Birthday Stash or Even More Scrap Crap

Some ribbons from Websters Pages

I wasn't really sure what I wanted for my birthday and as I had already had my trip to Harrogate (nice hotel, lots of spends etc) I felt I really shouldn't want for too much anyway so I asked Mike and Jamie to get me a few little bits for my scrapbooking.  Those bits which I would balk at buying for myself because they are so expensive (!!) so I asked for a few Prima flowers and a couple of other odds and ends.  As it turns out I also bought myself a little present too but more of that in a flowers blog!!

The excitement of the pizza box full of crafting stash (scrap crap)

So, as all of us scrapbookers know, when a pizza shaped box arrives from the postman it is some exciting crafting goodies!!  I ordered the bits and pieces I wanted and then Mike and Jamie kept them until my birthday - the rotters!!

Lovely packaging

I have to here give a huge thank you (well to Mike and Jamie too) but to The Craftz Boutique who I ordered the items from and who have, I think, one of the best selections of Prima flowers I have ever seen on their website ( http://www.thecraftzboutique.com/catalog/index.php ) as the package arrived very quickly and it was so nicely packaged inside the box that Mike didn't even bother to wrap it (I guess that is what happens after this many years together!!!!! - well that and my natural Northern "don't bother wasting paper wrapping that up pet!!").  But the whole box was a pleasure to open - that extra service goes such a long way and of course I am very likely to order from them again next time I want a bit of scrapbooking something. 

A first glimpse of the goodies inside

And here are the goodies which I got for my birthday, yes they are still to be used, but I hope to start using them at the next crop, they really are lovely.  It is probably no surprise that I really like to use flowers on my layouts and that the better quality flowers really do appeal to me - after seeing some of these which are really lovely I want to try to have a go at making some flowers myself.  It would be really nice to be able to create some flowers which have an authentic look to them.  

Some of the luscious Prima flowers

So thank you Mike and Jamie for getting me just what I wanted (ha ha!!) and to The Craftz Boutique for a brilliant service.

and some more

and some crystals - I wasn't expecting such a large pack!!

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

Mick Karn

Recently I heard the very sad news of Mick Karn's diagnosis with cancer.  I was a huge Japan fan back in the early 1980's and have dipped in and out of their individual musical offerings during the years.  Mick is a hugely talented musician and I have never heard anyone make a fretless bass sound quite the way he did, it was without doubt the strongest aspect of Japan's musical sound.  I saw Japan many times and will never forget a magical night at Hammersmith Odeon when I had a ticket which was 3 rows back and managed to get to the barrier right in front of Mick - a truly magical night!!

(http://www4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~koesters/Privat/Wal/walpics/MickKarn82-Budokan.jpg)

There have been some statements on his website regarding his condition

"With great sadness we regret to inform you that Mick has recently been diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer. Mick is currently in a positive mood and undergoing further tests and treatment. His family and friends are close with him, supporting him in practical ways, and surrounding him with their love, friendship and care." (June2010)

It seems very sad that a musician of such talent should be in the position where he is struggling financially and an appeal was launched to help provide some financial security for his family and towards possible treatment. 

"Mick has been struggling financially for some considerable time now and we are hoping that this appeal may help to raise funds for any necessary treatment and perhaps go some way towards providing a small degree of financial support whilst Mick's immediate family provide the care and comfort we would all wish for him. We are hoping that his friends, fans and musical colleagues will, over the coming months, offer any support they feel capable of giving. Quite aside from the sheer brunt of daunting medically-related costs, Mick's clear and major concern is for the security and well being of his wife and young son."  (June 2010)

Donations can be made to the appeal via http://www.mickkarn.net/

Midge Ure who has been a long time friend of Mick Karn is also trying to set up a concert to support the appeal so fingers crossed that will happen.

(http://www.mickkarn.net/)

and the most recent update is

"We can tell you that thanks to the appeal fund, Mick and his family were able to move to London where he is currently being treated. This really wouldn't have possible without the support of Mick's friends and all of you who have raised money for the fund - so a huge thank you, it's so appreciated." (September 2010)

My thoughts and prayers are with Mick, his family and close friends.


