I love my cardies!

Today's prompt on UKS was asking what/where is your comfort? I pondered this for a while and couldn't really think what it was. Then I realised I was wearing it!

Whenever I'm feeling down, lonely, or insecure, I put on one of my chunky, cosy cardies. Something about the way they envelope me, like a big hug when there is no one around to give you a proper hug, makes me feel much more secure again. It helps me to hide my fears until I'm with someone and can talk them through.

When I worked at S Water and was having a bad day, I pulled on my cardie. My colleague used to wonder about how cold I got (I do get quite cold, more than most people - no idea why, the doctor couldn't find any reason for it!) but then she sussed that it was also my comforter. I guess it is an extension of having a "blankey" or suchlike as a child, although I don't remember ever having had one....I'll have to ask my mum! But I do know I have ALWAYS had chunky cardigans - and when I was much younger they were always the ones that had been hand-knitted by my grandma :).

And the only thing that makes me cardie more comforting is having a huge mug of tea, some biscuits to dunk, and a good book, which always makes me feel better, especially when imagining what it must have been like to live during the time of Jane Austen and Anne Bronte when a woman had to be married off with the best possible prospects, regardless of whether she would be happy in the match! In case you're wondering where that came from, I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall last week and am almost finished reading Pride and Prejudice lol!

Now this entry has GOT to be a LO in my BOM.

Dancing is Love's Perfect Exercise

I love these photos of Mark and Sophie dancing with no music at the end of their wedding reception - although they were both a bit tipsy there is no doubting the love they have for each other and how pleased they were to now be married. I thought the quote was so apt and the Kelly Panacci papers just screamed out to be used - I think I'm going to have a job not using her papers for most of the wedding LOs I want to do!

Now, from one party to another......today's UKS blog prompt is who would I invite to my imaginary ultimatee dinner party? I've never really thought about this before but I've heard lots of ideas from other people!

The first two would be Anne Rice and Bram Stoker - obviously I would get to have lots of conversation about vampires and gothic literature and I'd love to hear why they chose their different interpretations of the vampire character and their storytelling techniques.

The next two would be musical guests. Stephen Sondheim, as I am intrigued by his creative process - what drives him to create his work, how does he lean towards such diverse subjects and what does he see himself composing in the future? Then I would also have Elton John. I love Elton's music and he has also been more and more involved in the world of musical theatre lately. I would want him to play some tracks from the ill fated musical version of The Vampire Lestat and ask him whether he would rework it, whether it might come to London in the future. This also ties in nicely with having Anne Rice there!

My fifth and final guest would have to be Carl - I can't imagine hosting a dinner party without my soulmate there. He probably wouldn't say that much at first but I hope he would soon become engrossed in the conversation and contribute to it as well.

There should be a law..

OK, today I'm using the prompt from UKS. It's asking us to state our five pet peeves:

1. Bad drivers!! The people who sit in the middle lane or, even worse, the people who seem intent on filling the gap you leave between your car and the car in front. Chris Moyles was talking about the exact same thing this morning and I agreed with every word he said! Finally, I hate drivers who don't use their indicators - I'm not psychic, end of story.
2. People who patronise me because they think I'm younger than I am. I may not look it, but I'm 25. I may wear scruffy clothes in my free time but professionally I'm about to become a teacher. This has bugged me since my time at KFC, when parents would say to their children, "Now, you must work hard at school so you don't end up with a job like this," in full hearing! Well, excuse me, but I was studying for four A-levels at the time, predicted A-grades in all of them, and hoping to go to one of the top five universities in the country. I worked at KFC because I understood the value of money and would much prefer to live off my own earnings than those of my mum and dad.
3. People who treat their pets badly - sorry, there is just no excuse. If you can't take care of the pet, or cope with its behaviour, you shouldn't have got it in the first place - it isn't the fault of the animal.
4. People who park in disabled spaces when they don't need to. It's just selfish and, more to the point, lazy. You have a body that works - be grateful for it because there are others who don't have that luxury.
5. Wow, I got to five quickly! Finally I hate people who impress their opinions on you because they believe they are totally right and you are wrong. If our opinions differ, I'm happy to agree to disagree, just don't push me and treat my views as inferior.

I now feel a whole lot better having got that off my chest lol!

Now, what else have I been upto this weekend? Well, I did two single LOs (very pleased with those) and, finally, a double LO of Sasha but it just doesn't seem finished....I think I'll go back to it in a few days and it may have become clearer what it needs.

And today I have been doing the research for my first lessons teaching Willy Russell's Our Day Out. The SOW suggests taking the pupils to the computer room but, as it is not recommended to do that til you've known them at least six weeks so I've altered it to handouts from the recommended websites that they can do the research from instead!

