Free Hugs

Free Hugs

I have to thank Carrie for bringing this vid to my attention (mwwwaaaaah!). I completely love it. This guy's name is Juan Mann and he just started a mission to hug a stranger and brighten someone's day. The effects of the campaign were phenomenal...especially in today's society where we are so distant from one another. And then the city police and officials banned it! (Duh..why?) And so people responded. It's so cool. Apparently he was on Oprah this week :D

Perhaps I can carry on the Free Hugs campaign at the Gloucester retreat this weekend :D What do you think?

Boo!

Happy Halloween folks! My mate Clare sent me a bunch of these funny spooky doggy pictures the other day so I thought I'd share. Do you think some people need to get out more - bwaahaaahaaa!! Celyn is off to a little Halloween party at her friend's house this afternoon but dressed as a fairy and not anything scary, as we don't really do devils and vampires in our house. Striking a happy medium...ain't parenting tough!?!

Two more days to the retreat...and I had a fantastic night's sleep last night. Just what the doctor ordered.

It's all good.

Scrapping...my aaaaarse!

Went to the South Wales Crop on Saturday and had a great day. For the first time in...well...ever...the whole Scrappers Unlimited team were under the same roof. And oooo we did have a laaaaaaaaugh.

Scene: I'm taking Nattie's class (loooooovely autumnul layout with the very very strokeable new Crate Paper) but as usual am trying to do three things at once...one of which is chatter. I've been cutting out rectangles with the help of Sue who is losing the will to live as I'm asking her to repeat the size of the rectangles about 3 times (at least) as I'm going. And we've been sanding all pieces of paper to within an inch of its life.

Me: Right. What am I doing?

Sue (sighing and muttering about, 'Please don't make me sit next to this woman at the retreat'): This rectangle...you need to sand the edges.

Me (obediently picking up said rectangle and starting to sand): Okay

Sue: Round the corners

Me (obediently sanding around the corners of the rectangle with vigour, like a good girly)

Sue (and Julia): No...! ROUND. The CORNERS.

Me (noticing my corner rounder lying in front of me on the table and having a bit of an epiphany): Oh.

At this point one corner of the room (i.e. that would be the corner where I was sitting) all erupt into hooting, howling, gales of laughter. Including me.

Scrapping humour.

You won't get that at all unless you scrap.

And talking of laughing, big huge thumbs up for The Royle Family last night. I had one of those very rare moments whilst watching the brand new episode which is down to the most fantastic writing of Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash. In fact, the only other time I've ever had the same experience as this was whilst watching the film Steel Magnolias.

So...Nana's rushed to hospital after some very funny and also very very touching moments previous to this, and dies. It's completely brilliant writing because they got it right on the money...I was in floods and floods of tears, near to full on weeping. Cut to next scene and they (and several family friends) are back in their living room after the funeral, sitting quietly eating and drinking. I'm weeping away, trying very hard not to make a complete pansy out of myself because Husband is sat one foot away, when the camera starts to pan across all the guests sitting on the sofa. And as it goes past Cheryl (the girl next door who's always on a diet), she's sat there in full funeral black, with a Hula Hoop on each finger, mournfully sliding each one into her mouth. And my tears instantly changed to full on wetting myself with laughter.

10 out of 10 for comic genius.

Oh. And also one of the funniest lines...

Mary (I think): What were Nana's last words?

Barb (very earnestly): Trevor MacDonald

Mary: Well that's a fine tribute to the man.

Man, I'm tired.

But my list to do for the retreat is very much shorter and everything is ready for the South Wales Crop tomorrow (well...technically today).

And I'm. Going. TO BED!

Move over Samuel Pepys!

