Captured in a Card (4)

I love it when I get chatting to someone in the family and I'm reminded of a little famiy story I had completely forgotten:

In wartime, when Grandma wanted to redecorate and wallpaper was scarce she used to smuggle it across the border by wrapping the rolls around her body and covering up with a stout overcoat

Talking of stories - it's Storytelling Sunday time again this weekend. If you'd like to join in, all you need to do is write a post with a story, let your readers now that it's a Storytelling Sunday post and then come over here and link it up. Everyone welcome!

And finally, in case it helps someone else - I've been trying to get into Blogger all day. Couldn't post, couldn't comment. As a long shot, I tried changing browsers (from Explorer to Chrome) and it worked. Hurray! I'm hitting the post button right now..



Pass The Book: June's Adopter And a Layout

I'll admit it. My courage nearly failed me this time round. When I posted about Painted Pages last week I hadn't had a chance to really enjoy it. Well, now I have. And I did think (just for a minute) that maybe you wouldn't notice if I moved quietly on without drawing a name...

..but just for a minute. Once I got really into it I started to see how Sarah Ahearn Bellemare (her blog is here) has been influenced by the sea and by her life on Cape Cod. I spent a happy summer holiday there once and I'd love to go back, so I thought maybe a page about that might pop into my head. But instead my inspiration from this month's book led me to make a page about plans for this summer. In a seaside-y way.

So here it is. I can't wait to see now how the same book influences its next reader. And that reader will be...

....Sandie of Itchifingers. Sandie, let me know your address and I'll get it off to you as soon as I can!

But wait, there's more Pass The Book news - if you would like to be in the drawing for Good Mail Day, hop over to Jacky's and place a comment here. And if you would like to read Where Women Create (last chance on this one!) make your way to Brenda's place and place a comment here. Give it a go. Go on..

His Mug Shot

Little E visited on Friday. After he left we lay on the sofa recovering and talking about our plan for International Act like Little E Day. It might just make the world a better place.

Title, stars and picture frames cut with the Slice. From a sketch by Scrapidees

Think about it. We would all wake up happy and ready to take on anything the day could bring. We'd all ask interesting questions, but still be sure we were right in the first place. And we'd all have a blast watching TV shows about singing potatoes. What could be better?

Oh, I know. We'd all enjoy giving our collection of friends and relations cute pictures of ourselves printed on a  variety of novelty gift items. In a superstar sort of way, Little E (and his Mum) make sure he gets his mug on - well, mugs. And notebooks and keyrings and calendars. ..You get the idea. Last Christmas he gave me a sheet of stickers with a picture of himself wearing a sweater I had knitted for him. And yesterday I finally got round to making a page about it.

Quick Reminder - next Sunday is Storytelling Sunday, so have a think about your tale for this month. Everyone welcome!

Slice It Up, Slice It Down

Yes, after months of umming and ahhing, I have finally given in and bought a MM Slice. It's taken me a while - I've never, ever spent that much on a craft item before - but it already feels like a good buy. I spent Sunday happily cutting up a favourite sheet of paper (from a Gotta Craft kit) into hearts and flowers

and then I turned them into this:

Pinterest again. What can I say? I'm obsessed.

Don't forget - you can still leave a comment here for Tuesday's Pass The Book. Or here at Deb's for Expressive Photography; or here at Beverly's for A Homemade Life

Pass The Book: The Tenth

It's Pass The Book day today. I have a brand new, just published one for you and I love it:

Just look at the inside:

It's Painted Pages by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare and anyone with even a passing interest in creating a sketchbook or a mixed media journal will find something to enjoy in here. My favourite chapter was "Write it Out" - a guide to using dictionary pages, poems, the written word, as a starting point for journal pages. But there is something to catch your eye on every page, really.

So, same as always. Leave a comment if you would like to be included in the draw for this one; and remember that you can always check its progress on the information page here if it doesn't come to you this time. A quick look there today, for example, would reveal that Beverly from BE Glorious is currently passing on Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. So take a look here to put your name down for that one. It's worth a read too.

And, finally, last but definitely not least for today - I am delighted to be able to tell you that after July, when Pass The Book will be a year old, the brilliant, book-loving Melissa from Daily Life - Bits and Pieces will be taking over. She volunteered and I said yes, please! I can't wait to see what she comes up with. That will be from August, but you could jump over there and say hello now. She would be delighted to meet you!

