Studio Calico Sunday Sketch

I hope everyone's having a fabulous weekend so far!  Just a very quick post today to share my take on Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch (19/09).  To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with how this layout turned out, but I am trying very hard not to let my perfectionism get in the way of my productivity at the moment (if that makes sense).  

I tried to make the overall tone quite subdued because of the subject matter (a trip to the Imperial War Museum a couple of months ago).  The patterned papers are from August's Studio Calico kit...I wasn't immediately drawn to those BasicGrey papers, but they definitely grew on me as time wore on.  Almost everything else on the page is either from Partly Sunny or Continental.  The photos were taken on my Retro Camera app for my HTC Desire...it's not quite the same as the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone, but it does the job :)

Anyhoo, I'm off to watch the X Factor and play around with this.  I have a bit of a thing for gadgets at the moment. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Some Tumblr favourites...

By Raceytay

 

By lauraamiss

 By dearcolleen

 By Toast

Right now I'm loving: 1) simplicity 2) autumn weather (if you're anywhere near London today, you know what I'm talking about) 3) wise words 4) this outfit...and those colours.

You can take a peek at some of my other Tumblr finds here.

Revisiting my 'roots'

If you look through my albums c. 2004/2005, you will see lots...and lots...of 12 x 12 layouts.  Not only are they 12 x 12, they are also two-pagers (mostly).  Oh, how things have changed!  Since the start of 2010, every single layout that I have worked on has been of the 8.5 x 11 variety.  I'm not entirely sure why I made this leap...I suppose in some ways the smaller size seemed much more manageable after a 4 year scrapbooking hiatus.  But at the same time, I sort of missed creating 12 x 12 layouts...so a few days ago I decided to revisit my 'roots.'  It was a lot less stressful/daunting than expected.  In fact, it was pretty fun :)  And that MME paper from Studio Calico's August kit?  Love it.      

Thank you for looking!

Lately I've been...

Making Shimelle's amazing pumpkin cupcakes...and devouring cupcakes from Lola's (shown below are the scrummy red velvet and peanut butter cupcakes.  I may have accidentally consumed the other two before I remembered to take a picture).  

Ordering a LOT of Yankee Candle samplers.  My current favourites are Farmer's Market, Apple Cider, Autumn Fruit, Cinnamon Stick, Moonlight Harvest, Macintosh Spice and Cinnamon & Sugar.  I also  ordered Witches' Brew and Candy Corn for Halloween.  I think I might have a new obsession. 

Finishing Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life for Me: The Abridged Version.  I cannot recommend this book enough...it's both original and unusual.  I loved it.

Source

Playing with this sweet little guy.  Winston has been a member of our household for approximately a month and a half.  He's a long-haired Syrian hamster...and he's very cute. 

Listening to Songs from Dawson's Creek and Lady Antebellum - a rediscovery and a new discovery.  Both of them are comforting and cozy ('Feels Like Home' is one of my all-time favourite songs)...perfect for the season ahead.        

And wearing my new favourite jacket.  The weather has been much cooler over the past couple of weeks, but today it was cold.  I love Autumn.

What have you been up to lately?

Five years (and two layouts)

This year, I'm celebrating two anniversaries.  Both take place at the end of September.  The first is slightly less conventional than the second, but in many ways it means just as much:

I honestly can't believe that I've been living in London for five years.  It feels like yesterday that I moved here...I had just turned nineteen at the time and I was so. very. NERVOUS!!  I still remember exactly how I felt on that late September evening, so I decided to record these feelings in my journaling (click on the layout to make it bigger). 

This layout turned out very differently to the one that I had envisaged beforehand.  I was really inspired by Vee's challenge on the Studio Calico blog - to create a monochromatic or semi-monochromatic layout using neutrals - but as I started to put everything together I realised that I had a sheet of OA patterned paper that would be perfect for the overall theme!  I particularly love it because if you look very closely, you can see both where I live at the moment and where I lived three years ago.  So, instead of going for complimentary creams, I settled on kraft for the title, journaling and bottom half of the layout and added a splash of colour with the B side of the OA paper.

And for my 'second' anniversary:

 Yup, Jamie and I are celebrating our five year anniversary this month :) This is another one of those 'it feels like yesterday' moments...probably because within a week of moving to London, I accidentally bumped into Jamie (I'm pretty sure it was on a Thursday evening) during Freshers' Week.  I was lost...he was with a couple of people that I recognised from my course...and because we were all going to the same place, I tagged along.  We've been together ever since.  It really goes to show that you can find love in the most unexpected places...

This is another layout inspired by Studio Calico - this time using this week's Sunday Sketch (based on Jen Jockisch's lovely layout).  I wanted this layout to feel warm and homely, so I picked out some corresponding papers from SC's August kit and some embellishments from Partly Sunny and Continental.  The Maya Road envelope will eventually contain some journaling, and I stamped the title using these stamps and then embossed the letters with gold embossing powder.  I can't decide whether to do some stitching on the layout, or leave it as it is...any thoughts?

TFL and have a wonderful weekend!

LSNED: days 1 & 2

I am so very glad that I signed up for Learn Something New Every Day.  I haven't been able to commit to anything crafty for over two months...and I didn't realise just how much I missed the catharsis of cutting and sticking (etc.) until I sat down and pretty much emptied the entire contents of my stash onto the kitchen table.  It felt good. 

Pictured above is my first page for my LSNED album.  I had some difficulty deciding what I wanted to document from that particular day, so I chose the three things that stood out most in my mind.  A word to the wise - Indian tapas really is amazing.   

And my page for day 2 (the saga of the massive phone bill):

Those AC Thickers have been sitting in my stash for a while, but I absolutely love them.  And I'm still obsessed with Thrift Shop...it's another one of those paper collections that I'm hoarding by the sheet.  Speaking of which, I'm so excited for Seaside to make it across the pond!  It's one of my favourite releases from CHA so far...   

When I've made a bit more progress with the overall album, I'll start sizing and printing photographs as well.  The album itself is fairly haphazard, with no specific theme or colour combination.  Instead, I'm just choosing bits and pieces that I love.  Sometimes I think I work better with restrictions, but this time I just wanted to try something different.  In any case, this is one album that I'm determined to finish!  How's your LSNED album coming along?  Post a link in the comments section...I'd love to see it!     

Coming up for air!

Is it really September?!  2010 has flown by....and so has this summer.  For the past month I've been consumed by lesson plans, teaching practices, multiple assignments and the intricacies of English grammar, but I have since emerged from my CELTA course as a fully qualified English language teacher!  Sadly there hasn't been much time for blogging or any other creative outlet (even my Project 365 has been badly neglected), but September brings with it a welcome change of pace and some exciting new changes (more on those later!).  

September also marks the start of two new classes: Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday and Cathy Zielske's Me: The Abridged Version (which doesn't start until the 16th, so there's still plenty of time to sign up if you want to play along!).  

I love the premise of Shimelle's class...with the weather taking a decidedly autumnal turn and the start of a new school year, it is so appropriate to kick-start our creativity with a class focused on acknowledging and learning from life's daily lessons.  Yesterday I made a start on constructing my album...I decided on a 4x6 size with some book rings, so that I can add photos and mementos as I go along.  Here's a close-up:

   

And here's a look at the front cover in its entirety (click on it to make it larger):

I'm so excited to get started on yesterday's page!  And if you haven't signed up yet, I'm sure it's not too late...just head on over to shimelle.com or sign up here. 

Thank you for looking!