At long blummin' last my entry for One Day In History is actually up on the site. I kept thinking that they'd lost it, or it hadn't gone through (seeing as I emailed it to them the evening of 17 October like a good girly). But if you click on 'One day in history entries' and then type 'scrapbooking' (would you believe! LOL) as a key word, then there I be. And BLESS ME, who's below me on the list but none other than that superstar Kiwi of the Scrappers Unlimited team, Rach Millington. And exCUSE ME Ms. Millington...telling the world that we talked on the phone for an hour gossiping!!! What with me always whinging on about being soooooo busy, and being SUCH a good girl and all... *Chrissie rolls eyes and mutters* ...talking on the phone for an hour, gossiping...tsk! As if.

And then, two below Rach on the list is Gill James' entry (one of the retreat delegates :D ) and then two below her is Penny Kafai's entry (another delegate at the retreat, and fast taking on the job of my PA ...she's so fab at toddling off and doing little jobs for me). She mentions Scrappers Unlimited by name (yey! preserved for future generations!)

Anyway...back to my long, long list of things to do for the retreat. AND the South Wales Crop on Saturday. Gosh, I'm SO BUSY, I must get on the phone to Rach and have a gossip....

Very Proud Moment

This mothering malarky is a powerful thing eh? I had the funniest feeling on Monday.

Dropping Celyn off to school, the teacher and her assistant yelled across the room, to be heard over the mayhem of 20-something 3 and 4 year olds settling on the carpet for the start of the day. They yelled, "Ooo mum, mum...go and look at the display in the other room" (there is a 'work' room and a 'messy play/work' room for the Nursery kids). So I obediently toddled into the other room and immediately saw a large, new display all about Noah's Ark (they're doing 'Floating & Sinking' as their topic this term!). It was really cute, and with the children's* little boats on the table in front (*read "parents' boats that they made for their children because, let's face it, they're 3 and 4). And then my eye spotted something. They had a photo of Celyn drawing Noah for the display, explaining that once she'd drawn him, they clothed him with pieces of fabric.

The teacher and her assistant both explained to me later what I sort of knew immediately...that they had asked Celyn to draw him "because she's the best artist in the class." *Puffs out chest with pride*

This funny feeling started in the centre of my body and spread out into a warm, tingling, expanding, swelling sensation to even my tippy-tippy toes. Coupled with a cheesy grin. Gotta love those bandy legs - bwaahaaahaaa!

But pride in your child's achievements and talents...WOW!!!!!! Powerful! Of course I've felt proud of my girly before, but somehow this was different. And it's also very cool that she takes after people in our family - Husband's mum is a fabulous painter (with next to no training as well). Danny is good at art too.

Visions of her becoming a graphic designer and keeping me in my dotage

Tee hee.

And you can bet your fluffiest coin in the bottom of your handbag that I was back to pick her up later with my camera in hand!!

Why I don't scrap enough...

Nearly every single day I awake and think "I'll get x, y and z done and then sit down and scrap a page". And does it happen? Does it, my backside. Because there's always something to do. Today is a prime example. I thought, "Now...although I have loads of retreat stuff to do still, because it's Sunday I'm not doing it. Nor am I going to do the washing, dusting or [insert some other inane household duty here]. Keep the Sabbath day holy ya-di-ya-di-ya. So...after we've had dinner...or perhaps even when Celyn's off abed and because Jane Eyre finished last Sunday, I shall scrap for me, me, me and have a relaxing Sunday evening".

That's what I thought. It's what I think quite often. But what actually happens is a hundred other little things. Because? Because I am a woman and women never stop. "A woman's work is never done" eh?

My thoughts reminded me of something I read on UK Scrappers ages ago, which made me howl with laughter:

How To Shower Like a Woman

• Take off clothes and place them sectioned in laundry basket according to lights and darks.
• Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
• Look at your womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.
• Get in the shower. Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and pumice stone.
• Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins. Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean. Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner enhanced.
• Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red. Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.
• Rinse conditioner off hair.
• Shave armpits and legs.
• Turn off shower.
• Dry off all wet surfaces in shower.
• Spray mould spots with tile cleaner.
• Get out of shower.
• Dry with towel the size of a small country.
• Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.
• Dust the shelf below the mirrow.
• Clean teeth, and then start cleaning the soap/toothpaste etc. off of the sink.
• Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
• Get dressed and replace towels neatly over bath/radiator/towel rail again or put them in the laundry basket.

