The ATCs

So here is a picture of all the fab ATCs made by my talented friends. Aren't they great!

Thanks again everyone for your hard work.

Wednesday Wanderings

Received a text message to say that Nicky had gone back into hospital as her liver is unwell. She was having a biopsy yesterday and is hoping to be out by the weekend. Fingers crossed this is the case. Get well soon Nick!

Had a very nice meal last night with Andrea & Tina (and her son and his gf) at the Tiger Moth. Unfortunately I was so stuffed afterwards that I had trouble getting to sleep and was still trying at 2am. Congratulations to Andrea for losing 10 1/2lb on the Cambridge Diet - just hope the meal didn't put it all back on. Now I'm wondering if I ought to have a go at it for a couple of weeks before my holiday.

Well I finally succumbed to the hype (and the huge amount of discussion on UKS) and bought myself a pair of Crocs. Personally I think they look hideous (mind you I thought Birki's looked horrid too and now I'm their biggest fan ... although to be honest only gizeh & clogs) and I was a bit dubious about them as they are made of welly rubber type material. I couldn't bring myself to buy the ones with the big holes in, and I bought black ones in the hope they'd be fairly inconspicuous under long trousers *LOL* (see pic below). My reasons for buying them were twofold - they are supposed to be the most comfortable shoes in the world (better than Birki) so they SHOULD be perfect for wearing behind the bar and for yomping round New Orleans.




So they arrived on Saturday and they were at least as nasty looking as I thought they were going to be. And yes they are very very comfortable. BUT they also make my feet sweat. I wore them for an hour at home and wasn't keen on the feeling, but thought I'd persevere so wore them behind the bar on Monday night. By the end of the shift (4 1/2 hours) my feet were so hot and sweaty I couldn't wait to get the ruddy things off which was a real shame as for the first time ever my feet weren't aching.

I am now wishing I had bought the ones with the holes as they might at least have kept my feet cooler, because they really were the most truly comfortable shoes I have ever worn. Instead I am now stuck with a pair of shoes that I am unlikely to ever wear again, and I certainly don't want (nor can afford) to fork out for another pair in the near future.

This time next month I will be on the plane on my way to New Orleans. I am getting really excited now!

Target Achieved

Today I finally managed to send out the Sinners ATC swap which has been going for a year now (luckily we don't care about little things like timescales). They were all fantastic and I will definitely post a picture of them, but I want to wait until everyone has theirs before I do so otherwise it would spoil the surprise for the other particpants. I know everyone will be thrilled with the selection and considering for some it was the first time they had made ATCs I have to admit that mine were the least exciting of the bunch.

I've decided that the time has come to replace the MP3 player. I have had several months good usage from it (bought very cheaply 2nd hand from ebay) but I can't cope with the supernatural goings on *LOL*. So I think I've decided on an I-Pod. Of course it has to be the latest generation 80Gb version, which MIGHT be big enough for my music collection. I found it for a good price on e-bay, but then found it even cheaper in the US. The big question is can I wait until I get to the US for the new one? I currently use the old one almost all day every day, and am obviously looking for something to keep me company on my flight to the US - a nightmare if it breaks down completely just before I go. I am (at the moment) determined not to crack and buy one - I just hope the wait will be worth it moneywise.

Feeling Blue

Wasn't feeling too good again this morning. This cold is still lingering, making it difficult to get a good night's sleep, although a late night drinking with a friend probably didn't help *LOL*. I finally managed to drag myself out of bed and onto a coach, unfortunately the driver was Terry and due to his impatience we ended up on a magical mystery tour of south east London - and got to work almost 1/2 hour later than I should have done as a result. Getting into work I was greeted with a letter finally informing me that I didn't get the redundancy I had been hoping for. Being honest I never expected to get it, but the thought was nice. Add to this a long and boring day at work and the fact that I have to work at the pub this evening and you can see why I am feeling a bit blue.

To make matters worse my MP3 player has a life of its own, after fully charging it up last night, when I arrived at work it had turned itself on and had apparently played 626 songs according to the counter. It then proceeded to turn up the volume to full (that came as a shock) or mute it at will, also doing its usual trick of deciding to play the first 20 seconds of a track only, although with the added bonus that it was skipping tracks completely, then going back to skipped tracks when it felt it wanted to play them. Methinks a new MP3 player is needed shortly!

'Ello, ello

It's been a few days since I last posted as I've been feeling a bit poorly. Another nasty migraine and a rotten cold laid me low, but I'm finally recovering.