Our "Moving" Fathers Day

It's turning out to be a very manly weekend here at High In The Sky!

The Tall One and The (Not So) Small One here - we have a story we wrote ourselves about our favourite Fathers Day ever. Have a great one today Dad (and we'll be out to wash your car in a minute..)

It was a very sunny Fathers Day afternoon and to our great despair Dad suggested going up the road to look at a new housing development. This was, and still is, one of his favourite pastimes; and, as it was Fathers Day, we knew we had to go along with him. Little did we know that this simple fathers Day outing would lead to many months of putting things in boxes and us moving house.

We were not expecting much that day, to be honest. As we trudged up the hill in the heat of the day we were anything but looking forward to what we thought would be a long hour or so. Dad would look around and say "This is nice" and that would be it. BUT even we were astounded.

We could not believe that we had objected to the trip in the first place. Both of us might even have said "I want to move here!"

Our wishes were granted, and when the paperwork was completed the long preparations began. Now that was a Fathers Day neither of us is likely to forget.

My second ever digital page, with very grateful thanks to the talented Alexa who produced the template and papers for us all to enjoy

Happy Fathers Day everyone!

Five Reasons To Love An Uncle

..who stepped off the plane this week and will be here for the next year. Hurrah!

With contributions from the family. I'll leave you to guess who might have said what:

1. He is living on our top floor, so Mum can't be up there scrapbooking when we need her for something important. Like making the dinner.

2. He offered to read some blogs and do some commenting. Mum stopped him when she found out he thought "That's some super sticking" would about cover it for everyone.

3. He knows someone who knows Angelina Jolie

4. He came to watch me playing the flute for Sound of Music and when we got home he said he couldn't remember much of the story because he had been watching the orchestra all the way through. And he didn't even do all the embarassing things he said he was going to do.

5. He is going to buy a car and when I get my licence (in eight months!) he says I can drive it. Oh yes.

Welcome Home Uncle Dave!



Instead, Get High

Do you ever have a day when you have stuff to do which you would rather not do at all?

But then you remember the day when you made something like this

The title comes from a song by Madeleine Peyroux

and you realize life's not too bad after all?

Wish me luck for today, have a great Thursday yourself - and remember to save a little time for the things you love.

When Being Wrong Can Sometimes Be Right

I had just waved The Small One off to school the other morning when I turned round and saw this lying on the kitchen table:

Quick phone photo

Oooh, I thought. That doesn't look good. A sad face at this time of the morning? Is there something we need to talk about?

I wondered all day about how to bring it up, all casual you know; and in the end I just came right out and asked. Turns out the biggest trauma of the day was Home Economics. They had to make fruit salad when some of the other classes were making pizza. That was it. A sad face for fruit salad.

You can overthink things as a parent sometimes.

What Makes Me My Mother...

...a layout and some answers.

So, what did my photography survey show? Well, nearly all of you said that you liked one detail shot:

but that more than one could be too many. I'm pretty sure that's what I think too. Details need to add something. And most, but not all, of you said that you liked staged photos:

Yes, that tiny baby is me

I do too; and I'm already looking at new ways of presenting my pages. I'm in talks with my DIY expert as we speak. So I'll leave you today with my other work-in-progress: a layout I think I'll probably add to. Do you have any of those? Layouts with room for more journaling?

Cards and Cast Your Vote

This card making thing is kind of addictive, isn't it?

Sandra from Gotta Craft sent me some beautiful Girls Paperie bits and so I made this one:

and this one:

I'm going to need to look for a nice box to keep them in. Another few weeks and I'll be starting on Christmas cards!

But before I do, I'd like to ask you a question. That top photo, the close-up one - do you like to see close-up detail shots? Or are you happy with a single picture of a layout? I'm thinking about photos at the minute and I'd love to know what you think, so please cast your vote below...

Helping Little E

Little E is usually a cheerful chap. He's mostly up, rarely down. But when he was on the phone last week, he told me he had three problems. Or maybe it's only one problem. One list with three things he doesn't have:

1. A football shirt. I can sort this out with a rummage through The Tall One's  wardrobe
2. A trampoline. When The Accountant heard about this, he was all for buying a trampoline, waiting until dark, driving to Little E's and assembling it on his front lawn in the middle of the night as a surprise. Not sure if I have completely talked him out of this yet.
3. A tail like Higgins the three-legged cat. A tail. Now it just so happens that I have a spare tail lying around and Little E would be very welcome to have it.