How To Shower Like a Man

• Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.
• Walk naked to the bathroom. If you see wife along the way, shake willy at her making the 'woo-woo' sound.
• Look at your manly physique in the mirror. Admire the size of your willy and scratch your bum.
• Get in the shower. Wash your face. Wash your armpits.
• Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.
• Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.
• Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.
• Wash your bum, leaving those bum hairs stuck on the soap.
• Wash your hair. Make a Shampoo Mohawk.
• Wee.
• Rinse off and get out of shower.
• Partially dry off.
• Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of bath the whole time.
• Admire willy size in mirror again.
• Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.
• Return to bedroom with towel around waist. If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake willy at her and make the 'woo-woo' sound again.
• Throw wet towel on bed.

Perhaps if women approached life more with the "shake your boobs and make a woo-woo sound" approach, we'd get more scrapping done? What do you think?

A couple more dates...

For you diaries.

Linz at Crafty Pastimes has booked us for two Design seminars (yey), and I realised as I was dropping off to sleep the other night that I hadn't listed all the South Wales Crop dates for 07 yet either...so:

January 13th - S Wales Crop, Newport

February 10th - S Wales Crop, Newport

February 17th - Design for Design, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

March 10th - S Wales Crop, Newport

March 24th - Shape Up for Design, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

April 7th - S Wales Crop, Newport

May 5th - S Wales Crop, Newport

June 2nd - S Wales Crop

June 30th - S Wales Crop

July 28th - S Wales Crop

August 18th - S Wales Crop

September 15th - S Wales Crop

October 13th - S Wales Crop

November 10th - S Wales Crop

December 8th - S Wales Crop

Booking on the S Wales Crop is absolutely essential as there is only table space for 40 and it's a very popliaaaar crop.

Can you believe it's nearly 2007? SEVEN!!! That's well and truly in the second half of the decade. Madness I tell thee.

Interesting trivia about the upcoming retreat...

• There are six guests who have the name Julie or a close variation of Julie. Two pairs of Julies are sharing twin rooms, just to complicate matters further (Julie & Julie and Julie & Julie). Two have surnames that are very very similar as well.


• There are three Sues. Two Katies.


• There are four people with the surname Davi(e)s. Two of these Davieses are Linz and Lynne. There's another Lyn coming too (therefore three Lynnes or homonyms of)


• There are three people with the surname Evans... two of whom have similar first names as well.


• There are four Jills/Gills. Two of the Jills have surnames that are places in Britain...so I get them mixed up.


• There are two Chris's coming, but one of them is me, so I don't get confused by that! LOL

I'm so confused.

I need a little lie down.

But, as Rach put it today, there's only one Rach and there's only one Ang and for this fact I am truly thankful.

Toot Toot!!

One of the Scrappers Unlimited team, Fiona, has a four page article this month in Scrapbook Inspirations. It's all very exciting!

This was her pamper box that she made to swap at the Brecon Beacons retreat in April this year. We often get our delegates to make a box which will then be passed to another delegate (and vice versa of course) - it's always a fun and much enjoyed exercise.

Fiona put a beautiful keepsake paperbag book inside her box, which the recipient (who happened to be Rachel who wasn't on the Scrappers Unlimited Team then) filled with pictures and journaling about the retreat when she got home.

Fiona rang me all excited the other night to tell me she was on pages 28, 29, 30 AND 31! LOL

Well done Fiona! And thank you Scrapbook Inspirations.

Oh...and Fiona's teaching a paperbag book class at Gloucester in 2 weeks. :D

We have the COOLEST delegates!

Gloucester 2 Retreat is only 2 weeks and 1 day away now so things are just getting so busy with preparations. Two of the 16 classes on offer during the weekend are about journaling (as I happen to think learning to journal...just even DOING journaling (so many people don't!)...and what to write and how to write better...is really important. As important as the photos. Says she...waffling in a very un-writing-very-well manner - ROFL!!