I have completed the latest UKS digisketch challenge. It features photos taken at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2004 and features the brilliant Show garden 'From Darkness to Light'by Julian Dowle for the Salvation Army. There was a lot of contraversy at the time as the judges only saw fit to give the garden a Silver Gilt, when it was obvious to everyone who visited the garden that it should have received a Gold and furthermore, should have won Best Show Garden - something that was rectified when it overwhelmingly won the CFS TV programme Viewers Choice Award. Apparently the judges weren't keen on the colour schemes, which was a shame as the following year, almost every garden at the show used them! This is my personal favourite garden of all time at Chelsea and I am really pleased with the way this LO turned out. The sketch is by Lisa (liss07)and the kit is by SDK (Fresh Start).

Been listening to 80's Movie Soundtracks this morning and it's really put me in the mood for watching Pretty in Pink and Dirty Dancing again.I think a slushy girly evening is called for.

The Hoff

So the future Mrs H sent me her photos ...

Queues, queues and more queues!

OK, so I’m back from seeing Robbie. What can I say? The concert was absolutely fantastic! There was disappointment (from me) that Orson didn’t play and that instead there was some crappy DJ, and Basement Jaxx were very good, but they aren’t really my cup of tea but Robbie was amazing and completely made up for the boredom of 9 hours of waiting, and believe me I was bored. The waiting time wasn’t helped by the onset of a nasty migraine which fortunately my wonder drugs cleared up, and luckily I had bought a pink suedette and feather flashing Stetson (yep it’s fab and nope I’m not posting a picture) which kept the worst of the unexpected sun off my head - the middle of a field in bright sunshine with no shade is NOT the ideal place for a migraine to occur!



Our tickets were for the hallowed 'Golden Circle' – absolutely brilliant for being close to the stage, and we were very close (although being short I had to stand towards the back when the concert started in order to see the people on stage), but unfortunately completely rubbish for getting to food, drink and toilets quickly.



The pictures were taken with my mobile phone, having left my camera at home as I thought I wouldn’t get it in (there actually would have been no problem) so aren’t as good as they could have been, but they do give an idea of the set … and you can even see Robbie if you have very good eyesight *LOL*



Thank you Robbie for a fantastic evening – I hope you get a good rest when you finish your tour … you definitely deserve it, and I think you definitely need it!


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Getting back there was just time for a quick change and then it was off to Bluewater to meet up with Mrs Hasselhoff. The Hoff was doing a book signing of his autobiography at Waterstones and it was obviously vitally important that I be there to give her moral support whilst waiting to meeting him (and of course I wanted my book signed too). I was very impressed by the t shirt that she had customised in Diamante, very subtle but quite clearly showed how much of a fan she is. We queued for about 3 hours, along with many other people (far more than I had expected tbh) and eventually got our 30 seconds each with the great man himself. Lisa had asked for him to dedicate her book to ‘Gorgeous’ which gained a laugh and a comment from the Hoff – more feedback than anyone else in the shop received … so we left happy that she’d made her mark. Photo will follow when Mrs H gets her act together ;)

All Kinds of Everything

Today I'm off to Milton Keynes in readiness for the Robbie concert tomorrow. I have so many things to do today and so little time to do them!

The mighty Hoff was on Good Morning promoting his new single and book. Wonder if 'Mrs Hasselhoff' realised it was on and recorded it? Lisa, hate to tell you this, but you might be too young for him ... he's after a 28 year old, but his daughters don't want him to date anyone under 35! Good luck with the stalking at Bluewater on Saturday matey - wish I could be there! Anyway folks do your part and buy the single, let's make the Hoff number one! *LOL*



Finished my latest Discworld CJ entry last night. It's another LO based on my favourite character Lord Vetinari. I had always though my favourite character was Sam Vimes, but when I started thinking about it for CJ purposes I realised that Lord Vetinari is such a strong character he just couldn't be ignored.

See you all when I get back from MK.

Another Interesting Blog Prompt

Today's UKS Blog prompt was "Are you a scrapbook evangelist? Do you want to convert your non-scrapper friends/families into scrapbookers? Do you try to find friends that scrapbook? If so, how? Do you show your pages to anyone who doesn't scrapbook?"

