Down by the river

The cold from hell continues unabated this week, despite being back at work. I'm not normally one to suffer from colds - when you're a teacher, you develop a super-strength immune system that will not succumb to the usual rounds of sniffles - but being pregnant seems to have broken down my defences and now I'm struggling to break the back of this evil cold. So I'm off to bed in a minute, but before that I thought I'd share these. I think these were for Papermaze, but they never made it to my blog, and I'm trying to document everything I've done here now.

Last Easter, we went down to visit my folks in good old Sutton and went to see my brother who is currently living in the very nice Kingston-upon-Thames (home to various nightclubs I frequented a long time ago). I took a few photos as we were walking along the river side in the blazing sunshine - I seem to remember that Summer happened in April last year and this was pretty much the only opportunity I had to wear my shorts! The first layout is of me and Ed - Ed pulling his obligatory stupid face for the camera - I have loads of photos like this.

 

 

 

The second layout is of the river itself - if you have never visited the river at Kingston, you should definitely go for a walk there - you'll find some lovely pubs between there and Richmond, or if you have your sea-legs on, you can get on a river boat and see it from the water.

I can't remember what these papers are now, they may be Jillibean soup?

I have a few more old layouts to share, and I've also been busy scrapping in the last few days too - I have five new layouts from my half term which I will photograph and share in due course. I've been getting messy with mists and inks which is always good fun!

Anyway, I'm off to smear myself in Vick's vaporub and watch Whitechapel before bed. Fingers crossed this cold might have slunk off to bother someone else by tomorrow...

Seaside Layouts

Today I'm in a good mood. Or at least a better mood than I normally am on a Wednesday. I use an app called Mappiness on my iPhone - it's a kind of research survey which I've been taking part in since last October, and it lets you see lots of stats about how happy you rate yourself. And Wednesdays, according to my stats, are officially my most miserable day - too far from the weekend in either direction!

However today, as I said, I'm in a good mood. You can tell this because when I got in from work, I did the hoovering, and cleaned the cat bowls, and emptied the dishwasher, and all sorts of other tasks that normally I have to be practically held at gunpoint to complete! I think it stems from the fact that I finally said 'no' to something at work the other day. It wasn't exactly a big task, but I feel suddenly liberated, as if I have taken a bit of control over something, even by refusing to do it!

I'm also in a good mood because a huge Photobox order which I made a couple of evenings ago arrived today, so I've been happily flicking through photos of my engagement party, weekend in Bath, trip to Paris etc etc. These all bring back great memories. There is something about having the physical photos in your hands - it makes them more special than looking on a screen. But then I guess that's why we scrapbook.

So anyway, I thought I'd share a couple more of my Papermaze layouts - these are some from the Isle of Wight last year. I think the papers are October Afternoon. I really like the 6x12 one - it's very simple, but just really suits the photo.

I may even scrap tonight - I've got work to do (as always) but I think most of it might be able to wait for my free period tomorrow. Anyway, I'm definitely pursuing the work/life balance dream at the moment, so I think I deserve a bit of crafty time...