But now I'm the one with the problem. The others won't let me give it to him. They say I'd be messing with his mind...

Storytelling Sunday this month - wow! We had a record 28 stories added, with the promise of at least one more to come. So there is still time to join in - or have a good read. It couldn't happen without you ♥

Storytelling Sunday - How Things Work

"So, Granny," said The Small One, as she rushed through the door. "Mum told everyone who reads her blog about me cooking oven chips with a hairdryer, and now they want to know who I get my experimenting from?"

"Mmm, I wonder," said Granny with a smile. "Did I ever tell you about the time I tried to hatch a birds egg? I thought it would have a better chance if it was closer to the sun, so I balanced it on top of a pole to raise it up."

"Or did I ever tell you about the time I tried to make soup in my locker in school?" I asked. "The school dinners were so bad, I tried to heat up my lentils for my sticky picture. In a jamjar with some tap water."

"I didn't know that," laughed Granny. "Or how about the time your sister grew mould in the hotpress. Though, wait, that was an official experiment for her Biology exam."

"They didn't let you do Biology, did they, Mum?" said The Small One, with a wicked glint in her eye.

"Well, no. Not real Biology," I had to concede. "I was in the General Science class with the other rubbish at science arts students. But sometimes -sometimes- they let us experiment. Otherwise, how would I have been able to set the curtain on fire? They must have let me near a bunsen burner for that."

"I don't think I knew about that one either, funnily enough," said Granny with interest.

"Moving on," I added hastily, "Keep trying things out, daughter of mine. It's the best way to learn. Now, anyone for coffee?"

And that's my tale for this month. How about you? Have you got one to share? Please add your link and then we'll all be able to enjoy it too. And if you are reading through Google reader, click through, read a little, rest, relax..and have a great Sunday!

Are You Pinterested?

Come join me on Pinterest!

And if it's as new to you as it was to me a week ago, I have some tips:

• Stop! If you were about to say But Sian, I don't need another time waster - think again. This is such an easy, painless way of gathering together everything you've ever seen and wanted to try. It doesn't take up room on your computer and Pinterest adds the original source right in there for you. Simple.
• Ignore the waiting list and ask a member you know for an invite. (I have some - email me if you are interested). And don't take the "invitation" thing personally - it's not about being exclusive; it's about stopping the site from crashing. You do need Facebook or Twitter to join, but you can disconnect it from your account once you have signed up.
• Now, set up your profile page. To find your way around, remember to click on the "Pinterest" logo on the top left which takes you to your home. From there, click "everything" to see what has been added all over Pinterest.
• Before you do any pinning, have a really good browse. Get an idea for the kind of pinboards you can create, how you can make them look, what you would like to pull together.

See how I've made a start on this one:

• Pinterest starts you off with a selection of boards, but you are free to delete them and use any titles you like. Or keep them until you get the hang of it. Some of the most interesting boards keep to a very narrow subject - not just "old children's books", but "favourite Dr Seuss titles", for example. But you can make a collection of anything. You can see mine so far in the first picture.
• Install the "Pin It" bookmark using the instructions here
• Pinning is addictive, but you do need to play fair. Just as you do when you blog, you need to give credit where it is due. See something on a blog you want to pin? Make sure you go right back to the original source and pin from there. Include details in your description.
• Check you are pinning from the actual link and not just the picture - again, as you do when you blog, use the unique URL. To pin from a specific blog post, click on the post title and then use the bookmark.
• Now, find some boards you want to follow! If someone's taste catches your eye, check out all their boards - remember you don't have to follow them all, you can click "unfollow" for any you don't want. See something on a board you like? Click "repin" and it's added to your board. Pinterest will automatically add the original description, but you are free to delete that and add your own.
• You can "like" pins too - they won't be added to your boards, but if you click on your likes you will see what you have admired.
• Want to make a blog post of your favourite finds? Use the "embed" button to the right of any pin, copy the code, and add it to your post whilst in "edit HTML"mode
  Source: pedlars.co.uk via Sian on Pinterest

Like that!

Finally, want to see if anyone has pinned anything from your blog? Use this:

http://pinterest.com/source/fromhighinthesky.blogspot.com/  replacing my blog name with yours.

Try it - I think you'll love it. I have some invites ready if you need one. See you there?

With thanks to Jennifer who sent me an invite in the first place.