The Savvy Window Album Part Two

I'm sharpening my pencils, cleaning my lens, tidying my desk and looking forward to all the good things September has to offer. It's my favourite time of year and I'm ready and waiting to Learn Something New and have some Adventures In Scrapbooking.  Two classes? Let's see how it goes.

I've been working on finishing up my Savvy Window Album from Christine's tutorial

I've got the scraps from September's Gotta Craft kit (out next week) to use; the new Pass The Book to read (look out for that next week too); and there might just be a blog redesign right round the corner. Autumn? Bring it on!

Blogging With A Cherry On The Top

Wow, what can I say? Thank you to every single brilliant blogger who took the time to comment on my last post. So many of you chipped in (hurrah!) and I've loved reading every last word. Seems like you all enjoy writing those words just as much as I do. Some of you plan, some write on the hoof and I think both approaches have something to offer.

I scribble and edit so that you get the best of what I have to offer, as a way of thanking you for coming. But spontaneous can be stunning - when you think as you type, we're getting the real you, fresh and unfettered and that makes for great blogging. Maybe we should take a day and swap? Change methods just for a post and see how it works? Could be interesting. Anyway, both ways work, both are good. Both have you musing as you get on with life. And isn't that an amazing thought? Not just are you all modern, multitasking women: you are modern, multitasking women who blog.

Thanks, too, to everyone who asked after my birthday which was earlier in the summer. The picture at the top today shows the gorgeous book I got from The Tall One (nice choice!) and you can also see the fantastic cards I got from Jacky and Amanda

And finally, thanks are due to Sheleen, Becky, Deb and Sandi who have been kind enough to award me this:

I hope you all know how much I enjoy reading you too. I'll be coming back to this one.

Writing Out Roughly

What I'd love to know from you today is how you plan your blog posts? Must be that going-back-to-school feeling (new pencils, new paper) making me think about this. That, and a cool comment from Carmen who wanted to know if I was writing my stories down anywhere.

What do you do? Do you type as you think as you write? Or do you sketch out ideas first? I don't plan too far ahead (usually only a couple of days) but I do like to write my post out roughly first. In pencil. In a notebook. I have a friend who is a BBC Broadcast Journalist, and when I told him this he laughed and said that I need to learn how to "compose on the keyboard". But I tried and I can't.

I like to scribble and score things out, slip in a word here or there, pull out another if I don't like the look of one or two - and then I'll often read the whole thing out loud (ok, into myself); just the once. Do you ever do that? 

I've been using a scruffy exercise book lately - but look what came in the post for my birthday. A beautiful blogging notebook from Amanda. Thank you. It's almost to nice to use..

So, which is it for you? Speed typing? Or writing out roughly? And while you're here, I'd also love to know your favourite blog reading day of the week. Weekend? or weekdays? I'm interested.

The Savvy Window Album

I'm feeling short and sweet today. My family would probably say that only one of those usually applies. School starts on Friday, so we are busy fitting in all the things we planned to do at the beginning of the holidays. Sleepovers, late night dvds with popcorn, maybe a trip to the seaside at the weekend...it's all leaving me low on time to create.

When that happens I love to find something I can put together easily without having to think too hard; so I've turned again to the outrageously talented Christine Middlecamp and I've been following along with her new Savvy Window Album tutorial. It's all there in her wonderful instructions and this is what I've come up with so far:

I'm hoping for a new installment by Thursday. Please.

August at Gotta Craft

It's a Gotta Craft day today - and that means I get to show you what I've been doing with one of the new MME lines: Lost and Found. This had to be one of my favourite CHA releases and so when Sandra offered to send me some I jumped at the chance.

I did this page with Portobello Road (a mix of blues and greys)

and this one with Market Street (lovely pinks with a dash of red and sage green)

More pictures on the Gotta Craft blog here

Happy Sunday!

The Day The Bus Stop Disappeared

not the actual bus stop
just a bit of fun playing at one of those adverts form the 60's

It was around this time of year that it happened. No, wait, we were looking for a birthday present, so it must have been early on in the summer. The Tall One was about seven, his sister four - years ago now; but they still love to talk about The Day the Bus Stop Disappeared.

The bus service round here could be better and so we're always driving into town, but on that day - the special-looking-for-Dad's-present day - they had talked me into making an adventure. They had talked themselves into an adventure, really; but by the time we set out they were bubbling. Hopping and skipping down the road, full of talk of tickets and timetables, doubledeckers, drivers...The Small One ran ahead (as she does), she knew what she wanted. She was going to get to the big bus stop, sit up on the seat, first in the queue, and wait.

