves, but we loved it. At some point, we'd all swap. My brothers weren't so keen on Bunty or Judy, but the Dandy or the Beano was always good for some rumbustious entertainment ...

I've always loved the look of those comics; and what fun to experiment with making a page with one's own photos! A caption across the top of the frame, some sound and visual effects, the mottled and dotted effect of the background, plus some photos of Himself ...

... hello HalfTone App! Sixty-nine pence well spent. "If I'm going to star in a scrapbook comic", said Himself, peering over my shoulder, "I think I'm going to want some rhyming couplets too". I duly obliged. So for those of you who remember the opening sequence to this story, here is the sequel ...

And it printed out beautifully too. Now, cardmaking does not come easy to me, but I'm seeing possibilities!

And thank-you so much to all of you who popped in for a cup of tea  last week, and to Abi for the inspiration; it was just lovely to see you! And it was especially nice that so many of you shared what you might want to talk about too - it really felt as if we were having a conversation :).

Up here, the glorious weather for a day or two has broken, but I am singing in the driving rain - for this weekend will be sparkling with the sunshine of time with our dearest daughter. There'll be photos! Looking forward to seeing you soon ...

What I learned at the weekend ...

And I think this probably says it all ...

You'll find the lovely and talented scrapper and teacher Emilie Chamel over here - and she really knows her inks and stamps! (And, if I dare say the words again, thank-you to The Simple Things magazine's back page for the design inspiration for the above.) Oh, and by the way, that's crafting friends off- and on-line ... :).

Hoping to be back on Wednesday after the great Unpacking of Craft Stuff, and the gi-normous Catch-Up-Of-Things-I-Really-Should-Have-Done-At-The-Weekend-If-I-Hadn't-Been-Bunking-Off. Oh boy ... Anyone got a few fairies to spare?

Bloggers' Weekend: The Inside Story

Oh, and I hope you haven't been holding your breath too much - I couldn't possibly begin to give the full unedited story! But here are some highlights ...

As they say, you had to be there - but hoping this gives a flavour! With grateful thanks to all the wonderfully creative and lovely people who took part - this is as much your creation as mine ... :).

Bypassing Spring ...

... and hopping straight into summer! That's just what it felt like, opening the wonderful box. There was banner inspiration from Ms. Smith's Telling Tales class, and snatches of stitching, clipping and snipping ...


... and, as a background, the reverse of a very old piece of patterned paper. I daren't show you the right side - it's clear I was not in my right mind when I bought it. And as for the rub-on? A very (as in very) old magazine freebie and a sip of Martini too many with the last slice of the delicious cake ...

Thank-you for popping in, and look forward to seeing you next week after, possibly, more nice things to nibble and (hiccup) a little something with crafting friends over here: no wonder the sun is shining in my world today! And may it be in yours too, wherever you are ... :).

Day 2 (December Days 2012)

Can I be the only one who feels that December is whizzing by faster than any other month? Could time actually be speeding up? And how would we know? All of this was whirling round in my head on Day 2 of my Book of December Days. Along with a love affair with the floral fabric tape ...

It's a three-layered page: the front with two photos, an inside spread with eight photos (see above), and an additional private journalling pocket underneath, accessed by pulling The Back Story tab (see below) ...

Not quite keeping pace, but hoping I'm not the only one. Gotta go - just seen half-an-hour zipping past. If I'm quick I might just catch it ...

Pumpkin? Now that's a turnip for the books ...

Turnip it was in my day, and gosh were they hard to carve! Carve is slightly optimistic: hack at would be more accurate. Slipping back through the years, on our October 31st afternoons I can remember ...

• starting to gouge out the hard yellow inside with enthusiasm, and slumping half-way through when the enormity of the task came home
• blistered knuckles on the forefingers from gripping the short-bladed knives (what were my parents thinking?)
• the argy-bargy with my brothers over whose turn it was to wrap the thrupenny bit in greaseproof paper and hide it under a layer of sliced windfall apples in the pie
• the welcome respite to position the pastry top, under Mum's watchful eye, and flute the edges: privilege of the eldest
• the smell of cooking turnip once we'd put the lid on and the candles inside: anyone else remember?

Inspired by Alisa Burke, our pumpkins are sporting coloured coats this year, with their insides intact ...

I'm not sure if Happy Hallowe'en is the correct wish here: but may yours be filled with enjoyment! And will there be apple pie where you are?

Collecting and recollecting ...