I guess my sister would say a definite yes to this, as I took her stash shopping when I went to stay with her, and was trying to get her to scrap her genealogy stuff rather than just straight recording it (she did buy an album and some papers though). Generally I haven't tried to convert my friends or family into scrappers as the ones most likely to be interested already do it. I AM enthusiastic about trying to get my scrapping friends trying a bit of digital scrapbooking, but I am as successful at getting them to do that as they are getting me scrapping with real life paper *LOL*

I have shown my LOs and CJs to a couple of people at work and to friends, but have found that generally people are only really interested if they are the subject of them, or if the subject is of strong interest to them. Maybe I should send Kiefer my LOs of him and see what he thinks? *LOL*

New Avatar

I have created a new avatar for UKS (the LO is the same sketch that I used last week by Lindse and the kit is Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Gary Wade at Gottapixel) as I am beginning to get a bit fed up of people (generally, I mean, not necessarily on there) telling me how great Kiefer is as Jack Bauer (as if he'd never done anything else), and how they quite like him now themselves. Whilst I agree that he is wonderful as Jack - and who couldn't agree with that? (it was fantastic to see him winning an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama a couple of weeks ago), I have thought he is gorgeous for the last 20 odd years - I fell in love with him when I saw the Bay Boy (still a wonderful film) and throughout the years and all the dodgy parts - yep I own all those bad movies,that has never changed. The fact that Kiefer is finally getting the recognition he deserves is brilliant, but I feel that to focus so much on just one role is selling him short. A bit touchy I guess, but just a pet peeve of mine at the moment. So I'll say it loud - I Love Kiefer not Jack ... or perhaps it should be I Love Kiefer AND Jack?

On a different tack, I was chuffed to find out at the weekend that our tickets for the Robbie Williams concert on Friday are for the inner circle - apparently this means its right at the front with only 4,000 of the 65,000 people that are going. I was trying to keep it a secret from Lynne as she's already quite excited enough, but Phil & Chris thought I was being mean not telling her, so eventually I caved in. Not long to go now - we go to Milton Keynes on Thursday and return some time on Saturday, so not only do I have a great concert to look forward to, I have a day off work from the pub to look forward to as well. The only thing is I'm not sure whether I can take my camera or not - I am sure I would get some great pics if I could, but not sure if my camera qualifies as one of the ones that's banned.

Friday Blog Prompt

How has your scrapbooking (layouts, skills, attitude, likes/dislikes, etc.) changed or evolved since you started? If it hasn’t changed, should it? Has scrapbooking (or its evolution) impacted your life in any way? New friends? New experiences? New attitudes?

This was an interesting blog prompt on UKS on Friday, and it really set me thinking. I started scrapbooking in February 2005 and it has taken over from everything else I used to do. I still make the occasional card (when I can be bothered) and I have cross stitching patterns midway through, even the paints come out once in a while, but mostly my time is spent on CJs and digital LOs. I get excited over patterned papers and Bazzill, I drool when I see Primas and I can’t resist all those fabby embellishments that make scrapbooking such fun – even though I really only do digital still (yep I get excited about digital papers and bellies too!)

I originally only joined UKS so I could view my friend Valerie’s LOs, having no real idea about what scrapbooking even was and while I was there saw this thing called a cybercrop was about to take place (nope I had no idea what it meant, and had no clue about crops at this point). Having read that I could register even if I didn’t take part I had to find out whether I was a Sinner or a Saint – I am sure no-one who knows me would be surprised to find I was a Sinner! Once I knew that I just knew I had to take part. Not knowing anyone else on the board was a slight drawback but I latched onto the Sinners chat thread and asked a few well placed questions. Soon I had created my first masterpiece (the pre-crop challenge) – originally it was going to be paper scrapped. But once I started doing a basic LO on the computer I realised I didn’t have a hope of recreating it in paper format so stuck with the digital version. Of course I didn’t have a clue if I’d done it right, but just hoped and dove into the rest of the weekend between working. By the end of the weekend I had created 5 LOs.

After the crop had finished the Sinner’s thread kept going. There were a few others like me, who didn’t belong to a team and really had nowhere to go once the crop was finished. There were also some people who had enjoyed talking to different people, and so the Sinner’s daily thread was born, giving daily challenges and good chat with a cup of tea. As the weeks went on the numbers of visitors dwindled, leaving a core of about 20 people who visited on a fairly regular basis – chatting about anything and everything and generally skiving with a cuppa.

I am very shy and find it difficult to make friends easily and whilst I have many acquaintances, the number of true friends I had could be counted on 1 hand. I have 4 wonderful people in my life (Lynne, Andrea, Lisa & Lesley) who have helped me through some pretty bad times, but no-one can be there for you all the time. With the Sinners I suddenly found a whole new group of friends (although at the time virtual only) with whom I could share my bad times, my good times, my moans and my ravings, and of course, theirs with me. As time went on we realised that we all got on so well we really had to meet up. The first chance came at Bonanza 2005 where some of us managed to get together, followed by a trip to the Ritz with one of our American number and various meets since.

