Bad at this...

Ok, so we all know by now - I'm bad at this...

I'm bad at keeping up with blogging, and I'm bad with reading other people's blogs that I really like to catch up on...

I have excuses - lots of them; I hadn't been around for so long, I wanted to reformat the blog and have had a 'reason' to have been away, and one to be back with a whole brand new look...
I have had some up's and down's - as in up's and really downs - and I feel like no one wants to know or read about things that I would write while I'm feeling crappy...
Or I felt like I had nothing interesting to say - nothing going on in my head that anyone would want to read...

Anyway, I'm here now - back - for the moment anyway...  Nothing interesting to say for right now, I will share some of my crafty stuff soon...  And some photos - I have a new 'do' that I got tonight, so will take a photo that's not an end of day worn out looking one - soon, maybe tomorrow morning...

So, that's all for now - I'm back, I'll write some short ramblings, I'll share some stuff - and the new look for the blog, I'll sort it - sometime soon-ish, I hope - when I can work out more about what I need to do, or at least be motivated enough to spend some time - perhaps hours on the computer in a setting outside of work to see how to do what I want...

Thanks, if you're still here - or back with me, along for the ride - I promise I'll try to be better...

I'm back...

Sorry all to have been absent for so long...

I recently had a reader ask what had happened since October and I was coming home.  Well... quite a bit actually:

• I was home on my own (without SO) for 5-ish weeks looking for apartments and getting settled into the my new role back in Melbourne...
• SO came home and (of course) the first apartment on the first day he came out looking with me was the one for us (and now we're living there)
• We had a weekend trip up to see SO's parents the weekend after we moved into the new apartment, during which something blocking the drain on the balcony on the level above us got blocked and caused a leak through the ceiling in our living room (which, by the way is still not fixed since the second weekend in December) :(
• We finished up work mid December and had a 6 week break (kind of pay back from so much time overseas) during which we had Christmas in Melbourne for the first time in 3 years, had 3.5 weeks in the Cook Islands and a little time around the new apartment for unpacking...
• A couple of days after we arrived on the Cook Islands we had a phone call from the Property Manager who looks after our apartment to say that the vanity (the thing around the sink) in the bathroom had fallen off the wall and caused a flood through the apartment...
  Lucky for us, my mum had the keys to the apartment and came and not only checked things out for us, saved some of our belongings (including my macbook - part of the reason I've been absent for so long - the water damage had to be sorted out) and tidied up some for us before we arrived home
  The whole apartment has floating floorboards - which, I guess were literally floating for some time there - which are now all warped and buckled and we're having to high-step over the remaining waves in them :(  Oh, and the vanity is still not back on the wall...
• Apart from being frustrated by the lack of action by the real estate agent and landlord we're settled back in Melbourne, enjoying catching up with friends and family, and back at work waiting to see what the new year holds there...

I'll be back over the next - I'd like to say days, but it'll probably be a bit more like a couple of weeks at least - and expand on some of the points here and pop in links as I go so if you come to this update later you can find them easily enough...

Thanks for dropping back in for a read!

Heading home...

