Whatever The Weather

Hurrah, I got Andy's card finished It didn't take me as long as I often take, and I'm really pleased with it. It's a bit of a change of style for me too - nothing drastic but not quite my normal clean graphic look - and I like!

Lots of things to catch up on!

Books first. Recently I've finished -
Thorn (Vena Cork) Went backwards here - I'd previously read a later one in this series without realising it was a series. I really enjoyed this, it pulls you along nicely. Lots of twists and turns, I had an inkling about "whodunnit" early on but then allowed myself to be hoodwinked!

The Sixth Lamentation (William Brodrick) Fantastic first book. The characters were extremely well drawn, and it covered some very complex moral dilemmas and made me think. I occasionally thought it seemed unnecessarily complicated, but it all came together well in the end.

The Sign of the Cross (Chris Kuzneski) Another derivative of The Da Vinci Code (has one book ever been emulated by so many before?!) but a fairly good one as they go. Requires a serious suspension of disbelief, but an exciting, multi-stranded chase around the world. Good fun.

I've been almost totally failing at "flying" recently - I seem to be sooo tired all the time at the moment. Thankfully Andy is being very good, so the house doesn't look too bad. And I did manage to do 5 loads of washing at the weekend!!

And I've been relatively creative too. I needed a card for a friend due to have a baby, but didn't know the sex, so made one for each possibility. I also did a card for an Autumn challenge on UKS, and I have someone in mind for that. Having also finished a LO one evening, that makes it a pretty good week for me. Just hope I can keep it up. Most critically I need to make a birthday card for Andy - it's his 51st (!!) on Friday, and as we're out tomorrow night I really need to get it done tonight. Help!

Over on UKS there's a CyberCrop coming up. I've signed up and have bought myself several class kits. I'm looking forward to lots of lovely new stash! I figure that way I will at least attempt those classes if no others. And I like getting kits with bits in that challenge me to try new things - if I choose everything I buy it all ends up looking rather samey. I've also signed up to do an ATC swap - which involves producing 12 ATCs in not many more days, yikes! Thankfully they can all be much the same, so I'm going to aim to come up with one design I'm happy with, then just vary it slightly for each.

I've been doing more stash organisation too. I love Really Useful Boxes! My scrap room is due to be featured on this blog soon, so keep your eyes peeled

I'll post piccies of my recent cards and LOs soon, all being well.

I've been following this thread on UKS about journaling jars, and am really intrigued by the idea. I'm seriously thinking about doing some for my parents. In a way I know so little about them. I'm not sure whether they'd answer all of the questions, but I think they'd have a go at some at the least. My mum is seriously into genealogy - means my family tree is all researched for me! - and likes producing journals (printed & bound books with pics and text) of her holidays, so I think she'd be quite interested. Dad I'm not so sure about.

So my next mission is to find some suitable jars and books, alter them, and think seriously about what questions I want to include!

In an effort to keep my house in slightly better condition - so I’m not embarrassed by someone turning up unexpectedly, and don’t have to spend all day cleaning ready for visitors - I’ve been looking into a system by FlyLady. I haven’t quite done things “properly”, but I quite like the idea of it, and I’m picking up the elements that appeal and will hopefully work for me.

Essentially she encourages you to have routines, and to do little and often. You build up a control journal, where you keep details of all your routines. These include your morning routine (mine includes feeding the cats, eating breakfast and picking up letters to post, for example), and your before bed routine. I have a home from work routine too. The house is divided up into zones, and each week you focus your energies on a different zone - that way the whole house gets done, eventually! You have to thoroughly declutter the house before you get into deep cleaning, so that could keep me going for quite some time. Once that’s done she suggests a detailed list for deep cleaning of each room. But both decluttering and deep cleaning are only generally done in 15 minute bursts, so it’s manageable. To keep things ticking over in the rest of the house, you’re supposed to spend an hour once a week on tasks like hoovering and dusting. An hour total, that is, known as “Home Blessing Hour”. A bit American for me!