Anyhoo...one of the classes is called 'Journaling With Chutney' (you have to take the class to find out why it's called that!) and as part of the class I always give away a jar of chutney to remind them of the class. A couple of weeks ago I got chatting via UK Scrappers to Sue, one of the Gloucester delegates, who mentioned she'd been making chutney.

Can you see that little lightbulb above my head?

So Sue went off on a mission to make some new jars of her delicious green tomato chutney for my class. First she had to find more green tomatoes. THEN she had to find more jars, as she'd wiped out all spare jars from every person she knew when she'd made her original batch. Then another delegate who lives in Sue's neck of the woods came up with a brilliant (it has to be said...BRILLIANT!!!) idea. Use Prima Flowers bottles. How cool is THAT?!!

And here are the jars, looking all purdy and gorgeous. Isn't that the yummiest, nicest thing?

Sue...you are a STAR!!!! Big snogs to you.

One day in history...

My friend Sally-Ann in Bletchley rang me this morning to tell me that she'd been listening to some bod from the British Library on the radio talking about 'One Day in History'. It is a one off opportunity for everyone (you) to join in a mass blog for the national record. They want as many people as possible to record a 'blog' diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life today...the 17th October 2006. Apparently the bod on the radio was talking about Samuel Pepys diary and saying that he wrote about his political meetings which are endlessly boring, but the real fascination in his diaries are the everyday occurrences...what he had for lunch, how he interacted with people and so on.

Cool. Right up my alley that one. I love doing genealogy (have done family history going back to the 1500s on my mum's paternal line and at least to the 1700s on all others, except one, where we're stuck ("we" being my Auntie Mary and me, as we are the family genealogists), but anyway...witter witter).

So I have just written my entry on the website. I think this particular day sounded really dull and I wasn't in a particularly prosaic mood (or even mighty witty) so it was even duller than dull. BUT in my 'Journaling with Doughnuts' class I am always telling the ladies who take it that we would love (LOVE) to have even a shopping list written by our great-grandmother in 1885, would we not? And, thinking about it, if it were possible for people in 1885, or even 1945, to write an emailed diary entry for the British Library, it would be really interesting to see how life has changed since then.

Anyway...if you haven't contributed and would like to One Day In History is right here. Go on. Be part of history. You know it makes sense!

*sigh*

Okay. See this. This is a car roof. To most people.

Except me.

To me this is a resting place for things personal. "I'll just rest that there" I think, and then said object goes for little spins around the countryside with a lovely view because it's still on the roof. Unfortunately said object is completely crap at holding on and invariably...well...always comes off. And then gets run over. The demise of thing personal. RIP. Etc.

You all know (and have no doubt tittered at) the story of my poor scrapbook album that went for a ride on the roof of my car. We parted company. He got run over. I was then reunited with it, tyre marks and gravelly indentations in many of its pages.

*sigh*

Today I blummin' did it again.

I left my purse on the roof of my sodding car. It flew off from roof of said car about 1 minute after leaving Tesco petrol station (who I blame entirely because I paid at the pump and not at the kiosk because I had two children in the back and couldn't go into the shop to pay...and then you have to pay with your card first, and then put your card/purse down to actually pump the petrol...so of COURSE I put it on the roof). Purse then spent a while getting run over on the main road until a kindly gentleman, who was on foot at the time, found it, took it home, looked up the Scrappers Unlimited's website (name gleaned from my business debit card) and phoned me. Can you blummin' believe it?!

Well...when we drove over to Gowerton to retrieve my poor purse, it transpired that although that debit card remained in the purse, two other debit cards didn't (one belonging to my mother...oh my, was she NOT a happy bunny!!!!!!) so we've had to cancel them (although Danny and I spent 15 minutes searching the side of the road where me and purse parted company this evening looking for them to no avail). Nothing's been attempted from a stealing point of view, but the cards have gaaaaaawn. And my purse is crushed. The popper doesn't pop any more and it looks decidedly ...well...squashed.

