Scrapbook Circle Challenge ...

... #12 Sketch Challenge.

Haven't done one of these for a while. All mainly June kit plus a bit of bling and cardstock.

Perfect ...

... a quick layout from the photo that I took for the perfect prompt last week.

Explore: Observe ...

... today's prompt could not be more apt and is quite a biggie for me. It called for taking a picture of where you sit, stand and sleep. We were then asked to consider where we spent most of our time, which location was most comfortable and which added value.

As it was my last day at work I decided to focus on where I sit to work and what I will now be trading this with.

The journalling reads:

Today is the last day that I will sit in this chair as a Customer Support Manager. Now I'm trading it for longer walks with the dog, playing in the garden with the girls, sitting and creating, decorating step ladders, making more home cooked meals. The seat no longer adds value to my day, week or life. I'm trading it for a different routine and more sponataneity, a different routine in the week for more sponataneity at the weekend.

Explore: Get Creating ...

... so today's prompt was to make something drawing on what we had learnt from the week. I decided to go with a She Art girl using the cut up map from a couple of days ago as a background.

This is the 8th girl I've made now but the first that is truely based on me.
Here you can see the map in the background.


I'm also going to make a LO at some point over the weekend with the picture I took yesterday.

Explore: Perfection ...

... I thought about this prompt for a long time when it first came through. There are so many things in my life that aren't perfect - Steve and the girls may be, but my relationships with them isn't. I'm not a perfectionist at all, sometime I wish I were more so. I could only come up with negative thoughts. So I spent a few hours thinking about this as I went about things this afternoon and then I realised that what I do think is perfect is family time, not just the four of us, but my whole family. And part of leaving work is to make more of this time, this is really important to me. So I made a few notes in my playbook.



The prompt also called for a photo that captured this and I was all set to share a couple I already had until I captured this one on the way to Lily's school disco earlier this evening. This is what I call PERFECT.

Explore: Maps ...

... yesterday's prompt was all about maps.

I LOVE maps and will pour over them for hours. It's the first thing I do whenever I go anywhere new.

I decided to do a page in my playbook about how I've been discovering new walks since having Modbury and before you cry "how can you cut up a map?" I've got two because Modbury chewed the last one!


Another part of the prompt was to get some circle punches in different sizes and have a play around with them. Well I've only got 2, so I decided to use buttons as my smallest circle and have made these embellishments. Think they're going to form part of a LO when we get tomorrow's prompt.

Don't you just love how the map co-ordinates with my colours!

Explore: Adventure ...

... do you consider yourself and adventurous person? What does the word adventure mean to you?

These are the questions asked today. We'd already been warned to find a postcard prior to the prompt coming through. I had some leftover from when I had a half hearted attempt at Postcrossing, but decided these weren't personal enough so I grabbed a Cath Kidston card from a birthday present set instead.

The prompt asked us to write on that postcard whatever moment felt the most adventurous. Immediately I thought about my travels to the Far East BC (before children). But when I thought about it some more I think adventurous and adventure actually mean different things to me.

Adventurous is about travelling to somewhere new, trying out different things, experiencing unfamiliar environments. However adventure to me means more about my life as a mum, wife, friend - life being the adventure itself. The first is a short journey, the second a long one.

Anyhow, I stuck with the Far East memories for my postcard and if you click on it you should be able to read the journalling (although a tad messy). I shall post it later when I have a stamp!

This is the first page of my photo album highlighting the journey we took.
This is the last page - that photo of the train carriage is where we slept - cockroaches and all!!!!

Explore: Playbook ...

... part of yesterday's prompt was to create a 'Playbook' - somewhere to jot notes and reponses to prompts, for when a full 12x12 page isn't needed.

I decided to stick mainly with Scrapbook Circle June kit for the class, so I've added in some salmon and teal cardstock to make this mini book - it's 6x4 - along with the patterned paper. The alphas on the front are from the July kit, the tag has been on my desk for ages waiting to be used!

I've also taken Shimelle's idea of adding random photos along the way to add interest - I've include a sunset, some boats, a train and skyline.

Explore: Note to Self ...

... having recently resigned, lacking creativity and wondering what to do next Shimelle's new class seemed like perfect timing to me and I was very captivated by the title!

So first prompt today - take a self portrait in the mirror and write a Note to Self:



18th July 2011

So here I am just past my 41st birthday. I'm pretty comfortable having pictures taken of myself (even with the extra wrinkles) and do document myself in my scrapbooks. This is really quite important to me.

However, my creativity is low at the moment, there are so many projects that I wish to tackle but I just don't feel I have the energy.

Now I'm at a crossroads and hoping to take a new path that will lead me to a new, invigorated person, full of life and energy.

'Explore' is most definitely what my life is about at the moment and I'm intrigued as to where it may take me.

Fay

Butterfly Crafts ...

... doesn't time fly, the new challenge is live here. I took my inspiration from the title 'cherie' and the font.
I didn't have enough 's' though and had to improvise!!

10 things - favourite LOs ...

... I have a task which has been on my to do list for ages, which is to gets these LOs into albums. I used to do this straight away, but was in need of new albums so over the course of last year my pile just kept growing.


So yesterday I started sorting them out and it reminded that I don't look through my LOs often enough and it inspired today's 10 Things for 10th July, which is my favourites.

In no particular order or reason (they just jumped out at me!)

Nourish ...

.. my friend has been seeing an acupuncturist who told her that she needs to 'nourish' herself more and I knew straight away what she meant. For a while now I have felt unbalanced in my life and that I wasn't looking after myself as much as others. Hence the lack of creativity.

So a couple of weeks ago I took a major life decision and resigned from my part-time from home work. The reasons are many and varied but I am so looking forward to spending the summer with the girls. My days will then be spent removating and organising the house so that come the weekends we can spend time together as a family. I will of course be allowing myself creative time outs!

I've found myself with some time this weekend as Lily has gone to Brownie Camp. It's her first time away from me and home (apart from having a few Grannie stays), I hope she's coping OK, the house is very quiet with just Mia. So a little bit of crafting was in order.

Firstly I've made a little bird for my stepmum as a post-op present. She's becoming a bit of a bird collector!


This is for Shimelle's Sketch of the Week which I've rotated.

Have a very busy couple of weeks coming up with the end of term approaching, final PTA events to organise and a family wedding. Then there's our summer holiday to look forward to - yipee!