Recent Scrapbooking efforts

It seemed time for me to show some of what I've been up to lately (apologies to those who know me on Facebook, this will all look familiar!)...  Yes, here is me - in all my double page anal retentive glory!

Pub lunch:

The view from up here:

Sacre Couer:

Notre Dame:

Features:

Inside and out:

And finally, sisters (from my very homesick day a couple of weeks ago):

I really should get around to getting Photoshop or PSE on my lovely little macbook, but I just haven't yet - so none of them are trimmed or put into a proper shape - apologies for that...

Scrapbookers question

Hi all,

Now that I have a few scrapbookers dropping by (hopefully) semi regularly - I have a question for you all...

In recent years, more and more it seems the 'fashion' for scrapbooking has been leaning towards single page layouts...  Being the anal retent that I am - I just have not been able to bring myself around to the single page - preferring the 'balance' of looking at double pages... 

I tend to scrap all (or at least most) of the photos I take (or certainly intend to - at some point!) there is nothing in 'other' album forms with plain photos for example...  I have also resisted (partly because of the double page OCD) the one photo to a layout trend (although it has happened where I have a lot of journalling on the 2nd page, or ephemera like invitations, tickets, etc) - even when I only have one photo of something I print it multiple times (usually in different sizes) to include...

Which way do you swing?  Or do you go both ways?  What determines which way you go with any particular layout?  Or does no one else agonise over this stuff like me..??

If you're a single page layout gal, how do you arrange your pages - do you worry about having similar papers or colours adjacent, or do you just pop things into the album in chronological (or some other order) not concerning yourself with the differences between each 'side'?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

Something that amused me lately

Another for the Why Sweden, Why file:

This post bought to you by prompt 5 - Blogging for Scrapbookers

Amazing Days

For our 2nd prompt Shimelle asked us to think about the amazing days of our lives, and prompt 3 talks about lists (I'm sorry but there are many more than 5!)...

I have had so very many in the last 18 months or so that it's difficult to choose:

The day at Iguazu Falls in Argentina:

The day at Perito Merino Glacier in Argentina:

The days of trekking the Inca Trail in Peru and arriving at Machu Picchu:

 

The day we went parasailing over the Sacred Valley (very amazing for 2 so scared of heights!):

The day we went white water rafting - no photos from this day!!

The days on our cruise around the Galapagos Islands and being so close to the wildlife:

Our night out in Paris for my birthday:

Getting to see London and Stonehenge:

Having the opportunity to live an work in a foreign city (with snow!):

More recently though my amazing days were spent doing things like:

Meeting a girlfriend's (not so) new baby and spending time with her and her other son:

Dinner with family and friends:

  

Catching up with friends and family in Mildura:

A concert with mum:

Playing in the sunshine in the park after a haircut:

Coming home to SO:

Hmmm, I guess there'll have to be more on all of the above sometime (soon-ish!).

Gotta be startin' something!

Well, as I've mentioned I've enrolled in an on-line class blogging for scrapbookers and as yet, I've not nothing but faff about reading class notes and surfing other people's blogs!!

In my defence I've been sick, so I haven't wanted to be doing much of anything - but am feeling like I'm on the mend now, so look out - I may now overload you with posts today!!

Shimelle asked us to think about the goals for our blog - I was always quite clear about this, I wanted an easy way to be able to keep in touch with friends and family with the on going 'stories' of what we were up to...  After being away in South America for almost twice as long as we'd originally planned in the end - and trying to keep everyone up to date-ish on FaceBook, and the -very- occasional bulk email to family and close friends...  When after only being home for 4.5 months we were off again - on holiday (I was to be gone 4.5 weeks) and J was going to work in Stockholm for 12 weeks, I waved everyone farewell with a very casual 'see you in a month'.  Hmmm, that was mid July last year...  After I was signed on to work for a while - I decided that I might test my toes in the world of blog - and so here I am...

I never expected much that too many people would take an interest - that the friends and family who wanted to keep up with what we were doing would have a cursory read now and then as they had the time...  I have been reading only those blogs of a few friends (only one another 'expat') and stalking about the posts of a few scrapbooking blogs...  I was a little taken back when so many people from the class were talking about reading the whole class full of blogs (on a fairly regular basis) and that many of them had made friends over not just the duration of the course but since then (2009) as well - I shouldn't have been, on reflection - but initially I was...