Ciao
Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

My Birthday!!

August sees my birthday and this year I reached 45, which makes me see 50 looming ahead (shrieks with horror!!) - although life isn't too bad and I feel I have really achieved this year and then come September I will be starting out on the next stage of my life - putting those achievements into some sort of practice!!

So for my birthday I really didn't want to do too much and we decided we would have a meal - the three of us, which is the way I like it.  We went to The Navigation in Cosgrove (where we'd had a lovely meal for the Flower Club Annual Dinner) and we had a very pleasant evening.  What could be nice than sitting by a canal watching the boats going by, enjoying a lovely meal and watching the sun set.

The food was nice - except for the ice-cream which was divine.  Jamie had a burger which he felt was good, Mike the pie (and felt a little short changed) and I had a steak which was nice and cooked just the way I liked.  But the ice-creams and sorbets were to die for!!  It is unusual for me to have ice-cream for desert but the choice of flavours attracted me (they have at least 10 to choose from) and I opted for the raspberry sorbet, mango sorbet and walnut ice-cream and they were all wonderful.  Jamie had chocolate and it was very chocolaty and really really yummy - they were all really superior ice-cream and well worth a try if you are ever passing that way!  I was indulged and had an Irish coffee too so after a couple of glasses of wine was quite jolly by the time we left!!

The place was also full of Jack Russells well there was one in the beer garden and one in the bar - the one in the bar was lovely a really unusual brown colour for a JR and as friendly as friendly could be and I ended up having a really long chat to her owner and doting on the dog all the time!!

I really didn't want anything for my birthday as I had indulged myself at the flower show in Harrogate and bought a couple of bits for my floristry and flower arranging so I suggested a couple of small crafting bits which Mike and Jamie could get me - real indulgence pieces which I probably would not normally have bought but they are lovely and just what I wanted and I have a few pictures of them in a following blog.

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

Jamie at Summer Club

Writing this now in September, the summer holidays seem to have flown by but when they are looming and you think what can I do with a 10 year old for 6 weeks the opportunity to take up one of the summer club options is very appealing.  Not because you want to get them out of the way but because you want them to be active and creative with their time and not spend it on the PC, laptop, Xbox, Wii or watching television, there is ample time to do that outside of summer club hours. 

We have been lucky for the past two summers in having a summer club organised by some of the teachers at Jamie's school, so the club has been a few minutes walk away and we are familiar with those running it and they are familiar with Jamie, which gives us the sense of security that the sessions will be enriching.  That one of them is one of Jamie's favourite teachers ever is also a bonus.  So Jamie went off every day for his first week to summer club and enjoyed it enormously.

There were many different activities for them to do ranging from sport and outdoor fun to creative play inside.  Every day Jamie came home with 3 or 4 items which he had made, painted, or produced and of course which get displayed proudly on the fridge or freezer.  He tried his hand at quite a lot of activities such as pottery, screen printing, mask making amongst others.  I personally was hoping for another of the lovely herb pots which they made last year to match the one I have but they did different gardening this year.  Of course there are costs but they are by no means outrageous and in fact it all works out and very good value for money.

Another huge advantage is the opportunity to spend time at school just having fun - school can be a challenging place for many children and the chance to spend a whole week just having fun I think must help them in their day to day time at school and possibly improve results and performance in the longer term.

It is also nice to see the school building being used for an extra couple of weeks of the year too, I feel that communities have this wonderful resource in their midst and they are never used to the full advantage.  I seem to recall my junior school being used for a variety of activities including evening classes.  It is a shame that two or three local school could not employ someone between them to market the schools outside of school hours to  bring in extra funding for the schools.

Jamie enjoyed his second week too although he was only there for the mornings but that did give us the opportunity to do other activities in the afternoon and for him to meet and play with his friends and it kept him off the dreaded games consoles for a few extra hours!!  I set out at the beginning of the holidays not to hear "I'm bored" and the summer club is a good first start to achieving that objective.