Me and car roofs should be banned from working together. Never, ever let me put anything on a car roof again. Even if I protest at the time.

*sigh*

Nice people who found my purse though. And no major tragedy really.

Yesterday I had the hardest, most *I can't stop, I truly can't stop* laughing fit I have had in a year. Or two. I laughed till I cried. Okay...let me set this up for you. Celyn sometimes (as do most kids) wants to sleep in our bed with us. Just to be near. Or because she's had a bad dream. We're not of the 'no way Jose are you getting into that coming into our bed malarky' parenting thought. I know some parents are but I figure they wont' be doing it when they're 15 (LOL...can you imagine!?) and it's nice to have a cwtsh every now and again. Bonding...ya di ya di ya. However, having said that, 2 adults and a 4 year old in a 4' 6" bed is squished to say the least, especially as Celyn does the breast stroke in her sleep. So, if she's ever wanting to be with us, we set up a mattress on the floor next to our bed and she just is happy as larry in her little 'camp bed'.

So...she's been on her camp bed for 2 or 3 nights last week, and last night she couldn't get to sleep. She was a bit whingy and said she wanted to sleep on the actual bed, so in the end Danny got into his PJs [read 'underwear' because neither of us own PJs, let alone wear them], got into bed, and lay there chatting to her quietly. He figured he'd just wait it out till she fell asleep and then come back downstairs. Which is what happened...she fell asleep.

So, there he was, just making sure she was definitely in the land of nod before he joined me in watching some chill-out TV...when my mum walks in.

Now this is not a normal occurrence. Although she lives with us, my mum doesn't come into our bedroom. Not ever. So it was a bit of a shock. And she didn't say a word (because, it became clear, she had no idea he was there). She had heard Celyn whinging earlier and then (it later transpired) had wondered if she was alright and hadn't heard Danny come upstairs.

So she walked into the bedroom and then bent over in the dim light and was staring, staring, staring at the mattress on the floor. She expected Celyn to be down on the floor and was trying to work out where her head was. So she just kept in the same bent over position, just staring and staring, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

All the while, Danny, who is in bed remember in his underwear, is quite perturbed by his 84 year old mother-in-law standing in his bedroom, and also can't understand why she is bent over staring at an empty mattress.

Well, when he came downstairs and recounted this tale to me I burst into the loudest, most side-splittingly howling fit of laughter I'd had in ages. I could just imagine Danny clutching the duvet around his neck, trying to protect his modesty, and wondering why she was bent over staring at the floor. The more I thought about it, the funnier it became until I could hardly breathe. I had tears pouring down my face, and Danny was as bad as me. I truly was howling...so much so that my mum actually shouted down from the top of the stairs to ask what on earth was so funny, which made me laugh harder and harder and harder.

I'm quite sure some of you reading this won't get why this is funny at all, but some of my friends will (Sue Turney being one of them...and I'm going to email her to make sure she reads this blog entry! She has a sense of the ridiculous just like me. I miss laughing with her - she's a friend in Reading by the way).

*sigh*

I just had to blog that story so I would remember it and laugh again in years to come.

I scrapped!

After my pooey day yesterday, I just needed indulgent behaviour today. Danny was home and said he was quite happy to be with Celyn, so I sat and scrapped. I thought I would try the sketch on the new website Pencil Lines, and here is my take on it.

I really enjoyed scrapping these fun pictures of Tina and her daughter in August at Joe's Ice-Cream (happy summer memories), and I also really enjoyed playing with these lovely SEI papers and tags because they're prettiness (plus the green background paper matches Tina's t-shirt poy-fect-leeeee).

The small photo on the circle opens up to reveal the journaling.

I have to say though that we didn't waste this glorious glorious weather (21 degrees in the middle of October...what's THAT all about?!) and took off down the park with Celyn for an hour in the afternoon. I sat on the bench watching her play, soaking in the warmth of the sunshine and thought "This is the life!"