I have often found myself nodding in agreement, empathising, sympathising, etc with the blogs that I read - and not only those of people that I know personally.  On reflection it didn't really surprise me at all that many of these classmates had made lasting friendships - when they are 'talking' to each other regularly about their day to day and sharing interests, etc - is that not the very definition of friendship?  Of course there would be lasting relationships develop where you can associate to other people and their lives that you're 'hearing' about - especially where you 'click' with what the other is 'saying'.

And so, I'm enjoying more people stopping by to comment and join in and having new blogs to read - and can see that I'll likely loiter around them on a much more regular basis!

As for aligning the blog to my scrapbooking goals - I think that I probably need to work much more at it being able to help me when I'm looking for the words for my pages - I blog less when I'm down or feeling homesick (or just plain sick) and there are plenty of words from days in the recent-ish past that I could be talking about - almost none of the South American trip has been put on pages, and those photos that have were for a kit for a girlfriend's scrapbooking shop, so there was no journalling on them - they were just 'showcase' photos I guess you'd say...  And then my recent trip back to Melbourne - where there were so many highlights that I could have been getting down...  *sigh* So anyway, be prepared to see more 'blast from the past' type updates before I forget everything around those events!

A very long blog post for prompt 1 - but I've had it all turning over in my head for a few days!!

My 'scrap table' (SO keeps telling me it's the table in our lounge room - but there's never anything else on it and I've kind of taken up the real estate!) last night after I'd finished a layout:

My blogging happens generally in my lap - either on the couch or in bed, as we don't really have the space for the computers to permanently live anywhere and we're both on laptops...

Back, again...

I have been terribly lax here, once again...

I had a whirlwind trip home, had the job of packing up our much loved and hardly lived in apartment, had the absolute joy of catching up with friends and family who took time out of their own busy lives and schedules to arrange dinners, drive 5 hours cross country and just generally make the time to add an hour or two of me into their time...

I have returned to a clearing snowy landscape, that seems almost ready to give way to spring and some sunshine - although not sunshine in the sense that we know it as Australians, because there's still not a lot of warmth in it.  And of course to SO, who by all accounts seemed to somewhat miss me while I wasn't around...

I have also managed to pick up a bout of what is likely just a bad case of gastro - but after 13 days of semi regular vomiting and diarrhoea, a day of excruciating tummy pain and being able to hold nothing at all in sent me off to visit the doctor...  A couple of hours, a couple of blood tests and a testing kit to bring home with me saw me collapse into bed halfway through yesterday afternoon from where I have only moved to run back and forth to the bathroom and go and wander aimlessly around the kitchen, looking for things that might last for more than 5 minutes in my tummy...

On the plus side - I might actually get to catch up with some FaceBook gossip, I have finally gotten around to making a blog post, and I am finally starting the reading for an on line course on blogging for scrapbookers that I have signed up to blogging for scrapbookers.  I have even managed to find a different template for the blog, and think I've successfully attached it - not sure if I'm loving it yet, but I'm happy to know that I can do it - so, even from the pre-course material I've learned something from my course already!!

I guess that's about all the sharing for now - probably more than anyone wanted anyhow, but that's the goings on lately!!

On my way...

So, this morning I headed off from ‘home’ through Stockholm and our snowy, alien landscape – past the forests full of evergreens wearing their white coats, and the others wearing nothing but the ice and snow…  In a lovely minus 5 degrees, in jeans and boots, a hat and coat and was freezing…

To the airport with the runways covered in snow, where de-icing airplanes is a regular thing.  Through the check-in counter and security, the stores that litter all international airports.  Through passport control and up to the gates near where the plane will depart…

A normal morning when travelling, up and ready and out to the airport, getting through all the normal checkpoints – with nothing out of the ordinary.  Except this time SO is not with me…  We have spent all but 2 (separate) nights together in the last 16 or so months – and most days too, between travelling together for almost 6 months and then a while where we set up the house on our return from overseas, and now back to how we started - in working together.

It’s a weird and surreal experience to look up at the fairy floss clouds as we pop out of the top of them into the bright sunshine and smile, without being able to share it with him…

I’m expecting the temperature in Melbourne to be something cooling down from a 30 odd degree day when I arrive tomorrow, which I’ll lay odds on won’t be in the negative temperatures – nor have the snowy landscape that I’ve gotten so used to recently.  The coat has come off for getting in the plane – although I always find planes so cold I’m huddled under the polar fleece blanket they provide anyway…  I expect the boots and socks, as well as the singlet under my top will have to come off – if not before Melbourne, at least by the time I’m in the airport there… 

I expect that my body will be warmed in the sun, my head and heart will be warmed by catching up with the people there that I love and miss so much so regularly.  I also expect that everything will feel just a little less warm not having SO with me…