The Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

I can't help it. I'm ready for Autumn. It's my favourite time of the year and I'm not putting it off any longer. I've been out looking for blackberries:

and I've brought my purple boots out of storage

and I've even started knitting an autumnal coloured Professor Plum cardigan for Uncle Dave

What can I say? I fell heavily for Fall many years ago. It was my dad's favourite season too, so my Mum says. A couple of brand new sticks of blackboard chalk in his pocket and he went back to school after the Summer, ready for anything. I'm kind of feeling the same way myself this week. September, I'm ready and waiting..

You have been asking about the actions I used in Thursday's post. They are from Florabella's "Color and Haze" collection. I used "Milk and Honey" on Thursday and today I tried "Sweet Color". Any other recommendations now I know how to install them?

Sweet Six Squares

It's been a little while now since Sandra at Gotta Craft sent me some of the new Authentique 6x6 paper. I'm glad I waited for this holiday photo before I broke out the pink ones. I think I'm converted! A bundle of smaller sheets is such a great way to get hold of lots of lovely patterns at once.

It's official. I'm going to have to face facts. She is now taller than I am. She has been a teenager for a couple of months now (you can probably tell by her expression) and she is growing up fast. This is the first big thirteen picture she posed for. I hope it's the first of many.

Quick reminder: Storytelling Sunday next week!

Work, Waiting and Winding Roads

The Summer holidays are drawing to a close here at High In The Sky. As the years flick past time seems to fly faster with every new school bag we choose. For the last week we've been in that in between state before the holiday ends and term begins, sewing on name labels and catching up with friends who have been away.

This morning we reached the last staging post before the new year. The Tall One received his exam results and he has done us proud. Very, very proud. All that work and waiting has seemed like a long and winding road at times

but now we know he has a solid foundation for his final two years. And we are off to celebrate!

Then we'll be coming home to finish up all the holiday projects we've been experimenting with. The wooden skeleton kit (Christmas present) is nearly done. The make-your-own-soap is more than completely done (don't overheat it - turns out like chewing gum). And the bedroom tidying is - ongoing. "There's a story behind every one of these things," said The Small One as she sorted. Oh yes. All that's left to do now is have another look back through the summer photos. There is an autumn of scrapbooking ahead...



It's Not Hallmark, It's Me

It's been a while, but I've made a few cards. I thought it would be good to start a collection to have in hand..

but as soon as I had finished I realised that I had actually been making each of these with someone in mind. So I'll be posting them off and starting my collection again. If you are a card maker which do you prefer? Having some cards ready? Or making "to order"?

It Was Junk Nirvana

Round here we have a word for someone who likes a good ol' root around in a bin. I'm guessing it's what some of you would know as a "dumpster diver". Would that be right? We say "bin hoker". That's "hoke" to rhymn with "poke". So when you rock up to a junk shop and you see a big sign saying "Have a Good Hoke" you know you are in for a treat.

We were way out of town, in the middle of nowhere, on a cloudy Friday afternoon. On an emergency trip. Uncle Dave's sources had told him that the junk shop was closing and we had to be quick. "It might be junk," he said, "but it might be great junk. It could be junk nirvana."

No, wait, that was me. I said that last bit. I was almost as excited as he was. We don't have yard sales here, so I don't often have the chance of a lucky vintage find.

And we were lucky. I do have to hold my hand up and say this treasure isn't really mine. The Small One spotted it and persuaded Uncle Dave to pay £5 for it. They brought it home, along with Uncle Dave's radio; and they spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the kitchen floor with a bucket of water and a selection of cleaning products. Result.

We did leave behind the giant plastic ice cream cone (would have had to lash it to the car roof I think). But we might be back. If he's closing down, he might be open to offers..

Don't forget, you can add your Pinterest boards to the Pinterest Parade right here

The Pinterest Parade

Come and join the Pinterest Parade! So many of you are fans that I thought I'd have a bit of a party. A Pinner's Paradise. A Parade of the Pinterested. It's simple and everyone is invited! Add a link  to your main Pinterest page right here where we can all see it. Check out the other links to see who is pinning what. Find your favourite blogger's innermost style secrets!

I'm keeping this linky open for a year and I'm hoping it'll become a great meeting place for Pinterest fans. So even if you haven't dropped by here before, you are welcome to leave us a link to your boards. Let's find out what you love! I'll put the Pinterest Parade badge in my sidebar and that will take you right back here any time you like. Sound like a plan?

I'll go first and after that it's up to you. Show us your boards. Parade your pins right here

The Add More To The Story Challenge

It's that time of year again, when we gather together the photos, the programmes, the tickets and the triumphs. We pull the school albums from the shelf and make sure they are updated before the new school year begins. Sometimes The Small One pounces on her other album while she's there. It's a mix of pages she made (when I first started scrapbooking and wanted to play along) and pages she asked me if she could keep. All from the early days.