I'm sorry all - I'm not sure why the post has all run together, I had to type it in the notes app on my iPad on the plane, and now it doesn't seem to matter what I do I can't get any line separation in there.. Although it looks fine in the editing screen :( And so, that's it - I've finished my time in Stockholm and am heading home... Happy in a lot of ways to have the freedom to see friends and family on a more regular basis, to be going home to look for a new apartment for SO and myself, to be heading into a different role at work. And sad in a lot of ways, friendships have developed - between the people from my company on the team, and from the client company.  It has been an intense work environment - for a fairly extended period of time, and intense environments fuel things in ways that they wouldn't be if things weren't so intense... I look forward to SO's return to Melbourne, we don't yet have a date for that beyond - about a month... And to my colleagues in the team from within my business.  It's sad to have left them behind (for clearly different reasons) but I know they are people that I will always have in my life. I'm sad that for the most part I may never see some of the people I met on the client side again. Over such a long period of time, working so closely with people it's impossible not to have formed some bond with them and they are people I'll happily call my friends... But, they will be friends from afar- and as I say, many of them I won't see again in person... That's quite sad - I hope that some of them (at least) will keep in contact over email, skype and Facebook- even more I hope that we eventually get to see some of them head to Oz for a visit. There are lots of things I'll miss about living in Europe - the ability to decide at the last minute to head off somewhere cool for the weekend - not exactly an easy thing to do from Melbourne.. The suburb where we lived - colorful and comfortable and always lively, the sights on the way to and from work in the morning - crossing the bridge from our island to the next on the way into town. Seems very strange that after living in a country where English is not the first language to be heading back to a place where I'll understand most of the conversations going on around me - without having to know the context and concentrate so hard! Sirens will sound different - strange but true, ambulances and police cars sound different!  And obviously I'll miss SO - until he heads home.  It's strange for us to be apart for any length of time - the last two years or so we spent almost 6 months traveling in South America, together all but one night of that time, some time not working and setting up the apartment in Melbourne, then about 2 months working for separate companies, before heading off traveling for another month... Of course, that changed a litle and it has ended up being 15 odd months - all of that time working together, some of it sitting next to each other, and all but about 2 weeks (when I went back to Melbourne to pack up the apartment) together... Some time apart certainly won't do us any harm, and it might actually do us some good - but it's strange not have him by my side, especially at times like now - in a plane on my way somewhere.. So much of our time together we've been traveling it feel very weird to head through security and out the other side without the camaraderie and surprise of what this security detail in this country feels is important, sitting waiting at the gate people watching or reading something, airport food and the actual being on the plane - especially for such a long flight, it just feels weird.. I guess it's a feeling that I'll just have to live with for a while - while I console myself with the warmth of friends and family and hopefully finding us a new home..

What a day...

...and not in a good way...

Today I woke up to the news that one of my close friends lost his mum today.  I have known him (and her) for for the last 16 or so years.  Up until the last few years when she has been unwell, she was a very welcome feature in my life often when I was around him.

She had married the love of her life, a beautiful man who my heart goes out to today on the loss of quite literally his other half.  They are truly the absolute epitome of the 'two halves of the same heart' cliche - they are probably closer and more in love (even in their dotage) than any other couple I know.

She has bought up a wonderful son, who has an amazing sense of self and as a gay man, has grown up with more love and understanding and acceptance than most people I know.

She managed to be always there for not only him, but his friends.  She had a generous heart and was a quietly glamorous and elegant woman.

In recent years she was in full time care after some bad turns with her health.  I mentioned a few times my desire to go visit her to my friend - who discouraged it, given the state her health and that she was really not herself any more.  On those days I always found it hard to accept - today I am very grateful for that.

It meant that today, while I was running through all my memories of her - they were true to the beautiful woman I knew.  Of her smiling, soft conversation, her quiet elegance, her unconditional support for her son and everyone he bought into her life as part of his.

One of my favourite memories was her standing in the kitchen (cooking for others as always) large chef knife in hand saying in her stunning greek accent 'Petter, I am in the kitchen and I have a large knife' in response to him trying to score his Christmas present early from her.

RIP beautiful Mary P, you will be sadly missed by many - not least your gorgeous boys.  Much love and hugs P (& M) and E - I'm sending you long distance hugs, and the strength to get through the next little while. xxx

Latest scrapping

Ok, so it's not much - but here's the scrapping I got up to yesterday after I'd done all of my LSNED book pages:

  

I just love the colours in this paper line (Kaisercraft - Chapter One) and especially loved how well it went with this pic!

So, a bit has happened...

Hmmm, I'm really not so good at this blogging thing...  When I last wrote, I had finally started on my 'Explore' Shimelle class...  I didn't get any further than that (yet)...  Shimelle had another class coming up which I'd been reading other people's comments about - and they were all EXCITED!  