So...what did YOU do with your Saturday?

This is just to say...

if you fancy reading more about the Plums poem (as some of you, as I predicted, liked it and some of you just didn't get it)...then here's a Poetry Class I found on line about it.

Well, Get Me!

I have been asked to be on the Crafty-Ness Design Team. That's nice innit? My bio and some of my work has just gone up on the Crafty-Ness website (under Scrapbooking Design Team, of all things, would you believe) and it's lovely to be 'working with' a nice team of ladies. And Morag...you look NOTHING like I imagined (she's the team member who made this blinkie, clever thing). Apparently I get my first kit to play with next week - how fun!

I had a p***y day yesterday. I am not in the least bit superstitious...not at all. But Friday the 13th really lived up to its name yesterday. It was pure stress from the beginning literally to the end of the day. This is how bad it is...I received two (two!!) Memory Makers magazines yesterday and have done nothing more than look at the covers. That's it. How bad is THAT? I didn't even have time for a cursory flick through the pages.

Still. Worse things happen at sea. This too shall pass. And all the other phrases that I remind myself of when I've had a poop day.

I've been arranging a bunch of Scrappers Unlimited events for 2007 however. There are lots more to follow that haven't been totally finalised yet (including a couple of very exciting things...all over the UK) but for now take your pick from these events, all at the Crafty-Ness Studios in Caerphilly, South Wales or (the crops) in Penllergaer, Swansea:

10 November - Swansea Crop
8 December - Swansea Crop (7.15 till late late late...with nibbles, 2 classes and a lot of ho ho ho)
19 January - Swansea Crop
20 January - Shape Up for Design (new design seminar on...have a guess...)
24 February - Design for Design
16 March - Swansea Crop
17 March - Shape Up for Design
18 May - Swansea Crop
15 June - Swansea Crop

All of these will be available to book on the Scrappers Unlimited website, as soon as I pull my doigt from mon derriere and do it ;D

Of Plums and Poo and Tampons

Well...with regard to the Plums...I think it's a man to a woman (a woman would have at least saved some of the plums for him and possibly the children!). BUT I don't think they are married...I think in the first flush of a relationship, otherwise he'd have never even bothered with the note.

And my friend in class? Her response was:

"They. Weren't. Plums."

Too funny! Kim was as close as can be with her answer. I should give her a prize. You must remind me at the next crop Kim.

Talking of which. We had the fabbiest fab fab Swansea Crop last Friday. New hall which is to DIE for. It has been refurbished over the whole summer and (I have on good authority) they spent £400,000 doing it. The smell is all shiny new and the floor is all shiny 'oh my goodness gracious I can't drag my crop trolley over THIS!' new, and the kitchen. Well. I thought Sue was going to have a coronary, she was getting so excited (and trying to work out if she could actually take the cooker home with her in the back of her Peugeot). So now we have lots and lots of shiny new space (and smell) and lovely tables (quite a lot of those), so it's all happiness. Come one, come all (but you need to book on the Scrappers Unlimited website otherwise we won't have slices of cake or class kits ready for you). The next one is on 10 November, 7.15 to 10.30pm. And the December one will be 7.15 till late late with lots of foody bits on 8 December.

Apart from that, I've been ordering the last bits for the retreat in 3 weeks 1 day. That's 22 days. Eeek! Also printing the class instruction sheets. And stressing about packing up my class kits and goodie bags (I hate that job...anyone want to do it for me for a few quid and a Galaxy?). So all terribly boring from a bloggy point of view, but very necessary for my 58 ladies who are turning up in 3 weeks 1 day. And breeeeeeeathe...

Oh have to tell you the funniest funniest story my mum told me yesterday which she watched on TV...so you may have seen it too...but not necessarily. I was in the middle of peeing myself laughing about it when the phone rang and I answered still giggling mightily and it turned out to be someone ringing about our new mortgage. It was really hard to keep a sensible voice!