I’m achieving mixed results so far. I’ve come up with my routines, and am managing to complete at least part of them every day. Just making the bed every morning makes a difference. I still have my general to-do list, but I’m trying to assign tasks to specific days where I can. The hourly clean hasn’t worked too well yet - I can only really fit it in at the weekend, and events have tended to wipe out my available time recently. One thing I really need is to cut down my PC time. I can easily spend a couple of hours on it in an evening, and although some of that time is part of my routine, and some is productive, there are definitely better things I could be doing with some of it. But in general I do feel a bit more in control of things - I at least know what I’m supposed to be doing even if I don’t always get it done.

Along side all that, I’ve decided to set myself targets for scrapping and cardmaking. I’m aiming to complete 1 LO and 1 card a week - although I need to do 5 cards a week until Christmas if I’m going to make all of them too - which might not sound like much but is fairly ambitious for me, as I’m a slow scrapper. Having my monthly crop will help, and I have a CJ entry to do each month, but beyond that I really need to try spend time in the craft room rather than at the PC in the evenings!

It seems I'm going from one extreme to the other - no posts for stupidly long then when I start again I could write several entries a day. It'll be interesting to see how long this phase lasts! I'm trying to develop a few new habits (more about that later) so maybe this is another one. I guess once you've been doing it a while it becomes second nature.

There's been lots going on with Northern Rock over the last few days, which is a slight cause for concern for us. We have our mortgage with them, and just signed a new five-year fixed deal starting 1st October!

The thing that drives me mad is that it's all so unnecessary. I blame the media to be honest, if they hadn't made such a big deal of things in the first place there wouldn't have been such a big panic. All that happened is that NR asked the Bank of England for borrowing facilities if they needed them. Until everyone started taking all their savings out they hadn't even called on it.

So really it's just like you or I asking our bank for an overdraft facility. It gives you a bit more flexibility and security, but just because you're asking for it doesn't mean you'll ever actually need it, or that you won't be able to pay it back. It's normally just to cover short-term cash flow problems.

What people don't seem to realise is that, by all panicking and withdrawing their cash, they are actually making it much more likely that the bank will collapse, so they're contributing to the problem. I walked past a branch on my way in to work this morning, and there must have been a couple of hundred people queuing. I just wanted to shout at them all! I mean given the size of the NR, do they really think the BoE will let it go under? It would cause complete mayhem!

So I wasn't worried at all really. Even if they get taken over, which looks most likely, it shouldn't affect me as whoever bought it out would just take over my mortgage on the existing terms & conditions. As it's a fixed rate they can't change that, so the payments should be the same. The only slight concern is that as our new fixed rate only comes into effect on 1st October, I'm not sure if a new owner would have to honour that? If not, we could be in trouble.

Well I went to my first crop on Saturday, and it was great. I wasn't really very organised. I'd printed some assorted photos, and had a few I'd already printed to scrap using classes from a UKScrappers Cybercrop. But I didn't have papers chosen for any of them, let alone embellishments, so I just chose a fairly random selection of papers and cardstock to take with me.

I met Vanessa first, as we were both quite shy about turning up on our own. As it was we were there first - oops! We were made very welcome (probably aided by us helping set up!), and got ourselves a couple of spots next to each other. I was pleased to see that one of the ladies brought her Sizzix and lots of dies, including a few alphabets. Vanessa then decided to pop back home and get her Cuttlebug and dies too (she's only a few minutes walk away)! I'll have to take my dies next time - I have a couple of different alphas amongst other things.

One of the ladies had brought an album she'd just finished so we were able to have a look through that, lots of good ideas and inspiration.

There were 11 of us there, and plenty of space, we each had a large table so were able to spread out. I started work on a holiday LO, but then decided that I needed some bits I'd left at home to get any further, so abandoned that one. I didn't get much done at all with the next one I tried, as I couldn't quite find papers to match. I did manage to put some papers together though, so I've made up a couple of page kits ready for photos for next time!

At that point I was struggling so I decided to have a go at a card instead, in the hope that I'd actually complete something. I'd taken some 7Gypsies papers with me to do the current "Use Your Stash" challenge on UKS, and fairly quickly came up with a plan. I used snaps to attach some flowers, and borrowed a Crop-o-dile - another gadget that has now gone on my wish list!