Suddenly she stopped in her tracks. The Tall One pulled up behind. He turned round and waved his arm to show me what was wrong. I looked. I couldn't see anything wrong. Then I realised I couldn't see anything. No bus stop anyway. The bus stop had disappeared! It had been there yesterday. The Small One had checked. Oh, they laughed. They roared. They pretended to look in the litter bin and round the corner and then they laughed some more. And when they had picked themselves back up off the pavement, we walked on down the road and found another stop.

But that's not quite the end of the story. When their Dad came home of course they told him all about the vanishing bus stop. No he said, it can't have just dispparated and he walked them down to have a look. See Dad, right there, it's..

and you're ahead of me now, aren't you? You know what I'm going to say next. The bus stop was right there. Where it always was. Firm in the ground. Solid. Real. With a workman's lorry just pulling away.

And that's the story of The Day the Bus Stop Disappeared

I Feel Like Knitting Tonight

My Grandma taught me to knit when I was five. Maybe it's the time of year has got me thinking about it again, because what I wanted to make was a satchel for my teddy. I was starting school. She showed a lot of patience, my Grandma, as we knitted and unpicked and knitted again. But then, getting it right was her thing - she had been a "stitcher": a machinist of collars and cuffs, in a shirt factory, and taking out a row of stitches and doing it again was all in a day's work.

It's been a long time since I did any knitting, until recently that is. I started with the hats - you know about those - and then I decided to do a sweater. I thought about my Grandma as I rediscovered how to pick up stitches and weave my wool in properly at the back. But I got there in the end.

A digger sweater for Little E.
Knitted with Rowan Cotton Glace
Pattern from "Designs for Kids" by Lucinda Guy

And I'm ready to start another one. With dinosaurs on. Roll on Autumn and some knitting by the fire!

Dumpr Fun

Although I'm always looking for ways to take better photos, it's true, I'm also always on the lookout for things to do with the (very) many poor photos I already own. I'm not good at deleting them (it's so final). I keep them, hoping I'll find a way to offer them a reprieve. And today I have one! It's Dumpr. I hadn't ever really played with silly photo effects until I found this. It's not a new idea, I know, but these are fun and quirky - and great for a disguise.

A very badly blurred shot in bad light?

Make it a sketch

A portrait with too much in the background?

Crop it tight and make him a star

A horse with an ego the size of a house?

Let him believe people really are looking

The very worst of the worst?

Little E, you've been papped

There are other things you can do too: I like Rubik's Cube and Christmas Ornament. But what I like best of all is that if you print them out, you have a story to tell. Maybe not the one you thought you had, but a story all the same. And you can scrapbook it.

I Haiku: Do You?

I love it when I click on a post and straight away think Ooh, I could do something with that. Thanks! Take Rinda's post about haiku, for example. A challenge: a photo and haiku and I thought I would give it a go.

The photo was the easy part - I've been trying out the new close up lens my sister bought me for my birthday (thanks, sis!) and I like this one:

The haiku, a little harder. Actually, I think I made it hard for myself - I kept imagining my brother (the Literature Professor. Looks like it's family day here today) shaking his head sadly. He wears a cord sports jacket and drives a volvo, does an East Coast thing..but I'm losing my focus..

Back to the haiku. There's that rule about the syllables, then there's the contrast you need to create between the first and the second parts, and the focus on the senses..The more I thought about it, the more I thought - what a way to journal! Lots of layouts with the story caught in three lines. It might not be easy; but I bet it's effective. 

Ah, cool yellow rose
wrapped around morning rain
summer slips away

       

Pass the Book: August's Adopter and a Layout

Today's the day! I'm not really in the mood for suspense, so without further..no, wait, maybe I am. I'll show you my page first instead

I thought it might be a nice idea to do a page inspired by each book before I sent it off - and if any of the adopters want to do one too, well that would be lovely. My page started off after I looked at this:

and I used some of the other questions to create the rest of my journaling. It really made me think about why I choose to make certain things and how I start going about it; and I'm probably going to continue recording my thoughts on the back of the page. I'll put some more journaling ideas on the information page.

So that means you are ready...the first adopter of Where Women Create: Book Of Inspiration is...

Sandi 

I wrote out the list of names, stuck a pin in it and it landed beside Sandi; and that made me smile because it was Sandi who set me off on the Pass the Book path in the first place. So Sandi, please drop me an email with your address. Everyone else, keep an eye on Sandi's blog and she'll let you know when she's ready to pass it on. And of course keep an eye out here too: I've chosen a novel for September.

He Said What?

I've been making a start on a holiday mini-album, hunting out some tickets and leaflets to add in

and taking a look at my diary (diary: something new for me) to see what I might be about to leave out. I found two entries I'd completely forgotten about.