Learn Something New Everyday (LSNED) is a Shimelle class that runs each year, in September (when the kids in the Northern hemisphere go back to school)...  It's a chance for Shimelle fans to 'go back to school' too and start learning something new every day...

Well, I was hesitant, I loved the first Shimelle class I took - participated in the 'live' running via the forum, reading other people's blogs, etc...  But since then had signed up for 2 that I hadn't managed to join into 'live' and hadn't completed (luckily the class fees are really reasonable!!).  But, at the last minute, I decided to sign up for LSNED - and in the process 'dobbed' two girlfriends and my step-mum in for it as well...  I figured it'd promote a little bit of the camaraderie and sharing that we have when we scrap together (when I live in the same country as them) even though we're so far away these days...

So far - I have managed to jot myself a note each day on my learning - into my iphone notes app, so that I can remember what the day taught me.  Last weekend I sat and read about what everyone was up to in the forum - how they'd gone about deciding on what format of book, cards, etc to use and what their front covers looked like.  And then I got into making my own...  And I got my lessons in for the first few days...  Yesterday, really my first chance to scrap again - I got back into it, and before dinner had all of my lessons for the week into my book...  I'm really liking the class - I need to get some photos developed to go onto some of the pages (not every page has a photo though - only where they belong with the lesson) - but other than that - I'm keeping up, and liking my book and it's style and the class...

Here's what it looks like so far:

So, there's what it's looking like so far - apologies for my inability to line up the photos properly in blogger (but that might keep me here all day - and there's scrapping to do!).  I have made a 6" x 12" book from chipboard covers and kraft cardstock for the days - I have a Tim Holtz kraft relief pad that every second page is from - and then the alternate pages are plain cardstock.  In hindsight, I probably would have done each page from the Tim Holtz book, but never mind!  Something else learned!

The papers are all from the Bo Bonny 'Gabrielle' line as I had the whole pack and had hardly used any, I thought it'd be nice to have everything matching.  I am also using the book to take myself somewhat out of my comfort zone - for those of you who have been reading along - I can't bring myself to do single pages in my scrapbooks, each of them (except at the beginning and end of a book - where truthfully, there's mostly nothing!) are double pages.  I just like opening up the book and what I'm looking at is all matching...  With LSNED I've done different pages for each (but am helping my anal-retentiveness cope by having the same colour scheme throughout!).

So, that's all for now - I'll try to keep updating as the book is coming together...

Starting to 'explore'

So, about 8 weeks ago I signed up for a new Shimelle class.

We were travelling still in the first week, so I knew that it was unlikely that I would be up to date with the class...  What I wasn't really expecting was to be so short on mojo for so long that I would miss the 'live run' of the class all together...  But, that's what happened...

Over the last couple of weeks I've ordered a bunch of photos to try to kick myself back into action.  Well this weekend it worked - I managed to get together 3 canvases that I wanted to hang in the apartment:

The middle one ended up lenthways (without the small photos) instead of across but I didn't take another photo.

Then I managed to work through 4 of the explore prompts yesterday.  Here's my playbook:

  

I managed to take my self portrait - just before I started working through the prompts actually when I came home from having a new haircut (a good Swedish hairdresser experience for a change!!) - it's a kind of weird shot, but I was ok with that...

I don't have a printer at home, so it will have to wait until the next time I order prints to go into the book. And, I wrote my note to self (only have a shot of half of it for some reason:

  

Next up, was mapping it out.  A shot of all the maps I spread on my desk:

And my page with some map pieces and circle:

And lastly the most 'perfect' part of my life - and no, it's not strictly SO, but the way we live and work and travel and play together so well:

Then, I felt like some 'freestyle' scrapping - so yesterday afternoon and this afternoon got these layouts complete:

So - hopefully the mojo's back and next weekend will bring some more creativity...