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

Cardmaking

I have finally had a go at card making and quite enjoyed the process - although scrapbooking will always be my first love in papercrafting.  I am sure I will now have another go and make some more cards in due course. 

I made these with an ulterior motive too as I entered them into the Bucks County Show which is why they are all wedding cards.  I didn't get placed even though there were only 3 entries and I didn't see who won as the other two entries had gone by the time we got there to collect our bits.  (Check out the other Bucks County Show posts including my flower entries and one or two other bits from other members of the family)  The comments card is later on in the post, but you can never guess what the judges are looking for at a first attempt so I may have another go next year!!

Overall and as a first attempt I am quite happy with these - although I can see some areas which need improving - can't you always!   As for what I used Basic Grey and Doodlebug papers, Inspire Me for matting, some Papermania embellishments I had, the wording was from a K and Co sticker sheet as well as a few other bits and pieces from my bits and pieces box(!!) 

I didn't want to go for the very obvious and used very "in" colours in wedding floral work at the moment.  Black and white is very big in wedding flowers, pinks and cream are always popular and I had to have some green in there somewhere - it wouldn't be me without green!!  Good fun but I can't use these as the weather was dreadful at BCS and so they got a bit damp overnight and during the show day but I will put them into my current scrapbook to keep along with my comments card.  Roll on next BCS!!!!!!!!

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

Jamie Passes Guitar Grade 2 - Hooray

I know I've mentioned this before but it is proud Mummy time and I (or rather Jamie) now has his Grade 2 certificate, so I can proudly display it for him. 

It was a bit of a slog to get this as he was not practicing as much as he needed to and a lot had to be crammed into the 3 weeks leading up to the exam - but star that he is - he pulled it off and pulled it off well.  The really positive aspect is that he has been much more motivated now he has started on his Grade 3 work and he is working hard and playing his pieces really nicely!!

Another very well done - I'm really proud of what you have achieved.  As I was in the process of putting these certificates away in his folder I also found his certificate from the Milton Keynes Arts Festival where he also did himself very proud.

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

Book Review - U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

I got distracted from my reading list yet again with one of my favourite authors - one of my top 3 put my feet up with a glass of wine or under the duvet authors - and possibly even my favourite - and just a reminder - beware the review as there may be spoilers!!

I had read a couple reviews of this book which suggested it was a little below par for Sue Grafton and I am pleased to dispel those reviews - they were wrong.  This book is excellent, 481 pages which kept me interested and gripped on each and every one.

I love this set of novels and I love the character of Kinsey Millhone.   This time the book gave up some of the back story of Kinsey and we find out about the relationship she had with her Aunt Gin and the struggles between Gin and Kinsey's grandmother Grand over who was going to look after the young orphaned Kinsey.  There is a very touching moment at the end of the book and I am really looking forward to how that will play out into the next novel.  Although with this set of books as each one comes out it brings us nearer and nearer to the end of the series and I am beginning to feel it will be something of a bereavement when there is no longer one of these to look forward to each year.

The crime in this book is one committed in the late 1960's and the grown up recollections of a then 6 year old boy who thought he may or may not have seen something connected to the crime.  Unlike some of the reviews I have read, I think Sue Grafton has woven the multi layer story very well, weaving the different years together, the 50's (her back story), the 60's the time of the crime (seen through the eyes of middle class parents trying to come to terms with the new society and lifestyles of their children) and the 80's when Kinsey is trying to put all of the pieces together - her story and the story around the disappearance of a young girl.  This time part of her story is wound into the crime too as she was familiar with some of the principle players and even went to school with some of them.

Kinsey struggles to pull all of the pieces of the crime together, ordering and reordering her index card system (she operates without the luxury of computers, cell phones, internet etc and I think this gives the story a depth which it could loose if she could just google something!) over and over again and it still isn't clicking for her - even 20 pages from the end of the book and then a final act of violence and it all becomes clear and of course Kinsey saves the day.

A really enjoyable  story and well up to her usual standards - I look forward to her next book - even though it brings Z is for ever closer!!

Ciao
Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure