Learn Something New...

Yes, this really is a blog post. I know, on MY blog, the one that has been so cruelly abandoned for many months now (cue tumbleweed drifting past and the howl of a solitary wolf). I have no excuses really. Life got very hectic in the last year, my new job was a lot harder work than I had originally anticipated, and of course I went and got married and went on honeymoon in the middle of it all! Yes, I'm not even Chloe Harp anymore: it's Chloe Watson now - and I can't quite get my head around that myself yet, I admit.

So a pretty action packed year all round really. But seeing as I spent a lot of it feeling a bit sorry for myself or hugely stressed in pretty much equal measure, I didn't really want to come on here and share my work worries with the whole world. For one thing, it would have been a bit monotonous to read!

But that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything creative all year, far from it. While I haven't perhaps been as productive as I might have in former times, I have scrapped a few pages, and have done quite a bit of knitting too, which is much easier to pick up and put down in short intervals without creating a big mess, perfect when you only have fifteen minutes or so to spare. I managed to put together a thirtieth birthday album for my hubby earlier in the year too, none of which has yet graced the pages of my blog. So I may even see fit to do a bit of backdated sharing, if I can wedge a hefty bit of crafting back onto my schedule.

In the meantime, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try to commit myself to finishing an online class. Yes, I know you've heard it all before. And this may well go the way of so many other classes when the reality of term time hits again in the next few days. But I can at least try. And I think I've made a pretty good start by completing both the front page of my book AND the first lesson.

I decided to maximise my chances of completing this little project by keeping things as simple as possible. In the past, I have intricately stamped and cut out whole alphabets, layered up patterned papers, experimented with a variety of page layouts. All of this has fallen by the wayside. I am using a class kit from a former year of Learn Something New which I didn't even START to complete - Shimelle helpfully provided card and papers, colour-coordinated and cut to size. I have added a few choice sheets of my own, a couple of sheets of old book paper and then whatever random bits and bobs are left on my desk. I've decided to go with stamping as the main embellishment, because I think it provides maximum impact with minimum effort, but it is straight onto the page - no painstaking cutting out to be seen!

I will probably stick with pretty much the same page layout for most of the pages, and if I manage to take photos then I will easily be able to slot those in with this format too. I'm even using my iPhone to take the photos because I'm more likely to blog them if I don't have to go and find the camera!

So, hopefully the perfect project for someone who suffers from time poverty. I very much doubt I will get around to blogging every day, but a couple of days a week will be an achievement for me at the moment, and who knows, I might even manage to finish. Keep your fingers crossed for me! x