You'd have thought it would be easy, wouldn't you, collecting things on a nature walk? And it's true, strolling along in the early sunshine picking different types of grasses was gently soothing and restorative. Composing an arrangement of them, though, for Alisa's Ode to Nature class? Oh my, verging on the stressful! All the same way up? Top-to-toe? How to balance the shades of greens, soft wheat and tawny brown? Overlapping? Equal spacing? Fill the gaps? What kind of background? How best to photograph? So many questions! A lot like designing a scrapbook page, in fact ...

 And it put me in touch with earlier pages where grasses, picked at the time of taking the photographs, found a place alongside the prints and the journalling ...

I love to do this: including a little bit of nature stitches the memories to a particular time and place as if to say, "This really happened; look! I'm here with you now, and I was there then!"

Perhaps it's in the genes. My father recollected the other evening that an ancestor of ours was a President of a Field Naturalist Society, and that his own father (my grandfather) would never set off on a walk without a specimen jar or a little glass case. Another piece of history to collect ... So perhaps there is some logic to my having chosen this class: a thread that runs through my family's story and surfaces every so often. I just hope he was good at art: I understand that keeping a field journal in this class comes next!

So we'll go no more a-roving ...

... sighed Lord Bryon - but Himself and I aren't quite ready to join him yet. In the story of our weekend, (thanks, bro!), we roved aplenty ...

• lunched in the company of a bronzed gentleman in the courtyard of the wonderful Beetroot Tree Gallery and admired their cosy indoor seating right beside a clutch of pretty bags and scarves
• pondered the equinine garb on our way to the river (any idea what it's for?)
• chortled our way through a sparking performance of the Mikado (with the Three Little Maids and the Lord High Exectutioner)
• snapped the approaching rainstorm on the way back from our walk
• caught up finally after a long gap with a much-loved friend
• admired the shadows at our feet
• bought some postcards of Ingrid's lovely work
• indulged in panacotta-and-wild-berry ice-cream back at the gallery, in the their secret garden - after Himself had a head-shaving encounter with some hanging scultures

I'm wondering whether to join Rinda's intriguing Scavenger Hunt: items to be captured seem to be crossing my path serendipitously - or is it just a case of selective attention after reading the list? Oh, and we did fit in a long walk in the early morning sunshine ...

And if you're wondering whether I succumbed to temptation in the gallery's art and craft supplies section, I am going to have to confess to purchasing ... Hmm, I might be using it by Wednesday, so can I fill you in then? Happy Monday-ing :).

A midweek mélange ...

... of meditative musings:

• a waft of gratitude to Ali Edwards for her 27th Creative Lift this week, and the heart-lifting reminder in her first paragraph that if we chastise ourselves for not having enough creative energy, it might be because we are investing it in something we might not have considered creative at all - but is. 

• a frisson of amusement when Boden's autumn catalogue plopped onto the doormat. It features - wait for it - an Alexa dress. Whaddya think? Yes? No?

• a moment of illumination when scanning the new term's classes in the local Adult Education brochure: I could take an 'Award in Door Supervision, Level 2'. No wonder we could never keep the darn things closed when the children were small - we'd never been trained!

• a rush of excitment when I clicked the PayPal icon for Alisa Burke's new class Ode to Nature in August after being seduced by the video: barefoot seashore roaming (Note to self: move to coast and buy tripod), skimming through the water (NB borrow canoe), and trekking through the undergrowth (Memo: locate neighbourhood jungle).

• a sigh of relief when Jen Louden gave us permission to 'copy consciously': a camping magazine at the dentists' (don't you just love waiting rooms?) has provided the inspiration for a layout design to capture my weekend's photos and memories

•  and a sign of relaxation as we settle into the warmest evening of the year: it's dark outside and still 19.5C (66.5F). Whoo-hoo! Now, where's that Martini (and mask to protect us from the midge fest)? :)

Fishinspirational ...

"Hmm," said Himself. "Smoked mackerel kedgeree ...". He didn't actually add the three little dots, but I distinctly heard them. I'm sure he would have carried on with "That's an interesting choice for someone who's been a vegetarian for thirty years" if I hadn't got in first.
"Scrapbooking", I replied, a trifle indistinctly. There's only so much clarity you can get with a mouthful of, well, trifle.
"Ahhh!" he said, and pointed to the open page, with an enquiring look.

"Not recipes. Design." A bit muffled still, but I was savouring the sherry-soaked crumby bit at the bottom of the dish. That's about as far as our nine-word exchange went, before he did. And my nine for you? Angled photo strip, two types of journalling, dotted outlines:

OK, so I couldn't quite bring myself to leave the photo-strip on the slant. I'm putting it down to straight-line-itis, though it may be a twinge of determination to prove Himself wrong. Just in case that tenth and parting word, floating behind him, was indeed 'Tipsy' ...

See you later in the week?
(I might have finished hiccuping by then ...)