Big news

Some of you may have noticed I haven't been around for a little while. Well I've been away skiing for a week in the French Alps which was amazing:



Yes that is me doing an amazing jump (I won't tell you about the great big air bag I landed on... whoops I just did!).

What was even more amazing (my new favourite word it seems) was that my other half (Ben) proposed to me on top of the glacier! We had to ski back down afterwards and I was shaking to say the least.



So that's my big news. No wedding planned for a little while but that won't stop me thinking about it I'm sure so expect the odd wedding themed post making an appearance here and there. I'd better sign off now as the combination of champagne and the scent of flowers (lounge looks like a florists) is making me giddy. I'd send you all a glass of bubbly to join in the toast if I could! x

Paper adventure 08, the story so far

Here's a little mosaic of my mini book progress so far for paper adventure 08



1. Balance, 2. Cover of mini book, 3. Balance page 2, 4. My souvenir, 5. My souvenir page 2

Elise has just posted the next *operation*, go have a look and see what's *next*!

Time for love and romance and all that stuff...

I printed some gocco Valentine's yesterday and I'm really loving how they came out. I have some fab recycled paper that I printed the design on. I have several variations of these but for now I just have this one listed:


[click to see full size]

You can buy one here!

I'm really enjoying drawing in this simple line style so I think there'll be more where this came from soon.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend, Toby sends licks and kisses to you all...

Baby it's cold out there

Happy Friday! x

Challenges for 2008

So one of my "resolutions" was to take part in Elise's paper adventure. Here's the first side of my first page in response to her prompt of "balance".


[click photo to see it in flickr]

I've done the other side, just need to scan it.

This weeks prompt is "What sort of souvenir am I leaving?". I need to give this one some more thought as not sure where to go with this one yet.

And it was thanks to a link from elise's blog that I found ashley's challenge- overlooked. The first prompt is to take a photo of a coffee cup so here it is...


[click photo to see it in flickr]

And finally, my friend Lisa invited me join 52 weeks about U- a flickr group where you post one photo a week that is about you, doesn't have to be a self portrait, just something that represents "you".

Wow, I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with all these challenges but I'll definitely give it a go. Are you participating in any similar challenges this year?

Recycle 2008: Idea 1

So here's my new project for 2008. I'm going to attempt to come up with a way of recycling/reusing something from my household recycling box every month and share it with you here.

Maybe predictably, my first idea is around recycling Christmas cards. I would normally put them in a collection box in the Supermarket or my normal recycling bin but this year I thought I'd try and think of some other ways of using them.

Before I jump into idea 1 of Recycle 2008, here are some ways other people have recycled Christmas cards:

• Christmas ornaments by Martha Stewart
• Coasters
• Boxes
• And ATCs like the ones I did here

Idea 1
My mantlepiece is looking a bit empty now all the decorations and Christmas candles have gone so I thought this would help liven it up a bit. The same could be said for any walls, book shelves or other such surfaces in your house. But I thought that as I had a spare shadow frame, it would look good standing on the mantlepiece.

All I did for this was use a hole punch to punch holes in a card, the multi coloured circles were then stuck to the shape of a bird I'd already cut out from the other half of the card. Then I cut out a tree shape from yet another bit of Christmas card. I put it all together using little sticky foam pads, put it in a frame and there you go. A pretty piece of art for the mantlepiece.


[click photo to view in full size on flickr]

Of course I still have lots of cards left so I need some more ideas to use them up, any thoughts?

How has it gone so far?

2008 that is. Has it started well for you?

Well I already need to change one of my goals I talked about here.

I went shopping yesterday and bought some new clothes ready for my next skiing trip. They were necessary of course and I realised I need some more bits too. So the no new clothes goal is moving to February.

Here are all my goals, the progress so far and I've added some new ones:

1. Recycle all tetrapack cartons (juice, soya milk etc.). So far I have four cartons in the recycling box and none in the bin.
   
2. Take part in this "paper adventure". Mini book is done, I haven't done the first prompt yet but I have planned it.
   
3. Go to the gym five times in the next month. I haven't been yet, but am planning to go at least once by the end of the week.
4. Don't buy any new craft supplies until March 2008. OK with this so far although I am going to need some blank cards soon to re-stock my etsy shop which is getting a bit depleted.
   
5. No new clothes in January (charity shop clothes are ok). Well as mentioned above I need to change this one. So it now will read: Have at least one "no new clothes" month every six months.
6. New one: Be more organised by planning meals for the week, planning activities for the week and re-organising cluttered parts of the house. I've started this by getting a diary (actually it was free and I've covered it to make it more attractive, photos to follow), I've planned the meals for the week and I've started planning what tasks I need to do each week. I also invested in some DVD storage units to tidy the piles of DVDs, CDs and Wii games in our lounge.
7. New one: Look for ways to reuse rather than recycle where possible. Try to find a new way every month and write a tutorial for it where possible. I have an idea for this already that I need to try out.

So I haven't done too bad so far, as I said before I don't plan on these being rigid as I don't think I'll be very successful if they are.