And it was in this album I found a perfect candidate for Shimelle's Add More to the Story challenge:

This layout is nearly three years. It's kind of quirky, but I still like it. It does have a bit of journaling, just enough to tell the story, up there in the top right. (It also has three little cut out Small Ones - spot them?). But last night I found a tag and a long piece of ribbon and added the next stage.

I simply stapled the ribboned tag onto the side; and I think the journaling tells you the rest.

She doesn't know about it yet. I thought I would leave it as a surprise for her to find sometime in the future, the next time the album appears. Unless she is reading today, of course. In which case - it's still on my desk, in front of the Glossy Accents. Don't forget to put it away when you are finished..

Whatever you are up to this Tuesday, I hope it's a good one.

August At Gotta Craft

Today I have two pages I made with the August Gotta Craft kit. It was blissful! No, really. It was Authentique's new Blissful collection and I did enjoy using it very much.

First of all I made this one:

taking the photo of me in my grey shirt as my starting point. I'm looking contemplative, don't you think? The little fold up journaling card in the kit was perfect for tucking away some private thoughts.

And then I made this:

which was inspired by the chipboard banners in the kit. I added some buttons from my stash and a few flashes of pink with papers from one of the new Authentique 6x6 paper pads. 6x6? Perfect! I'm always hoarding my full sheets of patterned paper to use as backgrounds. This way I can use smaller sheets to add accents and make embellishments. And I will. Oh, yes, you can count on it.

The Summer Scavenger Hunt Part Two

I've been out and about looking for more photos, thanks to Rinda and her Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt

Not quite a "roadside memorial" but certainly the most interesting roadside anything I've seen lately. I'd love to know more about it

A building made from metal or glass.  Airport at 5.30am - with a soft urban action to give it a bit of atmosphere

Cardoness Castle Scotland. Our first holiday stop



Driving down England on the way to our holidays gave us plenty of chances to photograph rain

person sketching

But at least the sun shone when we got there. We found this little graveyard tucked away on a quiet hillside. There were lots of "Dahl's" buried there:relations of Roald's, maybe? I've left a  corner of our ship (to the right) in this picture to remind myself how I wondered about the our intrusion in such a peaceful place

And that's as far as I've got. Still no sign of a unicycle yet, but I haven't given up hope!

Going Postal

"That," said Uncle Dave, "was the weekend I ended up doing karaoke in the police station basement. I was holding the microphone and trying to read the screen. Which was hard because it was in Chinese.."

Butterfly garland from a kit by Midnight Rooster

He has a collection of stories like this about his time in Taiwan. Sometimes we hear a lot and sometimes just a little snatch. But if I want more I can always go to my tin box full of all the letters he sent while he was there. If you are a regular here, you might remember me writing about this before. I've been meaning to make a page with this photo ever since; but it has taken a push from the excellent Julie and her inspirational Going Postal series to get me there.

Take a look! She has a positive plethora of postal projects to share and she pinning them

Storytelling Sunday - The Day The Caravan Died

Come on in! I was just about to start..

I wanted to give you a summery story for August. I thought and I thought; and in the end I decided to borrow one.So let's go back to one of those long hot 70's summers, when boys were men and the whole lot of them wore shorts. Back to one curly haired nine-but-nearly-ten boy who was sitting in the back of the car. Thinking about his birthday and playing pencil and paper games with his sister.

Taken at lunchtime, just hours before it happened..

They had been travelling for a while, towing their caravan behind them; and he and his three big sisters were getting hotter and stickier and hoping for a break. There was food in that caravan. Maybe secret hidden birthday presents too...

It all happened so quickly and yet time seemed to stand still. It was three o'clock in the afternoon when the curly haired boy heard a bang bigger than anything he had ever heard before. He knew his Mum was shrieking, and then he knew that what he was seeing through the car window was the caravan swinging round in the road, and the caravan roof slowly unpeeling itself and flying through the air towards the layby, and the rest of it breaking into pieces, and then he felt life slow down and wait.

This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. The curly haired boy felt his dad's anger rise and then start to fall away. Their caravan had been hit by a car; but now the driver barely seemed alive. He had suffered a huge heart attack. Wrong place, wrong time. But then there is never a good one, is there?

They put him onto one of the caravan cushions and then the ambulance took him away. When the firemen arrived they took their big brushes and started sweeping things out of the road. All the curly haired boy's things and all his big sisters' things and all his parents things. In bits. Being brushed up. They tried to find anything that wasn't broken. One of the firemen came across the road bouncing a ball and offered it to the curly haired boy. Yes, that was his. They offered him a little toy car, still in its box. No, that wasn't his. Ah, but it was. It was one of those surprise birthday presents he'd just been thinking about. Hidden by his siter, just waiting for the right moment. Now he was standing in a layby, beside a pile of plywood and he was being given his present two days early.