So...I think it was Rick Wakeman...was saying that he was sitting on the toilet having a number 2 when his 3 year old walked in and said, "Daddy. Where does poo come from?" Well, Rick thinks, 'I must answer this seriously and not patronise him' so went into an explanation of how you eat food and it goes down to your stomach, and then your body takes all the good bits and then the stuff your body doesn't want goes down through your intestines and out through your bottom as poo. There. That's how you get poo. And the child replied...

"Mmm. And Piglet??"

Bwaaaahaaaaahaaaahaaaaa!

Oh...and another funny...did you know that the French word for stamps (as in rubber stamping with ink and embossing powder) is 'tampons'. Titter titter.

Later bloggy peeps.

Plums

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams

This is just to say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

I was blog surfing this afternoon (on a break from doing lots of admin work for the retreat) and came across a cool blog where she'd posted this poem...which I recognised instantly as we studied it in university. I love it. I know some people don't like it at all, because it is very much about the beauty of the images and sounds of the words...and about the underlying relationship of this person and the other. And not a poem that rhymes and has an obvious moral message.

So I shall ask you the things we were asked when we studied this poem. Because I miss (miss *sigh*) going to English classes. Leave your answers in the comments.

• Who wrote this (a man, a woman, a child)?
• To whom did they write?
• What is their relationship
• Write a reply (this is a short piece...the answer would be short)

And then I'll tell you the BEST reply that someone in my class wrote. I wish I could take the credit for her reply, but I can't. It was brilliant.

She makes me LAUGH!

Driving back from the bank today after picking up Celyn from school at lunchtime...

Celyn: "Mummy, can I have some of that water please?" [I was swigging a bottle of Evian]

Me: "Yes of course [passing back the bottle]... here you go. I've loosened the lid a little bit. Make sure you screw it back on tight when you've finished"

[Celyn drinks]

Me: "Have you put the lid back on tight, tight, tight?"

Celyn: "Yes"

Me: "Really tight tight?" (worrying about water glugging all over the back seat of the car)

Celyn (slightly irritated voice) "Yes Mummy! I've put it on as tight as a cow could do it!"

Cue me falling about laughing.

Then...

Celyn: "This drink is really cold because it's freezing cold today"

Me: "No it's not! It's quite warm and sunny today! You've just had to take off your sweatshirt because you were too warm eh?"

Celyn: "Yes. It's really warm. It's as hot as a carrot!"

Cue me falling about laughing again.

Me: "Why is it as hot as a carrot then Celyn?" (still laughing)

Celyn: "Because he's fallen into a pot of boiling water stupid"

Okay. She didn't say "stupid". But she would have done were she older and ruder.

Oh my heavens, she makes me laugh!

I'm scrapping today. I may even post some pages later. Don't faint.

Queen of Nattering

I often say that scrapbooking is either:

(a) Nursery school for adults (you know...cutting and sticking, painting and glittering, and even rolling out Playdough (clay) every now and again). There's even snack time and playing shops! LOL But I really do think that's why we like it...we just feel like kids again, playing happily in the art corner.

or

(b) Just a very good excuse for women to get together and natter. Husband despairs of me sometimes and doesn't really understand what in heck I can talk about for hours on end, because I really can natter for Britain (IRL, by phone, by Instant Message, by UK Scrappers...you name it). Women generally can fill a whole day just natter natter nattering. However I really think it makes us more psychologically robust, in that we don't think we're completely crazy for all our strange habits or experiences (twitch twitch).

So here's to a lovely Nursery School Nattering Day on Saturday at Crafty Pastimes. I was up at 6.15 (I did mention this SEVERAL times throughout the day, as usually I don't even know that there are actually two 6.15s in a day and was a bit shellshocked by the whole getting up with the larks experience) and picked up Debbie on my way past Cardiff. And before you knew it we were pulling up outside the hall with 1 minute to spare before the workshop began. I always feel very anxious walking into a hall with lots of new people, so I often over-compensate for my nerves and am either too loud or too confident (looking). I hope...I try...to always remember this when I'm the one in charge, as ALL people just want to feel accepted and greeted with a genuine smile, n'est ce pas?