I count myself very fortunate to have met the Sinners, especially Am, Claire, Dolly, Fi, Jen, Kat, KJ, KW, Shazzer & SS. In them I have found some marvellous friends. I often think how it must have been fate that I should have joined the site when I did, had the cybercrop not been happening I would never have got involved and would never have met these very special people.

Autumn is on its way

This morning it is distinctly chilly. The weather forecast says that it will be a lovely day later, but with a crystal clear sky last night, which showed off the perfect full moon brilliantly, the temperature dropped to 7 degrees and the air definitely has an autumnal quality to it - I can't explain what I mean but it smells of Autumn. I'm sure it doesn't help that my body is still used to the 30+ temperatures in Spain, so it's a bit of a shock to the system. The cold air conditioning at work isn't helping much either!

Last night I had an impromptu get together with Tina and Andrea. I had intended to stay in and complete a CJ entry and maybe even do a bit more scrapping (yep really!) and have an early night - being back off holiday is jolly tiring, but instead Tina and I ended up at Andrea's place with wine and the most fantastic Indian takeaway. I did manage to get to bed by 11.30pm though, so not too bad. Tonight I'm off to the pub, my first visit for 3 weeks - it will be good to catch up with friends I've missed while i was away. Tomorrow I'm back at work there which i am definitely NOT looking forward to.

Don't Stop Me Now ...

Well I really WAS on a roll last night. Not content with completing the LO of Lynne in the hammock, I then went on to do another sketch challenge using a weirdly lit photo of Jack. The kit is by GLT, but I can't remember the name of it. The sketch is by Karen Lind Ramskov (Lindse). Once again really pleased with the way it turned out. I really must try some rl scrapping using these sketches!

On a Roll

These sketch challenges are great! I've already done another LO. This time of Lynne in the hammock on Mum & Dad's patio - great picture and I've used a kit with colours I know she's going to love ... especially the green! This one uses Kim Higueria's Starshine Kit with a sketch by Dedicated2Digital.

Latest LO

I did this LO for this month's digidreamer and UKS sketch challenges using the Digidreamer August kit Xtreme Teen and a sketch by Jen Caputo. The picture is another of the ones I took during the Saturday night procession at the fiesta. I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out.

Back Home

OK so I'm back in grey old blighty. I spent my last day in Spain in and out of the pool to make sure I kept up my swimming quota, before finally setting off for the airport for my 2215 flight. I am pleased to say that my case was 1.5kg lighter than when I went out, mainly due to leaving half my stuff at Mum and Dads, although I did manage to bring back a litre of bourbon. The flight was on time and I bought a mini lilac Timberland backpack in duty free which will be perfect for toting around New Orleans.

I have to say I was very glad not to be an Easyjet customer when I got to Gatwick. They had been having delays all day and there was a major problem with baggage offloading. The Rome flight had been waiting almost 2 hours for their cases when we arrived, and there was no news as to when their cases were likely to be offloaded. I was glad that we didn't have to wait and get them in order, otherwise it's unlikely I'd have been home much before noon today and Andrew would definitely not have been impressed!

Today has been spent unpacking (no washing needed as I did that before I left) and shopping. The weather has been mainly overcast and humid, although still mild, but depressing after all those weeks of lovely sunshine. Even more depressing is the thought that I have to be up at 5am tomorrow to go back to work, something I am most definitely not looking forward to.

Tonight is going to be spent catching up with the stuff I've missed over the last 3 weeks and hopefully getting a couple of quick digisketch challenges done as they have close deadlines. I also have to dig out and start work on the CJs that I have in my possession - I have 3 now and need to crack on with them. 2 will be quite easy as they are Discworld related, but the last involves me dressing up as a clown and scanning my head - not such an easy prospect (yep I AM completely mad!)

Second to Last Day

Today is my second to last day in Spain. We took Lynne to the airport this morning to get her flight home (which was thankfully on time). I can't believe how quickly the time has gone - it seems like no time at all since I got out here, and already I'm getting my washing done and my packing sorted for tomorrow. The weather is a bit cloudy today (typical as I'm doing washing), but the temperature is still in the 30s so I can't complain.

The picture was taken at a German Restaurant that we visited last night. The food was beautiful, but there was so much of it and it was very filling. I chose the set menu which was ham, cheese & melon, mushrooms in a herb & cream sauce, salad, red deer goulash with pasta and strawberry mousse. The others had the mushrooms or soup salad and German Sausages and fried potatoes.