Good folk gathered to see how they could help. And things really started to look up when the local vicar arrived. What with the curly haired boy's Dad being in the same business. They were taken to the Rectory and cared for. No one was hurt. Things can be replaced. Caravans too. And the curly haired boy had a good birthday after all because, as a special treat, he was allowed to ring the church bells.

The new caravan being packed up. Everything they rescued? It's that little pile to the right of the picture

But he has never forgotten the day the caravan died; or the heart attack man (who did recover); or the firemne; or the kind vicar's family/ In fact, if you ask, he'll tell you how a Christmas card used to arrive from them every year after that until he was quite grown up. And caravans? He still loves them! But that, I think, is quite another story altogether..

Now that's my story for today. How about yours? Write your post, including a link back here so your readers can join in too, come and add it to the linky and then sit back and enjoy. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to include a project or layout. It can be new, it can be from right back in your past. It's up to you. We love them all and everyone is welcome!

Five Pass The Book Confessions ..

...and an adopter.

As I get ready to hand over to Melissa, I thought it was time to confess:

1. I didn't know if it would work at all. Your enthusiasm has delighted me.

2. I didn't even know how to make a blog badge when I started. But I worked it out and it has given me a lot of pleasure to see it pop up in blog world.

3. My favourite will always be the first one, Where Women Create, which Cheri has promised will land back here soon. I'm looking forward to it.

4. I'm really hoping there will be a message or two inside for me to read.

5. This is the big one. Ssh! Don't tell. I don't actually like wrapping parcels. I'm happy to pass the books, but I can definitely pass on the the parcelling! I can never make it as neat as I'd like.

Which leaves me with July's adopter of Art Saves to announce. Before I do that I'd like to thank everyone who has joined in. Keep on passing those books round! Each one will stay out for twelve months. And I'd like to take this chance to thank Alison of Life In The Slow Lane for sending me a blog award recently.

Thanks Alison! I'd like to offer my confessions as my part of the deal and I'd love to offer the award to everyone who has received a book. How's that?

So of course that includes today's adopter of Art Saves and that is....Julie from Notes on Paper. Julie, I'll get that in the post just as soon as I can.

Stortelling Sunday tomorrow. See you there?



Not Bright In Brighton

The day we went to Brighton it rained on a biblical scale. It was so wet we could barely see our hands in front of our faces. So wet that we found on street parking astone's throw from the Pavilion on a Saturday lunchtime. and so wet that I wrapped my camera safely in its waterproof jacket and left it there.

Photo from tourist leaflet. Crown shapes cut with Slice Vintage Findings card

Tall and Small said that if I took a photo of them in their waterproof macs, they would remove themselves from the family. With immediate effect. Then they trudged off in the direction of Starbucks. Their father said; "I'm glad you aren't going to take a picture of me in a fold up raincoat, and then put it on your blog captioned The Accountant In A Pac-a-mac. It doesn't make me sound very exciting."

I took a last look at the Pavilion. It was darker than I imagined. And definitely wetter. I thought about stopping in the gift shop for a stick of seaside rock, because there has to be a good joke in there somewhere. But Starbucks was starting to call me too, so I left it.

We won't forget our visit, though. The day we were there, they turned the bright off in Brighton.

Psst..other Sky High news : You may still place a comment for July's Pass The Book here. And it's  Storytelling Sunday this Sunday.

Jemma's Blogiversary Hop

When Jemma from Just Jimjams asked me if I'd like to be part of her one year of blogging celebrations, I said I'd be delighted. She was  quick to make me feel welcome when I joined UK scrappers (years ago now, wow!) and her encouragement ever since has been very welcome. Happy Blogging Birthday Jemma!

Please write a post for a blog hop she said. Well, I have been thinking about numbers and anniversaries this week because it's our Wedding anniversary soon; so I thought how handy! how nifty! I'll show them my latest Pinterest inspiration.

Lately on Pinterest I have noticed very pretty photos of rings.So I decided to take a picture of my own engagement ring, bought by a boy who was still a student, for a girl who was - still a student.

Marry me he said. And because she said yes, he found a holiday job in a mobile tourist office which was really a caravan pitched in a carpark. So he bought her a ring and she loves it to this day. But she's very glad she now has a photo because her ring doesn't have seven stones anymore. Just before she went on holiday she discovered she had dropped a diamond. She's waiting for it to come back. He says it will. And he always keeps his promises.

So now it's over to you. You will find a number hidden somewhere in my post. Collect a number from each of Jemma's blogiversary friends, put them in numerical order and them email her with the number missing from the sequence. And to do that of course, you need to move along on the hop. Next stop is Hilary from Pictures and Paper Bits. So, go! Pick up another number! And Jemma? Keep on blogging!