Then I decided to tackle one of the classes I'd prepared, and this time I managed to find the perfect papers. With a couple of buttons donated by Vanessa, and the use of her Cuttlebug alpha for the title, I just got my LO finished before the end of the day.

All in all I was really pleased with what I got done, although I plan to be a bit more prepared next time. Everyone was really nice, and I couldn't believe how quickly the day went. It was fun being able to see other people's work in progress. Even my husband said how fab my finished LO was - result! Can't wait for the next one now!

Now I'm actually blogging I'm experimenting with the design to get it how I like it. There will no doubt be lots of interim changes before I settle on something - sorry! 

I'm going to my first crop on Saturday. Maybe a bit premature as I've literally only done a handful of LOs so far, and I'm a bit nervous about it. I'm going with someone else (who I met for the first time last weekend!) and she's new to it too, so at least I won't have to walk into the room on my own - I hate that.

But as for what to take, I've got no idea. I've got a couple of photos printed out ready to scrap using classes from UKS, so I'll probably just take those. But even then I need to sort out supplies - what tools etc should I take, should I try get papers and embellies that match together or just take a selection...? And should I have some extra photos ready in case the ones I have aren't working for me? Plus what do I do about food/drink? I'll need lunch at the very least! There's just so much to think about/do in advance.

And I have enough to do as it is - I need to get a birthday card made for my brother, and some ATCs that I owe. I guess I could do the card at the crop, but that might be leaving it a bit late as we're seeing him on Sunday.  I can't really afford to leave work early as I'm taking a flexi day for Andy's birthday later in the month, so I need to keep my hours up. Which means I won't be home until 7pm either today or tomorrow, and then the evening just seems to disappear. Must stay off the net!!

Finished a couple of my books since my last post:

The Interpretation of Murder (Jed Rubenfeld). I really enjoyed this, some interesting discussion of Freudian theory, a topic I didn't know much about, all woven nicely into a murder mystery.

Minority Report (Philip K Dick). I adore Philip Dick's writing. I haven't read anything for ages but this makes me want to read more again. The various stories in this were:
Minority Report - brilliant exploration of cause/effect and surrounding ideas (and noticeably different to the film, which I also loved).
War Games - one of my favourites in this book, clever diversion.
Imposter - another favourite, issues of self- knowledge/awareness.
Second Variety - not really my thing
What the Dead Men Say - really don't understand this one. Not that I have a comprehension problem, I guess I just don't "get it".
Oh, To Be A Blobel! - oh, sweet irony!
The Electric Ant - ostensibly a similar theme to Imposter (and 'Blade Runner') but a nice bit of philosophy about the nature of reality.
Faith of our Fathers - strange!
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale - the basis for the film Total Recall, nicely constructed.

Thought I'd try keep my book list up to date again - probably without reviews this time unless something really stands out.

Recently read:
Black Fly Season - Giles Deacon
Salem Falls - Jodie Picoult

Currently reading:
Minority Report (collection of short stories) - Philip K Dick
The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld
The Sixth Lamentation - William Brodrick

Well as usual I've managed to go over a year without updating, impressive huh! I honestly don't know how anyone manages to write a daily entry. I'd be quite pleased if I could manage one a month frankly.

I love following blogs though. Recently I've been adding more and more to my feed, mainly scrapping/card-making related. I spend most of my time on a scrapping forum these days, and blogging is so fashionable its unreal I'm vaguely considering actually telling someone this is here, bit scary though! I've been pretty cautious in what I've written about work, but you do hear horror stories about bosses catching people up to no good on their blogs. I really can't be bothered to carry on not naming people either, it's too much like hard work.

If I do publicise this I guess I'll start putting crafty stuff on too. Not that that would be much, my creative output is minimal to say the least. And I already seem to have about a million different places I post pictures, none of which are ever actually up to date.

But even though I produce so little, scrapping etc seems to be pretty much all I want to think about these days. Work is a definite hindrance! The next couple of months are going to be REALLY busy, and I'm trying to gear myself up for it, but I just don't feel at all ready. I've got 17 reminders of things I need to do popping up at the moment, but instead of clearing them I'm here resurrecting my blog. Hmm, way to go!