I wish.....

Hollywood Tower Hotel
Originally uploaded by Scrap_Vamp.

I made this LO a couple of months ago, finally getting a chance to use some of the heritage style stash that I acquired when I first started scrapping. I turned the photo to Sepia, and the subject fo the delapidated hotel in the background, with the romance in the foreground, just seemed to shout Heritage at me!

It just makes me wish I had more true heritage photos to scrap. I'm sure both my surviving grandparents have piles of photographs sitting in their lofts or cupboards but I don't know that I'll have a chance to look at them or get them scanned in while they're still here....at which point it will mean I'm not able to ask them about the people/places/occasions from the photos. Mind you, grandad's memory is so erratic I'm not sure whether he would remember much about them himself now?

When Amelia was born, Robin got annoyed with me for taking lots of photos of her. Four months down the line he realised that he and Row didn't have any photos of her that they'd taken themselves, apart from those they took on the day she was born. I was able to make a disc of all the photos I had taken over the first four months of her life, with all the photos dated by the camera, and Rob and Row were very grateful for this.

I think Robin is also starting to understand why I scrap. I like to try and do it in the moment - when Carl and I got back from Forida I filled an entire 12x12 album, and an 8x8 album, within the first six weeks of being home - I want to record the memories while they are still fresh.

Only yesterday I was with mum, Row and Millie, and we got to talking about fireguards for when Millie starts crawling. This led to reminiscing about how Mark used to be put behind the fireguard (not when the fire was on, obviously!) to play games, which in turn led to memories about how he used to curl up inside cupboards and other small spaces. Mum asked if I actually remembered all these things, or if was just from seeing the photos. I must admit, the photos are the main trigger - my real memories are very faint. But at the moment I have my mum and dad to fill in the blanks. Once recorded, we will be able to show our grandchildren what we got up to when we were their age, not having to worry about relying on sketchy stories, passed through generations - they will be recorded permanently.

And so, after all that rambling, this is the real reason why I scrapbook, and the reason so many others do it as well. Maybe no-one will be interested in looking at them in the future but I wish I had more knowledge about my late grandma when she was my age - I never asked her enough questions while she was still here. Hopefully I can foresee the questions people might want to ask of me and my family in the future and, in this way, leave them the answers.

My Art

So I thought I'd just put some pics up of recent LOs for those not in the know ;)

I'm using a lot of sketches lately - the top LO was based on a sketch by Mary Anne Walters, taken from Scrapbook Inspirations magazine, and the other three are based on page maps by Becky Fleck.

Mark got married and I'm a Teacher...

Well, I finally figured I'd get one of these.....not that I have a clue what I'm doing lol!

So, the big news in the family is that Mark and Sophie got married on July 29th - it was all absolutely gorgeous, and I got to wear a glam dress and have my hair and make up done - all a big bonus and making for nice photos of me (for a change!). Judge for yourself! Admittedly I'm a bit hidden in that first one. As I'm uploading these photos I have no idea what part of the page they are going to end up on....ah, there they are. OK, I'm now hidden in the last one, and the first one is me with Nadine (Sophie's half sister)!!

I made them a canvas as a wedding present and they loved it (along with many other people who now all want one....can I have some extra hours in my day please?!) but stupidly forgot to take a photo. If I remember my camera next time I go round there I'll photograph it! I have already done one LO about the wedding (actually, two, as I've done one about Sophie's bouquet), not sure if I can change where these photos appear....hmmm!

Oh, I should explain - for all those who haven't seen me in a while, I am now a Scrapper (Scrapbooker) and a LO is my form of art :D

And onto the other exciting news - a school is letting me teach - not only that, they are throwing me in at the deep end with my own classes in September, eek!! I have no idea how to lesson plan (thank goodness for super detailed schemes of work!) or what exactly I have to do on my GTP - I only know I'm supposed to be starting that in January but haven't had any confirmation....or a contract for that matter! I am alternately feeling confident and happy that I finally have an actual career, and feeling absolutely terrified that I'm going to be totally awful! You know, that irrational side that tells me I'm rubbish even when other people clearly think I'm capable!

Oh, and finally, a proud moment - my only singing/drama boy pupil (who was on the Disney Trivial Pursuit TV ad!) is playing John in Peter Pan this Christmas, opposite Michael Greco (HAHAHAHA!) as Captain Hook. Anyway, I'm very pleased for him, he's going to do a fabby job!

Well, that was all bizarrely disjointed and incoherent.....mind you, that's me all over!