The first class was by Kirsty which was cool...a 6x6 album created almost entirely from found items (cardboard, CD cases, paint, paper bags, cable ties). I finished it in that it's all put together (which I like because I NEVER have any time at home to really finish off these things and then all the bits get lost and I never finish them). I do (must) need to find time to froo and fuss over it so that I've got piccies and prettiness all over it, and then I'll post a photo of it. But here are pics of Debbie and the hilarious Helen (who had me giggling all morning) working on this little book of delights. Well, actually Debbie's working on tearing cardboard, and Nina and Helen are slobbering all over Emily's book. The dribble probably added to the bohemian nature of it all...and anyway, the cover is acetate so it had a waterproof quality about it. Nina kept making primeval noises EVERY time Kirsty or Emily's projects came round our side of the room. Funny as heck!

The second project was by Emily Falconbridge - another cool book made from acetate and ribbon and lots of arty farty things. I loved the masking tape and paint technique she taught us (MUST use that again). This book was most decidedly NOT finished and I'm scared, scared, SCARED I tell thee, because it may never be. Should I just get up at 6.15 every day and make it my scrapping time (I am a morning girly-girl after all...I don't function very well after 9pm!)??? Votes on the back of a big parcel of stash and sent to the usual address please :D (bwaahaahaaa).

Now, it transpired (I had my sneaking suspishes) that Ms. Falconbridge is a member of the same church I belong to, and as I was making my book all about the beautiful temples I have been to in my life, her daughter Ivy (who was a cutie and wore her princess crown all day - how great is that?!) enjoyed a little peek at them all and we talked about which ones she'd seen too...and I got to chat churcy stuff with Emily. AND (AND!) she's staying in Reading (yes, that would be MY HOME TOWN) AND (AND!) not only Reading, but in CAVERSHAM in Reading (yes, that would be MY SUBURB of my home town) because that's where her family live. Yep, yep, yep...me and E...we're *crosses fingers* like 'that'. What can I say. Yep, yep, yep.

*Stalker, stalker, stalker*

Have to say though...it was just as fine meeting the lovely (and I do mean that) Hebe whose work I have admired for ages (well, a few months!). She was a lovely person...it just shone through her face. Liked her. And I also at long blinkin' last met Jools who've I've 'known' for ages (genuinely ages) and talked to on the phone - she even lives in one of my best friends' old houses in a weird turn of events. Well, I would post a pic of us both that I took but I look more like Mrs Fat Face in all of them than I even am in the 'me, Emily and Debbie' photo here...(wha'dya mean, I AM Mrs Fat Face???!!) so it's not happening. Forget it. No no no. My ego can only cope with one cack photo of me in a post.

It was also great to meet two of the many (many MANY) Julies who are coming to the Gloucester retreat (in 4 1/2 weeks...eek!), and Nic (who's coming to the Gloucester retreat). And see Hair Bear Ang and Linz who are ALSO coming to the Gloucester retreat. So it was a pre-retreat party really.

Debbie and I then toddled off for a litle drive round the beautiful Cotswolds and sampled the dubious delights of Stroud. Is there anywhere in that town that one can eat something that is not a pizza, burger, or served with chips? We went in one Thai restaurant, sat down, ordered drinks, and then the waiter came and said, "Um...I'm sorry...the chef's gone to Cheltenham. We're trying to get hold of him, but I don't think he'll be back." Eh? Why is the restaurant open then?! Too funny! We both got free drinks out of it though...and then we went in another establishment around the corner that was filled with smoke (I don't think so...my very biggest peeve in the whole world. Can't wait till they bring in that smoking ban law) and so we then walked to another pub where the first thing we were greeted with was the manager having a ding-dong with a leary customer at the bar in a scary manner. So we ate food sitting in the garden, only to have the heavens open and have to rush with it all inside.

Stroud. Mmmm....