*Tuesday 20th July: The weather was so bad we ended up sheltering in a bookshop. We looked for "100 Things To Do In A Tent In The Rain". We couldn't find it. Then we realised, of course, that it doesn't exist. There aren't 100 things to do in a tent in the rain.

and this one:

*Friday 16th July: The kids put in the journey by making a list. They called it Things You Don't Want To Hear Your Dad Say On Holiday

• 
  
  I think I turned over two pages at once in this Road Atlas
• 
  
  There's a bunch of accountants, let's go and talk to them..
• 
  
  This hotel tv is stuck on "Dave"
• 
  
  I think I've forgotten my pyjamas
• 
  
  If you don't want that Curious George hat, can I have it? (Don't ask)

There is definitely a layout in that one. I need to get busy.

Today I'm Loving...Everyone who has taken a book button for their blog. Thank you! A few of you noted that it comes back to my home page and not the Pass the Book post - great point! That post will be out of date as soon as we start the next round, though, so I have a plan. I'm going to put all the info - who the book lands with and so on - on a stand-alone page which you'll be able to get to from the top of the home page. Let's see how that goes. More Soon..

Making A Clickable Button

Once upon a time there was a girl (girl! ha!) who could barely switch on a computer. Her kids wanted her to learn, her husband asked her to learn, her exasperated (but thoughtful) Californian sister-in-law even tried bribery: You know what? If I showed you how to send an email and google at least, then you could find stuff you liked and write me to send it to you. Tempting (she thought); but it took scrapbooking to get her surfing, in the end. Message boards, kit clubs, classes all opened up before her..

So, where am I going with this? I'm going to the next step, that's where. I'm actually trying to figure out how things work (I know, I know, I bet lots of you are already there; but please humour me, I'm feeling a bit good about it). I spent some time yesterday thinking about making a button for Pass the Book. I looked at a couple of tutorials; but I couldn't get them to work properly, so I played about and this - at last- is how I made a clickable button. Maybe there are better ways around (and I'd be interested to hear about them) but this works for me

* I chose my photo and in Picasa I cropped it to a rectangle and added text, then I uploaded it to Flickr
* Next Click on Share This and then on Grab HTML. There are 3 size options and I chose small. Copy the code.
* Then go into Blogger design and select add a gadget. Choose the HTML box and then into it copy the code exactly as you see it here

* Check that it works and add it to your layout

* The next step is to generate a box of code other bloggers can pick up and display on their own blog. To do that, select another HTML gadget and copy in the code exactly as you see it here

* Now if you place it under the button that should be it done

I'd love someone else to give this a try and see if it works for them. Oh, and I'm keeping the Pass the Book comments open until Monday 3rd in case you haven't had a chance to throw your name in. If you're not in, you can't win..

Pass The Book: The First

And here it is:

with very grateful thanks to Emma at Silver Pebble for graciously allowing me to take up her wonderful idea: From High In The Sky's first Pass the Book. I've thought long and hard about what to start off with - I liked all of your ideas, but I was especially taken with Jennifer's suggestion that it needed to be a beautiful book, good to look at as well as to read. So, I found this one:

And this is how it works: I've read it, and I'd love to Pass the Book; so if you'd like to be next, leave me a comment. I'll pick one and post the book off to you. Then, when you've enjoyed it, you will post on your blog and Pass the Book to someone who comments there. Let's see how long we can keep it going for - and if it's a success, I'll choose another one and we can start again.

Any questions, ask away. Internationals are very welcome. Oh, and one more thing: is there anyone out there who would like to make a blinkie? Or even point me in the direction of a good tutorial? Many thanks. Now, let's give this a go...

Edited to add: Thank you to everyone who offered their thoughts about blinkies. I had a go at making a button and the code so that you can grab one if you would like it - in my sidebar now!

Blists Hill

You know what it's like: you come back from a break full of ideas, with a few stories and some photos, maybe a scribbled note or note - and then you spend the next three days communing with the laundry basket. The most creative thing I've been doing lately is pairing socks.

But this morning I said Enough! I'm going to look at photos instead..

My family are used to me suggesting a museum or four when we're on holiday; but it was actually The Accountant who found this one when, the week before we left, he found his small, science mad daughter engrossed in The Victorian Pharmacy. It's a real place, Dad! You can visit it!

So we did (it's in Shropshire. Hi Heather!). And it's fantastic. Highly recommended. There is a whole Victorian town to explore, perfect in every little detail. This is not just history, this is stylish history - round every corner there is a scene to photograph, a setting to savour. It's a Country Living magazine come to life, a picture taking paradise. Can you tell that I loved it? Now have a look at the kind of photos I was taking: can you tell that The Small One loved it too? I've added a frame and vignette effect to a couple of them, for that extra Victorian look. What do you think? It's a mini-album all on its own.

Today I'm Loving...this giveaway for a pdf cardboard dolls house pattern. It's a very clever idea, Sarah.